{Be Loved} How to Hear God

Recently, I took a long hard look back at my life over the past year.  I realized that while God was taking me deeper with Him and through some healing that, while painful and hard, was liberating me and opening my heart for new revelation of how much Papa God loves me….I had been missing something vital, and I could feel the lack of that vitality in my heart.

It was very clear that I wasn’t making very much time to actually grow in intimacy with God.

I’ve learned so much about God’s heart in the past few years.  I know a lot of the right things to do, but it’s only in the times where God has fanned the flame of passion in my soul for him by showing me how much I need Him that I have trusted Him enough to make time for listening.

I realized that most of the time, I don’t have enough faith in His goodness to carve out 30 minutes to just sit and listen.  I don’t think He will show up.

If you had asked me if I believed God would always show up, I would have said yes.  Every.  Single.  Time.

BUT ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS.

And my actions were screaming at God that I had better things to do, too many things to do, and that I valued asking Him for things and telling Him my weaknesses more than waiting to hear His heart.

OUCH.

Realizing that there is more to experience, more intimacy to behold and wonder at and always more of God to fill my soul is only part of the equation.  I have to trust that He is always good and faithful, that He will show up when I make myself vulnerable, and then I have to come before Him.

I don’t want to devalue prayer and study, I believe both are crucial elements to becoming more like Christ.  They are also the ones we know how to do…the ones we feel comfortable with, and the ones that don’t necessarily take us to a deeper place because we don’t have to get vulnerable to talk to God, to ask Him for things, and to study His word.  Vulnerability is always rewarded by Him, He values open hearts.  But there’s also a concept that is largely lost to us, especially in our western culture where we fill our lives with busy-ness.  It almost feels wrong to leave a chunk of time on our schedules for nothingness.  For sitting still.

Hearing God is VITAL to having a relationship with Him.  You can’t have a relationship with someone if you don’t communicate.  You can’t communicate with someone if you are the only one talking.  God wants to be involved in our lives.  He desires intimacy, and He created us with a deep longing for it as well.  A longing that can only be filled by meeting with Him.

Here are three ways to hear God’s voice more clearly and to experience more intimacy with Him.

1. soaking in His presence

I like to picture us as sponges.  When we go about our day, we tend to get dried out.  What happens the longer a sponge is away from liquid?  It gets harder, drier, and rougher.  God created us with hearts that can grow harder and rougher and unyielding in order to show us the difference between life lived without His presence, and life lived with intentional times of soaking in Living Water.

Soaking is basically inviting God’s presence to hang out with you.  It’s taking the time to rest in Him.  Psalm 37:1 says “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him.”  You rest in His presence, and wait for Him.  It helps to have some worship music going, and if it’s hard to quiet your mind, pick a verse or chapter in the bible (Psalm 23 is a great one) and read it a few times.  Tell Him it’s hard, tell Him you want to rest in Him.  Make it a conversation, and when you get to the place where you can just lay or sit still, do it.  Ask Him to reveal His heart to you.  Just soak Him in.

2. meditating on His word

Meditation can sound like a really weird concept, but it’s actually a very old biblical practice.  Psalm 19:14, 63:6, 143:5, Luke 2:19, Philippians 4:8, and 2 Timothy 2:7 all talk about meditating on the Lord.  There are a few ways to do this.  You can go back through your journal and think on the things He has done in your life.  Make a list of the answered prayers and the unexpected ways He has shown up.  You can also make a list of the things that the Lord did throughout scripture.  Pick a book, go through the life of Jesus or read through Acts.  Lots of options here!

Then there’s my favorite:  Take one or two verses, and read them out loud.  Then read the verse or verses again and see what catches your eye.  Write the word or phrase that stands out in your journal.  The third time you read through it, stop at the part that stands out and ask the Lord if there’s something He wants to reveal to you.  Then write down what comes.

3. loving with the Father’s heart

The third way of hearing God is so fun.  God wants us to be filled with His love, and then to let that love overflow out of us onto everyone around us.  1 John 4:19 says “We love because He first loved us.”  God is the source of our love.  When we come to know that love more and more, it’s effortless to love others.  When we try to love others without understanding how much God really loves us, it’s hard.  It’s important to understand who we are in Christ.  We are chosen and precious!  His children that He lavishes His love and grace on, who own everything and are heirs to His kingdom.  This is a big deal! (1 John 3:1)

So when we are around other people, and we are intentionally desiring to love them, we can be intentional about hearing God as well.  God wants to reveal His heart for others.  He will use the senses He gave us to communicate with us.  It is His desire that everyone on this earth be saved and to know His love.  We are the body of Christ, and we are here with a mission.  To love!  So a fun way to practice loving others and hearing God is to ask God to show you His heart for someone.  You may find yourself overcome with compassion, or seeing a picture in your mind that can encourage someone.  God love to delight us.  He loves to bless us.  So live with the expectancy of this, because He always shows up!

Always remember that the things He shares with us will always, without fail, line up with His character and with the Word of God.

There’s no way I could talk about every way to hear God, and trying to do so would be putting Him in a box.  The bottom line is that God is always speaking to us!  He can’t be defined or put in a box.    

Practicing these things feels counter-cultural.  Our flesh won’t like it, and it may feel like a struggle sometimes.  That’s a good thing, though, because a life led by the Spirit never lines up with our flesh.  Our flesh is always warring with our spirits.  We need to seek intimacy with God and to hear His voice in order to overcome daily struggles.  Be encouraged, you can hear God, and His love for you is never-ending.  You are cherished!

I can tell you through my own experience that God has never failed to show up.  I’ve come to trust Him, bit by bit, because He always gives me more than I am asking for.  It’s not always what I want, but it’s always what I need.  He is a good, good Father, and He waits patiently for us to come to Him.  Because He won’t force Himself on us, He waits for us.  But He is always pursuing, loving, and looking out for us while He waits, and the invitation is always there to come.

prayer

Father in heaven, I want to hear you.  I long for it, God!  Lead me to your refreshing waters.  Father, I pray that you would enlighten the eyes of my heart.  Take me to a deeper place of intimacy with you.  You are good, and I trust you.  Help me to love others with your love, reveal your heart to me.  Thank you for the love you continually lavish on me!  AMEN.