There is a teaching abroad that Jesus died, rose from the dead, went to heaven, and left us with a book. Get on with it. Many sincere, born-again people have been told the only safe way God speaks is through printed pages, and that it is dangerous to try to hear Him any other way. I agree it is dangerous to try to hear from God. The very Bible they claim to follow says we must. You cannot be Bible-believing if you do not believe in a God who speaks. You cannot be Bible-believing if you refuse prophecy. You cannot be Bible-believing if you refuse healing. God is a speaking God, and He loves to speak to His children.
As written in Hebrews 3:15, “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” Every time the Holy Spirit speaks and you obey, the heart grows softer and His voice becomes clearer in your hearing. Every time you ignore the voice of Him who speaks, the heart grows a little harder. You do not lose your salvation, but you lose sensitivity. The danger of a hard heart is that you do not notice it. It happens piece by piece. The terrifying place is when a heart grows so hard you no longer hear Him calling you to repentance and you still think you are doing well. We do not want to be those people.
The same principle works in the opposite direction. Satan plants a thought. If you entertain it, it grows. Most sin begins with a thought. Eve saw that the tree was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise. One word spoken over a young man years ago sat in his heart until it shaped a whole lifestyle he had never imagined. Be careful whom you allow to speak over your life. Judge prophecy. Do it in the light where it can be tested. God can speak one word that grows and changes a life. It is vital we learn to hear Him.
If we cannot hear from God we are dangerous. When a nation is invaded, the first target is the communications center. Cut the line and the people no longer know what is happening. A church that cannot hear lives on what God did ten years ago, devouring one another, lost as a goose in a snowstorm. Sincere people love God and still have no clue what He wants them to do. They are going to heaven. Amen. God also has work for them to do. He wants to guide us in the small things as well as the large. Nothing is too small. You will never come to Him with a decision and hear Him say He is too busy running the universe. He once asked if He could come shoe shopping. He is interested in souls, and the feet that carry good news matter to Him. He wants involved in little things and in big things. He does not want us living in a quagmire of confusion, doubt, and fear. That is where the majority of Christians live. There should be a confidence in us. I do not want to spend my life searching for the will of God. I want to spend my life doing the will of God.
Spiritual Things, Not Personal Possessions
As written in 1 Corinthians 12:1, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant.” The word “gifts” is italicized in many English Bibles because it is not in the original. Paul is speaking about spiritual things. We have wrapped ourselves around the English word “gift” until we treat the things of the Spirit like personal possessions. My gift. Your gift. Who is more gifted. The Lord spoke to me years ago: do not teach people to operate in the gifts; teach people to be spiritual. We do not need people who are good at gifts. We need spiritual people.
The whole letter of 1 Corinthians contrasts carnal Christians with spiritual Christians. The natural mind does not receive the things of the Spirit of God; they are foolishness to him. He who is spiritual discerns all things. We have the mind of Christ. Carnal simply means fleshly. So much of the body of Christ allows rational, natural thinking to dominate how we relate to God. God is not rational. God is wise. You cannot work Him out with the intellect. The only time He invites us to reason together is when we are in sin. He can speak one word to a child that cuts across every clever argument. You will not hear from God with the intellect. You hear from God with your spirit.
Chapter 13 sits in the middle of that same teaching. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I have become sounding brass. He did not say do not speak in tongues. He said do it with love. If I have faith that moves mountains and have not love, I am nothing. He did not say do not have faith. Have faith with love. If I give all my goods to feed the poor and have not love, it profits me nothing. Do not give so you can be seen. Do it from the heart of love. If I have all revelation and have not love, I am nothing. He is not telling us to stop hearing from God. He is telling us to hear with love.
You Are Already in the Spirit
As written in Romans 8:9, “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.” There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. Those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To be carnally minded is death. To be spiritually minded is life and peace. The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
You are not in the flesh. You are in the Spirit. You do not feel it. That is all right. You are in the Spirit. You do not get in and out. He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. When you woke, you were in the Spirit. While you slept, you were in the Spirit. We lose our awareness. The soul gets wrapped up in food, children, travel, and noise. You remain in the Spirit. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. The work is not to climb into the Spirit. The work is to walk as one who is already there. Walk worthy of the One who called you. The King of heaven has called you worthy. Walk like it.
As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
Walk With Him, Be Led by Him, Speak for Him
God wants to speak to you devotionally. He wants to say I love you. I am with you. He wants to walk and talk about ordinary things. He wants to correct you. Those He loves He rebukes. If you think you have a relationship in which He never pulls your ear, that is not Him. Most believers live with a vague sense that God is a little disappointed. If there is sin, repent and get it under the blood. Then walk and talk with Him. Hearing is not a technique. It is a relationship.
How does a child learn the voice of a parent? Not by conference or book. The child is bathed in the voice day after day until the voice is known and the child is at ease in the presence. We were created by a Father who loves us. The spirit of adoption cries Abba. Being led by the Spirit is linked to sonship. Start talking with God. Hear Him say I love you. Learn what He sounds like and what He does not sound like. Most Christians have lived at such a distance they confuse Satan for God and themselves for God. Walk and talk all day. He is always available. He is never rushed. When you say, Father, I love You, He will say I love you too.
God also wants to guide you through life. Practice in the small things. Ask Him what the day holds. Ask who will be in the room with a need. You will get it right sometimes and you will get it wrong sometimes. When most of us get it wrong we back off and decide we are not good at this. A child learning to walk takes a step, then another, then falls on its face. Learn to be led before you try to lead others. Hear for yourself in the things that will not wreck a life if you miss them. If you feel you should pay for the coffee of the person behind you, they receive free coffee either way. Be willing and obedient. God will even bless mistakes. I once approached a man in a restaurant with a name that was not his. He told me I was not very good at it. Then he sat down and asked about my God, and I led him to Jesus.
Prove the word in small ways and it will grow. A farmer on the border could not hear because money and fear filled his soul. He asked me to inquire because I had no stake in the outcome. The Lord said offer twenty percent of the land and ask three times the money. The company hung up, came back, hung up again, and at last gave him what he asked. Start in the empty parking lot, not on the motorway in rush hour.
God also wants to use you to speak to other people. Sometimes a stranger carries a word no one inside the situation can hear. A businessman in Ireland had dreamed the same dream every night for a week. The word laid out the dream and a church was born. Prove the word of the Lord first in your own life.
Four Keys That Open the Ear
As written in 1 Corinthians 13:9–12, “For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away… For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.”
God speaks to faith. Satan speaks to fear. If you want to hear the Lord, get in faith. Read the Word. That is His voice. Your inheritance is voice-activated. Do not come in doubt. David lost wives, children, and goods. His own men spoke of stoning him. He strengthened himself in the Lord, then he inquired of the Lord. If you are miserable, do not inquire first. Get your soul out of the smoke. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Why are you downcast? Hope in God. Come into His presence until His goodness is larger than the calamity, then ask.
We need humility. God gives grace to the humble and resists the proud. The ones who announce they never miss it are not safe. Come saying, Lord, I know I can miss it, but I want to grow. He gives grace.
Obedience is essential. If He speaks and you do nothing, or you enter pride, He will eventually stop speaking. He is looking for people who say yes. If He tells you to give, give. If you refuse two or three times, He will tell someone else.
We know in part. We see through a glass darkly. He does not tell you everything. I once asked about a condition a child was said to have. The Lord said the child did not have that condition. The word was true. I had not asked for the life of the child. We bake that limitation in. We put away childish thinking, childish understanding, and childish speaking. Put away is a strong word. Divorce yourself from it.
The measure to which you see His face now will determine how much you hear His voice now. Aaron and Miriam complained that they also heard from God. The Lord said He spoke to them in dreams and dark sayings. With Moses He spoke face to face. Seek His face. Do not seek to be an impressive prophetic voice. Seek the face of Jesus. When the Spirit is poured out He no longer hides His face. In every outpouring there is a revelation of His face. The more you look at Him, the louder His voice becomes, and the more you will see His hand move. Do not look for the hand. Look at the face.
Let us be spiritual people, not carnal people. Let us not lean on our own understanding. In all our ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct our paths. Let this people be known for hearing because they love people. Let love abound more and more.
Selah.
Scriptures for Study: Hebrews 3:15, 1 Corinthians 12:1, 1 Corinthians 2:9-16, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, Romans 8:1-17, Galatians 5:25, 1 Corinthians 6:17, Psalm 34:8, Romans 10:13, John 10:27, Proverbs 3:5-6, Numbers 12:6-8, Psalm 27:8, Ezekiel 39:29, 1 Samuel 30:6-8, Psalm 42:5, Luke 18:1-8, Romans 8:14-16, 1 John 4:1, Acts 2:17, Isaiah 30:21, John 16:13, Revelation 3:20, James 4:6, Psalm 103:1-2
10 Questions for Reflection:
- Where have you accepted the idea that God no longer speaks except from the printed page?
- What happens in your heart when you obey the next small prompting?
- What thought have you allowed to sit and grow that did not come from the Father?
- How would your days change if you believed nothing is too small for Him?
- In what ways has a carnal, rational mind been allowed to dominate your relating to God?
- What would it look like to walk as one who is already in the Spirit rather than trying to get there?
- How constant is your walking and talking with the Father compared with a long-distance sense of Him?
- Where have you practiced hearing in the small things, and where have you jumped to the motorway?
- When you last inquired of the Lord, were you standing in faith or still sitting in the smoke of circumstance?
- How much time do you spend looking at His face rather than asking for His hand?
