God Hears Us; Do You Hear Him?
There is an aspect of the Christian walk that too many believers are unaware of. I spent most of my own life thus far unaware of this myself even though I have been a believer for my entire life. It isn't like what I am about to talk about isn't written about in the Scriptures, it's just that it isn't stated explicitly, so most Christians don't actually consider it, and the lack of even the consideration of this leaves us missing out in our relationship with God to a degree that we cannot even comprehend. This is definitely a case of 'you don't know what you don't know'. This aspect is the practice of listening prayer.
I have learned ever since I was a child that we are to take all of our cares and our fears to God in prayer and that He will guide us in how we are to deal with things. Never once in all of my years attending Sunday school and church did it occur to me that not only did God want me to talk to Him, but He also wanted to talk to me. Not only to me, but with me.
It took around 40 years for me to learn that God wants to have conversations with me. I always knew that He loves me, but the idea of talking with God instead of talking at God never really struck me. I know that there were times when I wished that God would just tell me what He wanted me to do in a given situation, but I didn't know how to go about hearing that from Him. I guess I figured that He would incline my heart one way or another as I navigated through life and that if I acted in the way that I felt that I was being lead, then I would end up where God wanted me to be. But He wants to be much more involved in our lives than that, and it took me attending one specific church to learn that.
All of that being said, I clearly recall a time when God did speak directly to me before I learned to listen for His voice. In the course of my work at the time, I had been exposed to an interesting line of specialized work that intrigued me. It became a business idea for me at the time because I saw a weakness in the existing model at the time that I had to deal with , but I didn't act on it. Things came about four years later, when I requested an increase in pay from my boss. I believe that he would have granted it, but it wasn't ultimately his call; he had to go to his superior. Eventually the answer came back as a straight out rejection of my request; the door was slammed shut in my face.
I was at a crossroad in my "career", if you wanted to call it that, though it was really more of a job. There was nowhere for me to move up in my job; I was already my boss's second hand and I was head of almost a dozen people, but the wage was barely covering the expenses of a young and growing family. I needed direction.
I remember so clearly sitting in my easy chair the morning after my request was rejected. I started work pretty early at the time, and it was still dark outside when I was spending my morning time with God. The living room was dark except for the accent lights that I used to read the Bible in the morning, and I brought the situation to God. I laid it all out for Him, the financial struggles, the responsibility that I bore at home and at work, and my concern that I had reached a ceiling in my earning potential at my job. I asked Him what I was to do. And He answered me.
I can still see it clearly in my mind's eye. I was sitting there in the semi-dark calling on God, and suddenly I heard an almost audible voice to my left say "It's time", and I immediately thought of my business idea of four years prior. I should clarify that it was not my own thought, but it was brought to my mind at that exact moment. I recall so clearly that I actually looked to my left to see where the voice had come from, but of course, there was nobody visibly there. I was blown away. God had answered me! He spoke to me in my trouble and gave me a specific instruction as an answer to my prayer!
Based on that word, I arranged for training in the field that I was looking to enter, I laid out a business plan, and about eight months later, I gave my notice at my job and jumped into my new adventure with both feet and no safety net.
As I said, even though I had heard God's voice speak directly to me, I still did not comprehend that He wanted to speak with me regularly. God had to lead me to a place where I could learn that, which He did probably around a decade later. God lead me to a church that I had already stated that I would not attend. My attendance there was odd in that my wife and I both felt that we were not supposed to get very involved in church life, but that we were simply supposed to attend the Sunday services and maintain a distance from the church otherwise. Eventually we were lead to attend a training course on how to hear from God, and this is where our faith walk got amped up.
In this training, we learned that God wants to speak with His children, but all too often we are not listening for His voice. I recognized this in my own life. How often had I prayed to God seeking an answer, but since I was not expecting one, I closed my prayer and went about my day? I was asking Him to talk to me and then I immediately ignored any answer that I might have received and filled my head with the cares of this world. It really is that simple; I did not make the time to hear Him. I suspect that this is the issue with almost all of us. We do not give God the time that we should.
This does not mean that He cannot speak to us where we are at; that is exactly what He did for me that first time. He spoke even when I wasn't really listening for Him, and the message was received. The point is that we need to not only take the time to listen, but we have to make the time to listen. I used to spend maybe ten minutes a day reading the Bible and praying; often less than that. But I learned to carve out more time for Him so that I can stop and listen and meditate without feeling the rush of the day, and it is in this time of patient silence that He will speak to me. At least, that's how it started for me.
Once I learned to recognize His voice, I don't have to stop and quiet myself in order to hear Him. I can literally send up a quick request and I will hear Him speak to my heart or my mind and I will know it is Him because I know His voice. Jesus tells us about this in John 10:26-27 when He says, "But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me". The interesting thing about Jesus' statement is that it is true spiritually and that we have a picture of it in reality.
If there are a number of shepherds that bring all of their sheep together for one reason or another, they do not have to enter to fray, identify their own sheep and separate them out. All they have to do is to start calling their sheep. The sheep will hear the voice of their shepherd and they will go to him. Even if all of the shepherds start calling at the same time, the sheep will pick out the voice of their own shepherd and they will follow only him.
The thing is that we, as His sheep, have to learn to hear and to recognize His voice. In this course that we attended, there were probably somewhere around 60 to 80 people attending, and the leader had us divide up into groups. Week after week, we sat around a table with the same people and we discussed how the exercises for the last week had gone, and week after week, I became more aware that my wife and I, for whatever reason, seemed to be hearing from God more than the others in our group. They seemed to be surprised at the amount that we shared of the things that were had heard from Him. After the course, it also became apparent to me that those who took the course seemed to still use God as some sort of "Magic Eight Ball", only seeking His input when they had a question or a problem, whereas my wife and I took everything to God and sought His input all the time.
This realization helped me to understand something that I was having trouble with. You see, this church had a large membership, and taking this course was a requirement for membership in the church, so most of the people that we were worshipping with on any given Sunday had already been taught what we had so recently learned, yet they seemed to be drifting through life as aimlessly as we had been prior to taking the course. There seemed to be no difference in the lives of many of the people around us, and I will admit that I was somewhat disheartened by that. Here was a large group of people who knew that they have access to the Creator of the universe, yet they were still groping their way through life like the rest of the world, while this same knowledge absolutely changed the faith walks of my wife and I. There is a power and a freedom available to all of them, yet it seems that most of them choose not to embrace it. It actually breaks my heart a little bit, but the old adage is right; you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.
It is this knowledge and relationship with God that has lead my family on the strange and hard path that we have been travelling for the last several years. When I try to explain to people how it is that we got here, I get so many blank faced stares; they must truly think that I am nuts. But how many times does Scripture tell us that we can hear from God and that we will guide us?
In the Psalms, we read so many times how the Psalmist writes that he calls out to the Lord and He answers, or that He gives counsel or instructs the Psalmist. We read these phrases over and over again, but I think that we just read over top of them in our western mindset. King David wrote a good many of the Psalms and we know that God refers to him as "a man after God's own heart". What is it about a man that he may be spoken of in this way?
Bible Hub has a page [a] devoted to this topic and I will share liberally from this page in this paragraph, because I think that whoever wrote that article covered it quite well. In that article, we read, "The concept [of being a man or woman after God's heart] involves alignment with God’s desires, an abiding trust in the Lord, and a lifestyle defined by repentance and surrender." The article lays out the characteristics of this type of lifestyle as obedience to God’s Word, repentance and humility, reliance on God’s strength, spiritual devotion and worship, and faithfulness through trials. We see further that some ways in which one will attain to these things in our Christian walk are to daily pursue Scripture reading and prayer, consistent repentance, Spirit-lead discernment, and patient endurance through trials. The conclusion of the article includes the following: "A man after God’s own heart is one who pursues a life attuned to divine commands, is swift to repent, and unwaveringly relies on God rather than self. By emulating David’s example-through obedience, repentance, worship, and trust-any believer can strive to live in a manner that pleases the One who has made salvation possible through Christ." It is not a long article, and I encourage you to read it for yourself in it's entirety.
We cannot deny that God wants to speak to us; this is the primary purpose for the gifting of the Holy Spirit to those who believe on Jesus. John 16:13-15 tells us, "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you." The Holy Spirit is the person whose voice we hear when we say that we are hearing God. As I stated in my article about the Trinity of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit is God, it is just the nature of God that remains in us. People seem to have trouble grasping that notion that God talks to us, yet they can accept it more readily if it is portrayed to them that it is the Holy Spirit that is speaking.
And what does the voice of the Holy Spirit sound like? I can best describe it as a quiet voice that I sense in my chest, or in my heart if you will. 1 Kings 19:11-13 tells us about Elijah the prophet waiting to be in the presence of God. Elijah had obviously heard from God numerous times before, yet in this account we gain an understanding of how God chooses to communicate with us. We read, "So He [God] said, “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”" We see that the Creator God was not found in the strong wind, in the earthquake or even in the fire, but that Elijah knew that God was found in the "sound of a gentle blowing", or as the King James Bible puts it, "a still small voice".
That is how God speaks to us. He is gentle and kind. Even when He has to rebuke or discipline us, He does so in a gentle way. Jesus is talked about by the prophet Isaiah in chapter 42, which is quoted in chapter 12 of Matthew's account of Jesus' life. We read that "A battered reed He will not break off", or again from the King James version, "A bruised reed shall he not break". God is so gentle with us that when we are hurting, He will not then bring the rod of punishment down on us to hurt us.
When I am seeking to hear God's voice in an intentional way, I get myself into a place where it is quiet and free of distractions. Some people are able to set apart a small room or a closet into which they can enter and seclude themselves. You want to quiet yourself before God; shut out the worries of the world and focus on Him and His love and goodness. I like to sing a hymn to help quiet myself; I have an old hymnal that I work through repeatedly. I spend some time reading God's Word and I keep a prayer journal of sorts. If I read something interesting or if the Spirit brings something to me as I read, I write it down. This is also where I record my requests of God and any answers that I may receive from Him. This gives me something to refer back to in the future.
When you are starting out with this, you may not hear anything to start. It may take several sessions for you to sense that you are getting something from Him. Whatever it is, write it down. You may not be sure that it is from Him or it may not make any sense in the moment, but if you write these things down, then you can refer back to them later on and maybe you can see how He was communicating something to you. This will help you to refine your ability to hear Him. Please also keep in mind that you may not hear from Him all of the time, but do not lose hope. God speaks when He wants to, not when we want Him to.
When I hear from Him, I try to discern if it is my own thoughts or if it is His voice. Our thoughts can deceive us if we let them. If I feel the answer in my chest, then I usually feel confident that I am hearing Him, but He will sometimes speak to my mind as well, and it is in these times that I am especially wary that I am not just following my own mind. Sometimes you may want to ask God about a subject over several sessions.
There are times when God will remain silent, not only for one session, but sometimes for an extended period of time. My wife and I have both experienced weeks and even months where we are pleading for a Word from God but He chooses to be silent. When He does this, know that He is still there, but it may not be time for us to know what we are asking about, or He may be testing your faith.
There is an aspect of this that many may choose to gloss over, and that is the aspect of obedience. When we are seeking God's guidance, we are placing ourselves into a position of submission to Him. If He gives you a specific instruction, you should make sure that you obey it to the very best of your abilities. I can speak from experience that sometimes that is very hard, and while I cannot yet definitively say through my own experience that God will always lead you through to a good place, I still have faith that this is the case. To call on Him and then to ignore His instruction is worse than to have never called on Him in the first place. At least then you could plead ignorance.
The entire aspect of talking with God, that is expecting a response from Him, is based on relationship. I beat this drum all of the time; God wants a relationship with us, He is not looking for automatons that do what He asks of us because we have to. If you have not been investing in a relationship with God, then hearing Him could prove very difficult and frustrating in the beginning. He wants us to pursue Him as much as He pursues us. John 8:47 contains some words of warning for us and a measure by which to test ourselves. In this verse it states, "He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God." If you have been seeking to hear Him for a while and still have not heard from Him, examine your life and see if there is any sin, especially habitual or intentional sin, that may be acting as a barrier between you and Him. We are approaching a Holy God, we need to keep that in mind. Our sins separate us from God, so if we are holding on to some sin, we may need to first learn to let go of that sin so that we can place God first in our lives.
I feel like I may have skimmed over this subject, but there really isn't a whole lot to the practice of listening for God's voice. You need to make the time available to sit and wait for Him. You need to seclude yourself from people and distractions. You need to quiet yourself before Him. And you need to wait on His timing.
As I said earlier, I have come to recognize His voice in such a way that I can literally be in the middle of something else and I can through up a quick comment, question or request to Him and He will answer me right away. If you were with me, you wouldn't even be able to tell that an exchange had happened. That is how close I hope that you all become with God; even closer. Go to Him with every thought, with every fear, with every hope and dream that you hold, and don't be afraid to let Him dream for you; His dreams may be so much bigger than yours are.
I hope that you have been enriched by this article. If you start to put these things into practice in your faith walk and you commit yourself to them, I can guarantee that your faith walk will be raised up in intensity. Please let me know if you try it out and how it is working out for you.
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