Ever
wondered if God speaks at all? Like, is God just in heaven, enjoying with the
angels worshiping Him; such that He is so far away for Him to hear you or even
speak to you? Does God care enough to have time to listen to all you have to
say? My dear you have to understand that the reason you can speak is because
God speaks, and you can only listen because God listens; after all, you are
made in God’s image. God does love talking and speaking (i.e. communicating)
with us – men. So how does God speak and how can we ensure we hear Him speak.
You see
previously, God has spoken with the audible voice. Check out the Israelites,
they heard God speak audibly from Mount Sinai. Ask Abraham, Moses, Elijah,
Isaiah and the other Prophets, they did hear God’s voice. Friends consider
this: ‘does God have a preferred way of speaking?’ Remember the discourse
between Jesus and the woman at the well in Samaria, Jesus said God does not
enjoy being worshiped in physical temples; so our Father does have a
preference. One thing that links all the ways God spoke to man after the fall
of Adam is this: they heard God from outside. The voice of God had to be
audible to them because though they related with God, God was still external to
them. God’s presence lived in buildings, arcs and stones in that period. So
something physical needed to be involved for them to hear God.
Jesus
enlightens us on how to hear Dad very clearly. Three times in the ministry of
Jesus, we see written that God spoke audibly. At His baptism, God’s audible
voice came to John the Baptist: (John1:32-33; Matt.3:17; Note: John and
Matthew’s Gospel explain and make us understand the accounts of Jesus’ baptism
in Mark & Luke. The person that saw the spirit descending on Jesus was not
the crowd gathered around but John). It follows then that the voice spoken was
not to Jesus, but to John who needed to see and hear to believe in his heart
and afterwards proclaim: John1:36. Again at the transfiguration, the voice of
God came physically to Peter, James and John, not to Jesus, nor the prophet and
the law-giver who were with Him. Finally when Jesus prayed in John 12:28-30,
the audible voice from God, came not for Jesus but for the people who were
gathered around. So, how did Jesus hear God during His prayer? We know Jesus
heard God when He prayed; in fact Jesus was always in prayer and always hearing
God. John 12:49 confirms that every word Jesus said was gotten in the place of
communion with our Father! Again when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, He
didn’t start praying, rather he continued in prayer; to understand see John
11:41b. Jesus had already conversed with God within Himself before He spoke
those words and God had also responded; hence He said thanks to God for all the
men around to hear (vs.42).
So again,
how did Jesus hear God? Jesus answers first by telling the woman at the well in
Samaria: ‘God is a Spirit, and He prefers to be worshipped in spirit’. That is
the place of communion – hearing and speaking – with God that God prefers most.
Know this, that man is a spirit, and has a soul (the mind for thinking &
emotional components for expression) and man lives in the body. So the real you
is the spirit; you don’t have a spirit, my dear friend, you are a spirit. Hence
God said, let us make man in our image; and God is a? ……. So the utmost place
of God communing with His sons is within. The best way to hear God is to hear
God speak to the spirit that you are; to use ehm ehm ‘unspiritual English’: it
is to hear God speak to your spirit. This is the core of the
sheep hearing and knowing the voice of the shepherd (John 10:27&4b). How do
I know this is the most excellent way of God speaking to us now? Well, Romans
8:16 clarifies that the place where we receive the witness and confirmation that
we are actually God’s sons is in our spirits, not in our minds or bodies; the
mind and body takes time to catch onto this knowledge. Again, Philip’s
experience with the Ethiopian man, the spirit spoke to Philip to minister to
the man (Acts 8:29). How did God speak? By the spirit of course and therefore,
how do you think that Philip heard? Through his …….. Also, Peter heard God
speak via the agency of his spirit communing with God’s spirit (Acts 10:19). So
dear friends you want to hear God’s voice frequently? Don’t just yearn to hear
a physical audible voice with your ears, rather allow yourself to be trained to
recognise when God talks to your spirit, for there ain’t anything
physical about this. This is why Peter said faith is involved when we have not
seen Jesus yet we believe in Him (1Peter 1:8); same way faith is involved when
you have not seen God and you hear him speak to you in the spirit. After all,
speaking with God and hearing God speak – prayer, is part of the components of
worship; & God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth.
Joel speaks
of the ways God speaks to us today (Joel2:28). God still speaks today in dreams
and visions. So my dear, understand that God does speak in diverse ways, but
when it comes to the place of 1 Thess. 5:17 where you are to pray as a believer
without any interruption, and the place of Luke18:1 where you are to pray
always, without stopping then you’ve gotta hear God as frequently as Jesus did
as illustrated in john 12:49 (NIV). So God does speak, He is speaking and he
will keep on speaking, you simply have to be aware that your spirit can actually hear God and already does hear
God. When you become aware of this, your mind will start to get the words of
God that your spirit hears. Dear friends, this is
but a minute tip of the iceberg in the teaching of hearing God speak, so after
reading this if you do have questions or objections, please feel free to bring
it up.
