When You Want to Hear From God

I write this entirely to my family. If it happens to bless someone else, that's fine too. 

I pray that your faith is personal. When it comes to spiritual matters, I want you to know that you can't ride the fence or the back of someone's coat tail. Only Jesus can advocate for you before Yahweh, only Jesus can save you. 

God WANTS a personal relationship with you. He wants to hear your voice, and He wants to know that you obey Him because you love Him. And the only way to know how to love and obey God, and to know His will for your life is to listen when He speaks to you. 

Although I have never heard the audible voice of God, I know He communicates with me. God can speak to us in many different ways. Below I've described some of these ways that God speaks to His children. If you are yearning to hear the voice of God...start with these.    

God Speaks to Us Through His Written Word

On any random day and at any random place and time, if I need to hear the voice of God all I have to do is open the Bible. By reading scripture I have all the access that I could ever need this side of eternity to knowing His will for my life. 

People who are new to the Christian walk often ask, 'where do I start?' I have 2 great answers for this. 

1) First, start at the beginning of the book. When you start from the beginning, you will meet all the characters, hear about all the places, and get all the history and back stories. Best of all, the beginning of the book is where a lot of the super-cool miracles happened: The creation story, the great flood, the 10 plagues of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, Jonah and the whale, love stories, war stories, stories of giants and family betrayal, and genealogies of people who lived hundreds of years. 

Also, reading the front of the book helps you to understand cultural context. There were some pretty shocking things that happened in the Old Testament, like slavery, plural marriage, arranged marriages, and even incest...it happened! Also, the importance of birth order; it's typically a non-issue in our modern culture. But birth order was really important in the Bible. Another example is that the family, marriage, and government dynamics were VERY differently. Understanding this will help you understand the remainder of the Bible.

An added bonus of starting at the beginning is that you get to read prophesy: prophesies about Jesus Christ and end-time events. It may not make sense at first, but once you get to the New Testament, you begin to see the connecting fibers.

But most importantly the commands of God are listed in detail in the front of the book and it's important to know and understand them. The commands are mentioned all through scripture. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the fathers of our faith, both in the old and New Testament, kept and taught the commands, and continuously spoke about their importance. An end-time prophesy mentioned in Matthew 24:24 is this, "For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect." If we understand and apply what God expects of us, we are far less likely to be led astray. His expectations for His children are in the front of the book.

2) In tandem to the beginning of the Bible, the second place I recommend starting is Proverbs. Proverbs is full of practical, logical wisdom: money management, all manner of relationship advice, how to handle temptation, advice on effective communication, how to live in peace, how to choose a good spouse.  There are 31 chapters in Proverbs and conveniently there are 31 days in most months. One chapter a day corresponding with the day of the month is a perfect bite-sized nugget of daily wisdom. Enough to meditate on and apply to your life.  Reading Proverbs over and over every month opens new insights and lessons. Something that you grazed over last month now offers meaning and purpose to your current situation.  Hebrews 4:12 says this, "For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart." Scripture really is a living book! As we read it over and over throughout our lives, there is always something to learn, always something to apply to our life, always a new way to grow closer to our Heavenly Father.

Make no mistake, we have daily access to the voice of God through His written word. Don't miss this!

God Speaks to Us Through the Wisdom of Others

Many years ago, I was working as a waitress in a restaurant. I remember one particular day that was extremely busy, and the communication between the kitchen staff and the wait staff was tense. After hearing a few heated discussions and tempers flying all around the wait ally, I overheard my manager whisper to himself, "There is a nice way to say everything."  This has stuck with me all my life. 

An elder at church made this comment recently, "There is really no reason to be mean to anyone." As someone who has struggled with my temper all of my life, for someone who can be short-fused and sharp-tongued, who tries daily to displays self-control and often misses the mark...this was a profound statement. I thought about this for the remainder of the day and even doubled down on it: There is no scriptural basis for being unkind to anyone. 

And just like the comment that my manager said under his breath all those many years ago, that happened to land on my ears and penetrated my heart, so did this comment spoken by the gentleman at my church.   

Another way that God speaks into our individual lives is through the wise words of others. It doesn't always come from the pulpit, or a counselor with a college degree. Most often it's a friend or family member who God uses to speak into our lives. Often, it's someone who has been through the struggle that we are walking through and offers a word of encouragement and hope. Many times, it's an elderly person who is farther along on the journey than we are, and who stops for a moment to give us a lesson that was hard-earned so that we don't have to make the same mistake. Or sometimes it's just a passing comment, something that feels like it was meant just for you. Something profound in the mundane that causes you to pivot your paradigm.  And there you find yourself humbled and changed, all because you heard the Lord speak to you through the lips of another person. Remember, God used the words of a donkey to get Balaam's attention, and likely save his life! Numbers 22:21-39

"A wise man will hear and increase in learning. A man of understanding will acquire wise counsel. Proverbs 1:5 Make no mistake; God speaks to us through the wise words of others. Make time to sit with people who want to pour into you. Give them all your attention, absorb every word that you can, be present in the moment, don't talk - just listen. God is speaking to you and teaching you something in those moments.

God Speaks to Us in the Quiet Hours of the Night

I was listening to a podcast the other day and the host said something I knew but had never applied to my own life. She said that many times in scripture, the Lord would speak to people in the middle of the night. Either through dreams or by actually waking them and speaking to them. Either way there is scriptural evidence that God will wait till the mind is clear and there are no distractions to speak into the heart of His children, whom He loves. 

It has certainly been true in my own life. Some of my heaviest moments of conviction, some of my saddest tears of repentance, my heartfelt desire to seek forgiveness or reconcile relationships, some of my brightest moments of clarity...these have often been laid heavy on my heart in the stillness of the night.

We see scriptural evidence of this in the stories of Samuel, Jacob, Abraham, Joseph, Solomon, Christ earthly father - Joseph, and the Magi who followed the star. These and many more examples should give us pause to take more seriously the voice of God to speak to us in a personal way in the stillness of the night.

God Speaks to Us Through Our Worship of Him

To be clear, worship isn't reserved for a 30 minute service and a leader behind a microphone. It doesn't even need to be accompanied by music really...Worship can be so many things! It's a song you sing, it's a prayer of thanksgiving or surrender, it's walking out your trust in God in a moment of sacrifice, it's searching the scripture for attributes of God and speaking those back to Him, it's the way you speak and the way you treat others. It's the time you spend studying His word, it's dancing! 

Our whole lives should be gestures of worship to our Heavenly Father. And He speaks back to us through our worship because when we worship, we are changed. We are molded and shaped into the person that He wants us to be. Worship is a display of a life that is surrendered to and owned by Yahweh! Worship is an act of softening your heart and focusing your attention on God. Don't be afraid to worship! God has much to tell us in those moments of deep waters!  

God Speaks to Us Through the Helper, Who Lives In YOU!

Then the LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD. Behold, the LORD is about to pass by.”

And a great and mighty wind tore into the mountains and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind.

After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.

After the earthquake there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire.

And after the fire came a still, small voice. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

My dad once said, "God didn't give you a gut feeling for no reason." This is the still small voice that speaks to you and says, "Don't say that" or "stay away from that person" or "check-in with your friend today" or "time to change jobs!" And 10,000 other things! Listen to that still small voice. 

This I assure you, if you listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, you will begin to recognize it, and it will be easier and easier to obey as you see the Holy Spirit leading you. But if you ignore that still small voice, then it will get quieter and quieter, until it is nearly silent. 

My sweet family, I pray that your relationship with God is rich and full and deep and personal! And mine as well! Don't limit yourself to just one way to hear from the Father! They are ALL available to you!