It's Not That Hard to Hear God's Voice Part 3

This is the 3rd part of a 4 part series on hearing the voice of God. Prayer is such a marvelous mystery! Just the thought that the God of the Universe invites us into relationship with Him where we can exchange thoughts, share desires, and trust each other in intimate partnership echoing the words of Jesus when He prayed, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." 

The beauty of prayer is that we get to experience the love of God as we live our lives. He lets us march right into His throne room, and have audience with Him for as long as we like! 

God has time for us!

He's got ears for us!

His heart beats with love for us!

And it's His intent to demonstrate His glory (the full expression of His self) on the platform of our lives if we choose to trust Him with them! 

So far I've shared that God speaks to our hearts and not to our ears, and that God speaks to us through His Word--the Bible. Here are 2 more ways that God speaks to us...

Obedience is the secret to ongoing conversation with God.

The Latin word for obedience is obedire which means to “give ear.”

To obey is to hear and do—not just hear, but to hear and act in submission to what you heard.

Do you remember hearing your mother say, “didn’t you hear me?” She most likely said that when she noticed that you didn’t act on what you heard—not when she wondered if you heard her in the first place.

 But funny (or not so funny) thing is…Disobedience leads to spiritual deafness—

Or, perhaps a better way of saying it is that disobedience leads to spiritual deception (which is even worse): Disobedience that leads to deception causes people to think they are hearing God’s voice and instead they are hearing the voice of the devil who has learned how to sound an awful lot like God.

I Peter 5:8 says this, "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."

Peter warns Christians that the devil prowls about looking for people he can devour. He crouches at the door of disobedience waiting to devour Christ followers when their sense of spiritual hearing gets hindered by their disobedience.

Obedience opens our ears and disobedience closes them.

Why is it like this: The thing about God is that He’s GOD!  He doesn’t come into our lives to just to help us out in a pinch! (Even though He will often do that.)

He comes in to rule because that’s Who He is and what He does!

When you can come to a place where you realize that even though your feelings might oppose your faith; you really do want what God wants for you because you trust His love, and power, and knowledge, and goodness far more than your own. You recognize that even your own heart is out to get you to fall far short of what God has for you.

Hearing God's voice hinges on how much you trust Him.

So if you haven’t yet decided to let God be LORD of your life, and you want Him just as Savior, you most likely find it difficult to hear His voice. 

 God communicates with us through other people.

Jesus chose 12 men to become His disciples. (He traveled with several women too.) In community with this group of people, Jesus established His Church. Today the people who follow God continue to live in community with each other. They grow in their understanding of God, they work together to fulfill the purposes of God, and together they hear and share the word of God.

You might already know this, but your spiritual adventure will be incredibly impacted by the people you travel with—and you often hear the voice of God together.

It is always a good idea to invite people you trust to pray with you and to counsel with you when you are seeking to hear God’s voice. But don't depend on their voices alone. Be sure to take whatever advice or "word" that other people give you and discuss it with the LORD one on one. You will also want to invite God to confirm that "word" with His Word. 

Wait for God to confirm their words, and while you're waiting, do with them what my dear friend and prayer warrior told me to do with the "words" he gave me: "Put it on the back burner and wait to see what God says." 

It's not that hard to hear God's voice, especially when you obey what you know He wants you to do, and you surround yourself with others who are listening for his voice as well.