Jesus said His sheep will know His voice. For years, that foundational truth frustrated me. Despite the fact that I made a decision to follow Christ at the age of seven, it would take me another 20 years or so to get to the point where I could unequivocally say I had heard God’s voice. Now maybe I am just a slow learner, or stubborn, or lacked belief that He actually wanted to speak to me, but most of my spiritual efforts in my twenties were spent vacillating between trying to hear God and figuring out what in the world was wrong with me that I couldn’t. So if you’ve ever wondered what God’s voice actually sounds like, or if you’ve reached the desperation point in your quest to listen for the “still, small voice,” be encouraged that He does want to respond to you.
But here’s the A-ha moment: His voice may not come to you in the way you’ve imagined it would, nor will it be what you expect. And that right there was my biggest problem for two decades. I was looking for God to communicate with me in a certain way, and it wasn’t until I began to do four critical things did He begin to slowly whisper truth to my spirit. First, I had to lay aside my preconceived notions, expectations, and desires. I had to realize that God does not fit in the box I designed for Him in my mind. Second, I had to come to grips with my unbelief. Yes, I loved God, but I had tucked away some serious doubts in my heart. It was time I jumped all-in to trust Him with my life — in every area. Third, I had to learn to listen. My prayer life had been entirely about me talking to God. Being still for me was like asking a five-year-old not to fidget when she has to pee. Fourth, I had to learn to wait… patiently. Corrie Ten Boom, an author and Holocaust survivor, once said, “If you want to hear God’s voice clearly and you are uncertain, then remain in His presence until He changes this uncertainty. Often much can happen during this waiting for the Lord.” I’ve now learned that sometimes I need to wait a long time (i.e. days or weeks) and press into Him before He’ll speak, but the beautiful thing is that the waiting has now become a peaceful time of learning to trust.
So if our expectations about God’s voice can hinder us from hearing Him, how does He speak? How will we know if it’s Him?
Thankfully, that roadmap is clear, but we have to prepare for the journey. AW Tozer said, “God will speak to the hearts of those who prepare themselves to hear.” And I would add, He also speaks to those who are purely motivated to draw close to Him for the sake of knowing Him better for who He is, versus being motivated simply to hear His voice. God doesn’t have the patience for us when we desire the glamorous. If we envision ourselves hearing His voice like Charlton Heston did in The Ten Commandments, or if we long for something big and dramatic so we can feel important, the Spirit of God will not speak. God wants us to desire Him, to want His presence, to understand His character and His heart, to glorify Him, and to love Him with 100% of our being… just because. God is about the relationship with us, first and foremost, not the plan. So with that in mind, we must start with — and become deeply grounded in — the primary voice He speaks in: The Bible, which makes His voice available to us 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The Word speaks loud and clear.
And there are no shortcuts on this. Period. You will never hear Him clearly and profoundly through other means if you don’t first learn to hear Him through Scripture. When we saturate our hearts and minds in the Word, we learn to hear what His voice sounds like. To identify God’s voice, you must first learn to see your identity as being in Christ, and that is accomplished by absorbing Scripture. When you go into God’s Word, expect to meet up with Jesus. You’re not reading for reading’s sake. Instead, you’re training yourself for an encounter with the living God. This was one of my biggest mistakes. I wanted to jump right to hearing God independent of any other means. I both underestimated and ignored the Bible in terms of being an intensely personal, relevant voice to my heart. A serious error on my part, because I didn’t realize the truth of Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Because the Word is alive, it searches your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, making it possible for Scripture to be miraculously and specifically customized just for you and what’s going on in your life… right now. God speaks most commonly through His Word, and if you believe that fact, approach it with that expectation, and be patient, you will not be disappointed.
Thoughts that are not yours may be God’s.
Sometimes God speaks by planting a specific thought in our minds. This happens to me in prayer — sometimes when I am actively listening and being still and other times when I am talking to Him with anticipation and willingness to be interrupted. However, if I am talking incessantly and without a conscious desire to be interrupted, then the Holy Spirit cannot get a word in edgewise because my mind is drowning everything else out. This same heart posture also allows God to talk to you throughout your day. If you get in the habit of leaving your “ears” open, as if He is ready to speak to you anytime, then He will invade your thoughts more and more. When He does give you a thought, it may suddenly come out of the blue or it may be a gentle tugging at your heart that builds in intensity. It is almost always something you would not naturally think or be inclined to notice or do on your own (I Corinthians 2:14). And how do you confirm that it is indeed God giving you the thought? Ask yourself if the thought lines up with Scripture. If there is anything about it that contradicts Scripture then it is not from Him. For example, if you had a thought out of the blue that you should buy a new car, but you are already in significant debt and/or you are not currently offering the Lord a tithe on a regular basis, then that thought is not from God. This is one more reason to read, memorize and meditate upon Scripture. The Holy Spirit will spontaneously bring certain verses to your mind as a way of directing you in the moment. In next week’s blog, I will cover the hallmarks of God’s voice, which will include the typical characteristics, style and tone of His direction in our lives.
There are many ways God can speak to us, but there are five more that came immediately to my mind.
A deep-seated, inexplicable “knowing” can overcome you.
There are times when the Holy Spirit may saturate you with an overwhelming peace about a decision or an unwavering conviction about a situation with an outcome that would otherwise be completely unknowable. This has very rarely happened to me, but when it does, the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit’s presence and assurance is almost palpable, as well as being the polar opposite of what I should be feeling (or what my mind tells me to feel) at the time. The Bible speaks frequently about the eyes of the heart, and how only the Holy Spirit can cause us to see God’s truth and experience His grace.
All creation sings His praise and sometimes we can hear it.
When we have the ears to truly be still and listen, we can see and hear God in nature every day. Whether in the awe-inspiring power of a storm or the serenity of a mountain lake, if we take the time to pause and invite God to reveal Himself, He’ll show up every time. The inspiration may not be directional or specific in nature (although it can be personal if He wants it to be), but the sweet trill of bird’s song or the sheer vastness of the ocean can speak to us of God’s sovereignty, attention to detail, creativity, and so much more. In Luke 12, we find Jesus telling the disciples to consider creation… the lilies, the birds and the grass. God takes care of them in ways that should blow our minds, and yet “of how much more value are you than the birds… But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith!” Next time you are outside in some glorious place, pull out your phone and use a Bible app to read Psalm 29.
Divinely directed dreams and visions still happen today. Acts 2:14-21
makes it clear that God speaks in this manner and will do so with increasing intensity in the last days. This has only happened to me maybe twice in my lifetime, but I know other believers have experienced this more often. Dreams and visions are God’s version of virtual reality. With life-like splendor, He may stir your creativity, motivate you, warn you, or invite you into spiritual warfare through your dreams or a vision. Because of the intensity of this kind of communication from God, you may be left feeling a little shaken or awed, as was Moses when He saw the burning bush. But, take comfort that God is with you and run to the Word to test what you experienced and seek God in prayer for final clarity or direction.
God plants ideas and changes our minds… a lot.
Don’t ever underestimate a change of heart, a new thought process, or a sudden burst of innovation or creativity. Over and over in Scripture God directly intervenes in human behavior and stirs a sudden heart change or perspective shift — all without the person’s awareness. So the next time you realize that your attitude (or someone else’s) has improved or your desires have shifted to become more Christlike, take a moment and thank God for speaking into your life. Psalm 37:4 promises us that if we delight ourselves in God, which means we find our source of joy and meaning in loving Him, that He will put into our hearts His desires (and slowly remove ours). If you want to know God’s direction, then pursue knowing Him above all else, and His voice will ring loud and clear in your life.
There is the outside possibility of an “outside” voice.
What I mean by that, is the Bible makes it clear that God has been known to literally speak audibly to people. In other words, a real bonafide voice that your natural ears can physically hear coming from outside your own head. So because the Word indicates it can happen, we leave the option on the table. That being said, I’ve never met anyone who’s experienced this, and most Biblical scholars believe that it is very rare due to the Holy Spirit’s presence with believers since the resurrection. Before Christ, the primary way to hear from God was through a supernatural, physical experience, such as a pillar of fire, a burning bush, an audible voice, an angel, etc. But with the gift of the Holy Spirit, God himself has taken up residence inside believers. We all love reading about the physical appearances of God, especially in the Old Testament, but instead of longing for that to happen to us, we should instead praise Him that Jesus is now with us, speaking into our lives 24/7.
There’s more about the voice of God coming next week!
In part two of this post, you can read about the hallmarks, or key characteristics, of God’s voice. Plus, I’m going to reveal the telltale signs that a voice or thought is NOT from God. These counterfeit voices are important to understand, especially if we rely on the one that trips us up the most — using circ*mstances alone to determine His direction for our lives. And who hasn’t done that?
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