You can learn to hear from God and communicate with Him in an conversational way. But before you do, there are two things you must settle in your heart. Once these truths are firmly anchored, you’ll be well on your way to hearing from heaven.
Settle these two things
- God speaks.
You only get three verses into the Bible before you discover that God is a speaking God. Genesis 1:3 tells us that God spoke. He spoke the worlds into existence and continued to speak throughout the Old Testament. He talked with patriarchs, prophets, priests, kings, and those just going about their daily tasks. God spoke to young and old, and in every way imaginable, through dreams, visions, angels, a whisper, and even a donkey.
(See: Exod. 3:14; Heb. 1:1; Num. 18:8; Judges 6:22; I Sam. 3:6; Ex. 7:1; I Kings 19:12; Num. 22:28)
And if the Old Testament doesn’t convince you that God is a speaking God, you have only to read the first few verses of John.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
(John 1:1,14)
I like the way Tozer put it.
The facts are that God is not silent, has never been silent. It is the nature of God to speak. The second person of the Trinity is called the Word. The Bible is the inevitable outcome of God’s continuous speech. It is the infallible declaration of His mind for us put into our familiar human words.
A.W. Tozer
We see God speaking and Jesus speaking. Then after Jesus left the earth, we see the Holy Spirit speaking too, and He speaks to us now just as He did to the early Christians. While Peter thought about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are seeking you” (Acts 10:19).
- God speaks to you.
Once you settle the fact that God speaks, you must also be certain that He speaks to you. Remember this: If you received the free gift of salvation, you already heard His voice.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
(Rev. 3:20)
You heard His voice, so you opened your heart to Him, and you heard His voice before you ever knew Him in an intimate relationship!
Keep the conversation going
But the conversation wasn’t meant to stop at the opened door. If Jesus came to your house for dinner tonight, would you invite Him in, give Him a seat at the table, then remain silent for the entire meal? Never! There would be so much you’d want to talk to Him about and so much He’d want to share with you. Jesus is the Bridegroom. He initiated a divine romance with us and there can be no romance without conversation.
If you don’t feel like you hear His voice all that well yet, take heart. In the next few parts of this series, we’ll talk about how you can know whether it’s Him speaking and what He wants to talk about.
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