A lot of people want to know, “How can I hear God’s voice?” Let me take the mystery out of this process and give you the answer right away: God’s voice will come to you primarily in the form of thoughts when your heart is fixed on Jesus.

As Mark Virkler says in 4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice , “His voice sounds like spontaneous thoughts that light upon your mind, especially as your heart is fixed on Him.” God doesn’t usually speak audibly. He doesn’t usually speak through overwhelming visions. He speaks through your thoughts when your attention is fixed on Jesus.

His voice sounds like spontaneous thoughts that light upon your mind, especially as your heart is fixed on Him.

Mark Virkler, 4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice

In this article, I will give you a process you can use both to prepare your heart and to hear God’s voice.

How can I hear from God about practical matters?

My friend Sam told me about a flight booking decision he had to make. He says…

We were deciding on flights for our journey to our holiday  destination. Taking the earlier flight would mean less chance of a  missed connection in case of a delay. But the earlier flight would also  mean a longer wait in the airport—not easy with our two littlechildren. The later flight entailed a much shorter wait time, but was risky because a delayed first flight would mean an overnight wait in the capital city before we could get to our destination.

My wife and I decided to listen to God’s voice about this decision. I received the  impression that we should take the later flight. But after talking some more, we decided on the safer option, and booked the earlier flight. The next day the airline called. The earlier flight was  cancelled and so they put us on the later flight. The Lord knew all that in advance and he did tell me.

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Sam heard God’s voice and you can too. This article will show you how.

Start With the Desire To Hear God’s Voice

When the prophet Jeremiah was imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard, God said to him, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3).

We learn two important lessons about how to hear God’s voice from this verse. First, if you want to hear God’s voice, you must desire to hear from him.

Imagine a hiker on a mountain trail. Imagine the hiker falls and is injured. He calls out for help. Why does he call? Because he longs for someone to answer him, someone to come near and rescue him.

Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know

Jeremiah 33:3

You call out when you want something. The act of calling denotes desire.

This principle of desire is found throughout Scripture. Jesus told his hearers in the Sermon on the Mount to “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). Asking, seeking, knocking are all words indicating desire.

For more on this topic, see “Desire and the Kingdom of God.”

The other thing we learn about hearing God’s voice from Jeremiah 33:3 is that God has things to say. He has secrets that he wants to tell you. God is not silent and aloof. He is just waiting for us to call and to desire for him to speak to us.

Deal With Your Fears About Hearing God’s Voice

During one training session I was leading on how to hear God’s voice, one participant said, “I am not hearing God’s voice because I am afraid of what he might say.”

Why are we so afraid? Part of the issue is that we do not understand the depth of God’s love for us. Recently, at a conference, I met a man named Kenneth Williams. Ken repeatedly struggled with alcohol addiction. One night, in the midst of a drunken stupor, homeless, dirty, and dishevelled, he had a vision of God. “This bright light shone in the darkness. I thought it was the police [and] I had to find my bottle and run.” Source: Kenneth Williams

I am not hearing God’s voice because I am afraid of what he might say.

Then a peace came over him. From within the light he heard a voice that said, “I see you and I love you. I love you just the way you are. Come follow me.” Ken got into a detox program, got a job, married, and blessed many others through his life.

God loves us so deeply! He loves us the way we are now. If we come and follow him, he will gradually transform us, just as he transformed Ken. Let’s not be afraid of hearing God’s voice.

Quiet Your Heart so That You Can Hear God’s Voice Above the Other Voices

The average smartphone user receives 146 notifications per day.

Source

It is no wonder that we struggle to hear God, we have too many other voices clamouring for our attention. If we are going to become proficient in hearing God’s voice, then we must learn how to be silent. For those addicted to noise and stimulation, this will not be an easy task.

It is not only modern day people who need to learn to quiet their hearts. The ancients did as well. In 2 Kings 3 we read how the King of Israel, the King of Judah, and the King of Edom asked Elisha for a word from the Lord to get them out of a life and death situation.

It seems that even the great prophet Elisha couldn’t give them a word immediately. He needed some time to quiet his heart, so he called for a harpist. While listening to the harpist, the hand of the Lord came on Elisha and he was able to give the kings the answer they needed.

If you want to hear God’s voice, then you will need to develop a practice of being quiet and still. These days I spend some time listening to worship music before I have my morning time of hearing God’s voice.

Focus on Jesus, the Voice of God

In John 1, Jesus is identified as the Word of God. This descriptor tells us in unequivocal language that God communicates. And one of the primary ways that God communicates is through Jesus.

In John 10:3, using figurative language of a shepherd and his sheep, Jesus tells his followers that “he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” Jesus speaks.

In the post-resurrection visions recorded in the New Testament, most of the time, it is Jesus who appears and speaks. Who did Paul meet on the road to Damascus? Jesus (Acts 9:5). Who told Ananias to go and pray for Paul? Jesus (Acts 9:17). Who spoke to Paul in Corinth? Jesus (Acts 18:9-10). Who appeared to Paul in the temple? Most likely Jesus (Acts 22:17-21). Who appeared to John in the Book of Revelation? Jesus (Revelation 1:17-18).

If we want to learn how to hear God’s voice, then meditate on Jesus.

Ask a Question That You Want God’s Voice To Answer

Sometimes we have 10 questions to ask, all jumbled together in our minds. Even if we heard God’s answer, it wouldn’t make sense because we wouldn’t know what question it applied to. David faced that question when he was at the city of Keilah.

David and his roving band of fighters had been protecting the city of Keilah from enemy attacks. The men of Keilah welcomed David and his men into the city. When David’s arch-enemy Saul heard that David was inside a walled city, he thought he had him caught.

All Saul would have to do is surround the city and say to the leaders, “If you don’t throw David’s head over the wall, we will burn this city down.”

David was in a quandary and needed to hear from God.

Then David said, “O LORD, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city on my account. Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O LORD, the God of Israel, please tell your servant.”(1 Samuel 23:10-11).

David asks all his questions at once. God however, answers them one at a time.

And the LORD said, “He will come down.” 23:11b

After David gets the answer to the first question, he must move on to the next.

Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?” And the LORD said, “They will surrender you.” 23:12

Likewise, we need to first figure out what our questions are. After we have done this, we can present them to the Lord one by one.

Wait for God To Speak

We quiet our hearts. Then we focus on Jesus by spending some time meditating on him. Then we identify our questions and ask them one by one. After each question, we pause and wait for an answer. More often than not, the answer will come as a thought alighting on our mind.

Write Down What You Heard From God

As soon as answers, or what might be an answer, comes, we need to write it down or verbalize what we have received.

There is an important scientific reason for this. The visual cortex is the part of the brain which processes information from the eyes and is also active during imagination and visualization. The temporal lobe creates meanings out of sensory input and is also the area of the brain where language is processed. If we do not speak out or write down what we have received, what we receive stays hazy and unclear. The act of speaking or writing forces us to clarify what we have received.

When God was training the prophet Jeremiah, he told Jeremiah to speak out what he had seen (See Jeremiah 1:11-12).

When we want to hear God’s voice, we may hear from God, we may hear our own thoughts, or we may hear the voice of an evil spirit. How can we tell whose voice we are hearing?

But test everything; hold fast what is good.

1 Thessalonians 5:21

There are a number of tests we can utilize to clarify whose voice we are hearing. This is the topic of a future post.

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