God Wants to Talk to You

There are many ways that God speaks to us. A lot of those ways are clearly mentioned in the Bible. First of all, there is the audible voice of the Lord. Adam and Eve had the clearest connection before the whole forbidden fruit episode. Since then, God has spoken audibly to many in the Bible. One strong example is Saul/Paul on the road to Damascus. Of course, he ended up blind for three days, but that's not a normal result of hearing God's voice. And since there is nothing in the Bible that notes the end of hearing God audibly, we may assume that sometimes, for very important reasons, we might possibly hear Him speak aloud. However, I have never experienced this myself.

Another way that God speaks to us, and probably the most common way, is by reading or listening to His word, the Bible. The scriptures are our manual, our guidebook, for how to live. Within the pages, we learn concepts and principles for a life that is pleasing to God. But this has to be taken in context. One cannot open up any page, pop a finger on a verse, and expect to hear direction from God. That's as silly as looking for a recipe for baked chicken and opening up any page in the cookbook and making whatever recipe appears on that random page. Silly, but sadly some people have done that. This is why we need to be familiar with the Bible and read it regularly, to know what is written and to apply it sensibly.

God also speaks to us through people. We hear good words from teachers, preachers, singers and song writers, authors, poets, counselors, and friends, etc. Personally, I learn quite a bit from reading books. I can browse through a book store or the public library and find just the right book for where I am at the moment. I believe God uses this method to speak to my life. Other people may love to listen to preaching, or poetry. God knows what touches your heart and I believe He can place the right message in your path, if you are open. People are only human though, and messages from God coming through other people are filtered by our experiences and limitations, and motives. I recommend never blindly taking direction from one person without cross checking the message from the Bible and from your inner spirit.

Other ways that God speaks to us include dreams and visions. He can show us things while we sleep. That is mentioned many times in the Bible. The circumstances we find ourselves in can contain a message from God if we take the time to seek it out. If we have a problem, perhaps God is trying to get a message across to us that we may learn wisdom in handling this situation. Entire books have been written on hearing the voice of God, so I will not list in detail with scripture verses for each potential way we can hear from God. He is so creative and will try many ways to reach you because He loves you.

If we are believers in Jesus, our spirits have become alive in Him so we can have the Holy Spirit speaking to our spirit. In this way, an inner voice, speaking to our heart is how God speaks to us. For example, when someone prays over us, if we have this inner warning, we must listen to it. That could be God letting you know that this person has an impure motive. Or if we hear a message in a song and our heart wants to cry, that could be God speaking a message through that song and your spirit will connect with that. Of course, any message from any method must absolutely line up with God's word and principles. If it does not, we automatically know that word is not from the Lord. 

One thing to be careful of is when someone claims, " God said for you to do .....". We can't take our direction from other people claiming to hear from God.  When someone gives a declarative word from God, "God said this...", I automatically back away. I would rather they prefaced their statement with " I believe I heard from God that ......". This less direct approach allows us to judge in our spirit and with the Bible whether we agree that this is truly a message from God to me. Many people like to claim they have a more spiritual lifeline to God. When they state that God said something, they could be trying to boost their own self-importance. This is an area that we need to be most careful in judging what is right for us.

It all comes down to the fact that most people really want to hear from God. We really want to be pleasing to Him and to do what is right. Even when we try to influence others, we want to be helpful, to point people into the direction that we believe is the best. We do the best that we can. Some things are very clear cut in the Bible. We can often find two or three other verses that support the same statement. For example, it's clearly stated that Jesus is the savior of the world.The reason He came and the reason He died are not up for grabs. Yet, other things are more subject to interpretation. When we are looking for direction on whether to take a certain job or how to make a specific decision, these things are not specifically written out in God's Word. 

Really, we all need to learn to hear God's voice for ourselves. First, we ask, we pray, we present our requests to God. Then, we must believe that He hears us and wants the best for us. Next, we keep our spiritual eyes and ears open. We search the scriptures, we look for messages that come to our attention, maybe songs, magazine articles, conversations with friends. God wants to speak to us. He loves us and wants us to hear Him. God doesn't usually work on our time table, but He does speak to us in these days. This takes patience and practice, but as you gain experience, hearing and discerning God's voice can get easier and clearer. I'm so glad we have a personal God.