Hearing the Voice of God

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. John 16:13

The ways God speaks to us are varied and many. Hearing Him is the challenge. To hear God, we must have a close personal relationship. We must be in conversation regularly and not do all the talking. We must patiently wait for God to speak. We must listen.

If we are only approaching God with our needs and wants, and if we are never still or listening for His voice, we will miss it. Though God can speak to us through very clear and miraculous ways, that is generally not how we hear from Him. 

God uses our mind, who some call our spirit (as in body, soul, and spirit). Whatever we call it, the more communication time we have with Him, the more His voice will be in our minds. Since He is always with us, we should always be in conversation and ready to hear what He has to say.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27

There are no tricks to hearing from God. He is our Father and He hears us when we talk to Him. When God does not talk back immediately or what we hear is not what we wanted, we may become frustrated and disregard it as not coming from Him. 

We all hear from God, although many aren't aware that He is speaking. Sometimes He speaks through our conscience or through a song or through a message at church. Sometime He speaks through others to confirm what we have already heard but are unsure of. 

Sometimes He speaks to us when we can't sleep, bringing to mind people who need prayer or revealing a message that He would like us to take to them. He doesn't only speak to us when we pray.

And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Isaiah 30:21


Reading His word and communicating with Him about every aspect of our lives will determine how easily we recognize His voice over others. God's voice will never contradict His word. That is key. Other's voices will be worldly, unkind, contradictory, angry, or manipulative. 

God is not sneaky. God is love. If the voice we hear is not filled with love, it is not God. In reading or listening to God's word we will know what the mind of God is.  Then, when He speaks we will know it is Him if it aligns with His word.

We often talk about asking God for wisdom and knowledge and yet  have no idea how to recognize when those are given to us. We can be confident that God is giving us what He promised, but it is our responsibility to be able to discern His voice above the rest.

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17

Let us consider Romans 10:17 which is a verse some struggle with. Our faith is made stronger and our relationship with the Father becomes greater when we hear from Him. So faith comes from hearing. We hear from Him because we read His word and follow it. Hearing through the word of Christ. The more we read, the more we hear, and the greater our faith becomes. This life cycle brings both knowledge and wisdom, helps us recognize the voice of God, and fills us with His peace.
 
The accuser of this world, the devil, will try to speak, but God will overpower that voice. Listen only to the goodness of God. His voice is only good. When good thoughts come over and over again, pray about them and God will confirm them in your heart. 

If He speaks a word for us to give to someone else that is encouraging and uplifting, we cannot be afraid to pass it on. An encouraging word will not do harm as long as we do not share it in pride as if we were special because we heard from God.

We must be careful of becoming prideful because we hear His voice. Hearing from God is not our main focus. Our focus is a stronger relationship with Him. We will hear from God in His time, not ours. As we become more mature spiritually, we will hear Him more clearly.


God's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control will all come to us as we read His word and listen to His voice.

Prayer: Father, thank you for speaking to us clearly through our minds, through others, and through your word. Help us to listen and learn, read and follow, and grow spiritually into the people you want us to be. Use us to encourage others. Cleanse us from our pride and other sins. We wait patiently to hear from you. Amen.