Ways we can be hearing from God
This is not a theological article, but a devotional one, written through experience. Many people want to know how they can know that they are hearing from God. It’s not like God is sitting and talking to you on the couch or your kitchen chair. Sometimes it’s hard to hear God.
God has different ways that He speaks to His children, and to people who are not His children yet. Let’s start with the latter one. Hearing from God for these individuals could be a strong thought or feeling to take action. It could be a realization that they need to change. It could be someone speaking to them about Jesus, or through reading a book. Some people have given testimony of how they had dreams which was their “hearing from God” experience. In all these cases though, the Holy Spirit brought conviction of sin and a chance to repent and turn away from their sin, a chance to accept Jesus into their lives. Scripture says that Jesus promised a helper to convict. That helper is the Holy Spirit. It is His job to convict, and through His enlightenment and conviction comes change. Most of these people who heard from God in this way are one hundred percent certain that they were hearing from God.
What is hearing from God like for Christians?
What about hearing from God for the Christian? Well, this one is different. As a Christian spends time in the Word of God, and prayer, he or she gets to know God through Scripture and what we call a quiet time. Scripture is alive and powerful according to Hebrews 4:12. And as Scripture is read, the Christian gets to know God, what pleases Him and what does not.
Sometimes, when a Christian is spending time in prayer and reading the Word of God, a passage of Scripture will jump out at them. This often means that God is wanting to emphasize that in their lives. The Word of God is active and powerful, it’s not an inactive book, but an active one. It lives. It is very applicable to day to day situations we face.
Through prayer, God can also impress thoughts upon the Christian’s mind. This could be hearing from God, but the thing here is to make sure that it’s not your own thoughts that you hear, but God’s. When God speaks to you, either through prayer or Scripture reading, He will usually confirm it through a different means. For me, hearing from God came first and then came a lot of confirmations after the fact. Confirmations can come in the form of someone saying something, a radio presenter reading a Bible verse, something that happens or in some cases, something that flashes across your screen, whether it’s your cellphone or laptop. There is a certainty that it was God who spoke.
Another way you could be hearing from God is through prophesy. Someone who has the gift of prophesy can be praying over you or prophesying over you and you will know. One day, I was in a staff prayer meeting at the church I worked for. I had just finished my theology degree and was wondering what to do next. As the worship director was praying, the quoted a scripture which stood out to me that God would show in His time. I can’t remember the scripture, but we both recognized it as God’s voice.
Hearing from God is not always clear. If you don’t have confirmation, it is important to wait until God opens the door to do what you heard Him say, or until He closes the door. A well known author who wrote Experiencing God, Dr Henry Blackaby, said in his course that he wrote that hearing from God can be through Scripture, people or circumstances. He went on to say that often, we wait to hear from God, but God is already busy and sometimes, God is just waiting for us to join Him in what He is doing already. Kind of like not needing to re-invent the wheel.
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