This message is on "hearing the voice of God." Hearing God's voice is often difficult for us. It can be very discouraging to ask God a question, and receive no response. In this sermon though, I am going to look at five main ways that God speaks to us. Hopefully this will help you get a better understanding of the ways in which God speaks to us. First of all, it will be hard to put effort into listening to God's voice, if we doubt that He speaks to us. We must remember that the early apostles relied heavily upon listening to God.
In the New Testament, the early church relied greatly on being able to hear from God clearly. Here are two examples:
- Acts 8:29, "Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near and overtake this chariot."
- Acts 10:19, "While Peter thought about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Behold, three men are seeking you."
The apostles here were able to hear the voice of God, giving them specific messages. Not just vague impressions. There is no reason to believe that God works any differently in these modern times, than He did with the early church. God never changes.
- I will now go over five main ways that God speaks to us:
1. Scripture
2. Our conscience
3. Logic/head-talk
4. A prophetic message from God
5. Other People
6. Dreams and visions
Hearing the voice of God, can be hindered if we assume that God is going to speak to us through only one or two of these ways. For example, if someone relies only on their conscience to hear from God, they might forget that God uses scripture, and other people to speak to them. Consequently, they won't concentrate on hearing from God in those areas. By recognizing all the ways that God speaks to us, we will be less likely to miss out on what God is trying to tell us.
- I'm going to start out describing how God speaks to us through scripture.
1. Scripture
One of the main reasons that scripture is useful for hearing from God, is because we need a good knowledge of scripture to be able to verify whether or not a thought is from God. Since God never changes, what you hear from Him will never contradict a clear teaching of scripture. Knowing lots of scripture therefore, is essential in discerning whether or not a thought is of God.
There is another reason that a good knowledge of scripture is essential to hearing God's voice. Oftentimes God will bring scriptures to our mind when we ask Him about something, or when we are facing a situation of uncertainty. I can affirm this from personal experience. Oftentimes when I'm seeking God's will about something, scriptures will quickly come to mind. Sometimes when you've been seeking to hear from God on something, God will lead you directly to a passage of scripture that deals with that particular thing. In John 14:26 Jesus said, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send to you in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you." God here promised the disciples that the Holy Spirit would help them remember his words. The principle can be applied to modern believers as well. The Holy Spirit will oftentimes bring scriptures to our minds when we ask God about something. Sometimes God even uses books other than the Bible to speak into our lives. I'm sure that we've all had God speak to us through the Bible though right? It's interesting to see how this works. God uses scripture to speak to us about many things. Sometimes God will use scripture to speak an encouragement to you. I know that oftentimes when I'm feeling down spiritually, God will throw verses of encouragement into my head. Sometimes it happens when I'm reading the Bible. God will lead me to a particular passage of scripture that gives me just the encouragement that I need. One example is that I often struggle with feeling inadequate before God. God has had to deal with me many times about this. He uses scriptures to show me that He really does love me, and He's not expecting us to be perfect. He will give me verses about how He is a father. On the opposite spectrum, there have been times in my life when I've been complacent about the things of God. Sometimes God would remind me with scripture, about how we should be living to serve God, and not ourselves. God would also sometimes remind me using logic, that our time on earth is almost nothing when compared to eternity. It therefore makes sense to give it our all while we are still on earth. Unfortunately, I haven't exactly been giving things my all now, like I was before. There are so many distractions. This is one example of where God used multiple ways of speaking to me about the same issue. He not only used scripture to reprove me, but He oftentimes will prick me in my conscience nowadays whenever I waste too much time. This is another way that God speaks to us: our conscience.
2. Our conscience:
Our conscience is the voice in our minds that makes us feel guilty if we disobey God. Usually it is pretty easy to hear from God in this way. God doesn't give us messages with much detail through our conscience of course. The conscience is usually God's way of just saying "yes" or "no" to us. Some people have consciences that are very sensitive to God's voice, while others have consciences that don't convict them as much. There are several things that can help us understand why this is. First of all, some people naturally can hear from God better through their consciences. From what I have personally seen, people that are naturally more emotional usually can hear from God somewhat better through their conscience, than less emotional people can.
We have all ignored or disobeyed our conscience at some time or another. By frequently disregarding our conscience though, it may stop convicting a person.
1 Timothy 4:2 says that in the last days there will be people who have their consciences seared. He is referring to people that have disregarded their conscience so much that they have lost the ability to hear from it. Of course this can only happen if you are in a rebellious state towards God.
3. Logic/head-talk
You know how we sort of talk in our head, when we process thoughts and ideas? God speaks to our mind in this way sometimes. I find that I can hear God very well in this way. Of course God never prefaces his messages with a: "this is the voice of God" statement. God just speaks to us, and we have to figure out for ourselves whether the message is of God or not. Sometimes I have argued with God about things. Don't expect to win the argument though, God seems to always win. Probably something to do with His omniscience. Anyways, yeah, we may think that a choice is correct, but God will often put arguments into our head that show that our idea is incorrect.
If the voice of God was the only voice running through our mind, it would be very easy to understand what God is telling us. Of course there are also our human thoughts, and sometimes the voice and temptations of the devil that confuses things. Christians of course, are not immune from hearing the voice of the devil. Acts 5 records Ananias and Sapphira listening to the devil and lying about how much money they had given.
David also listened to the voice of the devil with the Bathsheba incident, and the time where he numbered Israel. Of course there are many more examples throughout scripture that could have been added. Having a good knowledge of the Bible, is very helpful for differentiating between which thoughts are from God, and which are not.
The next way we can hear from God, is through a prophetic message.
4. A prophetic message from God:
This is different from the other ways God speaks to us in that it is a detailed message, and not just a vague feeling or impression. You also will know for sure, that God has spoken to you, and you aren't just making stuff up. Being able to hear God this clearly does not just gradually come to all Christians though. It requires the gift of prophesy. Not necessarily a prophetic ministry, or office, just a prophetic gifting. You can have the gift of prophecy without being a prophet. You can't be a prophet without the gift of prophecy though.
The gift of prophesy is basically the ability to hear a detailed message from God. To hear detailed messages from God, we should all be praying for the gift of prophesy. 1 Corinthians 14:1 says, "Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy." In the Greek though, the word used here for "desire" has it's primary meaning being "to seek out". Paul is commanding us to actively seek out spiritual gifts, especially prophesy. Paul's reasoning for this is that when we have the gift of prophesy, we can build others up. If we have the gift of prophesy, we can hear things from God like encouragements and such, that God wants us to tell to others. Sometimes the message won't be for others, but will be for ourself.
Many people in the Bible were able to hear precise and detailed information from God:
- Abraham is one example. He heard very clearly from God. God told him to leave his country and go to an unknown land, and that God would bless him if he obeyed. It is unknown whether or not he heard an audible voice, what we do know is that he heard from God clearly. In the New Testament, Abraham is called a prophet. This shows the relationship between prophesy, and hearing detailed messages from God.
The story of when Samuel was choosing a king for Israel is another example of someone hearing from God very clearly. 1 Samuel 16:6-12 records this,
"So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, "Surely the LORD's anointed is before Him!" But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." So Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, "Neither has the LORD chosen this one." Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, "Neither has the LORD chosen this one." Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, "The LORD has not chosen these." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all the young men here?" Then he said, "There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him. For we will not sit down till he comes here." So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with bright eyes, and good-looking. And the LORD said, "Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!"
- Samuel's strong prophetic gifting allowed him to hear this clear and detailed message from God.
Besides these Old Testament examples, there are many examples of people hearing the voice of God clearly in the New Testament:
- Acts 8:29, "Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near and overtake this chariot."
- Acts 10:19, "While Peter thought about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Behold, three men are seeking you."
- Acts 13:2, "As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, "Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."
Mini-Rabbit trail: Notice that in the last verse, the apostles had fasted when they heard from God. Fasting helps greatly in hearing the voice of God. Many people report that they have been able to hear God's voice best while on a fast.
One thing we must remember is that we cannot assume that the voice of God will always be rational:
God told Ezekiel:
If we were given a message like this, many of us would probably ignore it. We must remember though, that we need to obey God in whatever he tells us to do. Another example of God giving an irrational command was in the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac. Abraham could have tried to dismiss what God told him. He knew that it was God's voice though, and could not just pretend that it was a random thought. Although God is not going to ask us to sacrifice our children, we still have to be open to obeying things that God says, even if they seem illogical. Of course you should know for sure that you are hearing from God, if you carry through with something that seems illogical.
Remember, we should all pray for the gift of prophesy, whether or not we are called to the office of a prophet.
5. Other people:
- Sometimes God uses other people to speak to us. Usually it will not be something completely new and unexpected; it will just confirm something you were already thinking of. Oftentimes people won't even know God is using them to speak His word to you. The same is true with us. Without even realizing it, we ourselves can be used by God, to speak his words to someone. I'm sure we all know times where God has used us to speak into someone's life. Sometimes God uses other people to encourage us. Sometimes it is to convict us, and sometimes it is to give us a fresh view of things.
- God can use anyone to give you a message or confirmation from Him. People with the gift of prophesy can be especially helpful though. They can hear detailed messages of what God wants to speak to you about.
6. Visions and dreams:
This is probably the most interesting, rare, and unusual way that God can speak to us. You don't have to be an uber-holy prophet to get a vision from God. You do have to realize though, that God doesn't just give out free visions for our enjoyment (although that would be pretty cool). It's like the gifts of the Holy Spirit. God gives them out to help us serve Him better. It's the same with visions. From what I've read in the Bible, God gives a vision to us for one of two main reasons:
- Reason one is that sometimes we would simply not believe the message if God gave it in a less dramatic way. This is like the case of Joseph. When he saw that Mary was pregnant, he believed (understandably) that she had had an affair with another man. It is easy to see how if God spoke to him in a regular way, like reading scripture, or with an impression on his heart, he still easily would have dismissed it as not being of God. By giving him a prophetic dream however, God was able to show Joseph that Mary had actually kept herself pure, and that the baby was sent in by God. Another example of this is with Peter and the gentiles. In a vision he was shown various animals, and commanded to kill and eat them. The problem was, Peter was a Jew, and the Jews had very strict dietary regulations that had been given by God in the Torah (even though the point of the vision was not about accepting the food, but about accepting the gentiles). God kept showing Peter this vision until finally, on the third time through, Peter ended up believing it. It can be seen from this passage, that Peter was very reluctant to accept the fact that God wanted to accept the gentiles on equal terms as the Jews. God could have just spoken a prophetic word to Peter and told him that He wanted them to offer salvation to the gentiles. If God had spoken to Peter this way though, Peter would have disbelieved (especially being that God had to repeat the vision three times, before Peter would believe it).
- Reason two is that a vision or dream is sometimes the only way that God can clearly show a certain message to us. The best example of this, is the book of Revelation. John did not need a vision because he doubted the message. He needed a vision, because it was the only way that God could show the message of the end times clearly. The book of Revelation is filled with all sorts of mysterious symbols, and heavenly visions, and it is easy to see how the message would have been far to complicated for God to give to John without using a vision.
If the voice of God was the only voice running through our mind, it would be very easy to understand what God is telling us. Of course there are also our human thoughts, and sometimes the voice and temptations of the devil that confuses things. Christians of course, are not immune from hearing the voice of the devil. Acts 5 records Ananias and Sapphira listening to the devil and lying about how much money they had given.
David also listened to the voice of the devil with the Bathsheba incident, and the time where he numbered Israel. Of course there are many more examples throughout scripture that could have been added. Having a good knowledge of the Bible, is very helpful for differentiating between which thoughts are from God, and which are not.
In conclusion, I hope that this has been a help in clearing up some of the confusion about hearing the voice of God. Learning to hear from God better is still is a journey for all of us though. It takes lots of practice and experience to get good at discerning God's voice. I still have lots to learn for sure. Eventually though, if we are patient and don't give up, we will be able to hear God's voice just as clearly as the apostles did.