We do not like subjectivity. We like objectivity. We like to be sure and certain. If we are going to move forward in hearing from God, we have to grab hold of the subjectivity of it. We have to embrace it.
Over the years I have come to the conclusion that there is a kind of inverse law around hearing from God. The people who really do hear from God well, accurately, at a high level, do not find their security in themselves. They do not tend to make absolute statements like, oh, I hear from God, I could never get it wrong, I am perfect at this. People who do this well usually come in low. They have the attitude, hey, I could be missing it. I think God is saying this.
The people who are amateurs at this, the people who do not get it, the people who usually make a mess in their own lives or the lives of others, tend to be those who speak in superlatives. Oh, I hear from God. I could never get it wrong. There is something really empowering about saying we have a perfect God who speaks perfectly. He never gets it wrong when He speaks. We are imperfect in our hearing.
**We Know in Part**
*For we know in part and we prophesy in part… For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.* (1 Corinthians 13:9, 12, NKJV)
Paul spoke about this in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14. Right in the middle of that teaching he says we know in part, we see in part, we see through a glass darkly. One day, in God’s heaven, in reality, we will see everything perfectly. Now we do not see perfectly. We see through a glass darkly.
I would love you to grasp this. If you can embrace that subjectivity, if you can come to the place where you can say, Lord, I have got this wrong in the past, I am probably going to get it wrong again in the future, but that is okay — the win is not my ability to do this perfectly. The win is my relationship with You.
**Circumstantial Insecurity and Relational Security**
*Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.”* (Genesis 12:1, NKJV)
I think God calls us to circumstantial insecurity and relational security. What most of us are looking for is circumstantial security. We want everything in our life to look perfect, to be risk-free, to be in a place where nothing could ever go wrong. I think, frankly, God calls us to circumstantial insecurity.
The Lord told Abraham to get out of the country, get out of the town, get out of his father’s house, where he was treated like royalty, where everything worked, where he knew how life was done. Come to a place. God did not even tell him where he was going. He said, come to a place that I will show you, and there I will bless you. There I will give you a name. There I will meet you. Abraham had to leave behind all of that circumstantial security. He was a known quantity among the Chaldeans. He knew the town. He went to a place where there was nothing secure in his circumstances. Instead, he found his security in God.
He got it wrong. He grew in that. I believe there is a growing in the unknowing. The word of the Lord did not give Abraham a finished map. It gave him a Person.
**Go On the Journey and Get It Wrong**
*Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.* (Isaiah 30:21, NKJV)
My challenge to you is this, and it will sound counterintuitive. Go on a journey of learning to hear from God and get it wrong. If you are never going to get it wrong, you are never going to get it right. What most of us do is we are so scared of getting it wrong that we never play this game. We never try.
If every day we would say, Lord, what are You saying? Who am I going to meet? Give me some specifics that are either right or wrong, but at least outside the realm of coincidence, outside the realm of happenstance — if we will embrace that journey, then God will meet us in it.
God’s call to you is to be circumstantially insecure and yet secure in the love that He has for you. The people who hear well do not wrap themselves in certainty. They wrap themselves in relationship. They can live with a dark glass because they know the Father on the other side of it.
**The First Word You Will Hear**
*The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.* (Romans 8:16, NKJV)
In a way, the greatest thing you can ever hear God say to you is the easiest thing you will ever hear God say to you. If we begin by looking up — figuratively speaking — and saying, Father, I love You, I think if you listen, you will hear the voice of your Father in your heart say, My son, My daughter, I love you too.
When you hear that, you are hearing the voice of God. If you will practice that, if you will become conversant, if you will become familiar with that little voice of your Father saying, My son, My child, I love you, after a while you will know that voice. That will be the same voice that says, turn left, turn right, do not go here, go speak to this person, do this, do not do that. It starts with you meeting Him in His love for you.
Simply put, hearing God does not begin with a map for your next ten years. It begins with a Father who speaks love over His own. The amateurs shout certainty. The ones who actually hear come in low. They know they see in part. They still listen.
Let me challenge you. Stop waiting for circumstantial security before you will risk a conversation with God. Leave the town where everything already works. Step into the place He will show you. Say it out loud: Father, I love You. Then listen for the answer that has been there since the beginning.
Selah
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**Scriptures for Study**
1 Corinthians 13:9, 1 Corinthians 13:12, 1 Corinthians 8:2, 1 Corinthians 14:29, Genesis 12:1–4, Genesis 15:1, Hebrews 11:8, Isaiah 30:21, Proverbs 3:5–6, Romans 8:14–16, Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6, John 10:3–5, John 10:27, 1 Samuel 3:9–10, 1 Kings 19:12, Psalm 32:8, Psalm 46:10, 1 John 3:1, 1 John 4:19, John 15:9, Zephaniah 3:17, Acts 16:6–10, James 1:5, Hebrews 5:14.
**10 Questions for Reflection**
1. Where have you demanded objectivity from God instead of embracing the dark glass of hearing in part?
2. Do you speak about hearing God in superlatives, or do you come in low and admit you could be missing it?
3. What would change if the win was no longer getting it perfect, but staying in relationship with Him?
4. Where are you still chasing circumstantial security rather than relational security in the Father?
5. What “Ur of the Chaldeans” would you have to leave to follow a God who says, come to a place I will show you?
6. How has fear of getting it wrong kept you from ever trying to hear?
7. What specific, testable word could you ask God for that sits outside coincidence?
8. When did you last hear, in your heart, My son, My daughter, I love you too — and did you receive it as His voice?
9. How would your decisions change if the voice that says I love you was also the voice that says turn left or turn right?
10. What practice will you put in place so that familiarity with His love becomes familiarity with His leading?
