How To Hear the Voice of God
1. Saturate yourself in Scripture. The greater one’s familiarity with Scripture is, the greater one will be able to know when it’s God speaking and not something else. Begin by saturating yourself in Matthew-Mark-Luke-John. Try reading these over and over and over, slowly and meditatively, for a year. I did it recently for two years and found it very helpful. Read the 4 Gospels as if you’ve never read them before. As you read them, when God speaks to you, write it down in a journal.
2. Spend much time with God. There’s simply no substitute for this. For about “Mc-hearing” God. God can’t be fast-fooded. Hearing the voice of God is largely an acquired thing. Analogically, I spend much time talking with Linda and listening to her. The result is that I know her heart, and her heart’s desires, very well.
3. Don’t multi-task the God-relationship. Spend much time with God… alone. Just you and God. Face to face. Heart to heart. If you’re unfamiliar with this, my recommendation is: just start doing it. In the process you’ll learn what this is about because God so much wants you to know Him experientially and relationally.
4. Meet with other Jesus-followers who actually do #s 1-3 above, and talk together about what you feel God has been saying to you. In this matter it won’t do you much good to talk to people who don’t spend much time alone with God. They won’t have a clue re. what it meas to hear the voice of God. Meeting together provides corporate discernment. I have found that one can learn a lot about hearing God in such an environment.
5. Read a few good books on the theme of listening to God. Here are some of my favorites.
- Blackaby, Henry T., and King, Claude V. Experiencing God. An excellent, clearly written text that is especially good for church study.
- Deere, Jack. Surprised By the Voice of God: How God Speaks Today Through Prophecies, Dreams, and Visions (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996). A very good, clearly written biblical and historical presentation of how one hears God speaking to them.
- Brennan Manning, Abba’s Child. This book spoke deeply to me about my need for experiential knowledge of the love of God.
- Brennan Manning, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus. Very good as it gets at the real Jesus.
- Payne, Leanne. Listening Prayer: Learning to Hear God’s Voice and Keep a Prayer Journal (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991). A very good, well-written text on what it means to hear God’s voice.
- Willard. Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God (IVP: 1999)