God is Speaking

I’ve really enjoyed reading the responses everyone is sending in from the survey I sent out a few days ago. If you received one and haven’t filled it out yet, I’d still love to hear from you! I love sharing life with you through this blog, and it’s been great hearing back from you. Out of the surveys I received so far, growing in your walk with the Lord, was at the top of the list. That makes me so happy because while I love to share about many things, my greatest passion is my relationship with God. The longer I walk with the Lord, the better it gets!  

Last week, the Lord brought to my remembrance something that happened when I was a little girl. Growing up, my favorite time was spending the week at my grandma’s house. It was just the two of us and we would have nonstop fun together. She would take me to the arcade, to the city, to the movies, to the beach, and on and on we’d go until the very last minute of my time with her. I’ll never forget those special times with my grandma. I’ll also never forget something that happened during one of those visits when I was 12 years old.

One morning, my grandma was taking a little longer to get ready before we went out for our day of fun. Seeing that I was getting antsy, she suggested I go outside and get some fresh air. I went downstairs and sat on a bench in front of her condominium complex. I was busy people-watching when suddenly I heard deep inside, “Get up!” It was weird and I was comfortable, so I ignored it. Again, I just felt deep within, “Get up!” It happened a few times and I was actually getting annoyed and said out loud, “I don’t want to get up!” But one more time and with even greater urgency I heard, “Get up!”  So, I got up and began to walk away and literally within seconds I heard a screeching sound and BOOM! I looked behind me and was in shock to see that a car had spun out of control and crashed right into the bench I had been sitting on. I don’t believe I would have survived had I still been on that bench. I didn’t fully understand at the time, but God had spoken to me.  

Through the years, the most exciting times in my walk with the Lord have been when God spoke to me personally. There’s nothing that can compare to that experience. There came a time in my life though, when I desired to hear from God more. It wasn’t enough for me to hear Him when I had a big decision to make, which honestly, was the only time I asked Him to speak to me. I really desired greater intimacy with God and wanted to hear His voice regularly. Maybe that’s your desire too. I’ll often hear people say, “God doesn’t speak to me” or “I can’t hear God’s voice” or “It’s been a long time since I’ve heard God speak.” Maybe you even wonder, “How do I even know if it’s God speaking to me?” If you can relate, then I want to encourage you that God does desire to speak to you. In fact, He loves to speak to you and share His heart with you. It’s a part of our personal relationship with Him. While sometimes it can be a struggle to hear, the good news is that we can grow in our hearing and discerning of God’s voice?  

In John 10:27, Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” Jesus used the example of sheep because people in His day could relate to it. Everyone knew that the sheep knew the voice of their shepherd because he spent a great deal of time with them. The sheep trusted the shepherd who cared for their every need, and they knew his voice and followed it. It’s the same for us with our Great Shepherd. Sometimes, God is speaking to us but we don’t recognize His voice, just like my 12-year old self, sitting on that bench. But the more we spend time with God, the more we’ll be able to hear and recognize His voice when He speaks to us.

Reading the Word of God is vital to our relationship with Him. After all, the Bible is God’s personal love letter to us. In it, He reveals His heart and character in us. He shows us His will and who we were created to be. By spending time in the Word of God, we learn that we can trust God and that He’ll never fail us. It’s through God’s Word that we build a foundation on which God can speak to us. When God speaks, He always confirms His word. In fact, this is one of the ways we can know if it’s God speaking to us or not – because God will NEVER contradict His Word. (John 16:13-15)God may speak to us through dreams, visions, an inner knowing, through situations happening around us, or even a prophetic word from the Lord. I love when God speaks to me in creative ways, but again, the Word of God is and always should be our plumb line when discerning God’s voice. We should ask ourselves, does what I’m hearing line up with God’s Word?    

As I’ve grown in hearing God’s voice, I’ve learned that I must position myself to hear. In, Matt 11:15 Jesus said, “He that has ears let them hear.” This is repeated a few times in the Bible. Well, everyone has ears, don’t they? So what does this mean? When Jesus spoke, He knew some of the people didn’t really want to hear. They didn’t want to know the truth, and so, they couldn’t receive what He was saying. To hear God, we have to be open to Truth. Can we honestly say we want to hear what God has to tell us, even if it goes against our own desires? It’s time for a heart check. I think if we’re honest, we can all admit that there have been times that God has spoken to us, and well…we haven’t listened. I’ve learned that sometimes, we may need to go back to the last thing we heard from God and respond to it, in order to hear more. SELAH. Others Jesus spoke to, wanted to hear, but they were trying to rationalize with their natural minds what Jesus was saying and couldn’t understand. When God speaks to us, He speaks to our spirit, and to hear we must be listening with our “spiritual ears.” Much of what Jesus spoke, the disciples didn’t understand until later, after they received the Holy Spirit. It was then, they fully understood what Jesus had been saying to them. The Holy Spirit is the one who leads us into all truth, and with our born-again spirits, we can understand and discern what the Lord is saying. (John 4:24) For a person new at this, it will take practice and discipline learning to listen and to discern, but I promise you, you will grow in this as you are faithful.

One of the hindrances to listening with our “spiritual ears” is a distraction. We’ll always struggle to hear God when our minds are preoccupied and focused on the cares of the world. Staying in God’s word helps keep our focus on God, even in the midst of daily life. The Bible says that in being still, we can know God (Psalm 46:10). When you make time to be still before the Lord on a regular basis, you’ll be able to hear Him any place and at any time.  In that season of wanting to grow in hearing God’s voice, I began to cry out to God. I said “God, I really want to hear Your voice! I’m listening. Help me to hear and teach me to discern.” At that time, we were moving and we had one of those PODS in our driveway. I would go in that POD every day, close the door, and shut the whole world out. It was soooo quiet in there. I had so much going on in life at the time, but I so desperately wanted to hear God. I had to consciously tune out the chatter and noise not just around me but in my own heart. It’s not always easy to be still, but we can discipline ourselves to do it. This was a special time for me as I positioned myself to hear from God. In His faithfulness, God answered the cry of my heart. I grew tremendously in hearing God’s voice in that season and it strengthened me in my walk with God till this day.

These days, I still look for ways to “be still.” I’ll close my eyes and just listen throughout my day. Even if it’s noisy and there are people around, I’ll practice tuning out the distractions and listen for His voice. Often, I’ll meditate on scripture I read that morning. I’ll take a walk and pray. I’ll sit in my car a few extra minutes before going into an appointment. Before I jump out of bed in the morning I’ll listen for His voice. I want to hear what God has to say in this season, and so I position myself to hear. God’s heart is that we would be those people that have ears to hear. I believe more than ever; God wants to awaken our spiritual ears to hear in this season. If you’ve walked with God for a while, none of this is news to you, but I want to challenge you to lean in a little closer and listen for His voice in your life a little more. God has more to share with you. He wants to reveal who He is to you in ways you’ve never experienced before. He wants to instruct and guide you so that you can walk the path He has for you. And more than ever, He wants to whisper words of love to your heart, that will strengthen you as nothing else can. C’mon now, lean in a little closer. God is speaking.

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