Month: March 2020

How to hear from God – where to look

How to hear from God

Want to know how to hear from God? Listen.

Know what to listen for. In this post I describe a few ways I’ve heard God speak. In addition, time spent in the Bible gives us a feel for how God speaks, what God says, and truths about God. Not sure where to start? Here are a few ways and verses to get started.

Before much else I prayed

I woke up this morning with a big project on my mind. I wasn’t sure what direction to go in, but I knew I had some writing to do on a book project.

Before much else I sat down for ten minutes and prayed. My prayer happened to be written down, but you can say yours aloud or in the quiet of your heart.

I said what was on my heart, then, wait for it, I listened. Yup. Gave God a chance to speak.

I waited

I waited. In my heart I sensed I was supposed to open my Bible and spend time reading Scriptures instead of going straight to writing. This was a bit counterintuitive because I have a lot of writing to do, but I obeyed, complied, did what I sensed God wanted me to do.

Well, guess what? I took four pages of notes, made some incredible discoveries, and ended up with fresh ideas and plenty of notes for my writing project.

Not sure how?

Not sure how to go about listening?

Share a prayer with God, then pause. Wait. Without an agenda. It’s OK if all you hear is silence or distracting sounds of everyone and everything around you. The key is to start. Create an expectation that you will hear from God.

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27 NIV

Where to start

Not sure where in the Bible to start? Are you familiar with the 23rd Psalm? Start there. Open your Bible to the middle, approximately where the Psalms are, and read through Psalm 23.

Try reading it slowly or one verse at a time then pausing.

Does a word or a phrase catch your eye?

Does it bring you a sense of peace?

Does it convict you of something in your life?

Scripture is one way God speaks to us.

God can speak to us

Taking a moment to open the Bible and focus on Scripture creates an opportunity for God to show us something in the text, to show us something about who He is, or something He wants to show us about ourselves. These are just a few ways that God can speak to us through Scripture.

And if a person’s name or a situation comes to mind while you are reading, that could also be a prompt you are to pray for that person or situation.

What to pray

Not sure what to pray? There’s an app for that.

Apply this Scripture during your prayer time anytime you don’t know the words to pray:

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” Romans 8:26-27 NIV

Prayer

The more comfortable we get with the idea of praying to God, the more likely we can say a short prayer in any context of our lives. Stuck in traffic? Pray. Sitting at work? Say a quick prayer. Doing chores around the house? Say a few words in prayer. Stuck at home? Pray.

The more we practice this notion of prayer, the more easily it can become a habit of prayer.

In a season of uncertainty, prayer might just be the thing to help our hearts.

Are we listening for ways God is speaking?

Listening for God to speak in our lives can be simple. Do we recognize when it happens? What might it look like? Here is a recent example of this in my own life. Maybe it will help you consider where God might be speaking in yours.

Listening

I like to call it God speaking in stereo. When a theme is echoed in more than one place in my life, reinforcing the message I am receiving.

Last week this happened as I was writing the blog post about the song “Jesus Loves Me.” I was reflecting on which Bible verses to use:

Psalm 139:1

1 John 3:1

In fact the idea to write the blog post solidified when I was sharing my thoughts in a small gathering about whether or not we believe that Jesus loves us. One friend replied, “That’s a blog post.”

Hearing her response reinforced that maybe this was a good idea to pursue.

Familiar Bible verse

While writing the post I reflected which Bible verses would be helpful to hold onto this truth of God loving us while already knowing about us.

Psalm 139 came to mind because I was familiar with it. I had read that Psalm in my Bible so it was in my memory bank.

A song

On my way to a Bible study I heard Matthew West’s song, “Hello, My Name Is.” The bridge of the song speaks of God’s love for His children. When I heard it, I knew that was the phrase I was looking for. The words reminded me of a Bible passage, I just wasn’t sure where to find it in the Bible. Because I was listening, I heard the answer I was seeking.

As soon as I arrived, I wrote down the verse so I wouldn’t forget it. Although I didn’t know where it was located in the Bible, I figured I could do a search later.

A speaker

During the Bible study teaching, the speaker shared a verse from the first letter of John in the New Testament. Problem solved. Wouldn’t you know it was the same verse I had heard in the song and written down? The verse I was seeking showed up more than once. I recognized it because I was listening.

Not long after, during the same teaching, she mentioned the verse from Psalm 139 I planned to use. Why wouldn’t she? I had confirmation for the verse in 1 John, why wouldn’t I receive confirmation for the passage from Psalm 139?

A friend

A remembered verse

A song

A speaker

God speaks

The message for the blog post came about because I listened. God speaks to us through Scripture – one really good reason to be familiar with the Bible. God can also speak to us through people, songs, and circumstances.

Are we listening?