How do I Hear God's Voice?
- Static in the Quest for Purpose -
Why is it so hard for some people to find out their calling or their direction in life? It is not God’s fault. God earnestly repeats Himself in constant communication, desiring for you to know your part, even as the lead officer of a rescue squad desires each member to know their part and radios to them. It is never that God isn’t telling you.
The dilemma that stops many people in the quest to find their purpose in life is: they don’t know how to hear God. God is trying to communicate to them, but they don't know what "wave link" to switch to, what frequency God is on. So they assume that God is just not talking today and switch off to their own devises. He is talking the whole time and communicating direction to you. Meanwhile........ you have your radio switched off.
What "frequency" is God on?
1 Corinthian 2:9-10,14
9 However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"--
10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God…
14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (NIV)
Many Christians are trying to discern their direction and purpose by the physical senses - what they feel, what they can figure out with their minds, what they can see in the natural, and what they hear from the voice of everything around them (which includes the voice of their resources, their circumstances, their peers, family, teachers, etc.) This is like trying to reach God with a tin can and string! =( God uses a more sure line to speak than the unstable connection of the natural (which is greatly subject to error messages)!
You have got to see this to understand! Under the old covenant, God could not speak intimately or directly to people but had to go through an anointed one: a king, priest, or prophet, or occasionally through an angel. God did not have a direct line with each individual because that connection was lost when man sinned in the Garden and his spirit died. Do you see it: mankind's spirit died because the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) Thus, man could no longer hear God through the avenue of his spirit (the channel through which God speaks). Under the old covenant, the anointed individuals had the Spirit come upon them for a period of time in order for them to prophesy God's word to the group of people... they did not have the Spirit dwelling in them, communicating with their spirit on a personal, daily basis like we have.
Under the New Covenant, Jesus restored intimate communication with God. He ransomed mankind from the sin that had caused his spirit to die. (Hosea 13:14, Matthew 20:28, I Timothy 2:3-66) So then, when you receive Jesus as your Savior: 1. Your spirit is reborn alive (passed from death to life) and 2. The Spirit of God, Himself, comes to live inside of you. With that action comes the ability to hear.
It's like when a dead battery in a radio is changed with an alive one.... suddenly the voice on the other end comes singing through! You are able to hear God - intimately - because you have a spirit that is now alive and it is through the frequency of your spirit that you hear God's Voice
1Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the (dead) spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Break it down: "We have received...the Spirit which is of God, that we might KNOW...."
1Corinthians 2:9-10 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit:
Some people are trying to hear God with a radio tuned to natural facts, emotions, and outward voices... But God speaks through the "channel" of your spirit. It is a knowing on the inside. So then....
How do you recognize the Voice of the Spirit (The Voice of God)...?
That is actually simple... Since it is through the spirit He speaks... spend time with the Spirit... You recognize the voice of a friend even when they are on the other side of the door because you have spent time with them. Jesus stands at the doors in your heart... rooms that enclose every area of your life from finances and health to relationships and life directions, etc. He is saying "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me." - Rev 3:20 But you will not let Him in those rooms to give you guidance over the covenant meal if you do not spend time with Him like a friend.
To recognize God's Voice better... The obvious action would be to spend time with God. A few ways to develop this friendship is: 1. Read His love letter to you (the Bible) He wrote about Himself to you and stated His covenant proposal and every promise tied to that marriage. 2. Exercise obedience to the written Word and the spoken Word will follow. As you hear things in your heart, act on it, testing it... you will never know if you heard right until you obey... The spoken word you hear in your heart, will always be based in love and will never contradict the written word 3. Praying in the spirit greatly increases sensitivity to hearing God's Voice - (Jude 1:20) 4. Finally, listen. Take time to just listen and invite Him into direct you in your day to day activities. You will not be ashamed if you faithfully seek God’s face. He earnestly desires to communicate with you – to fellowship with you like a friend. 5. Write what you hear down. You are able to look back weeks, months, years later and see God's faithfulness and your confidence is increased in Hearing Him.
Someone said, "I am afraid that I will hear wrong... or what if I only heard part of it right..." That's ok. Do you spank a baby that is learning to walk when he takes two steps and topples! That baby has in himself the ability to walk. As he practices, using his legs and upper body, he becomes more stable and efficient in it so that as he grows, he makes it from one side of the room to the other faster and more effectively.
God is standing right there... if you are learning to recognize His voice and are testing it out... don't worry... He rewards your obedience to seek Him... even if you don't get it all right... He sees your heart and keeps talking to you. He will see to it that you get it because your heart is seeking He is so after intimacy!
Luke 11:9-10,13
9 "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
10 "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (no exclusions!)
13 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"
(NKJ)
Isaiah 30:21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk in it, whenever you turn to the right hand, and whenever you turn to the left.
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