“Learning how to hear the voice of God is the solution to a thousand problems.”
— Mark Batterson
In the last article, we looked at ‘How to hear from God: Start with His word.”
Today we are looking at another way that God speaks to us, and that is through the inner leading of the Holy Spirit. Other language that people may use to describe this is an inner prompting, or the still small voice.
God speaking to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit is evident in scripture.
“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.”
— Romans 8:14
“ But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
— John 14:26
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.”
— John 16:13
The Holy Spirit is our Helper, our Advocate and part of His ministry in the life of a believer is Him speaking to us.
It is important to establish a couple of guiding principles when we talk about listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit, as this is an area where people can be led astray if they are not wise.
Guiding principle number one:
God always speaks in line with His written word, the bible.
What you believe to be the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking in your heart will never contradict what God has already spoken in his word.
God is not schizophrenic! He is not unsure of Himself. His will is written in His word and He is never going to contradict this.
If you do believe that God has spoken to you but it doesn’t line up with the word of God, discard it.
Guiding principle number two:
Our Commitment to living out what God has already spoken to us in His word makes room for God to speak to us now.
Why would God give us fresh guidance today if we haven’t obeyed previous guidance from yesterday?
Our first commitment has to always be to God’s written word and living it out in our lives today.
Maybe for you, you need to forgive someone or do what you can to restore a relationship (see Ephesians 4:32).
Maybe for you, you need to trust God with your finances and start putting Him first with your giving (see Matthew 6:33; Malachi 3:10).
Maybe for you, you need to make it a priority to obey what God has said about belonging to a body of believers (Hebrews 10:25).
Whatever it is, take the time to obey God in what He has already spoken to you through His word.
So practically, how do we hear the voice of God?
Well, it’s quite simple. We need to create the right environment in our hearts and lives for him to speak. Or to hear Him speak. Because He may have been speaking to you but you weren’t listening.
What do I mean by the right environment?
Essentially a place and place that is quiet and distraction-free.
The reality is that we live in a noisy world. We can be constantly connected through our phones and devices, notifications pinging from social media or email, calls, texts - So many of us allow these things to have huge amounts of free access into our lives.
Add to that the complexities of our everyday busy, hurried lives, and we have the recipe for the voice of God to be drowned out in the cacophony of many other sounds.
We have so many voices competing for our time and attention, that if we are not careful, we can often miss the voice that really matters most.
Every year, our church holds a big community outreach over the Easter weekend. We rent out the largest building in town and host a number of different activities inside and outside the building, to be a blessing to those who may not normally go to church.
One year, as part of my role in leading a team of volunteers, I was given a walkie talkie with an earpiece, to communicate with the other team leaders.
On one occasion, I was in the foyer of the building, which was full of people milling around, talking and chatting with each other. As this was happening, I could hear one of the other team leaders trying to communicate with me through my earpiece. But I couldn’t make out what they were saying. There was too much going on around me to hear.
And so in that moment, I had to step outside and find a quiet peaceful spot where I could finally hear what was being communicated to me.
It’s like that when it comes to hearing the voice of God. We need to find a quiet spot, a peaceful spot where we can rest and be still and allow the voice of God to come through clearly to our hearts.
I think in this noisy world we live in, so often we want to keep all the noise going, and still clearly hear the voice of God.
“We want God to turn up the volume of His voice, but He desires that we turn down the volume of our lives.”
We need a place of quiet where you can wait on God, and be alone with Him.
Where we can spend time reading His word, spend time in His presence, worshiping Him and making room for Him to speak.
“Be still, and know that I am God.”
— Psalm 46:10
Often as we take the time to be with God, and wait in silence in His presence, it creates the right environment for us to hear His voice.
It may not be in that moment that you hear His voice, but for me it seems to almost dial in the frequency of my heart to what He is speaking. It fine-tunes my hearing, just like the dial on a radio needs to be fine-tuned to hear a certain frequency, to hear His voice.
And for me, I have also found this to be true.
“ Waiting on God in the quiet times, postures your heart to hear from God in the busy times.”
There will be times when you need to hear the voice of God when your life is busy, when your world is noisy. And when you have taken the time to dial-in your heart to His voice in the quiet times, you will recognize His voice when He does speak to you in the busy times.
As we finish, let me share this closing thought.
I hear people say, “How do I know it’s really God speaking to me? What if it's what I ate last night or my mind is playing tricks on me!” I don’t want to miss His voice.
Rest assured, we will know it is God who is speaking to us.
How will we know this?
Because God is the master communicator. He created communication. He is well able to get His message across.
If we play our part, If we put ourselves in the right position to hear, if we spend time in His presence, in His word, posturing our heart and life to hear from Him, He will speak - and we will hear and know it is Him speaking.
Interested in growing in your ability to hear the voice of God? Check out this excellent book by Mark Batterson - Whisper - How to hear the voice of God.