In my last blog I talked about how to hear the voice of God and how our identity and what we think of God affects that. Like I said before, before the race I can’t say that I ever heard a clear voice from the Lord. I learned that there are things that can literally block us from hearing Him.
The ‘poverty mindset’ : we think that God’s voice is a scarce resource and we need to use it sparingly because it may run out if we use it too much. Or we’re afraid that we won’t hear anything or if we do we might make a mistake in hearing it and after that we won’t hear Him anymore.
I used to think that God was speaking to everyone else but me and that’s just how it was. There was no changing that. This stopped me from ever actually approaching Him and really listening to what He was saying.
We need to replace that mindset with God’s generosity and abundance. He doesn’t just give a little, He gives everything. The speaker at our conference last week said, “God is good and generous with His gifts. There is so much to go around, and we can all join in. We can joyfully anticipate it.”
Rationality: we lean too much on our own understanding. An overemphasis on reason will hinder us and we think “can that be God?”. Not to say that there is anything wrong with rationalism… Until it hinders us from hearing the Lord. Rationalism causes us to dismiss God’s voice the moment it appears because it doesn’t make sense to us. Hearing God is spiritual, not logical
We need to respond to those revelations with our spirits rather than our minds and rely more on faith than our own logic. We should choose a mindset of openness to whatever the Holy Spirit brings us.
Fear: this can be such a loud voice in our minds that it makes it impossible to hear God.
“What if I hear something and I don’t like it?”
“What if I get it wrong?”
“What if I hear something I don’t understand?”
“What if I’m being deceived by myself of the enemy?”
When I do hear from God and those lies start to creep into my mind I try to remind myself that if what I’m hearing correlates to the character of God… It’s Him. If what I’m hearing doesn’t align with His character… It’s not Him.
We need to change our minds and stop making agreements with fear. Instead, we need to cultivate peace and take on a new way of thinking. Repent and believe.
Hearing God’s voice isn’t an activity, but an expression of who God is. He’s a father who wants to speak to us and tell us great things. God isn’t silent and doesn’t play favorites with us.
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27
