DISCLAIMER: These are my current (why yes, I did bold, underline, AND italicize that word, thank you for noticing) beliefs/thoughts/experiences on this subject. I don’t claim to know everything, nor do I claim that I’m exactly right theologically here. PLEASE read the bible, pray, and decide for yourself!
A huge theme on my squad has been “hearing God’s voice.” How do we hear His voice? And if we do, how do we know it’s Him and not us?
Growing in this area was a high priority of mine coming into the World Race. And yeah, part of what I want to accomplish through this blog is to just send out my thoughts into the technological void, if only to process them once on the way out. How do you hear from God, Megan?
How do I hear from God?
Because I know I do, there have been so many instances in my life where looking back I can see where He was speaking. But I want to get better at knowing in the moment. Or, at least, closer to the moment instead of years later.
Deep breaths Megs, deep breaths. Here we go!
Hearing God for me is not an audible voice.
Oh Lord, how I have wished it was. To me it would seem so much the easier. However, I usually hear Him through my thoughts. This means that a thought will jump through my mind that isn’t mine. I even have conversations with Him, where I can pray and He answers. Some other ways I hear God are:
- Nature, whether I’m running, walking, or sitting still.
- People. I come to new revelations through conversations with others, or through hearing their stories.
- Scripture. We should always check what we hear God saying with scripture. Sometimes I hear Him through reading and sometimes I will randomly remember a verse.
- Journaling. As an external processor, journaling is a major way I hear from God. It helps me stay focused in my prayers, and helps me to remember what God has said in the past.
- Music. No matter if it’s classified as “Christian” music or not, I feel like God frequently speaks to me through lyrics.
- Repetition. I tend to get the same message several times from God, and I feel so loved when God repeats something that’s important to me, because, to me, it means He hears me.
- Pain. The late, great, C.S. Lewis once said “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” If you know my story at all, you know my relationship with grief and pain. I have heard God most clearly and deeply in times when I was most deeply hurting and chose to seek Him at that time, and enter into my pain rather than ignore it.
- Thanksgiving. Lately I have been thanking God for the minuscule things in life. And it has broadened my view of the beauty of this life and how God speaks in so many ways; large and small, grand and subtle.
Hearing God for me is not usually specific or future based.
In my life I have frequently made the proposition: “God, if you would only tell me what to do, I would do it!” To which I have always received the reply: “Then what would you need me for Megan?” Oh how that pierces me. God wants to walk through this life with me? I can hardly believe it. Such tender honey to a starving soul that just wants to be chosen.
If He handed me the roadmap of my life, I’ll rush ahead in my own strength and my own will instead of depending on Him, which defeats His purpose of relationship with me. Also, as my wise Squad Leader Carson said, “if I knew what was coming, I might not necessarily say yes to what He’s calling me to.” So that means, I don’t hear “Megan, for the next year you will do this or that, then you will meet this person, and that will happen to you so be ready…” etc. I get His daily bread, just enough for today, for this moment and this season of life.
Hearing God for me is personal, dynamic, and vulnerable.
Relationships are personal, or at least, the most important ones to us are. How I talk to my niece is different from how I talk to my sister which is different from my best friend which is different from a grocery store clerk. And even within the same relationship, is it ever formulaic? If all we ever did was have “a + b = c” conversations, relationships would pretty much suck the life out of me. They are diverse, fluid, and dynamic. He is constantly changing the way He speaks to me in order to keep me seeking more of Him and exploring His infiniteness and mysteriousness. Sometimes one manner in which I hear Him will start to feel really dry. That’s an indicator for me that I’ve become lackadaisical in our relationship, and I should seek Him in a new avenue.
The ways I experience Him are different from other people because our relationship is special and unique, and to covet or compare the ways He speaks to me is so damaging to our relationship, because it gives me the “grass is greener” mentality and says that what He has given me is not good enough.
Hearing God for me is not always words, and sometimes I don’t.
Some days, I just don’t hear anything. But it’s still beautiful to rest in His presence. That is still beneficial for my soul, and shows that I love Him by still seeking Him in obedience. He doesn’t always speak to me immediately either, and I just have to wait to hear Him. And sometimes, I just get feelings. No words, just peace. Joy. Love.
Our Squad Mentor Jeremy challenged us to ask other people how they hear from God, so please share with me your favorite ways you hear God! I’m currently looking for new ways to experience Him and learn about Him.
“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”
// Jeremiah 33:3 //
