Ways God Speaks To Us

We started with the premise that God's desire to speak to us is so great that He finds ways to communicate with us even before we know how to hear His voice clearly and accurately. Then we looked at 12 of the common ways God communicates with His children even before they know how to discern His voice clearly. Those include

* Through Scripture

The Bible is the Word of God, where He has explicitly communicated many things to us. We consider the Bible to be authoritative and it is our absolute standard. In other words, God would never say something to us that contradicts what He has already stated in the Bible. God has revealed His nature and character to us in the Bible. He has shown us what pleases Him and what displeases Him and He has given us guidelines for how to live and how to approach God.

* By quickening portions of Scripture to us for specific situations

The Holy Spirit may quicken portions of Scripture to us, go make it suddenly come alive and give us an understanding of what means. There are times when the Bible does not deal with a particular situation we are in, but the Holy Spirit gives us certain scriptures to apply to our situation to guide and direct us.

* Object lessons

God will sometimes call our attention to something in the natural and then use it as a basis for showing us a spiritual truth. Jesus used many object lessons in his parables and teachings. For example, He talked about faith being like a mustard seed. Even though it starts small, it grows into something very big and substantial.

* Everyday life

God will sometimes speak to us from our everyday life experiences to give us an understanding of spiritual reality. For instance, God may catch us when we are loving on our children and let us know that He loves us as much as we love our kids.

* Divine coincidences

This is where God leads us through circumstances, making things fall into place in just the right way.

* Internal promptings

Sometimes we strongly feel we should (or should not) do something. Usually we can't explain why we feel that way, because God has dropped that feeling in our spirit. But sometimes it seems we fall into saying or doing the right thing, almost by chance. Then it "feels right" and we know we were supposed to do that.

* Through dreams

God sometimes speaks to us through our dreams. The dream may be literal or it may be symbolic. He may or may not give us an immediate understanding of what the dream means. However, we must be aware that not every dream we have comes from God. There are other sources of dreams, including our own fears/issues, something we ate, external stimuli and influences and sometimes even demonic torment. So it is always good to take our dreams back to God and ask Him about them. Was that dream from Him? What is He trying to communicate to us and how does He want us to respond?

* Checks in our spirit

This is where our internal alarms go off and we feel caution about a person or about a situation. The check is intended to slow us down and have us proceed prayerfully and with caution. A check in our spirit does not necessarily mean God is saying "No" to a specific thing, it means we need to slow down and pray about it and ask Him for further clarification.

* Conviction of the Holy Spirit

This is where the Holy Spirit lets you know that something you are thinking or doing is displeasing God. Similarly, He may convict us to do something we know He wants us to do that we have been putting off or avoiding. Typically we feel bad when convicted. Conviction is designed to get us to line up with God's will and to be restored back to close relationship with Him.

* Repetition

Repetition is where God brings the same thing at you over and over again until you finally realize, "God must be trying to tell me something."

* Hearing someone share something and getting an inner witness

God sometimes speaks to us through other people, and then gives us a "yes and amen" deep in our own spirit. Something gets quickened and we latch on to what that person said as though it were a message from God because it really was a message from God!

* Through a book, teaching, movie or song

God can quicken things to us as we read a book or watch a movie or listen to a song. Sometimes we "get it" when we first see or hear the thing. Other times, God brings it back to our memory and we ponder it for awhile and then realize what God is saying.

Even after we get to know His voice clearly, God will continue to use these communication methods (listed above). But in addition to that, He will also speak to us personally and distinctly. He desires to draw us into a place of intimacy and fellowship with Him where we are regularly hearing Him speak to us, and where we respond to Him with loving and obedient hearts. God wants to build a personal relationship, a friendship, with each of us. He is a loving father who likes to spend time with His kids and to talk to them. He wants to reveal more of Himself to us and He wants to transform us to have more of His nature and character. All of this is deep relationship stuff. If you want to learn to hear God's voice clearly, you will need to enter into this deep relationship with God, for it is out of that relationship that we are able to hear Him clearly.

Some Practical Helps

If you would like to build a deeper friendship with God and learn to hear His voice more clearly, there are some practical things you can do. First tell Him of your desire for a deeper and more intimate relationship with Him. Tell Him of your desire to hear His voice more clearly. Second, make a deep and sincere commitment to His Lordship -- that you will indeed obey Him when He speaks to you. Third, spend time with God to build relationship together. Read his Word, pray, worship, etc. Fourth, get hold of some practical helps, such as books on Hearing God or books on building intimacy with God.

May the Lord bless you richly as you pursue His lordship in every area of your life. May the sharpness and clarity that you hear His voice with continue to increase.