Listening to God

Your Life, Your Choice: Learning to Listen to God's Voice

Let’s look at how we can spend each day with an awareness of the presence of Jesus in our lives. As part of this we need to learn how to hear God's voice. God does speak today; in our relationship with him, he prompts and leads us by his Holy Spirit.

In a typical day, we are bombarded with sights and sounds which compete with the still, small voice of God (1 Kings 19:12). We have to be able to filter out the noise around in order to be able to distinguish what is really from God. As an illustration consider the mobile phone. Through the Holy Spirit, God has access to us 24 hours a day. He dials our number and wants us to answer. But the ring on God's phone is not deafening and it is possible not to hear the ring. We can also look at the number and decide that we really don't want to hear from God. Again, we may want to hear from him, but we have trouble understanding what he is saying. So how can we discern what God is saying to us?

It might be asked, 'If God were speaking to me, I'd know about it.' However, we don't always know that it's God, we can easily misunderstand what's being said or presume its God when it isn't! Although he rarely speaks in audible ways, God can guide our thoughts by speaking directly to our hearts and minds. As Jesus says himself:

^'The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.' John 10:2-4.

What is your experience of hearing God's voice? Think about times in the past when you were aware of God prompting or leading you:

What was the context in which this took place?

How did you respond? What was the outcome?

What can you learn about the way God speaks to you?

In the light of these questions, ask God to show you how he might speak to you today in any particular situation where you need his guidance.

Out of Control (re-edit) from Dan Stevers on Vimeo.