Hearing God’s voice.
I think we are all told that it is one of the fundamentals to Christianity. Growing up in Sunday School I remember teachers telling me that if I don’t hear God, I’m not a true Christian, that I don’t have enough faith. In some ways they are right, but in most way they were wrong.
Hearing God’s voice doesn’t typically just happen to anyone. I mean don’t get me wrong, God did and does talk to some of the biggest sinners (biblical and present times) but for the average Christian, hearing God’s voice requires three things.
First and foremost Trust
God expects us to trust him. Not in that typical trust way that human’s think, but in that ultimate way that God is. Look at Genesis chapter 22, verses 1-14, Abraham trusts God fully even though God is telling him to sacrifice his only son. That’s trust. That’s putting it all in God and just giving him control with the belief that he knows what is best. God expects us to question him sometimes. Do you honestly think Abraham was like, yup God I’mma gonna go roast my kid for you. No! Of course. I’m sure he sat there and was like, “WTF? Really? Really God? You want me to go sacrifice my son? My flesh and blood.” I’m sure it killed him on the inside and he began to doubt the holiness of the heavenly creator. But at the same time, I am certain that God continued to speak to him, because through the doubts and internal arguments, God could read Abraham’s heart. God knew that by mid-day, Abraham would be marching up that mountain ready to sacrifice what ever God requested. Abraham did just that, put full trust into the Lord and in the end was rewarded for his full-hearted trust. You need trust to hear God’s voice.
Obedience. You have to obey God’s voice when it does speak to you, either through Biblical commandment or through his direction. This goes back to trust. You have to trust that by obeying what God has told you or what the disciples of God have told you, you will be rewarded in the end. Obedience is the basic gist of Joshua’s last words (Joshua 24). Obey, get rewards; disobey and great troubles will come your way. One of the rewards Joshua is talking about is a deeper relationship with God. A deeper relationship equates to more trust and more trust mean a easier life of obedience. It’s a circle. :)
And finally, humility.
We must come to God with open hearts and humbleness. We have to exalt him and tell him how much cooler than us he is. (He’s a prick like that). God expects us to dump all of Earthly troubles on him. He will sort through them all and take away the pain, the fear, the anguish, anyhting you need him to. But that kind of power and love deserves respect. If you command God or test him (things like “show me or I won’t believe) he’s not going to answer. He expects us to come to him with humility so he may respond. If we put our pride in the way, it will deafen us when God speaks.
Those are three basic principles God expects us to display if we are to have a meaningful relationship with him and kind of like what the Sunday school Nazis teachers said, if you want to hear God, you need a relationship with him.
Is it a real voice?
For some. Hearing God audibly is one of the most indescribable, awesome experiences anyone can ever have. But that’s not the only way God will speak to us. It can be through thought/meditation, music or art. It can be through tongues or writing. God can have things to say to you and just let the Holy Spirit run through you to help guide your pen, instrument or mind. But for each person, it’s different. Think about Moses. Do you think Moses knew that God was going to use the bush to communicate with him? Do you think Moses approached the bush with a torch thinking, set this shit on fire I wanna talk to Big Guy? No. Not at all. IT’s a personal experience designed by God. It’s not easy, but with enough trust… it can happen to anyone.
Philosophical question: All faith is based on trust, but is all trust based on faith?
Feel free to send questions or comments. :) Thanks for reading.
