How to Hear God’s Voice
“Have you ever heard God’s voice? How do you know it’s Him who is answering your questions?” A friend recently asked me this.
How would you answer my friend? Below is my answer.
I’ve never heard an audible voice from God. Nor do I have special headphones to detect His voice. But I do hear from Him in several ways.
1. Intuition, a hunch, a small quiet feeling – it almost seems like it’s me. I.e. I couldn’t find papers I needed to do my taxes and I looked and looked to no avail. I finally calmed down enough to ask God for His help. Then I had this “intuition, a hunch, a small quiet feeling” and looked in a place I hadn’t looked before. There they were. I could have ignored that “voice,” but I didn’t. I’ve had enough of these kinds of experiences to know that the answer was from God and not me. I didn’t know the answer before I prayed.
Plus, the Apostle John says that we are God’s sheep and the sheep know their Master’s voice. I think this knowing get’s stronger with practice. In general, if the advice leads to peace, joy, unity, and godliness it is from God.
2. I ask God a question or for help and then I wait for His response. I get God’s response in one of four ways.
- Through His Word – general reading. When I’m waiting for an answer I love reading God’s word. It’s like
I’m on a treasure hunt. Sometimes the answer will pop right off the pages. Like it was just written for me today! As I keep a regular Bible reading schedule, the more often God will “talk” to me through this. As a minimum I read a psalm and a proverb a day. The proverb I read corresponds to the date.
I.e. I’ve been fretting a little about my future. I read Proverbs 16 and it tells me (in a nutshell) “Stop worrying. God’s got it under control.” Click here to read it for yourself. What did God “say” to you from this Proverb?
- Through His Word – specific reading. When I need advice/help/guidance I look to see what the Bible has to say about it. A concordance comes in handy here. I also look over the highlighted portions of my Bible. It’s amazing how helpful this has been for me.
- Through other people. The Bible talks about how wise it is to consult with others (who are wise) when I need direction or help. I talk with the pastors and elders from church. I also talk to a few people who know God and value/follow His priorities for their lives. I look for answers that are uniform from all these people. I look to see if their advice agrees with biblical principles. Finally, I listen to hear if my own “spirit” agrees. All these need to be consistent with each other.
- Through circumstances. This is also called the open door or closed door answer. I.e. When I moved to
CA in June 2002 I knew I needed to go back and finish my BA so that I could get a job that would support me. I prayed and asked God to show me which school. I made phone calls to various schools about counseling. Sac State was not taking any more students. The other 5 or 6 places I called didn’t return my call even though I left several messages. Then my sister said she heard an advert on the radio for William Jessup University and maybe I should call them. I did. The next day I went for a campus tour. By the end of the tour I was signed up and ready to start school in October in a Christian leadership/theology program. They didn’t have a counseling program (then).
God wants to communicate with/to you. As you seek Him, He will make Himself known to you.
- Psalm 9:10: Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.
- Proverbs 8:17: I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.
- Lamentations 3:25
The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him.
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