How God speaks to us Talk 20 How to hear his voice
Throughout this series we’ve been looking at the many different ways in which God may speak to us. But now it’s important that we consider two final things:
- How to hear his voice
- How to respond (which we’ll talk about next time)
Before we do so, however, it will be helpful to remind ourselves of what we’ve said about the various ways he speaks to us.
How God speaks – a reminder
In Talk 1 we saw that God speaks to all humankind by his creation. We said that the world we live in, and the heavens above, are clear evidence that a wonderful designer has been at work. We referred to passages like Psalm 19:1-4 and Romans 1:20 to show that, as far as the Bible is concerned, we have no excuse for not believing in God. And the creation speaks eloquently, not only of God’s existence, but of his great and glorious power, his wisdom, his faithfulness, his beauty and his love.
In Talks 2-3 we saw that these divine qualities are seen much more clearly in the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom God has finally spoken to us in the person of his Son (Hebrews 1:1-2). God speaks to us:
through the person of Jesus revealing what God is like
in the words of Jesus teaching us what to believe
and in the actions of Jesus showing us how to behave.
In Talk 4-9 we examined how God speaks to us through the Bible.
In Talk 4 we gave reasons why we should believe that God speaks in this way.
In Talks 5-6 we gave important guidelines on how to understand the Bible correctly.
In Talks 7-9 we discussed different ways in which God speaks through the Bible, including how to identify, understand, and receive God’s promises. But there’s more to the Bible than promises. God gives us instructions, showing us what to believe and how to behave. He does this through the person, the words and the actions of Jesus, the direct teaching found in the New Testament, and by examples from the lives of God’s people. Finally, we discussed how God sometimes directs us by bringing key verses to our attention.
In Talks 10-14 we considered how God often uses other people to speak to us, including parents, other Christians, preachers and pastors, prophets and prophecy.
In Talks 15-18 we looked at ways in which God speaks to us directly without using other people. We gave examples from the Bible and, where possible, from personal experience, of God speaking with an audible voice, through angels, by dreams and visions, supernatural signs, and by promptings, the voice of his Spirit within us.
Finally, in Talk 19, we thought about some of the ways God guides us silently. We saw that he may do so through the trend of circumstances, by opening and closing doors, and through the gifts and talents God has given us. But ultimately, if we really want to discover God’s perfect will for our lives, we must make sure that our minds are constantly being renewed so that we think like God thinks and are willing to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to him (Romans 12:1-2),
How to hear God’s voice
Although the main purpose of these talks has been to answer the question, How does God speak to us today? an equally important question is, How can we hear his voice? The answer lies in much of what we have said so far, so my purpose now is to draw together some of those things and add a few further thoughts that I hope will be helpful. We’ll begin by outlining some basic facts that we should recognise, using the Bible as our basis.
Recognising the facts
First of all, it’s clear from the examples we’ve looked at in the Bible that God has a variety of ways of speaking to different people. Some heard his audible voice, others were visited by angels, while still others had dreams and visions, and so on. God deals with each of us differently.
Why is it, for example, that African Christians seem to hear God speak through a dream or vision more often than British people do? Perhaps it has something to do with our level of expectation. We’re all different and I believe that God usually speaks to us in ways that he knows we will recognise as his voice. This may very well mean that he won’t speak to you in exactly the same ways that he has spoken to me.
Secondly, the biblical examples we have considered show that the revelations people received were often totally unexpected and in some cases were, initially at least, unwanted! Many like Moses and Gideon and Zechariah were just going about their daily business when the Lord appeared to them. God may speak to you when you’re least expecting it!
And thirdly, it’s clear that most of the cases of God speaking to people in the Bible came at a time when God was calling them to some important task for him, or at key turning points in their life or even in history. Obvious examples are:
Zechariah in Luke 1 before the birth of John the Baptist, the forerunner to the Messiah
Mary in Luke 2 before the birth of Jesus, the Saviour of the world
Paul in Acts 9 at his conversion and commissioning for service and in Acts 16 preceding the expansion of the gospel into Europe
Peter in Acts 10 opening the door of salvation to the Gentiles.
Even for great servants of God like these, such events were not the sort of things that happened every day. So perhaps we should not be too surprised or disappointed if God never speaks to us in such dramatic ways, or if the times he does so are relatively infrequent.
But, of course, there are ways in which we can expect him to speak to us on a regular basis. For example:
as we read the Bible at home
through the preaching or prophetic gifts at church
by the promptings from that voice of the Spirit inside us.
So, recognising these facts, how can we hear God’s voice?
Asking, expecting, and listening
Although, as we have seen, God sometimes takes the initiative in speaking to us, there are times when he expects us to begin the conversation with him. James tells us that if we lack wisdom – if we don’t know what to do – we should ask God and he will gladly give it (James 1:5).
I have already given specific examples from my own experience of how God spoke to me when I asked him to because I urgently needed to know what to do, and I’ve told you how he wonderfully answered those prayers. On occasions like those we may well need to make time for God to speak to us, but at others a quick prayer may be all that’s needed. Although prayer is important, hearing from God does not depend on how much time we spend in prayer. What matters most is how we are developing our relationship with the Lord.
I once heard of a young man whose pastor asked him if he thought God might want him to become a missionary. Oh no, he replied, God hasn’t called me. But then the pastor asked another question:
Are you sure you’re within calling distance?
If we’ve really given our lives wholeheartedly to God, and if we’re living in close relationship to him, it will not be difficult for us to hear his voice. We’ll always be within earshot. In fact we’ll be expecting to hear him speak.
Of course, as we’ve already said, God may very well speak to us when we’re least expecting it, as he did very often in the Bible, particularly when he spoke through an angel. But does that mean that we should not expect God to speak to us, but just wait until it happens? Not at all. I believe that every time we read the Bible, or meet together with God’s people, we should both ask and expect God to speak to us in one way or another. Sometimes we can miss God’s voice because we’re not expecting to hear it. And if we’re expecting God to speak to us, we’ll certainly be listening.
Have you ever been in the middle of an important phone call when it’s been difficult to hear what the other person is saying because something or someone is distracting you? Maybe you hear a ‘ping’ alerting you to some notification you’ve received. Or someone is ringing the doorbell, or someone else has turned on the television. It happens all the time. We’re all aware of distractions that prevent us from paying attention to the person who’s speaking to us. What do we do in situations like this? Well, if you’re like me, you go into another room where it’s quiet and free from distractions and where you can listen carefully to what’s being said.
I wonder if that’s why God so often speaks to us in the night. It’s the only time he can get our attention! He wants us to listen, and to do so without distraction. And, if we want him to speak to us, we must make time and find a place when we can pay God the attention he deserves.
Checking we’re hearing his voice correctly
Throughout this series we have seen many different ways in which the Lord may speak to us, but whichever way it may be, we need to check that we’re really hearing him correctly. This is because we’re fallible human beings and, although everything God says is right, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re hearing it right. Let me remind you of some of the things we’ve said in earlier talks.
When we’re reading the Bible, which is God’s word, we need to make sure that we’re understanding it correctly. We need to examine the context to be absolutely sure that the words we are reading directly apply to us. We’ve also talked about the importance of getting confirmation. In fact, no matter how God speaks to us, we should always look for confirmation that it’s really God. In 2 Corinthians 11:14 were told that Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light and in Galatians 1:8 Paul says:
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!
These scriptures remind us that Satan is a deceiver and the only way to avoid being led astray is to test everything against the truth of the gospel as it’s revealed in the New Testament. God never contradicts himself, and nothing he says today will contradict what he’s already said in his word.
And that’s why what we’ve said already about understanding the Bible correctly is so important. It’s not enough to take a single Bible verse as confirmation that it’s God who is speaking. We must test it against the whole of Scripture. For example, let’s suppose that someone attacks you in the street and as a result you lose the sight of an eye. You’re understandably angry about this and a Bible verse comes to mind – an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth[1]. Does that mean that God is telling you that you should do the same thing to them? Of course not.
There are two good reasons why you should not. First, because even under the law of Moses it is unlikely that these regulations were intended to tell people that they must take revenge. It’s far more likely that the intention was to teach proportionate vengeance. If you’ve lost an eye, don’t take more than an eye.
And secondly, and much more importantly, the Lord Jesus said:
You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you (Matthew 5:38-42).
This is a good example of how the whole Bible is to be understood through the lens of the New Testament and in particular in the light of the teaching and character of Jesus. So, if what we’re hearing is in keeping with this, then it may well be from the Lord. However, if it’s a very specific word of guidance, we need to be sure that it’s definitely for us. And, as we saw in earlier talks, further confirmation can come in various ways, including a strong inner conviction, and testing by other Christians, and by time.
So, to summarise, in seeking to hear from God, we need to:
Recognise certain facts
God may speak to you in a different way than he speaks to me.
Sometimes God speaks to us when we’re least expecting it.
He will speak most clearly at key turning points in our lives.
But we can expect him to speak to us on a regular basis
as we read the Bible at home
through the preaching or prophetic gifts at church
by the promptings from that voice of the Spirit inside us.
Ask, expect and listen
Sometimes God takes the initiative in speaking to us, but sometimes he expects us to ask him to.
If we’re living in right relationship with him, we can expect him to speak to us, especially as we read the Bible etc.
And if we’re expecting him to speak, we’ll put ourselves in a position to listen.
Check that we’re hearing his voice correctly
Satan can masquerade as an angel of light. We need to check that what we’re hearing really is the voice of God. We need to make sure that what we’re hearing is in line with Scripture and especially with the teaching and character of Jesus.
Next time, which will be the last talk in this series, we’ll talk about how we should respond when God speaks to us. He not only wants to speak TO us. He wants to speak THROUGH us.
[1] Exodus 21:24, Leviticus 24:20, Deuteronomy 19:21