HEARING GOD’S VOICE

We give all glory and honour to our God, the maker of the whole universe and our help in ages past. It is our prayer that this year, 2023 will be a fruitful and pleasant one in Jesus’ name. As we are starting this year on a good note, we need to re-strategize ourselves physically, financially, martially, emotionally, health-wise, and above all spiritually. There are some questions you and I need to ask and then take the necessary steps to get answers to them all for us to have a progressive year. Part of those questions are:

Does God really talk to us?

Can we really hear God's voice?

We often doubt if we are hearing from God until we learn to recognize the ways God speaks to us. The correct answer to the above questions is YES – John 10:27 says “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me”. Hearing God’s voice is beyond going to church or joining an active department in the church. It requires a close relationship with God. “Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God”, John 8:47

You could be one of the lucky ones like Moses, who was walking up the mountain, minding his own business, when he stumbled upon the burning bush. Most of us don't have those kinds of encounters so we find ourselves looking for skills to help us hear from God. It’s so disastrous today that people are going to training centers to learn how to hear from God. 

SOME COMMON WAYS GOD SPEAKS TO US 

Through His Word

In order to actually "hear" from God, we have to know some things about God’s character. We have to develop an understanding of who God is and the way he does things. Fortunately for us, all that information is available in the Bible. The Book goes into a lot of detail about how you can expect God to react, what kinds of expectations he has for us, and most specifically, how he expects us to treat other people. “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right” – 2 Timothy 3:16 

Through Other People

Many times God will use other people to try to get through to us. It's possible for God to use anyone at any time. One of the primary people He uses is a wife or husband. God wants to remind us that we need each other. He also wants us to be humble and teachable in our relations with others. “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness." Hebrews 3:13. 

Through Our Circumstances

God still speaks today through circumstances.  He will use conditions and situations from our everyday life to place us in a position to hear His voice.

Does God create circumstances to make us do His will?  No, God has created us as freewill agents and desires that we choose to live within His divine plan. But God will allow circumstances to flow into our lives to accomplish His glory and our good (Romans. 8:24).

God permits circumstances in our lives that will mature us and grow our faith. “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:5-7).  What may appear at first to be a “stumbling block” may, in actuality, turn out to be “stepping stones”. 

Through Still Small Voice

Most of the time God uses a tiny voice inside us to let us know when we’re not on the right path. Some people call it "the voice of peace." Whenever we’re contemplating something and we don't have peace about it, it’s a very good idea to stop and carefully look at the options. There’s a reason you don’t feel peace about it. 

Through Actual Voice

Sometimes we’re able to “hear” something in our spirit that sounds to us like an actual audible voice. Or all of a sudden, you just know you heard something. Pay attention to those occasions because it is very likely God trying to tell you something.

In conclusion, when God speaks, it is expected of us to listen and do as instructed.

God uses lots of things to talk to us. But actually hearing from God isn’t so much a matter of if he’s talking, but rather, whether we’re listening.