Prophetic Resources Review

Teresa Seputis is the founder and head of Godspeak International. She is an ordained minister with United Christian Church and Ministers Association and is licensed with Christian International. A large portion of Teresa's ministry is dedicated to training and equipping believers to be effective in advancing God's kingdom. Her desire is to teach people to discern what the Father is doing so that they might do it with Him.

"How to Hear the Voice of God in a Noisy World" is published by Charisma House, ISPN 0-88419-755-7, copyright 2001.

Learning How to Hear

A key element to knowing God is having a close relationship with Him. The closer we are to Him, the easier it is for us to distinguish between God's voice and anything that imitates His voice, such as the enemy or our own desires. The more we know a person, the easier it is for us to understand what that person is trying to communicate to us. The same applies to our interactions with God. It is important to develop our personal relationship with God, so we can hear Him more clearly.

We can build this relationship by choosing to spend time with Him. And we build this relationship by reading, meditating on, and memorizing His word, and by asking Him to show us His will. We must be aware that God's voice is not the only voice that will try to speak to us. Our own hearts will try to imitate God's voice, telling us what we want to hear. Also, the enemy may try to confuse us by pretending to be God's voice and saying things the demonic world wants to tell us. That is why it is important to know God well, so we can distinguish between His voice any other voice that tries to immitate Him.

God is constantly speaking to His children because He is a communicating God. Unfortunately, not everyone recognizes when God speaks to them. Each of us was created with an innate ability to hear God's voice, but we do not always recognize that He is speaking to us. So we have to be taught how to recognize His voice. It is similar to how birds learn to fly. Baby birds are born with an innate ability to fly, and they are designed for that purpose. But they can't just automatically fly. The mother bird has to teach them how. And it is the same with us; we need to learn how to recognize when God is speaking to us.

Another reason we may not hear God's voice is that we may not believe God speaks to us or we may explain away God's promptings by thinking we are making them up in our mind. Even Samuel, an Old Testament prophet, had to learn how to recognize God's voice. Samuel missed the first three times God called him and reported to his mentor, Eli. Since Samuel had not yet learned how to recognize God's voice, he naturally assumed that Eli was calling him. Finally Eli realized God was trying to speak to Samuel, so he told Samuel what to do. Then Samuel was able to hear God speak to him.

Often God drops a thought into our mind, but we think it comes from our own mind, so we reject it. Just like Samuel, we need to learn to recognize God's voice. It is also important to realize that this is a process and there will be many "misses" before we are confident in what is and is not God's voice. The key is not to give up, but to keep on pressing into God, asking Him for help in learning to recognize His voice.

God Speaks to Us Through His Word

One of the greatest tools is God's written Word. In it we learn about His character, His likes and dislikes, His promises and His standards. The more we become familiar with the Word of God, the easier it is to distinguish between the voices we hear. In this process we must acknowledge God's Word as the absolute standard of truth. God will never go against His written Word, the Bible. So if we think we have heard Him say something to us that contradicts Scripture, we must assume we have heard wrong.

There are times when we are in desperate situations and feel the need for an immediate response from God. In our desperation we may search the Scriptures for a word that fits our situation and then interpret it in a way that agrees with our desires. This is an example of misusing Scriptures. There are two types of misuses:

• Manipulating scripture - When we are desperate for a word, we may be tempted to find a Scripture we think fits our situation, then twist it to fit our purposes. We can end up trying to hold God to a promise He never made, and then be disappointed when He doesn't keep that "promise."

• Using the Bible out of context - Some people use Scripture like a spiritual ouija board or horoscope - they open the Bible and randomly select a Scripture, accepting that Scripture as the answer to their situation. There are times when God will speak to us by having us randomly come across a Scripture, but that is the exception rather than the norm.

Recognizing God's Voice

We may be tempted to take on various theologies that we believe help us recognize God's voice. However, if those theologies are not biblical we are hindered in our progress of hearing God. The good news is that as we yield to God's leading, He will break through anything contrary to His truth and bring correction to false theologies. Teresa writes: "But when it comes to understanding the nature and character of God, He is constantly showing me that I still have some misconceptions about who He is. We all do."

Misconceptions can give us a distorted picture of God. There are two main misconceptions:

* God does not speak directly to His children today. * God does speak to His children today, but He does not want to speak to me personally.

God wants all of His children to hear Him and engage in an intimate relationship with Him. God is a communicating God; it is part of His nature. He loves to be in personal relationship with His creation. An example of this was when God met Adam daily in the Garden of Eden to talk with him.

People have the misconception that one has to be unusually holy to hear God's voice. That is not the case. The Bible gives us several examples of God speaking to people who were in sin or who were unbelievers, and in each case the person heard God and in most cases even carried on a conversation with God. For instance, God spoke to Adam and Eve after they sinned. They were not excused for their sin; in fact, they were thrown out of the Garden of Eden. But God spoke to them, they heard His voice and they even carried on a conversation with Him.

One might argue that God does not speak to unbelievers, but that could not be further from the truth. Cain is an example that God indeed talks to unbelievers.

Doing What We Hear God Say

Teresa argues that the main issue is not determining what God wants to say to us; the hard part is obeying Him after we hear Him. It is not easy to "walk out God's will once we understand it." She gives the example of forgiving others. God makes it clear from His Word that He expects us to forgive those who wrong us. But often it is hard for us to do what He asks. If you want to hear God clearly, you must be prepared to obey Him once you have heard Him.

How God Speaks to Us

God has various ways He uses to speak to us even before we know how to recognize His voice clearly. Chapter 4 lists the following ways:

• Object lesson - When God uses something in the natural to illustrate a spiritual principle. God does not always speak to us in dramatic ways. His object lessons are equally powerful when he chooses to use them in a way where we are simply realizing His truth instead of "hearing" Him speak the truth to us. We need to lean on God and not on our own abilities.

• Repetition - Repeated incidences until we realize that God is speaking to us through them.

• Everyday life - God coming into everyday situations and revealing Himself through them.

• Divine coincidences - When events or circumstances fall together in such a way that the hand of God is evident in your circumstances.

• Internal promptings - Strong urges to do or not to do something.

• A check in our spirit - Like an internal alarm clock going off. A way God uses to protect us from impending dangers.

• Conviction of the Holy Spirit - An example would be a strong sense that what you are involved in is wrong and the Lord is not pleased. He does this to make us get right with Him, not to make us feel bad.

• Getting an inner witness as someone shares something - We may find ourselves engaged in a conversation when suddenly we realize God is speaking to us directly through that person and our spirit bears witness to what is being said. Teresa states: "There will be times when your spirit grabs hold of a truth as someone speaks to you. Something insides sparks, and you just know that what is being said is right." She continues, "God uses others to speak to you at times. He quickens what they say to your spirit to get your attention and to let you know the truths came from Him to you."

Other means God may be using to convey His message are books, teachings, movies or songs. God is not limited when it comes to communication tools. He loves variety and often uses common things to convey His heart.

[We are only part way through this book. We will look at more of what it has to share in our next lesson.]