Hearing
God’s Voice (in prayer)
Prerequisites
This document assumes that the reader already
understands basic Christian beliefs and terms, a general understanding of the Christian
Trinity, and a belief that the Bible is the only
authoritative revelation of God’s will for all.
Personal relationship?
What does a “personal
relationship with Jesus” mean? Your other “personal relationships” involve
two-way conversations. Some of your
friends may be “strong and silent” types—they mostly listen and say very
little. Jesus can be the same way, but
He expects us to listen to Him when He does speak. He said that His “sheep listen to his voice”
in John 10:3 (NIV), and again in verse 27:
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow
me.”
Listening for His voice
is more than simply reading the Bible. We read His book to get to know Him—so
that we know what He says about most things. But what happens when you desire
to know God’s will about something that is not in the Bible? The Bible, for example, does not tell you
whom to marry, and you want to make sure you get that right! What if, even
after seeking the counsel of Godly friends and searching the Scriptures on an
issue or decision, there is still no telling what God wants you to do? You want
Him to be your Lord, but you are not sure how to follow Him in such a
circumstance. You need to hear His voice.
To those who ask, God
gives His wisdom “generously to all without finding fault” (James 1:5), because
if they are genuinely asking Him for instructions, they must have already
turned to Him with a will to want to know how to follow Him. God does not want us acting like slaves who
only take written orders from far away.
We need to hear His voice in the intimacy of conversation: God wants to speak to us much in the same way
that our other friends want to speak to us.
Do you ask your friends (or yourself) for advice before you ask
God? Why not ask the Generous One
first? He is the only perfect friend
available for you to trust completely.
Jesus told His disciples, “Greater love has no one than this; that he
lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do
what I command. I no longer call you
servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I
have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I
have made known to you” (John
Jesus wants to be your
friend, and talk with you. This
is not merely a one-sided conversation, where you just talk and do not listen
as you pray. As He points out in v.14, a
friendship takes effort from both people.
Will you reach out to Jesus to take His hand of fellowship that He is
offering to you?
“Personal
Knowledge”
John
10:14-16 (NIV)
I
am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the
Father knows me and I know the Father-- and I lay down my life for the
sheep. I have other sheep that are not
of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my
voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
Matthew
25:11-12 (NIV)
Later
the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'
But
he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'
Let’s look at Strong’s
meanings of the Greek words for “know” used by John and Matthew:
- ginosko
(ghin-oce'-ko) - to learn to know, come to know, get a
knowledge of; perceive, feel; to become known; understand; Jewish idiom
for sexual intercourse between a man and a woman; to become acquainted
with
- eido (i'-do) - to
see, to perceive, notice, discern, discover; to turn the eyes, the mind,
the attention to anything; to inspect, examine; to experience any state or
condition; to visit; to have regard for one, cherish, pay attention to
The Spanish language has two words for “know.” To know someone personally is conozco,
similar to the Greek ginosko above.
The other word, saber, means to know academically—head
knowledge. The Greek also has a word for
head knowledge: gnosis - knowledge signified in general intelligence
or understanding. Clearly Jesus was
specific about the way in which His people know him. Notice
how Jesus condemns to Hell these people with whom He was not intimately
acquainted in a loving relationship of obedience.
Luke
13:25-28 (NIV)
Once
the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside
knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.' But he will answer, 'I don't know you or
where you come from.' Then you will say,
'We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.' But he will reply, 'I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!' There will be weeping there, and gnashing of
teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the
kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out.
While the people Jesus
is referring to knew Him as a person, they did not know Him as Lord or
Master. While they even heard His words
physically with their own ears, they did not heed His voice speaking
spiritually to their hearts.
John
17:1-3 (NIV)
After
Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has
come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people
that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know
[ginosko] you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
How important is this
issue to Jesus? He equates this intimate
knowledge or “personal relationship” with God with eternal life:
Knowing
God Personally = Eternal life
Colossians
1:27-29 (NIV)
To
them God has chosen to make known [gnorizo, from ginosko] among the Gentiles
the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of
glory. We proclaim him, admonishing and
teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in
Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so
powerfully works in me.
1
Corinthians
It
is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us
wisdom from God-- that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
If Jesus is in you, why don’t you ask Him first
about things? He is as close to you as
you are to yourself. Educational
research tells us that we all talk to ourselves every day. Why not just have those conversations with
Jesus? God never said, “Don’t question
me about that decision of yours; it is not important or big enough!”
Proverbs
3:5-6 (NIV)
Trust
in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
in
all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
I hear God’s voice very
often, and so can you. There is nothing special about me—only Jesus. I want to tell you about the need, the
method, and the benefits of hearing God’s voice.
The Bible: God’s will
Before we address using the
Bible to know God’s will, I want to encourage you to read the whole thing. You
never know what you are missing until you do.
You don’t want to waste your prayer time missing God—you cannot know who
He is if you have not read His book. God
will never tell you to do anything that contradicts the Bible. He cannot contradict Himself. See Dan Corner’s article at Evangelical
Outreach (http://www.evangelicaloutreach.org/wordgod.htm) for more on this important issue.
Also, make sure you hang
out with folks who are committed to knowing and helping you know how to follow the Jesus Christ of the Bible. Beyond
knowing the Bible, we must obey it.
James
1:21-25 (NIV)
Therefore,
get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly
accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so
deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone
who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at
his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately
forgets what he looks like. But the man
who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do
this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what
he does.
Jesus said in John
14:15-16, “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will
give you another Counselor to be with you forever--the Spirit of truth.”
Here he demands
obedience to His written commands and promises guidance in doing so. The Bible commands us to do many things,
which can be overwhelming. We need God’s
guidance as to when to do what, but we always should expect to be
doing something. This is another
reason it is important to hear God’s voice.
Some people use “God has not told me to do that” as an excuse to
continually not obey the commands of Scripture (such as never giving to the poor or to missions, or never
preaching to the lost). They usually do
not hear God’s voice for one or both of the following reasons:
- They have not
been obedient to the revelation of Christ that they have already had the
opportunity to receive.
- They are not
pursuing God for direction (seeking the Lord).
Obedience: a prerequisite?
Let’s deal with reason #
1 first. Jesus explained to his
disciples in Matthew 13:12-17 (NIV),[TS1]
Whoever
has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have,
even what he has will be taken from him.
This is why I speak to them in parables: [from Isa 6:9-11] 'Though
seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.' In
them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: 'You will be ever hearing but never
understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's
heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have
closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their
ears, understand with their hearts and turn,
and I would heal them.' But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your
ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous
men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear
but did not hear it.
Sure enough, they do not
hear God’s voice telling them to obey because they “hardly hear with their
ears”. The problem is not that God has
not spoken to them. The problem is that
they have not obeyed, and they have not turned
from their disobedience. Therefore hear
nothing more from God.
Who's not listening now?
Jeremiah
To
whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me?
Their
ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the Lord is offensive
to
them; they find no pleasure in it."
Zechariah
7:11-13 (NIV)
But
they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped
up their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen . .
. . So the Lord Almighty was very angry. "When I called, they did not
listen; so when they called, I would not listen,” says the Lord Almighty.
Not surprisingly, they
hear nothing from God and do nothing for God, because they are goats and not
sheep:
John
My
sheep listen to my voice; I know
them, and they follow me.
Matthew
25:31-46 (NIV)
When
the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on
his throne in heavenly glory. All the
nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from
another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the
goats on his left. Then the King will
say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your
inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to
eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you
invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked
after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord,
when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to
drink? When did we see you a stranger
and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go
to visit you?' The King will reply, 'I
tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of
mine, you did for me.' Then he will say
to those on his left, 'Depart from me,
you who are cursed, into the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you
gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I
needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did
not look after me.' They also will
answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing
clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' He will reply, 'I tell you the truth,
whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for
me.' Then they will go away to eternal
punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.
This passage helps you
understand that if your “personal relationship” with Jesus continually costs
you nothing, then you are actually having a “personal relationship” with the
devil. The Pharisees were a step ahead
of you, if you are not obeying and following
Christ, in that they at least outwardly obeyed the Bible’s commands. However, they were without a relationship
with the Father because they didn’t obey God in all things—in the
attitude of the heart, as well as in action or outward response. This is why they could not know who Christ
was.
John
8:43-45 (NIV)
Why
is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out
your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the
truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native
language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not
believe me!
I
John 3:7-11 (NIV)
Dear
children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is
righteous, just as he is righteous. He
who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning
from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the
devil's work. No one who is born of God
will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on
sinning, because he has been born of God.
This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children
of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of
God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. This is the message you heard from the
beginning: We should love one another.
I
John 5:3-4 (NIV)
This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his
commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This
is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
So, we need a personal
and loving relationship with the true Jesus, who leads us into obedience.
Then we know we are following the real
Jesus, and not the imaginary Jesus we’ve made up to suit ourselves. In other
words, we need to follow His Word (the Bible) and His voice:
& 
If you are reading this to
learn how to hear His voice (and your intention is to obey it), then you are
interested in following Him, and He will generously give you wisdom (see James
1:5-8 above). But will you want His
wisdom? What if it is the opposite of
what your flesh desires?
Count the Cost
This document
presupposes a disciplined, life-long commitment to pursue and obey the Jesus
Christ of the Bible. This is a
commitment that God responds to by giving you sensitivity to the voice of His
Holy Spirit.
John
1:12-13 (KJV)
But
as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of
God, even to them that believe on his name:
which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God.
This way, you can begin following Him accurately even though you have
not read the whole Bible yet (assuming that you are working on it in good
faith). Before the New Testament was
written, Jesus said:
John
16:12-15 (NIV)
I
have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he
will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will
speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what
is mine and making it known to you. All
that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take
from what is mine and make it known to you.
“He will guide you
into all truth” - As you read
the Bible, you will find many areas that seemed to be “gray” will be cleared
up. As you delve into the Word, you will
better understand God’s will and character as He has revealed them in the
Scriptures. In the meantime, your
conscience will not only expand within you, but you will be hearing God’s
voice. True disciples desire to obey
this voice, and must get beyond the idea that hearing God’s voice is nothing
more than the little voice inside your heart telling you that something is
wrong (the usual definition of ‘conscience’).
Far more (in fact, the fruit of the Spirit—Gal
Acts
11:27-30 (NIV)
During
this time some prophets came down from
Acts
21:10-15 (NIV)
After
we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from
Not exactly the most
marketable skill after all? You must
understand Jesus, before you understand what He is saying. Notice Christ’s harsh rebuke for Peter’s
political prosperity gospel in the passage below (his denying the need for
Jesus to suffer). He may have thought
that Jesus was going to establish an earthly kingdom with Himself at the
helm. James and John verbalize similar
thinking in Mark 10:35-39.
Matthew
16:21-25 (NIV)
From
that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to
Peter demonstrates here
a common fallacy related to hearing God’s voice: that suffering for the sake of obedience to
God is “not God’s will.” Peter tried to
convince Jesus that God’s will for his life was “good, not bad,” or “easy, not
hard.” However, the fleshly, human
conception and evaluation of what constitutes “good and bad” are not equivalent
to God’s. Peter mistakenly believed that
God’s definitions of blessing and prosperity
are the same as the world’s. Peter’s own
notion of “God’s Blessing” or “promise of prosperity” was from the fleshly
perspective, which has its origin in Adam and Eve’s decision to follow
Satan. This is why Jesus rebukes the
devil, as Satan is speaking through Peter a message of false prosperity: That God wants to bless you, and that His
blessing will mean nothing but power, pleasure, and wealth. When we are supposedly listening for guidance
from God, but “do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men,”
we open ourselves up to hear from our flesh or from the devil instead of the
Holy Spirit. Hearing from our flesh or the
demonic realm is more naturally appealing to us than God’s will for us to
“participate in the sufferings of Christ”:
1
Peter 4:12-13 (NIV)
Dear
friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though
something strange were happening to you.
But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that
you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
Isaiah
30:20-21 (NIV)
Although
the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your
teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether
you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind
you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."
Jesus is the most
encouraging, loving person ever. However,
that love is a sacrificial love—sacrificing the desires and inclinations of
self--that you can partake of with Him.
The question arises again: how
much do you want to know the real Truth, and how much are you willing to pay
for it? If you are willing to die to
yourself and live for Christ alone, then you are ready to continue in the
Truth.
John
14:6-21 (NIV)
Jesus
answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one
comes to the Father except through me.
If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now
on, you do know him and have seen him."
Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for
us."
Jesus
answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you
such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say,
'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe
that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you
are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his
work. Believe me when I say that I am in
the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the
miracles themselves.
I
tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been
doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the
Father. And I will do whatever you ask in
my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I
will do it. If you love me, you will
obey what I command. And I will ask the
Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the
Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept
him, because it neither sees him nor knows
him. But you know him, for he
lives with you and will be in you. I
will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me
anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my
Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He
who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show
myself to him."
Study the Bible, and Follow
Beyond reading the Bible, we also need to study
it. After you finish the New Testament,
and are beginning the Torah (Old Testament), you might want a Bible that gives
you some historical context. I prefer
the Chronological Bible with historical notes.
Note: Many “study Bibles” may have commentary that is extremely misleading. Be sure to ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand the scripture you read before you consult the Study notes. If you must consult the notes, ask the Holy Spirit to help you discern any false teachings you encounter.
Also, there are some
things that the Bible does not say outright that can be applied to other
circumstances. For instance, the Bible does not say “Thou shall not smoke
dope,” but it does say in Revelation 21:8 that sorcerers will not inherit the
Following the Spirit of the Bible
This is one example of
hearing God’s voice. I have seen friend after friend “feel convicted,” guilty, or
wrong about sins like the ones mentioned above, having not even known that the
Bible forbids them. When God changes
your heart, your heart becomes sensitive enough to hear His voice.
Ezekiel
18:30-32 (NIV)
“Therefore,
O house of
Ezekiel
36:26-27 (NIV)
I
will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from
you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move
you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
Soft Heart
If you obey God’s word (repenting and asking forgiveness if you fall
short) and your heart remains soft, you will continue to hear His
voice. Note the condition there: it is essential to persevere in obeying and following God if you want to remain in Him and
gain eternal life through Jesus Christ.
Romans
11:22-23 (NIV)
Consider
therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but
kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness.
Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And
if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to
graft them in again.
2
Timothy 3:14-17 (NIV)
But
as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become
convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from
infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for
salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is God-breathed and
is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
so that the man of God may be
thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Psalms
95:6-11 (NIV)
Come,
let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is
our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today,
if you hear his voice, do not harden your
hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the
desert, where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I
did. For forty years I was angry with
that generation; I said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray, and
they have not known my ways."
So
I declared on oath in my anger, "They shall never enter my rest."
Hebrews
3:7-12 (NIV)
So,
as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your
hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert,
where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation,
and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my
ways.' So I declared on oath in my
anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.’"
See to it, brothers, that none of
you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
But encourage one another daily, as long as it is
called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold
firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.
Repentance
If God told you to do or
stop or start doing something, He has given you the power to do what He has
commanded.
1
Corinthians 10:13-14 (NIV)
No
temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can
bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you
can stand up under it. Therefore, my
dear friends, flee from idolatry.
What if you are
continuing in the faith and then commit sin?
If you want to continue or persevere in keeping your relationship with
God, then repentance is the key. Jesus
is the advocate for truly repentant sinners:
Job
16:19-21 (NIV)
Even
now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour
out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his
friend.
I
Kings 8:33-36 (NIV)
When
your people
I
John 1:7-10 (NIV)
But
if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one
another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us. If
we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and
purify us from all unrighteousness. If
we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no
place in our lives.
If we are purified from
all unrighteousness, then our heart should return to being soft enough to hear
God’s voice again, as long as we continue to listen for it. Sometimes we need to tell another Christian
about our struggle against an old habit, so that their prayers and
accountability may help us overcome it.
James