Hearing God
I’m sometimes asked by those I coach, “What’s the best advice you could give me about being a good leader?” My answer often surprises them. “It’s being a good follower.”
I then go on to add, “And the most important thing you can do as a follower is to hear from God. He will guide. He will direct. He will offer ideas. He will provide insight. But you need to make room…you need to take time to listen.”
All too many struggle with this counsel. They mentally – if not literally – roll their eyes at me. It seems like the pat, “spiritual” answer.
For others, it seems too lofty…too illusive… even (Dare I say it?) too dangerous.
Maybe past experience has caused them to distrust those who say they hear from God because it has lent itself to all sorts of abuse and misery.
Or they tried but felt God was silent…that somehow they didn’t know the code to access His still small voice. So, they gave up.
Even pastors struggle with this, living like communication with the Lord is limited to reading the Bible and engaging in prayer as a monologue.
But what if there’s more? What if God wants to communicate to us in the everyday moments of life?
The Father’s Heart
This speaks directly to the heart of God for each of us.
Our Father loves us and wants us to know Him. The “relationship with the Lord” that we often tout is not theoretical – it’s real. As such He wants to communicate with us so that we can engage intimately with Him.
Our Father loves us and wants us to know Him.
Sadly, all too many believers expect God’s communication to be limited to correction. We sense condemnation when we sin or warnings against missteps. In other words, fear-based communication.
But believing that God wants to have this dialogue with us because He loves us and wants to be close to us – this love-based communication – is a game-changer.
The Spirit’s Promise
Perhaps the greatest promise given to believers regarding this is the one Jesus made to His disciples before He returned to the Father: “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. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.” (John 16:13-14).
This is impossible if we cannot hear Him.
The Son’s Teaching
Over and over and over again, Jesus taught the importance, the necessity, of hearing God speak to us. The Lord’s most-repeated statement (fifteen times in the New Testament) was, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear!”
Over and over and over again, Jesus taught the importance, the necessity, of hearing God speak to us. His most-repeated statement (15 times in the NT) was, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear!”
We know that Jesus defined His followers as “those who hear My voice” (John 10:27).
There is no way we can experience many of the promises of Scripture unless we listen to what the Lord might be saying to us. Take, for example, that verse in James that we all love to quote and to claim: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5)
How can we experience this if God does not tell us? If we do not hear from Him?
Isn’t the Bible Enough?
“But,” some protest, “we have the Bible. And that’s sufficient.”
To be sure, God DOES speak through the Bible. It is in fact the primary way He speaks to us.
Yet, while the Bible does provide guidance in many areas, many of the everyday decisions that you and I have to make are not specifically covered in the Bible.
Who should I marry? Where should I move? What should I purchase? When should I leave? How should I decide?
A.W. Tozer, one of the true heavyweights in pastoral leadership was a brilliant theologian who respected the Bible more than most. Yet Tozer wrote, “The Bible will never be a living Book to us until we are convinced that God is articulate in His universe. I believe that much of our religious unbelief is due to a wrong conception of and a wrong feeling for the Scriptures. A silent God begins to speak in a book and when the book was finished lapsed back into silence again forever…The prophets habitually said, ‘Thus saith the Lord.’ They meant their hearers to understand that God’s speaking is in the continuous present.”
The Greatest Gift
Over the next few blog posts, I want to lean into this idea of hearing from God. We’ll consider some of the ways He speaks. We’ll look at some of the filters that can be employed to make sure that it is in fact His word to us. And we’ll address some of the ways you can stance yourself to hear Him.
I hope you find these posts helpful and I would welcome your comments and questions.
By the way, this isn’t simply important for leaders. It’s important for all disciples. Indeed, one of the greatest gifts you can give those under your care is the truth that everyday, garden-variety believers can hear from the Lord. And once they catch on to that and are taught how to do it, there’s no limit to the personal transformation that can be theirs and the Kingdom impact they can have.
One of the greatest gifts you can give those under your care is the truth that everyday believers can hear from the Lord. Once they catch on to that, there’s no limit to the transformation and Kingdom impact they can experience.
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