This is part two of my blog about hearing God. If you haven’t read part one you can read it here.
Another way that God speaks to people is through others. I’m sure a lot of you have experienced going to church and then the pastor preaches on exactly what you are going through. That’s not just a coincidence, that’s God talking to you. It doesn’t just have to be a preacher giving a sermon either. God often uses others to confirm what He is saying through a normal conversation. They don’t even have to be a believer for God to talk through them to you. Then there are just times where people will ask God to give them something to share with someone else. He will always have something to share with a person.
“How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand- when I awake, I am still with you.” Psalm 139:17-18 NIV
One way I love communicating with God is through listening prayer. I learned about this from a book called The Art of Listening Prayer by Seth Barnes. Listening prayer is where you ask God a question and wait to hear a response. For most people hearing a response isn’t that hard. What’s hard is determining if it was from God or not. If it’s not from God it’s either from the enemy or from yourself. The way you tell whether it was from the enemy or from God is pretty simple, not always easy, but simple. The enemy will always say something that goes against Scripture. It will never bring love, joy, peace, patience, etc. What I find to be more difficult at least for me personally is determining my voice from God’s voice. There are times when it isn’t hard, like when I’m sitting in silence trying to hear God and I start thinking about what I’m going to eat. Whatever you hear, test against Scripture and bring to people who do know how to hear God’s voice so they can help you see if it was from the Lord. This doesn’t just go for listening prayer but for every way you hear God’s voice.
This next one I’m going to share is the one I’m the worst at and I want to get better at it because I feel it is so much better than just asking Him questions. It’s sitting in silence with no agenda, whether that agenda is for the Kingdom or for yourself, and just sitting in God’s presence and delighting in Him. He might talk to you and share with you whatever He wants to share with you. Or He could just be working on you in silence. But you can’t go into this wanting something from Him but just to delight in Him.
The final way I can think of to hear God and one that I haven’t experienced, at least not yet, is hearing the audible voice of God. One example that came to me of this is God talking to Elijah in the cave.
“After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” 1 Kings 19:12
I was recently told this is God’s last resort when it comes to talking to us, I don’t have any verses that I know of to back that up but based on my experience that sounds about right. The other ways I have written here require you to actively seek the Lord.
This can be intimidating hearing God’s voice, I know. You’ll probably feel like you’re screwing up when you start out and you will. Jesus is giving you grace in your mistakes so give yourself some grace to do the same. He is delighted that you are even trying to hear from Him. He will meet you where you are.
“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13 NIV
