“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3
I love sitting outside, listening to the birds chatter to one another, and hearing the sounds of the wind passing through. Although to some, these are background noises to be tuned out, I love tuning them in, giving these moments as opportunities for God to quietly speak to my heart.
So how does God speak to us? We know through His Word, but how else does He speak to our hearts? How do we know when it’s really Him speaking?
Often we look for God to speak to us in big, obvious ways, thinking if He does, we’ll listen, but the thing is, if we aren’t listening when He whispers to us, why would we listen when He shouts?
Most of us believe we are longing to hear God’s voice, to have Him speak to us, yet are we missing the ways He’s already doing so.
The Old Testament prophet Elijah was looking for God to talk to him, too, but mistakenly expected Him to speak in a huge, awesome way. As Elijah’s story goes in 1 Kings 19:11-13:
“The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’”
Like Elijah, we, too, are usually looking for God to be obvious in His communication with us when often His voice speaks to us in an almost faint, gentle whisper. A whisper we may miss at times because we haven’t fine-tuned our listening skills when it comes to hearing God. As Isaiah 30:21 explains, “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’.”
So how do we fine-tune our hearing so that we don’t miss when God is speaking to us? The following are six key ways He does:
1. God speaks to us through His Word. Hebrews 4:12 describes how God’s Word speaks deeply to us: “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
2. God speaks to us through His Holy Spirit. Jesus explains in John 3:34, “For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.”
As well, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the 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” (John 16:13).
Also, as John 14:26 explains, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
3. God speaks to us in response to our calling out to Him. A key to hearing God speak to us is to call to Him, as Jeremiah 33:3 calls us to do. When we do, God says He will answer and speak to us.
4. God speaks to us through His servants. As 2 Kings 21:10 describes, “The Lord said through his servants the prophets.”
Likewise, 2 Peter 1:21 explains, “For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
Also, as Hosea 12:10 describes God saying, “I spoke to the prophets, gave them many visions and told parables through them.”
Additionally, Hebrews 1:1 explains how, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways.”
5. God speaks to us through each other. Acts 2:4 describes a scene that describes how God will speak through us to those around us: “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”
6. God speaks to us through nature. As Romans 1:20 explains, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
Let’s Pray:
Dear Father,
Speak to us today, O Lord. We long to hear Your voice. Quiet our hearts to hear You.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/FTiare
Lynette Kittle is married with four daughters. She enjoys writing about faith, marriage, parenting, relationships, and life. Her writing has been published by Focus on the Family, Decision, Today’s Christian Woman, kirkcameron.com, Ungrind.org, StartMarriageRight.com, and more. She has a M.A. in Communication from Regent University and serves as associate producer for Soul Check TV.
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