Hearing the Voice of God

by Richard Roberts

Is hearing the voice of God sort of like tuning in to a certain radio frequency so you can listen to your favorite disc jockey? Or is it just a shot in the dark, a hit-and-miss thing?

People have always been fascinated by the idea of hearing the voice of God. And many people have heard God's voice.

Abraham heard the voice of God telling him to leave his own country and go to a place that God would show him (Genesis 12:1).

Joshua heard the voice of God telling him to lead His people into the Promised Land (Joshua 1:2,3).

Gideon heard the voice of God through an angel, calling him a mighty man of valor (Judges 6:11,12).

Samuel heard the voice of God, when he was a child, calling his name (I Samuel 3:10).

Mary, the mother of Jesus, heard the voice of God through an angel, telling her that she was going to give birth to the Son of God (Luke 1:31).

John heard the voice of God through the sound of a trumpet, saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last (Revelation 1:10,11).

Many people have heard the voice of God in many different ways—through the sound of a trumpet. through angels. through His still. small voice . And once He even spoke to a man named Balaam through a donkey! (Numbers 22:28-31).

God is not limited in how He can speak to us. And if He spoke to the people that I've just told you about, then He's still speaking to men and women today. Why do I say that? Because Hebrews 13:8 says He's the same yesterday, today, and forever!

Let me give you some examples of the ways God can speak to us.

Three ways you can hear the voice of God.

1. You can hear the still, small voice of God speaking in your spirit.

In I Kings 19 Elijah was being hunted down by Queen Jezebel, the wicked queen of Israel. She had put a bounty on his head, and she was going to have him executed. Elijah desperately needed to hear the voice of God, telling him how to get out of that mess.

Now Elijah was expecting to hear from God in some big, dramatic way, and God gave him some pretty dramatic special effects, all right. First, a tornado came roaring by, but the Lord wasn't in the wind. Then an earthquake shook the ground under his feet, but God wasn't in the earthquake. Next there was a roaring fire, but God wasn't in the fire either.

Then Elijah heard a little, quiet voice speaking in his spirit. It was God speaking to him, telling him which way to go. It didn't happen exactly the way Elijah thought it would, but he heard the voice of God.

How I heard the still, small voice of God.

I remember some years ago when I heard the still, small voice of God speaking to me in the middle of an earthquake. Lindsay and I and our three girls were asleep in a hotel room in California when the room began to shake violently. It was an earthquake that measured 7.4 on the Richter scale.

As we staggered out of bed, the lamps were crashing to the floor. Pictures were falling off the walls, while the building swayed back and forth.

I had never experienced a strong earthquake before, and all at once, I realized how quickly my whole family could be swept away from me.

Then Lindsay and I began to pray, and I heard the still, small voice of God speaking in my spirit. He said to me, "I've given you the names of forty nations where I am sending you to preach, and you've only been to seven. You're not going to die in an earthquake."

All of a sudden, the shaking stopped. The hotel didn't cave in that morning. And I learned an important lesson from the Lord. I learned that you can hear the voice of God speaking quietly in your spirit, even when everything around you seems to be shaking to pieces!

2. You can hear the voice of God through a dream or a vision.

And your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.

—Acts 2:17 kjv

In Genesis 37 God spoke to a teenager named Joseph through a dream. Actually, the Lord gave him two dreams, and both of them revealed God's plan for his future.

In the dreams God used symbols to tell Joseph that someday his brothers, and also his mother and father, were going to bow down to him. Then Joseph learned the hard way that sometimes it's better to keep your mouth shut than it is to tell everybody else what God has said to you!

When his brothers heard about his dreams, they were furious. They sold him into slavery in Egypt, and it began to look like Joseph's dreams were really just hallucinations.

But if Joseph hadn't told his brothers about his dreams, he might not have wound up in Egypt at all. And that's where he needed to be so his dreams could be fulfilled.

That, tells me that. God can even use our mistakes to get us into the position He needs us to be in so our dreams can be fulfilled. So don't grieve over you r mistakes. Trust God to turn them into miracles . And remember, God can still speak to you and me today through dreams and visions!

3. You can hear the voice of God through His Word.

I believe the most important way we can hear God's voice is through His Word . And if you're asking yourself, How can I know if this is really God speaking to me? You can pick up your Bible and begin to read His Word. You see, God speaks like He writes and He writes like He speaks. His voice and His written Word will always line up.

The disciples heard the voice of God speaking through the words of Jesus. One day they were getting ready to take a little boat ride, and Jesus told them, Let us go over to the other side [of the lake] (Mark 4:35 amp). But apparently they didn't hear Him, or they forgot what He said, or they didn't really believe Him in the first place.

Why do I say that? When the disciples got into a little turbulence out in the middle of the lake— when they got into a holding pattern due to the weather—they panicked!

It was just a storm. It was just an attack of the devil. Didn't they know that satan likes to send storms and obstacles and roadblocks when we set out on a journey for Jesus?

As soon as the trouble struck, they forgot all about what God had said to them through the words of Jesus. They forgot that the Lord had told them, "We're going over to the other side."

And isn't that the way it happens to us? Trouble strikes, and we forget what God said to us in His Word. We've heard the voice of God saying to us, "You're not going under. You're going over!"

But the trouble looks so bad. The news is so awful. We're still in a state of shock from it.

Thank God, we don't have to wait for a voice to thunder out from heaven to tell us what to do. We don't have to wait for a still, small voice to speak in our spirits. We don't have to wait for God to give us a dream or a vision.

Those are wonderful things, and God may speak to us that way. But we always have His Word, and His Word never fails!

Three things you can do to help you tune in to the voice of God.

1. Standing up for God’s Word can help you hear His voice.

In Joshua 1 a young man named Joshua heard the voice of God. The Lord called him to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land.

Was there anything special Joshua did to help him hear God's voice? I believe the most important thing he did was to stand up for God's Word.

In Numbers 13 Moses sent Joshua and 11 other men out on a spy mission to check out the Promised Land. Now they had already heard God's voice telling them that the land was theirs.

But when they saw a few giants—a few roadblocks, a few obstacles—10 of the spies started whining and crying that there was no way

they could take the land.

But God had already said they could take the land. And Joshua and Caleb decided to agree with what God said. They stood up for God's word, and they were the only ones out of the whole bunch who got to enter the Promised Land. And I believe that standing up for God's word also helped Joshua hear God's voice!

If we stand up for God's Word and declare that His Word is true, no matter what things look like, it can help us hear the voice of God!

2. Living strong for the Lord can help you hear God’s voice.

Can you imagine how Noah must have felt when he heard the voice of God warning him that He was going to destroy the whole earth in a flood (Genesis 6)? Then the Lord told Noah to build a big boat so he and his whole family could escape from the flood waters. Noah must have wondered what his neighbors were going to think when he started building the ark in his driveway. But he obeyed God anyway.

You see, Noah had decided to live for Go d in a world where nobody else seemed to care about the Lord. The people in his day probably thought he was crazy because he had taken such a strong stand for God.

But while they were all out partying, Noah heard the voice of the Lord. He prepared himself for what was coming on the earth. And he and his whole household, plus two of each of the animals on the earth at that time, were the only ones who were saved from the flood.

You don't have to be some big spiritual giant to hear the voice of God. You j ust have to make a decision like No ah did to live for God, no matter what. You have to do what the old gospel song says,

"I have decided to follow Jesus...

No turning back...

No turning back.... "

3. Having a strong prayer life can help you hear God’s voice.

The prophet Daniel heard the voice of God. I believe what helped Daniel hear God's voice was his strong prayer life. He got down on his knees and prayed three times a day, and when he really needed to hear from God, he prayed almost continuously.

In Daniel, chapter 2, King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream—a terrifying nightmare—and when he woke up, he was so upset that he couldn't even remember what the dream was about!

So he called for his wise men and magicians and demanded that they tell him not only what he had dreamed but also the interpretation . They were in such a state of shock when they heard his request that they exclaimed, "How can we tell you what the dream means unless you tell us what it was about?"

When King Nebuchadnezzar heard their answer, he blew up. He was so angry that, he sent out orders to have all the wise men in Babylon executed . Daniel and his friends were rounded up with all the other wise men and brought back to the palace to be killed.

When Daniel found out about the king's problem, he told him, "Your Majesty, just give me a little time, and I will tell you the dream and what it means." Then Daniel went back home and told his friends—his prayer partners—what was going on so they could pray with him about it.

That night Daniel heard the voice of God speaking to him in a vision. God told him what the king had dreamed, and He gave Daniel the interpretation.

But Daniel might not have heard God's voice if he hadn't had such a strong prayer life in the first place. He might not have recognized that it was the Lord speaking to him if he hadn't been in the habit of talking to God in prayer.

You see, I believe God speaks to everybody, whether they realize it or not. But I also believe that a strong prayer life can help us tune in to God's frequency so we can hear the voice of God more clearly!

How my prayer life has helped me hear God's voice.

Recently the Lord has brought a great change in my prayer life. Now I've always been a person who prays. But in recent months the Lord has dealt with me to get up earlier than I normally do and get flat on my face on the carpet and seek Him in prayer. That is something I had not done before!

I don't think the position itself was the important thing. But I really believe God was trying to get my attention. And He did!

There's just, something about humbling yourself before the Lord when you're lying flat on your face on the carpet in prayer. If you want God to be close to you, you have to get close to Him. That's what I've been doing, and God has been transforming my life and helping me hear His voice.

As I began to seek the Lord in prayer, He spoke to me about how to handle my problems according to His Word. You see, when I first became President of Oral Roberts University, I took on over $54 million of debt, and it seemed like all I could focus on were the debt, the problems, and the lack.

Then a fresh baptism of the joy of the Lord came into my life, and I stopped focusing on all the things I needed. God dealt with me about the Scripture in Matthew 6:33 that says, Seek first_ the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things [that you need] shall be added to you.

For a long period of time, the joy of the Lord sustained me. But somehow, as I began to deal with this problem and that problem, I got distracted again by all the problems, and the darkness started getting darker. I lost the joy of the Lord, and I got into fear and worry and stress.

I seemed to be getting more and more out of kilter until God spoke to me in my prayer time and reminded me again of the Scripture in Matthew 6:33. Then I heard His voice saying to me, "Stop talking to Me about money, and start talking to money about Me."

God began to deal with me about seeking Him first and focusing on Him instead of focusing on the needs. As I obeyed, guess what happened? Something changed! I changed! There's been a dramatic change in me, and the more I speak to the problems about the Lord, instead of talking to Him about the problems, the more those problems seem to fade away! And my prayer time with the Lord has helped me hear His voice!

Ways you can hear the voice of God.

1)    You can hear the voice of God speaking in your spirit.

2)    You can hear the voice of God through dreams and visions.

3)    You can hear the voice of God through your prayer life—and by praying in the Spirit with the interpretation. (If you haven't released your prayer language of the Holy Spirit, you can call the Abundant Life Prayer Group at 918495-7777 and let one of our prayer partners pray with you.)

4)    You can hear the voice of God through His Word.

5)    God is not limited in how He can speak to you. But the important thing is to confirm everything He says through His Word.

My prayer for you...

I want to pray for you right now, for you to hear God's voice:

Lord, You told us in Jeremiah 29:13 that if we seek You with all of our hearts, we would find You. We’re seeking You, Lord. We’re looking to You, God, because we need to hear from You. We want to hear Your voice.

God, we thank You for the intimacy we have with You as our Lord and Savior. But You’re also our Friend, and we’re Your friend. That means we can talk to You, and You can talk to us. We thank You for the privilege of hearing Your voice.

Now, friend, just open up your heart and receive what God has to say to you as He speaks by His Spirit. Open your listening ear and hear Him talking to you in your spirit. Then open up your Bible and begin to study His Word.

Let Him speak to you through His Word. And when you believe you hear His voice, let Him confirm what He's said to you through His Word...because His Spirit and His Word agree!

It's in Jesus' name that I pray. Amen.

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