If you are a believer in Jesus Christ and you’ve accepted Him as your Savior, then God’s desire is for you to communicate with Him all the time, about everything in your life. This doesn’t mean He expects you to spend every minute of the day on your knees in prayer, but He does want to have an ongoing conversation with you as you go about your day.
We can have this relationship with God because the Holy Spirit lives in us. In John 16:7 (AMPC), Jesus said the Holy Spirit comes “to be in close fellowship with you.” And John 14:26 says, “He will teach you all things.”
This means in Christ, we have the ability to hear God’s voice.
Getting the Right Atmosphere
If we really want to hear from God, we have to make lifestyle changes that create an atmosphere for Him to speak. “Atmosphere” can be defined as the climate, environment or the predominant mood around you. Have you ever noticed that you feel moods around you, like tension or strife?
Atmospheres are created by our attitudes. And there are some important attitudes we need to choose in our relationship with God that will make us sensitive to His voice.
An Attitude of Listening
When I’m talking with someone, if I can tell they aren’t listening to me, I stop talking. In the same way, God speaks to those who will listen to Him.
We have to guard ourselves against a mentality of only listening for His voice when we’re desperate for a word of wisdom or need help in an emergency. Instead, we can learn how to have our spiritual ear continuously tuned in to hear Him no matter what we’re doing.
Our relationship with God is based on faith in who He is, believing He loves and cares for us. Romans 10:17 (NKJV) says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” As we take time on a regular basis to pray and study the Word, we will develop a consistent habit of keeping our spiritual ear tuned in to God’s voice.
An Attitude That Honors God Above Everyone Else
When we’re struggling to make a decision or we’re facing a problem we don’t know how to handle, it’s easy to go to people to get their opinion about what we should do before we take time to wait on God for direction. Or sometimes we may take time to pray first, but we still go to others to share what we think He said and ask them what they think about it.
The problem is that we’re actually honoring the advice of people more than the wisdom of God when we do this. I’m not saying we should never ask anyone for godly counsel, and God can certainly lead us to do that. But if we constantly have to know what so-and-so thinks or what they would do, then we’re not trusting that we can hear from God ourselves.
1 John 2:27 (AMP) says that the anointing of the Holy Spirit “remains [permanently] in you” and that He “teaches you … about all things.” God wants us to be individually led by the Holy Spirit. If we’re going to develop the ability to hear from Him, we need to start stepping out in faith, following the promptings of the Holy Spirit that come to our heart.
It’s time to start trusting the anointing of the Holy Spirit that abides in your spirit! As you do, you’ll gain confidence that you can hear from God, and if you make a mistake (which we all do at times), trust Him to help you get you back on track and keep moving forward.
An Attitude of Obedience
In Psalm 40:6 (AMPC), David says, “Sacrifice and offering You do not desire … You have given me the capacity to hear and obey [Your law, a more valuable service than] burnt offerings….” David understood that he was honoring God and showing how he loved and trusted Him when he obeyed His commands.
The same is true for us. It doesn’t do any good for God to talk to us if we aren’t going to listen and obey what He says, or if we choose only the things we want to do. The way to experience God’s will for our lives is simple: pray and obey.
I know it’s not always easy to obey, especially when He’s showing you to do something you don’t like or don’t feel like doing. The truth is we won’t always be excited about the things God leads us to do, like humbling ourselves and apologizing when we’ve hurt someone. But whatever He puts in our hearts to do, it’s always for our good. And He will always be with us, giving us the wisdom and strength to obey when we hear His voice. {eoa}
