In my desire to hear God’s voice, I’ve drawn help from several people and their journey.

God can speak to us anywhere and at any time, but it is important to establish a time and place with Him daily to pray, to read His word, to dialogue with Him. 

Let’s begin with Mark and Patti Virkler, the authors of Dialogue with God. Their book will give you many tips but here are four keys:

Stillness

Getting still is often the most difficult step in going before God.  Our minds are so active that it can be a challenge to turn our attention completely to God.  One tip in attaining stillness is to write down distracting thoughts. Instead of jumping up to get the laundry started, start a grocery list, text your friend, etc., write down those thoughts and set them aside. If other thoughts come in your time with the Lord, add them to the list and refuse to deal with them until later.   

Vision

In Joshua 1:5 God tells Joshua, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”  This promise repeats throughout the Bible.  So, when you set aside time to be with the Lord, think about Him and envision Him with you. 

Some people set another chair nearby and imagine Him sitting in it.  Others see Him walking along a path with them or riding with them in the car.  A mental picture helps keep our minds focused on Him.

Yeshua is always with us, wanting to have relationship and conversation with us.  The more we set our minds on His nearness, the more we get to know His heart.

Spontaneity

Here is another hurdle. Others say you need to:

• Read your Bible—a chapter or more a day
• Pray in tongues for an hour
• Pray for those on your prayer list
• Journal
• ETC.

All of these suggestions are good and beneficial. But our time with the Lord does not look the same every day. Paul wrote: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” (Galatians 5:1)  When you meet with your best friend, do you do the same things every time? Of course not.  Here are some options:

• Sing a song of praise or one completely focused on Him
• Read your Bible and converse with Him about what you are reading.
• Draw, paint, create something as you dialogue with Him
• Read another chapter out of a Christian book you are reading.
• Do what you felt led to do – pray and ask Him what He wants to do.

Journaling

We will take a whole post on this later, but I’ve found this to be one of the greatest keys for hearing God’s voice. Write out your prayers and your questions. Then write what you hear. He may not answer right away. It may be the next day or a week later. But it helps to have it written down.

A young man by the name of Eric Gilmour does a lot of teaching on YouTube about how to meet with God. One of his tips for redirecting your wandering mind is to choose one word that will draw your mind back to Yeshua. Say a word like “Holy,” or “Worthy,” or another word of your choosing that is all about Him.

Don’t get upset. You are training your mind and it takes practice. Just let this scripture remind you: Colossians 3:2 “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” Resetting your mind is a God thing.

Worship is a wonderful way to turn our eyes on Him completely.  When we enter into worship, He surrounds us and we forget about ourselves.  Our eyes then are for only Him. 

God’s word to us empowers us to do His will.  Make the decision not to move until you’ve heard from Him.

Getting Silent Before God

A.B. Tozer said, “Could there be anything more important than sitting before God in silence everyday?”

Zechariah 2:13 “Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for He is aroused from His holy habitation!”  — When we cease our activity, it ignites divine activity.

Habakkuk 2:20 “The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.”  The Lord silences, quiets, and stills everything when He is present.

Zephaniah 1:7 “Be silent in the presence of the Lord God; For the day of the Lord is at hand.”  Silence prepares our heart for the day of His return.  It is a foretaste of His coming.  On that day, He will have all our attention.  But we can give Him our attention now.

Find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed. Turn off your phone, your tablet, your music. Tell the Lord,

“I am putting aside all I want to think about, all I want to say or do.  I am giving You all my attention. Lord, I release everything to you.  You are the One I love.  You are the One I adore.”

Let your life be a constant retreat to a quiet place.  Collect your thoughts and set them aside.  Focus on Him alone. Repeat this practice throughout the day, even for a minute or two, wherever you are.

Madame Jeanne Guyon was born in 1648 and died in 1717. She was a French mystic and was accused of advocating ‘Quietism’–or we would say, spending time with God in a quiet place. They put her in prison from 1695 to 1703 after publishing the book, A Short and Very Easy Method of Prayer. She believed in the need to spend time in quiet with God and that He spoke to her. Today you can read her book entitled, Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ.

Madame Guyon said that the secret of experiencing God’s presence is to be like an infant nursing from its mother. The infant moves its mouth until the milk starts flowing, but stops and takes in the milk flow.  If the milk should pause, the infant moves its mouth again until the flow begins again.  Then it stops to receive.

Moving our mouth: Adoration and worship 

         ” I worship You. I give You glory. There is no one like You. How I long for You, Lord.”

When His Presence comes, we pause in stillness and enjoy it.

As a beginner, you may be waiting for an audible voice, but instead there may be a sentence that runs through your mind or a picture that you see on your internal screen. God communicates with us in a multitude of ways and He rarely speaks to us in an audible voice. Be alert to the variety of ways He can speak.

One of the main secrets to hearing God in the secret place is to make Him our focus.  We are not transformed if all we talk to Him about is our problems, our sins, or our needs.  Transformation in us occurs when we spend time adoring Him.  He wants to fill us with Himself. 

Philippians 4:13 says, “I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency.” AMP

“Lord, I can’t do anything without You. I need You Lord.”

God isn’t looking for the gifted but the broken and the empty who want to be filled.  For the one who realizes that they need Him. For the one willing to shut the door and be alone with Him and only Him.

Waiting upon God is an attitude of dependence.

Psalm 62:1 AMP “For God alone my soul waits in silence, from Him comes my salvation.” AMP

Ann Voskamp – In January 2, 2021, post: “Is Jesus merely useful to you or is He ultimately beautiful to you?  When Jesus is useful to me, I’m looking for a genie in a bottle, to give me the life I want.  When Jesus is beautiful to me, I’m looking for His face in my life, to give Him the love that I feel.”

We say, “I want more of You Lord.” And He says, “And I want more of you.”  In fact He told Ann,

“Tell them I’m waiting to be wanted.“

Michael Koulianos  is another minister you can find on YouTube. He doesn’t say to his family,  “I’m going to my prayer room.”  Instead he says, “I’m going to meet with Jesus, Jesus is waiting for me.”

I challenge you this week, to go to a quiet place and spend time with Him and hear what He has to say. He is waiting for you as well.

• He NEVER grows weary of our coming to Him
• He is ALWAYS 100% open to us
• If we are weary in going with our needs, He will give us rest.

That’s enough for this week. God bless you in your growing relationship with the great I AM.

Shalom ♥