I woke up one morning this week with the epiphany that there are a vast number of Christians who have never heard the voice of God. Not only did I wake up with this thought in my head, but I also felt God’s emotions in my heart. He has such a deep grief over this fact, because His longing is for all of His children to hear His voice. He is always speaking but we often do not recognize it.
But today, if you are reading this, He wants you to hear Him!
The first thing He wants you to know is that hearing His voice is normal. Do not believe the lies and fallacies in your mind that say that only special people hear from God or that that was only in biblical times. NO, God is speaking to you every day!
The second lie that many of us have accepted as truth is that God is impersonal. God speaks through creation and through the scriptures. That is true. But that is often interpreted in an impersonal way. As in, He speaks to everyone in general. His grandeur and majesty and wisdom are there for all to see in the splendour, beauty and intelligence of creation. That is a wonderful truth! His statutes and commands and truth has been laid out in the scriptures for all who would search it out! Also true! But…. have you heard His personal whispers to you in the dawn? Has your heart burned as you read a verse that you knew was put there specifically for you in that moment? If not, God has more for you.
God is personal. He wants to relate to you personally; one on one.
Here are three truths that have helped me to hear God’s voice more clearly:
- God speaks your language. God does not speak English or Spanish or Greek or Hebrew for that matter. God speaks to your heart and soul in a way that is easiest for you to understand and it is precisely for this reason that we often miss His voice. Because hearing His voice is amazingly natural to us, it is easy to think that it’s just our own thoughts. For example, I heard a woman once talking about the way in which her husband heard God that was quite amusing but also very powerful. Her husband loved G.I. Joe and God would often bring to his mind scenes from the tv show to guide him in situations. He would know what God wanted him to do in a situation based on a scene in the tv show that God would bring to his mind. Let that sink in. What are you into? How do you process things? What’s your personality? Expect to hear God in your own language. Don’t look for a deep voice from heaven or the appearance of an angel. Don’t relegate God to speaking only through a bible verse, He has so much more resources at His command to get to you. God is in you. The Holy Spirit dwells in you. He is speaking in the very mundane dialogue of your life.
- There are absolutely no coincidences. Your co-worker did not just happen to mention that issue that you are thinking about. That verse that popped up in your email was not randomly applicable to something that is troubling you. God is using all the resources at His disposal (which is the entire universe) to reach you personally. He loves you that much. He wants a relationship with you that much.
- God can handle your mistakes. This is critical because the number one fear where hearing God’s voice is concerned is the fear that we mistake our own voice or the enemy’s voice for God’s. This fear has crippled us into disconnected orphans who only believe what we read in the bible or the preacher says on a Sunday. This is NOT how God intended us to live! Living by faith also means taking a chance that that feeling you have or thought that you cannot shake is God. What you need to know is that even if it is not, God will honour your pure intention and take care of you. The first ways in which I learned to hear from God was the distress in my spirit that I felt when I went the wrong way. You heard that? Going down the wrong path is just another opportunity to hear God! Listen, God is BIG; HUGE. He really can handle his children fumbling as they try to discern His leading in their lives. It is really not a big deal.
John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
I’m praying that you start a new journey with God today, confident that He is speaking to you and that you absolutely are able to hear His voice!
Joyfully,
Copyright 2018, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.