I have heard other Christians say this to me...and the reality is that it's simply not true.  God actually does want to speak to you and IS speaking to you.  He has so many things to say and reveal about His thoughts towards you that they are as many as the grains of sand on beach of your last Spring Break trip to Daytona (Psalm 139:17-18).  So if God has that many things to say about you...then maybe we should tune into at least one?

I have made it a personal mission to try to hear God.   The closer you get to God the better you can hear him.  The more you know God the more you know yourself.  The opposite is true as well:  the less you know God, the less you know about yourself.  Anytime someone who loves you more than you can ever imagine wants to speak to you...you want to hear what they have to say.  

Here's what we know about God's voice:

+ God has a voice.  We know this because of the 3rd verse of the Bible when God spoke light into darkness (Genesis 1:3).  

+ You can hear his voice if you are a follower of Jesus.  In the new Testament we read some powerful words, “I am the good shepherd and I know My own and My own know Me.  My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me” (John 10:14, 27).  

+ You hear by the Holy Spirit.    Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to guide us into truth, to speak these truths loud and clear (John 14:26; 16:13-15).  

+ Hearing God is prophetic.  Prophecy is Jesus, about Jesus and restoring people back to Jesus (Revelation 19:10)

Journal note:   I have a very practical guide to hearing God’s voice on a past journal entry here.

I want to be a Christian who is with Jesus so that I can hear Him and be with Him.  Out of that intimacy comes a revelation of who He is, who I am and what I am made to do.   If we can cultivate that kind of closeness with God, it allows us to see and hear things which simply overflows out of us.  The love of God for me leads me to have a prophetic lifestyle or in other words, a lifestyle that lives from hearing God speak and me following Him.  That’s why Scripture says, “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.”  1 Corinthians 14:1 That’s what prophetic words and ministry can do for you.  That’s what hearing God’s voice can do for you.  It helps you become who you were always meant to be.  God speaking to you connects you to your designed purpose and what you were created to be and do.  Discovering and calling out the future selfthat God has destined for them that they can’t see yet but you can!  It’s catching a glimpse of the YOU that is the YOU that you were always meant to be. 

Jesus choose the disciples He chose their occupations, the personalities, their shortcomings, their dysfunctions, their lack of education… because He saw who they could be and would be.  He not only saw them but called it out of them.  

Living out the life of Jesus as a Christian should demand from all of us a prophetic eye and ear to see the “what could be” with those we are discipling.  When we are loved like that by Jesus and by those who follow Jesus, it transcends our limitations and we start to live like we always were intended to live.  That’s why having an ear to hear God is important to you, your family and your leadership. 

5 Ways To Translate God’s Voice:

GOD SPEAKS TO EVERYONE.  

We live in a noisy culture.  We have a God who speaks regularly.  This is the tension as a creation of God.  He is either speaking “come to me” to those that don’t know God and to those that do know God, He is revealing who He is and who they are supposed to be (Romans 10:17 & Romans 5:8).  So be still and know (Psalm 46:10) or the Hebrew word for “know” is be intimately acquainted with.  So stop just praying on your car ride to work and spend a few minutes before everyone is up and listen. 

My friend Eric Samuel Timm says this in his book, The Static Jedi, ““Battling the noise is creating a space for God and acknowledging the space He occupies, which is all of it. Invite God into all twenty-four hours of your day.”  So invite Him and see what He’ll say…

GOD’S VOICE IS CHARACTERIZED BY LOVE.

God sounds like love (Galations 5:6).  There is no condemnation in Christ but grace and mercy.  These are strong indicators you are hearing God’s voice if these expressions are part of what you are hearing.  Grace is acceptance by God you cannot earn accept by Jesus and mercy is forgiveness you don’t deserve but have received in Christ.  It's faith expressing itself with love.  

GOD’S PURPOSE FOR SPEAKING TO YOU AND TO OTHERS IS TO PRIMARILY REVEAL THE FATHER’S LOVE.

Jesus longed for the disciples to experience the love of the Father.  That same love of the Father that was ESSENTIAL for Jesus to live by is the same love that Jesus wants for us to experience and that is available for us ( John 17:24-25).  Jesus didn't do anything without the Father endorsing it and Him.  What if we lived the same way?

GOD REVEALS HIS THOUGHTS TO YOU SO YOU HAVE HIS THOUGHTS.   

You don’t become conformed but you become transformed when your mind is renewed by God’s thoughts (Romans 12:2)  You hear God by the Holy Spirit.  No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  But we receive the Spirit of God to not receive the spirit of the world but God Himself to allow us to see and know His will, purpose and plans for us and others (1 Corinthians 2:9)

GOD’S VOICE MAKES YOU COMPLETE.  

The heart of the disciples who experienced the presence and life-giving words of Jesus was to bring that very experience to others.  Experiencing what you see and hear when you are with the Father and makes you complete not only relationally but spiritually.   (1 John 1:1-4)

How have you heard God's voice lately?