Hearing God's Voice

Hearing God's Voice

   Many times people pray about a situation and feel like they have a hard time hearing God's voice. How do we know what we "think" is God? When you study the Bible, you'll discover what millions of people have found throughout the centuries. You're reading the Word of the living God. In times past, He spoke to His special servants audibly, in visions, in dreams; now His main method of revelation to all humanity is His written word. The Holy Spirit directed forty holy men of God, living on three continents, to write His words into sixty-six books. These writings were preserved and collected into the single volume we know as the Bible. Though people wrote it, the Bible itself says God was its ultimate source. In 2 Timothy 3:16, we read, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God," which literally means it was breathed out by God. Isaiah 55:11 tells us, “So is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” The Bible is God’s Word, everything we need to know in order to be saved and live the Christian life. Second Peter 1:3 declares, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”

   God can also “speak” to us through events. He can guide us through arranging our circumstances. And God helps us to discern right from wrong through our consciences (1 Timothy 1:5;1 Peter 3:16). God is in the process of conforming our minds to think His thoughts (Romans 12:2). God allows events to occur in our lives to direct us, change us, and help us to grow spiritually (James 1:2–5;Hebrews 12:5–11). First Peter 1:6–7reminds us, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

   God may sometimes speak audibly to people. It is highly doubtful, though, that this occurs as often as some people claim it does. Many times we say that we prayed about something. I know for myself that oftentimes the decision I make after the prayer is what I was leaning towards doing before I prayed. Again, even in the Bible, God speaking audibly is the exception, not the ordinary. If anyone claims that God has spoken to him or her, always compare what is said with what the Bible says. If God were to speak today, His words would be in full agreement with what He has said in the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16–17). God does not contradict Himself. When we need an answer to a problem, the best thing to do is pray and spend time reading His Word. When we have been reading His word He will call into remembrance a verse that will help guide us. This is primarily the way that God speaks to us. He uses the words that He inspired men to write thousands of years to go to guide us now until the end of time.

   The New Testament gives several descriptive titles to the Bible: the Word of God, the oracles of God, the Word of Christ, the holy scriptures, the holy scriptures, the word of truth, and the word of life. In studying the Bible, we're learning God's Word, holy and true, which contains the knowledge of eternal life. Many times in life people are looking for a sign, a sign on whether this person would make a good spouse, a sign on whether to take a new job, a sign on whether to do something. I believe that God gave us most of the signs that we need in His Word. Anything that God will agree to will be supported by scripture. Once again, God doesn't contradict himself. I also would like to point out something that I was made aware to me in one of my theology classes. In the Bible, everything that God inspired men to write can be equated to the relationship of a Father and son or the relationship of husband and wife. So either God is commanding us to do things as a father speaking to a son (man and woman) or He is showing us how to conduct ourselves in a marital relationship. In the book of Proverbs, we're given a bunch of general truths to follow. This relationship in Proverbs is the relationship between father and son. God is telling us all of the proverbs that will help us through life. God isn't physically among us, but He's always close to us in spirit and what keeps Him close is connecting to Him through His Word. I say all of that to say that God gave us His Word to speak to us and give us the wisdom that we need. Even though we need to speak to God about problems that arise,  there are some things that we don't need to pray about. We should already know what the answer is based on what God has told us already. In Exodus 14:15, Moses stopped to pray to God while He was being chased by Pharaoh. God told Moses to stop praying and get to moving! Prayer must have a vital place in our lives, but there is also a place for action. Sometimes we know what to do, but we pray for more guidance as an excuse to postpone doing it. If we know what we should do, then is it time to get moving. If you have a friend that wants you to help them steal something, would you pray about it or tell them no? We already know that stealing is a sin, so it would be a waste of time to pray about something that God clearly prohibits. So I encourage the readers of this post to spend time with God so that we can reference His Word when we need answers to problems that occur in our life. I pray that this message helps you and is a blessing to your heart and mind. I pray that we continually seek His will for our lives and allow it to guide the choices that we make. I pray that we never stop seeking His wisdom and never turn our eyes from His voice (His Word). God will always guide us in the right direction if we just trust Him to be the wise father that He is. I hope that I've encouraged you to spend more time with Him to get the answer to that question that you've been thinking about for so long.