Hearing from God is one of the most remarkable things in the world. It is not the only thing. Yet if unbelief has a weak place, hearing Him will go straight through it. It does not take long. One word from the Lord can be incredibly life changing.
Right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, in John chapter 1, there is a man called Nathanael. He is a really honest, integral man. Jesus comes to Nathanael and says He saw him under the fig tree. This human being is blown away. Where did You see me? One word cut through the obstacles and the cultural objections. It is a wonderful opening.
*Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” (John 1:48, NKJV)*
**One Word Can Unlock a Life**
I have experienced this many, many times. One word can blow through all of the obstacles. I remember preaching in a church where I did not feel I had a high message. I was drawn to a lady in the congregation. I thought, I have to give her a word. I came to her, standing there, and I gave this word, and I was embarrassed. The word I gave her was, everything is going to be okay.
I felt really foolish. Everything is going to be okay. That is not usually a powerful-sounding word. As soon as I said it, this lady, and then people all over the church, began cheering and praising God. I stood there not knowing why. Eventually the pastor came up and explained what God and that lady and everybody in the room knew, and I did not. The next day she was going in for an operation. It was apparently fifty-fifty whether she would live. I knew nothing of that. I only had that small word.
There are major themes and directional things that God has for our lives. We can miss them if we do nothing. Years ago the Lord spoke to me when I lived in Paris, France. He told me to get on a plane the next week. I ended up meeting a house church leader at a gas station. He opened churches to me. That word became a springboard into the next season of my life. You need to hear.
I think most Christians who have been around the Lord for any length of time will get that technically. They will know that. Most of us want to hear. I would say the struggle comes in how. A lot of people sit in this place and never become sure. Is it God? Is it me? Am I hearing? That is where most people live.
*My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. (John 10:27, NKJV)*
**The Shallow End and the Low Bar**
I find another category, particularly among some charismatic circles. People think they hear from God at one hundred percent accuracy, yet they only ever swim in the kiddie pool. They stay at a very low level. When I ask them what this man said, or what this lady said, it is always so low and so generic. God is transitioning you. You are moving into a new season. Relax. Change is coming. Love is opening a door. A door is closing.
That is fine. It is never not true for anybody. Everybody is going through transition. Everybody has a door opening in the mind. I could go to anybody in any church, point at them, and say you have been through trauma in your life. Because everybody has. My point is this. We set the bar so low it is true we will never fail. We can prophesy one hundred percent of the time if the word can never be wrong.
If you can never get it wrong, you can never really get it right in the way that matters. If we are not taking a risk when we hear from God, then we are not risking anything, and nobody will be convinced that we are actually hearing. We have to move forward in our hearing.
*For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV)*
**Samuel Thought It Was Eli**
I want to give you this one key. It must become key to us when the voice is confusing. Samuel kept mistaking the voice of God for something natural, something normal, something familiar. He took the voice of God as the voice of Eli, the man he worked for every day.
When God says to Samuel, Samuel, Samuel, the boy runs to Eli. It is not the same. No, Samuel, it is Me. It is not the old man. Let him go back to his floor in his unbelief and his journey. It is only when Samuel takes a step. It is only when Samuel says, Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears.
*Then the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel answered, “Speak, for Your servant hears.” (1 Samuel 3:10, NKJV)*
Grasp this. God speaks to faith. If you come before the Lord every morning and say, Lord, I want You to speak to me, and I am going to believe that I hear. I am not going to believe this is me. I am not going to believe it is my own mind. I am actually going to believe that You are speaking to me. At that point you can begin to walk in your faith. Everything else follows.
I do not exaggerate. Thousands of times, nearly every time in the worship, I am asking the Lord. If I am about to leave the service, or I am about to get up and preach, I ask the same thing. What do You want to do? I do not want everybody to sit around and be untouched. Who is in the right place at the right time? Give me a word that will unlock something in this meeting.
Those things do not usually come to me like a booming voice. To be fair, it is not, there is a person here with a drainage issue in her left ear, or a broken molar on the lower left. It is a tiny little thought. It is not even a whisper. It is a whisk. It is almost nothing in how small it feels. A tiny little impression.
**A Tiny Thought and a Loud Doubt**
If you are in shape spiritually, you will hear those things. If you are in sight, you will say them. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will direct your paths. I have known this, and it is a great help. Every time God speaks to you about something specific, something accurate, something you can get wrong, something you will have to do, He speaks to you in a tiny voice. It will usually be followed by a great, big, loud doubt.
*In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:6, NKJV)*
The second voice will immediately go, that is not Him. That is you. Doubt, doubt. You think it is. What I have learned to do is actually doubt my doubts. Doubt is the unbelief that develops in your negative mind. Doubt your doubt. Come back into faith and believe. You will see it again and again, thought breaking through.
I am a shy person, actually. I have a stubborn streak in me. If I think I have heard God, I mean to give the word even if nobody responds. I stay with it. Stay with it. Stay with me. There is a time where you have to move on. I will not give up easily. I have learned that different responses come eventually. Often they come at the end of the meeting.
I was once in a church in Ireland, in a town I will not name. I ended up giving a word. Nobody responded. Another one. Nobody responded. About six or seven words, and not one person responded. I sat down feeling really depressed, feeling like I had made a mess. Then, at the end of the service, people stood and filed toward the door. Nearly the first six people who came to me were the person with this, and the person with that. What those people missed in the moment is that the congregation needed the lift of faith that happens when somebody responds, gets healed, and the room hears God moving.
The Bible shows us again and again that hearing from God and acting on what you hear is how faith becomes visible. People will sit through a meeting and never risk the small word. Then they wonder why they never grow past generic encouragement.
**Speak, Lord, Your Servant Hears**
I want you to try to hear Him some time every day. This is a little key. It is just one. Come like Samuel did. What I hear is actually God. It is not Satan. It is not a coincidence. By faith I shut down those other voices. I open myself up to You.
The bottom line is this. God speaks to your faith. Your doubts speak as well. Be wise. Check what you hear against the Word. Love people enough not to use a word as a stick. Do not stay in the kiddie pool because it feels safe. Safety is not the call. Following Him is the call.
Simply put, the voice of God is often smaller than the voice of fear. I am convinced that if we will come each day and say, Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears, He will. He already wants to. The struggle is not that Heaven is silent. The struggle is that we keep running to Eli when the voice in the night is the Lord.
Let me challenge you. Practice. Ask. Stay with the small thought long enough to test it. Doubt your doubt. Risk a specific word when He gives one. Keep the Scriptures open so you are not inventing a voice. Press into the relationship. Draw near. He still speaks to those who will believe He is speaking.
***Selah***
**Scriptures for Study**
1 Samuel 3:1-10, 1 Samuel 3:19-21, John 1:45-51, John 10:3-5, John 10:27, Proverbs 3:5-6, Isaiah 30:21, Isaiah 55:3, Psalm 32:8, Psalm 46:10, Psalm 85:8, Jeremiah 33:3, Habakkuk 2:1-3, Matthew 4:4, Matthew 10:27, Mark 4:24, Luke 8:18, Acts 8:29, Acts 13:2, Romans 10:17, 1 Corinthians 14:1-3, 1 Corinthians 14:29-33, 2 Timothy 1:7, Hebrews 3:7-8, Hebrews 5:14, Revelation 2:7.
**10 Questions for Reflection**
1. When a small impression comes, do you treat it as God or as yourself before you have even tested it?
2. Where have you set the bar so low that a word can never be wrong and therefore never be useful?
3. What generic phrases have you accepted as prophecy that would be true of almost anyone?
4. How would your mornings change if you came like Samuel and said, Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears?
5. What loud doubt usually follows the tiny thought, and have you ever chosen to doubt that doubt?
6. Is there a directional word you once received, like a plane to catch, that you still need to obey?
7. How do you weigh a word against Scripture without using caution as an excuse never to risk?
8. When nobody responds to a word, do you collapse into shame or stay available until the end?
9. Who in your life needs a specific word of comfort, not a safe sentence that cannot fail?
10. What would it look like to practice hearing God every day without turning it into a performance?
