| What do you mean by "Hearing God's Voice"? I'm talking about communicating with God. He communicates with us in many ways. John 10:3-5, "To Him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear His voice, and He calls them His own sheep by name and leads them out. And when He brings out His own sheep, He goes before them; and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of a stranger." Revelations 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and He with me." What are some of the ways that God speaks to us? God spoke through a donkey! (Numbers 22:28) He speaks in many ways. He will use many ways to get our attention.
What does God sound like? It depends on whether you are a "hearer," a "seer," or a "sensor." God's voice can sound like the voice of your conscience, only with more authority. He sometimes uses the voices of people we respect and trust to speak to us. Often times, it is a feeling of peace about a situation. It can be a strong feeling about a situation. You just "know". Or you may "see" what you're supposed to do or not do. It can be like a movie playing in your mind, or you may be actively "in" a vision, actually taking part. It's different for everyone and some experience all of them, though for the most part, it's more often one way or another that they hear God's voice. I don't often hear God, I struggle in hearing God. How can I hear God more clearly?
Habakkuk 2:1-2. Write the vision - quiet yourself, be looking. Take a few deep breaths. Wait patiently, quietly. Write down:
How can we make sure that hearing God is a part of our daily life? Pay attention. Expect Him to talk to you. Listen for Him like a parent keeps an ear open for their child. Make sure you're doing your part and God always does His. John 15:4 says we must abide in the vine (Jesus) and He will abide in us. He is always there. John 14:26 says that Jesus sent us a helper, the Holy Spirit to enable us to be able to communicate with God, to be taught and to be led as well as empowered. Does God really talk to us all the time? Once we've accepted Jesus as savior, it is our right and responsibility to talk with God. Hearing God is a part of our daily life. Jesus said He only did what He saw the Father doing and spoke what He heard the Father saying. He is our example. After all, He created us because He wanted friends, family really, someone just like Him. He wants relationship. THAT'S why He created us. Do you want to be with someone who doesn't listen? Who talks at you, not with you? That's what God wants. Real communication. So, the short answer is yes. The problem is, are we listening? Are we talking to Him, or more importantly, with Him? A lot of people think only super-spiritual people can hear God. What would you say to them? I say that's nonsense. God is no respecter of persons. If you want God to talk to you, talk to Him. He will answer. Just be prepared by preparing yourself. Read the word of God. It's the most common way God speaks to us. Does God speak to non-Christians? Absolutely. Usually through dreams, "gut feeling" (intuition as Kenneth Hagin Sr. said) and their conscience. Otherwise, no one would get saved! It is the Holy Spirit's job to prepare the hearts of the people for salvation. Let me give you one Biblical example of God talking to a sinner. Daniel 4:10: (Nebuchadnezzar) "These are the visions of my head while on my bed." How did you learn how to hear God? Through the scriptures, books, and sermons. There wasn't any one book that I could go to. That's actually why I wrote the book "Hearing God's Voice For Yourself". So others don't have to go here and there to learn how to hear God. These are the major books I learned from:
I took what they were teaching and put them into practice. I developed exercises to use from their teachings. How can we know if what we're hearing is really God and not our own thoughts or another spirit? That's an excellent question. Once you start being open to hearing God, you will become aware of other spirits trying to come and confuse you. The Bible must be your standard. If it doesn't line up with scripture, it isn't God. It may not be in scripture, but it will line up with scripture and the character of God. The Bible warns against vain imaginations. If we use our imagination in hearing God, how do we know that we're not just hearing what we want to hear or that we're not just making it all up? Vain: useless; conceited; empty; to no end. That was a major concern of mine as well. So I started studying it. Does God want us to use our imagination? I Chronicles 29:18 says, "O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of your people, and their heart toward you. Think: to form an idea or image of something in the mind. Meditate: to mentally imagine. Philippians 4:6-8, "Think on these things." Hebrews 5:12-14 says that by "reason of use", they have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. |
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