Hearing the Voice of God

I was asked a few days ago by a couple of different people ” how to hear the voice of God.”  The Bible says in Hebrews 3:7 (NLT) 

⁷ That is why the Holy Spirit says, “Today when you hear his voice,…”

Hearing God’s voice seems to come natural for some people, while others truly struggle with that concept. Dr. Henry Blackaby in  his study, Experiencing God,  wrote that God spoke in five different ways:

1. Through the Holy Spirit to reveal Himself, His purposes, and HIs ways.
2. Through the Bible.
3. Through Prayer.
4. Through circumstances.
5. Through the church and other believers.

This list might not be comprehensive, but it seems to be very accurate.  I have heard God’s voice in each one of these ways on different occasions.  Sometimes God uses a combinations of each of these.

Why do people not hear God’s voice?  The conclusion of the verse quoted above says  Hebrews 3:8 (NLT) 

⁸ don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness.

I think the first reason that we do not hear God’s voice is that we have hardened our hearts toward God.  We would rather rebel against God’s Word than be obedient to God’s Word.  It seems to be easier to do things our own way than to look to God to find His way.

A second reason is that our lives are cluttered with a lot of “noise.”  What do I mean by noise?  I mean the cares of this world along with the hustle and bustle of life.  We get consumed with what is going on at work, at home, or in our social circles that we cannot hear the still small voice of God.  When Elijah needed to hear from God, God showed him several major events but He was not in any of them.  Then the Bible says that Elijah “heard a gentle whisper” which the word means total silence.  We have to be quiet before the Lord to hear Him.  That is very difficult for us to do in 2013 as we have so many things that occupy our thoughts and our lives.

Do you want to hear God’s voice?  In order to do so, we must be willing to be obedient to God’s Word.  In order to be obedient to God’s Word, wemust spend time reading it.  Secondly, we must be willing to be quiet and get rid of the noise around us.  Are we willing to turn off the social media, TV, radio, along with any other distractions that prevent us from hearing?  When we get serious about hearing from God, He will speak to us.