1 Samuel 1:12-13 (NKJV)

“And it happened, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli watched her mouth. Now Hannah spoke in her heart; only her lips moved…Therefore Eli thought she was drunk.”

As spiritual beings, we need to go beyond physical human evaluation. Looking at external circumstances may produce some indications useful in drawing a conclusion, but we must not base our entire assessment based on observable indices alone. For our judgment to be accurate, we need to open our hearts to hear what God is saying in a situation. As priests of God, we need to be hearing God so that our assessments are accurate from God’s perspective.

Although Eli was still a priest of God, he had stopped hearing from God, and his ministry had become a mere routine based on physical works. His judgments became based on external behavior alone. He confused a woman in prayer for a drunken woman. How could that be? Where was his discernment? May we never grow up to the point of growing old in God and losing our spiritual sight. One critical sign of the spiritual man is his ability to see and hear from God’s perspective.