How to hear God
Hearing God is about positioning.
At the end of last year, a friend said to me that she had just realized that she hadn’t really been listening to God. God was facing one way, and she was listening but not looking at him face to face. It got me thinking about the position I was in to hear God. And God said, "Yeah, you've been listening to me, kinda, but now, really listen to me. Move into the best position to hear me."
To hear someone, is to get to know someone. To get to know someone, is to hear them. To hear means to listen and take heed, to perceive sound, to be informed, to be obedient, to pay heed to. To know is to be intimately acquainted.
A characteristic of the Christian life is that we can hear and know, and recognize Jesus’ voice because He is alive and lives in all who ask Him to. Jesus wants us to know him and talk with him intimately. We can also recognize voices that aren’t His.
1st position — Love
Listen to John 10:14-16 in the Amplified version:
"I am the Good Shepherd; and I know and recognize My own, and My own know and recognize Me — Even as [truly as] the Father knows Me and I also know the Father — and I am giving My [very own] life and laying it down on behalf of the sheep. And I have other sheep [beside these] that are not of this fold. I must bring and impel those also; and they will listen to My voice and heed My call, and so there will be [they will become] one flock under one Shepherd."
In John 10, Jesus is saying that he loves us and wants us to know that he laid down his life on the cross to make a way for us to have the same intimate relationship with him that he shares with his Father. Apart from relating to Jesus as our good shepherd who leads, guides, protects, provides, He wants us to know His great love for us. He wants us to simply delight in His love.
There is a difference between being in a relationship with someone for what they can give you and being in a relationship with someone because you just love being with them. One of the above is a life giving relationship and the other one is dead. It's not wrong to ask Jesus to lead us, but more than that, the purpose we were created for is to delight in Him.
Live in the great love that Jesus has for us. Psalm 148 says that we are the people close to his heart, God takes pleasure in his people. And Isaiah 40:11 says, "He tends his flock like a shepherd, he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart."
Position yourself in the delight of knowing He completely loves you and accepts you because of Jesus. Roll around in his love, rejoice in Him, feast on it. His love never changes and is not dependent on how we perform.
Rick Warren comments in The Purpose Driven Life, "Can you sense God’s passion for you? God deeply loves you and desires your love in return. He longs for you to know him and spend time with him."
Hearing God’s voice is the most wonderful way we can know that God loves us, that He is with us, knows us, and we can know Him. This relationship is real, with a God who is alive. He calls us by name, and when we hear him, He whispers words that change us forever.
2nd position — Be expectant
"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." Revelation 3:20.
Expect God to talk to you. To be expectant is to believe that as you open the door of your heart, Jesus will come in and talk with you. Know that the verse is person, it is a personal invitiation. He says he’ll talk with anyone.
Some people have said to me,”What do you mean God told you to move to Sydney?", or "I can’t hear God like you do or God just doesn’t talk to me".
Sometimes when we struggle having faith that Jesus will come, we can start to rely on others and their relationships with God first. There's nothing wrong with asking for the help of others, but just check it doesn’t replace your own relationship and dependence on God.
The greatest thing I was told when starting to listen to God was to be expectant. My first years of quiet times went something like this:
1. I read through the book of Mark — imagining the scene; who I was in the story and my response to whatever was going on. I'd read the passage three times, listening to what the Holy Spirit might point out to me. I remember getting to the transfiguration where God the Father says, "this is my son... listen to him". I knew exactly what God was asking of me.
2. Every day with Jesus notes — I would read these notes and somewhere along the line God would clearly answer questions I had asked. I knew it was God because I hadn't gone fishing through my Bible for the answer. This also helps you learn the Word and hear God's voice.
3. Journalling — I would write down what I heard.
4. Asking questions — I would ask questions of God and wait for the answer.
This is a great way to learn scripture and get to know God. Hearing God regularly increases your faith.
But reasoning gets in the way:
God talks, I write it down, then I can reason it away, wondering if that is what God really said. Sometimes it seems too easy, or weird. It's particularly hard to cling on to what God tells you when you are in a waiting season. Doubts creep in and things get fuzzy. It's hard to trust God as we wait.
"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does." James 1:5-8.
This is the picture of a double-minded man, tossed about because he’s finding it difficult to rest in what God says. Our minds should be set on receiving what God says through faith. When we start to doubt, it leads to confusion.
1 Corinthians 2:14-15 says that the spiritual man discerns; he does not reason. Reasoning leads to confusion. Reasoning is relying on our own logic, intellect. We need to trust and rely not on our own understanding and He will make our paths straight (Proverbs 3:4,5).
When you ask and God speaks, write it down and let His word bring peace.
Questions? Sure, but only if you are listening again for God’s answer and not taking things in to your own hands or trying hard to logically work things out. You don’t need to know everything. Silence? Go back to what God told you originally. Confused? Go back to the original plan.
It's not that we don’t have any need for our minds. But we love God with our minds by submitting our minds to Him, by not relying on our minds firstly, but relying on what He says to our spirits.
Come as you are. There is no earning our way in to a relationship with God. We can come right in to the throne room because Jesus has paid the cost for us. When you stuff up, confess and get on with it. Don’t let it keep you from God.
So, we have every reason to have great expectations. Jesus invites us to come with them.
3rd position — Be still
Stillness is: a state of stillness, quietness, reverence, stillness, submission, surrender, peace in our souls.
A stillness of the soul, not just physically. It's making space for God to speak; to hear someone. It's best not to be talking or too distracted. Psalm 131 pictures this; imagine coming to God like this:
"My heart is not proud, O LORD,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
O Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore."
Particularly in our time alone with God, its important to be still. How do you be still? It will be different for everyone. You can use music, journalling, meditation, being still and knowing he is God. It's letting go so you can hear God. It's like this, "You know you’re surrendered to God when you rely on God to work things out instead of trying to manipulate others, or God, force your agenda, and control the situation. You let go and let God work.” Purpose Driven Life (Rick Warren p.80,81).
Sometimes, the letting can take a long time. I often realize I’m holding onto something, or God has told me a way to go and I just don’t think it’s a good idea, or I just don’t want to. But I also know that victory and change comes from surrender to God. Through surrender, we can hear and allow God to speak in a new way.
4th position — State of desperado
We are desperate. We are harassed and helpless sheep in need of a shepherd. This desperation is an everyday thing. Never forget how desperate you are. Desperate people do desperate things, so be desperate enough to decide to hear God every day.
Joyce Myer points out the reality in her straight forward way as she says, "Whether we know it or not, without God, we are always in an emergency. Without Him operating in our lives helping and protecting us, there isn’t one of us who knows one iota about anything we are doing!" This is where we need Jesus to lead us.
* Hottest tip — decide the day before when you will have your time alone with God tomorrow. Decide that this is the number one priority.
Wrestle with God: "What do you mean God?". Persevere. Ask God, Ask friends to pray with and for you. Listen attentively but don’t reason stuff away. Go back through your journals and see what God has been saying, trust Him; go on a treasure hunt.
Be desperate enough to want God's conviction and discipline. Remember He loves you. It’s a little mortifying at the time, but in the end, God’s conviction leads to freedom; it leads you out in to the open. God’s discipline and conviction is not a condemning thing, but a rescuing thing. How much do you really let God convict or discipline you. Where are you positioned in this?
How to Know its God
God speaks most often and regularly through his word as the Holy Spirit lights things up. He is the Spirit of truth and leads us in to the truth. It is essential to know God through the Word. When we are listening to God as we read a passage, he may make something stand out, or talk into our situation in a way that you just know it's him. It's very different from studying the bible from an intellectual point of view.
Gods speaks in love. He never contradicts his word or goes against His character, so get to know him more. It's for God’s glory.
His voice is like a strong or quiet pinpointed thought or impression that I couldn’t have just made up myself. Sometimes it’s a huge excitement, and emotion, beating heart. He talks to me in a familiar way, John 10 says He calls us by name, often in five words or less!!!
His voice brings life and freedom, truth and a way. It does not lead to death. God’s voice rescues and corrects, but doesn’t condemn. He builds up but does not puff up or flatter. He is the Spirit of truth. He speaks comfort, assurance, strengthens, encourages, leads, corrects, and he warns. He knows what’s ahead.
God speaks through many other ways today. He talks through pastors, sermons, dreams, visions, angels, messangers, people, songs, nature, circumstances. He talks outside of us positioning ourselves well.
So, talk to each other about how you hear God. Listen out for God at every opportunity and in every way.
