As a pastor, one of the questions I get asked a lot is “How do I hear from God?” Another question I get asked is, “I feel like God isn’t talking to me anymore, how do I get Him to speak again?”
And, if I’m being completely honest, I go through seasons where I feel as though I’m not hearing from God either. I question myself on how to hear from Him; if I’m doing everything right. And something I’ve realized is that the majority of the time I make it a lot more complicated than it actually is.
I think we get in our heads that there’s going to be this loud booming voice, that time is going to stand still, and I’m going to know beyond all reasonable doubt that I have heard the voice of God. It’s as though we think that the moment we get saved, we immediately know the voice of God and have this deep intellectual relationship with Him, that for some reason is entirely in old English.
But you want to know a secret?
Hearing the voice of God takes developing a relationship with Him.
It takes time. It takes patience. It takes humility. It takes growth and maturity.
Just like we grow in relationships with others, we grow in our relationship with God. And when we grow deeper in our relationship with God, we learn His voice and how He speaks.
But I also recognize that sometimes we hit spiritual ruts where we feel like we don’t know what happened. Suddenly we’re in a season where it feels dry and feels like a desert or wilderness. And so I want to take some time to speak to people who find themselves there - who feel like they aren’t hearing from God anymore. So here are three questions to ask yourself when you feel like you aren’t hearing from God -
Am I making room for Him to speak?
Okay, maybe this seems obvious. But stick with me.
Sometimes, when I have my devotional time with Jesus, I get so caught up in what I want to pray and what I want to say to Him that I forget to make space for Him to speak back to me.
Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and you feel like you just can’t get a word in? I have. And it is annoying. I feel like I can’t get a word in, so internally I’ll just detach from the conversation. If I’m on the phone, sometimes I’ll busy myself doing other things and throw out an “mmhmm” or “yeah!” every so often.
Now, I’m not saying God ever throws out those responses to us, but I am saying that sometimes we can be that person. We can be so focused on getting what we want to say out of our systems, that we forget we’re in a conversation with God. And there are two people in that conversation.
The best thing you can do is to make room for Him. A friend of mine once told me that she started putting a timer on for 5-10 minutes at the end of her devotional time, and would just leave that space to hear from God. She would start that time off by saying “Okay God, I’ve vented to you, please speak to me about this situation or anything else you want to speak to me about.” And God was faithful to speak to her.
So make sure that when you’re in a season where you feel like you aren’t hearing from Him, that you’re making space for Him to speak.
2. What other voices are dominating my mind and my life?
We live in a society with a lot of noise. From social media to Netflix, to work, to podcasts, to our flesh, to the enemy, and to the world. There are a lot of ways for us to get distracted.
I think it’s important to practice this several times a year, but especially when we feel as though God is silent. We need to be able to take inventory of the noise and the voices that are speaking into our lives.
A few weeks ago I felt challenged by God. I was always listening to something. Now, granted, a lot of times that was a podcast in the background. But I felt like Jesus was really pressing me to have some silence. While God can use podcasts to speak to me, I wasn’t creating any space to hear Him for myself.
Maybe the world is the voice dominating your life right now. Maybe you’re so caught up with making sure you can talk to co-workers about the new Netflix show or the Friends reunion. Maybe you’re letting the voice of politics drown out any potential to hear from God. Or, maybe you’re wanting to entertain the desires of your flesh and the only noise you hear right now is everything you want.
We have to be intentional to take inventory of those voices and the noise we are surrounding ourselves with. But it doesn’t stop there.
We also have to be willing to remove those voices and fill the space with the right ones.
3. What does my time in the Word look like?
I’m going to be a bit brutal with this one. You won’t know what God is saying to you if you are not in the Word.
The Scripture is God-breathed. So that means they are God’s words to us. If I want to know the tone of God’s voice? I go to the Bible. If I want to know His thoughts on something? I go to the Bible. If I want to know if He hears me, or if He’s going to get me through this season? I go to the Bible.
A lot of the time, the time I am spending in the Word and my perceived ability to hear His voice is correlated.
If I am intentional to get dinner with a friend every other week, why am I not intentionally spending time with God, in His Word, every day?
I have to take inventory of whether or not I am spending time in His Word.
But, maybe you’re reading this and you’re thinking “Yeah, Allie, I get it. I just don’t know how to read God’s Word.” Sometimes we can think the Bible is intimidating, but if you sign up for my newsletter here, you get a free devotional guide.
When I approach Scripture, and a verse sticks out to me. Usually, I ask myself a few questions about that verse, and those questions are found on my devotional guide. These questions help me to interact with the scripture, hear what God is saying, and pray through them.
