Let us now consider how we can be on our way to hearing, truly hearing. We are going to consider a 5-part process (not necessarily steps) that will help us to receive what God is revealing to us, Spirit to spirit:
- Picking a Place
- Preparing Our Hearts
- Paying Attention
- Pondering What We Are Picking Up On
- Putting into Action What We Hear
Picking a Place
This is picking a special place you can meet with God each day. We meet people in places, why not God? I have always had a special place in each house we’ve lived in. It signals to your heart and spirit, “I meet with God in this place.”
Someone once told me about the life of a woman named Susanna Wesley – the mother of Charles and John Wesley – that gave new perspective to this. She was married to a preacher in the 1600’s and they had 19 children, nine died in infancy. This wife and mother worked the gardens, milked the cows, schooled the children and managed the entire house herself. It would have been understandable if Susanna gave up in spending time with the Lord. But she didn’t. Instead, she advised her children that when her apron was over her head that meant she was in prayer and couldn’t be disturbed. It was said that she would do this up to two hours a day!
Preparing Our Hearts
This is taking time to quiet our soul and focus the eyes of our heart on God. It can be a challenge with all the distractions around us all the time, or if like me, you’re in a season of having young children! But by God’s grace and strength we can find ways to prepare our hearts. There are two parts to this:
- Turning away from what we brought in with us: a deliberate clearing away any mental noise that could hinder our receiving what God is revealing to us.
- Turning toward God: a deliberate focusing our heart and our thoughts on God with the confidence that He is very much with us and wants to commune and communicate with us.
By taking the time to do these two steps, we are positioning ourselves to hear and receive from Him.
Paying Attention
As we are focusing our minds on Him, He often weaves His Spirit into our very thoughts and ideas–in a sense there is an “art” to it. There is a weaving going on and we are simply learning to pick up on it.
The Spirit will often bring to our spirit communication in the form of spontaneous impressions, words, verses and images in our hearts (where we feel) and minds (where we think and process).
Here are some descriptions from real people of what this might be like:
- “Sometimes his word begins as an impression that arises in us with a sense of hope and then gracefully unfolds into words like a spring of water rushing up out of the ground.”
- “Other times, we experience a stunning clarity in the words themselves, as if they had been spoken by another person in the room.”
- “Quite often an image, a picture or even a short mental video will jump into our mind that embodies what God wants to reveal to us.”
- “He may also remind us of a song or connect our present thoughts to a memory….”
- “Sometimes we will feel a sudden welling up of emotion for no reason other than God is pouring His love through us. It can be overwhelming, but it is something to pay attention to and to put into words as the Spirit gives them to us to describe what we are feeling.”
God’s words are generally experienced as much as it is heard. So we are trying not so much to “hear a voice” as experience promptings from His Spirit.
Over time we learn to sense when the Spirit is weaving His influence through us. Sometimes it happens so seamlessly we are not even aware it is happening.
But how do we know what we are receiving is from God?
Pondering What We Are Picking Up On
Proper discernment is very important to make sure what we are hearing is from God. With that said, however, we don’t have to be overly fearful of getting it wrong. As David Takle says,
“I have seen some people who are so concerned about the possibility of having an errant thought sneak into their mind that they miss many of the gems that are right in front of them. Often Christians are so afraid of hearing something from the enemy or of giving too much validity to their own thoughts that they effectively censor their impressions before the thoughts even take shape. Unless it sounds like something right out of the Bible, they fret over every thought and scrutinize each one for any hint of the flesh, lest they mistake something to be God’s voice when it is not.”
Our task in discerning is not to make sure we receive the message perfectly, but to notice what is going on, make sure it aligns with the Truth of Scripture, and then make decisions about what to do with our observations.
We can take everything back to God, asking him to show us what we need to know. When in doubt, ask ourselves:
“Is it biblical, is it loving, does it reflect God’s character? “
Putting into Action What We Hear
We can’t just say we want to hear God without the desire to want to obey what He says. When we truly train our spiritual ears to hear from God, the hard fact is this: sometimes He says things we don’t want to hear. It’s true. He might say things like,
Apologize to your mom…Forgive the person who wronged you…Give half your salary to that needy family across the street…Ask your boss if she needs prayer.
But He might also whisper words of encouragement, comfort, healing and blessing that our weary souls need to hear, like,
I love you more than you know…I see you…I made you…I am proud of you…come to Me and rest…I am with you and will help you, my child.
Hearing God is an awesome privilege that permeates our entire existence. And at times it comes with great responsibility. God is looking for those who will hear and act, carrying out the directives He has spoken. Jesus says, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it” (Luke 11:28). So be ready to hear…and respond! Otherwise you’re better off leaving your earplugs in.
As we learn how to cultivate our inner life of the Spirit, our ability to sense the promptings from His Holy Spirit to our human spirit will develop and mature. Psalm 5:3 says,
“In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.”
As you apply this 5-pronged model for hearing God’s voice to your life may you wait expectantly, for you will hear the divine whisper because He is faithful and will make Himself known to you.