Hearing God Speak

Can a person really learn to hear God speak?  No one will ever convince me otherwise. I heard God speak in what sounded like an audible voice when He called me to join Him in full-time Christian service at the age of 14.  I can point you to the time and place. While I did not fully comprehend the implications of that simple yes, it was a bone-deep sense of calling, and it has sustained me for over fifty years in Christian ministry.

I discovered  that if I am attentive and I go to Him with  an open Bible, God has spoken and continues to speak to me through His Word! The Good News is that He is no respecter of persons. When He opens a well for one, it is so all may drink! Put simply, any seeking soul can have that kind of a personal relationship with God, even the hearing impaired.

“How do you hear the voice of God when you are totally deaf?”

I asked my friend, Dr. Rick McLain, totally deaf since birth, to describe how he hears God speak.  “It’s more than the auditory impression, or reception,” he replied. And easier said than done… I have to clear out the clutter in my life before I can listen to Him. I can’t listen if I am not attentively paying attention. I can’t pay attention if I am not seeing the face of God to lip-read him.”  

Forward On Our Knees

At times God speaks to give us what I call an obedience check. He calls us to unconditional obedience and when we obey, He is responsible for the results! After John fell at Jesus’ feet like a dead man, it says the Living One spoke for what may have been the 365th time, “Don’t be afraid!” But what He says next is my point here: “Write down what you have seen…” (Revelation 1:17-19).  It was not  a suggestion; rather, a command. Commands require obedience, not negotiation or reluctance!  

When I arrived at my fourth pastorate, I was miserable for the first nine  months thinking I had made the biggest mistake of my career. One Saturday morning during my DQT (daily quiet time),  the Spirit directed me to Hebrews 3:15-19

Then God seemed to say: your disobedience is  hardening your heart and you will not stop churning until you start obeying. I immediately repented and thankfully continued reading: “God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it.  For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God. ³For only we who believe can enter his rest.” Hebrews 4:1-3.

This would not the last time either God’s Word would give me an obedience check. But this time,  I entered into God’s rest of obedience and enjoyed a four year journey through one of the most traumatic times in the history of the that church.

Obedience to the Word includes obedience to the gospel, and that carries great reward.