Three Ways Believers Hear God’s Voice
The quality of your life can be traced to one source: your attitude. Your attitude is connected to what you believe about yourself. What you believe about yourself flows from what or whom you regard as the source of your being.
As believers, the source of our being is Jesus Christ. Therefore, we seek to hear His voice. In a world of 24-hour news, constant demands of the boss and the incessant duties of running a household, how do we hear God’s voice?
More important, how does God speak to us, His beloved children?
In a world swirling with chaos, it is important to intentionally seek to separate ourselves to hear God’s voice, and that we find time in our daily lives to commune with God.
Our spiritual sustenance depends on it.
In the end, it is our commitment to maintaining spiritual discipline that will make the ultimate difference in the quality of our lives as believers.
Here are three things we can do as believers to hear God’s voice.
Prayer
Prayer is the believer’s link and lifeline to God. Without prayer, none of the other suggestions to hear God’s voice really matter.
“Pray without ceasing” is what the Bible commands us in I Thessalonians 5:16. That suggests not only an active posture of prayer, but an attitude, as well. We should master the art of praying under our breath; of inaudibly thanking God for His blessings as well as verbalizing it.
Little prayer, little power. No prayer, no power. Much prayer. Much power.
Meditation on His Word
To meditate is to think deeply or focus one’s mind on a concept or on the task at hand. The Bible mentions “meditate” or “meditation” 23 times – 19 in the book of Psalms alone. Clearly, then, meditation is a Christian discipline.
One of my favorite things to do is not just to read my Bible, but to reflect and meditate on it after reading. When I allow God’s word to crystalize in my spirit and heart, I get so much more out of the discipline than I would by merely reading the verse.
Read the verse(s) carefully and prayerfully. Read the Bible in context, both from your perspective and that of the author. We are, in many ways, connected to those early-century believers, even across the span of centuries.
Silence
Although sitting in silence is not usually seen as a spiritual discipline, the fact is the Bible places much emphasis on it. Psalm 46:10 admonishes us to, “Be still and know that I am God.” Or, in the words of my grandmother when I was a lad, “Get somewhere and sit down!”
God speaks when we are still. The Synoptic Gospels often record Jesus as getting away from the crowds and praying.
Silence is also a source of strength. In Ecclesiastes 9:17, we read “The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools.
Our battles as believers are won only when we tap into the inner strength God provides us through His word.
Add to that the fact we reap numerous physical benefits from silence, such as improved blood pressure readings and reduction in stress levels, and the benefits of silence multiply.
As believers, we seek to hear God’s voice.