The art of listening to God

July 20, 2012 — 2 Comments

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Wouldn’t it be great to ask God a question and have Him write the answer across the sky with one of those sky writing airplanes? I’ve never seen God do that, but I have come to understand that God really wants us to communicate with us. So why is it so hard to hear God? How do we know when God is talking?

Having spent a long time in theological education, I have heard plenty of conversations about hearing God’s voice. They have ranged from insightful to absurd. I always love it when someone says, “Most theologians agree.” Theologians never agree! That’s just code for, “We really don’t know how to explain this!”

I’m reminded of the story of Elijah. In 1 Kings 19, we see Elijah cowering in fear. Jezebel had killed all the prophets except for Elijah and she promised to kill him. The prophet started feeling sorry for himself. So, God told him to go stand on the mountain because he was about to hear from God.

Three spectacular events happened in succession. There was wind, an earthquake, and fire, but Elijah didn’t hear from God. Doesn’t God always speak in spectacular ways? What was the problem? Did Elijah miss it?

Then, there was a whisper and Elijah heard from God. We can learn a lot about listening to God through this story. God’s whispers are important because

  • We don’t let strangers whisper to us. People who are close get to whisper. If you aren’t hearing His whispers, you might not be close enough to Him.
  • We can’t hear whispers when there’s a lot of noise. Sometimes we don’t hear God because we have too much happening around us. Maybe you can’t hear God because of the noise in your life.

If you want to hear from God, get real close and eliminate the distractions. He probably is already answering your questions. Think about it.

How do you listen to God?

In How to get out of a rut, Spiritual growth , , , ,
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  • Meg R

    How do I listen to God?  This is a great question, and one that doens’t get posed often enough.  If I think I don’t hear from Him often enough it could be that I am not doing my listening part as completely as need be, 

    Usually, I am in the best state when I take my dog out walking and as she snoops around I can be surrounded by nature and become as quiet as I am going to be during the day.  I’m starting to realize that the 30 min or so might just not be enough time for me to be in that state as I usually don’t hear anything that isn’t part of the earthly scenario, plus I have to pay attention to the dog and occasionally she takes priority over other activities. 

    I love the Lord and long to spend so much more time in His presence  but it is going to be me making changes.  I have become aware of the fact that I am surrounded by noise all the time, traffic, radio, TV, computer – even with no sound it is constantly calling my attention away.  Right now I’m reading a book on stillness & silence, during commercial breaks or with one eye on the inbox.  I was in a pretty good place with my spiritual life, then I decided to take a step into a deeper closeness with God and its really causing it all to unravel right before my eyes.  I know its evil coming up to challenge me, but its so completely exhausting that I get lost in the whole thing.  Hope you can make sense of this rambling.

    • http://www.liveyourwhy.net/ Terry Hadaway

      Meg,

      I think you described the way many of us live our lives… we have a lot going on, are often distracted, and want to hear God during the 14 seconds of silence we have each day. Somewhere in the midst of the chaos, we must learn to find quiet places where we can hear Him whisper. That’s a huge challenge! Thanks for your comment!