How do I know whether it’s the Lord speaking or my own thoughts when I ponder my open Bible? There are times when it’s obvious that He is speaking in my morning times:
- Sometimes when I get a fresh, wonderful insight into an overly familiar passage.
- Sometimes there’s an overflow of words and I am excited to get them all down on paper.
- Sometimes I am barely thinking of the passage and a whole page’s worth of a message is suddenly imprinted on my consciousness based on the passage. And if I stay in the moment, it will remain burned into my consciousness for hours, and will effortlessly come back to mind over the next several days, whenever I recall it.
- Sometimes when reading the passage, a lone verse jumps out. It makes me pause, and then I see it’s the Lord is answering a question I had posed earlier, maybe even years earlier, but now I’m at the right stage of life to receive it. If the emphasis happens again and again with different passages over days, He is adding to a teaching begun earlier, or He’s telling me what part of my life He’s working on.
In plenty of other cases, I read the word and get very little that’s inspiring.
He also guides me after the morning time, as I go through life.
- “Go through life” includes occasional times of waiting on Him, in which I may get specific leadings of what to do, or receive a message that clarifies or makes plain a passage I had been studying earlier, or that continues a topic I wanted to know more about.
- I deliberately go into conversations when meeting with someone with the awareness that the Lord may want to use me to edify the listener. I may receive a message of what to tell somebody, which then shapes an hour of conversation between that person and I, where beforehand I had no idea what I should say. This can happen frequently during my one-on-one Care ministry.
- During a live prayer time with others, I may receive a prophetic prayer for the person or group.
- Away from home, I may receive definite words spoken in my head in real time of where to go (which may result in a spiritual encounter), or receive a “sense” (not words), to turn around and make a U-turn to go to another location.
- If I’m anxious, the Spirit may call to mind something of the Lord, and that calms me and draws my attention back to rest in Him. He is in charge. Jesus is sufficient.
If you think this life cannot be for you, I remind you of the Lord’s words, that God sends the rain on the good and the evil, and makes the sun shine on the just and the unjust. In other words, He does good to all with the mercy of God. I was not exactly a saint when the Lord began showering me with His word and direction. Many people, who are not exactly spiritual, will claim to be inspired by this or that. That is the grace of God, that He is willing to bless us despite our dubious merits or grave lack of them. The wisdom of God is like a woman calling in the marketplace to any who will listen (Prov. 1:20-23). In the public marketplace, not necessarily the Jewish temple as in King Solomon’s day when this was written, or synagogues hundreds of years later, or church gatherings nowadays. God speaks where the people are.
The Lord God isn’t required to speak to this child, but as my heavenly Father, He delights to do so. He is willing to speak to whomever in the spiritual spectrum wants to do His will (John 7:17), and who deliberately presents himself to the Lord as His tool to use in His kingdom, saying, “Here am I, use me” (Isa. 6:8).
The above snippets of hearing God include patterns that have been repeated throughout the decades in my life. Paying attention to these patterns helped me get a sense of how the Lord wants to work in my particular life and turns on my listening ear. Because I am a writer, I get many ideas for writing from Him. I teach kids on Sundays, so the Lord gives me full message downloads for them (though it is my responsibility to edit it to fit the time slot for the kids). I also meet with people through the week and am conscious the Lord may use me to encourage or build up the person I’m conversing with, and I need to be surrendered and “listening” for that.
This article thus far has not been a primer on how to hear the Lord’s voice. To hear Him speak to you, open the Bible and read with a heart willing to hear and obey. Pray as Samuel did, “Speak Lord, Your servant is listening” (1 Sam. 3:9). Go on YouTube and search how to do a home Bible study and get your minds engaged with the biblical text. Just about any study method can extend the time spent with His word, and extend the opportunity for the Lord to speak to you throughout the process.
Hearing His word begins with reading His word. You engage with the text and God sees what you do with what He already has said in His book. If you are continually unresponsive to it, why should He speak to you out of the blue apart from His word? Respond in faith in His word and act on it. This is the training to hear and act (Isah 50:4).
A response of willingness, of obedience, of faith, of gratefulness, and that indefinable something that tells you that God is listening and watching and you are interacting with Him—all this can make a difference in hearing His voice no matter where you are.
One more thing. I hear His voice—and I’m deaf. (I can’t wrap my head around it, either.) He’s not using my physical ears to reach me. I suppose He is communicating through my human spirit, though I can’t be dogmatic about this. Most of what I receive is coming through my mind. I once wrote an entire book of devotionals very quickly, 220 devotionals in the gospel of Mark, through all sixteen chapters (called Steps of a Disciple). I thought it was because I was getting better as a writer, but it was something else. It was His grace. I had positioned myself in the place to receive—humbly before His word—and the Holy Spirit taught this poor sinner who wanted to know Him more.
You don’t have to be a writer to receive. If you are serving the Lord in any other capacity, then the word will instruct you how to serve Him acceptably with godly fear (Heb. 12:28) so that Jesus is glorified, not you. You may be missing hearing, seeing, speaking, or walking ability, and yet the Lord will teach the humble His way (Psa. 25:9).
