Hearing from God: A Glorious Introduction
Welcome to the glorious adventure of discerning the leading of the Holy Spirit!
God is rewarding those who are seeking Him for who He is, and you my friend get to be a part of that magnanimous exchange.
What do you think of when you hear someone mention hearing from God? Does it seem like a mystical experience for only seemingly special people? Is it something you are comfortable with? I am happy to tell you that hearing from God is something that we were made for! We were always made for communication with the Lord in a personal way. He is a relational God and He has things to share with you for wisdom, guidance, encouragement, vision, and more!
A Note on the Word “Revelation”
I admit, I use this word a lot. Let me be clear on my usage of revelation.
Here is what I don’t mean:
Obtaining secret knowledge, the likes of Gnosticism.
Ideas that seem like they come from a “higher power” or other form of consciousness.
Anything that contradicts what is already in the written word of God.
Expecting a forecast of the future, information about others, and intending to manipulate outcomes.
The Necessity of Faith
God does not give all the answers. And if you look at the life of Jesus as written in the gospels, very rarely did he ever answer a question with the direct answer. I have two thought on why this is: firstly, we simply can’t handle knowing everything we want to know. And secondly, God often sees fit to address something else other than what our initial inquiry is about.
There is a way that people try to get information from God that is more in line with divination than a what a relationship with Him should actually look like.
Becoming Unstuck
In Learning to be Loved, David Bowden and Mart Green write:
“Humanity didn’t invent prayer as a means to talk to God and He happened to accommodate our voices. Prayer exists because God is speaking.”
God is already speaking! We don’t have to wonder if He has something to say to us…but I want to note that oftentimes it is not always what we had expected to hear! And even in the instances when it seems He is silent, there is still purposeful action behind the scenes. Stay tuned for more regarding when God seems to be quiet or distant.
We will also dive deeper into the glorious mysteries of prayer in future articles. But first I want to start out with the art of hearing from God. It’s good to talk to Him, most of us know how to ask Him for things. But we need to learn how to tune our spiritual ears to listen so that we receive revelation from on high.
If you have ever felt stuck or frustrated in this area, I want to encourage you today! Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 2:12-14:
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
We have already been given the things that we are to know?! This is what I refer to as the already/not yet factor of God. The spiritual revelation He already freely gives to us in real time already exists in heavenly places, which is the fourth dimension. We just have to access it through the Holy Spirit.
We will get into practical ways to position ourselves to receive from Him soon!
13These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
The apostle Paul is writing here that the wisdom of humanity’s intellect is not the same as that which is spiritual. Intellect cannot unlock what the Spirit can! We often seek information and live by logic, and this is not inherently wrong. But there is an invitation to transcend that which we can understand with our own minds.
This is especially needed when we are:
Faced with problems we just cannot figure out on our own
Believing for the seemingly impossible, by faith
When we are up against intense spiritual warfare
Making major life decisions (and hey, even minor decisions too because God really cares about being there for you in everything!)
14But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Divine revelation from the Holy Spirit often is divergent from how our own mind, will and emotions would lead us.
Does this feel scary or unfamiliar? Don’t worry, my friend. Stay with me—we’re about to explore practical steps that will help you overcome those barriers and begin to experience the clarity of God’s voice with confidence and peace.
Our natural selves are not wired to receive the incoming currents. But if we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, we are able to be a conduit for the word of the Lord!
We just need to keep ourselves willing to discern the spiritual from that which is what we sometimes refer to as “in the natural”.
I’d love to share some quotes from a book that has greatly helped me in this area, called Shaking Heaven and Earth by Dennis Reanier:
“As God’s people, we are called to live by the revelation of the Spirit rather than the information that we get with our natural senses, allowing us to trust God at His word over our feelings and circumstances…Information gives us logic and the ability to have sense and reason. This way of thinking has its roots in Greek culture in which most of our society has been influenced…
In John 4, Jesus says the Kingdom of God is within us. He tells the Pharisees that we don’t have to search here or there for the Kingdom of God. We don’t have to work and strive harder to find revelation. If we would just learn to enjoy the union that we already have with Holy Spirit, revelation would begin to naturally flow supernaturally, as a result, without any effort.”
Did you get that?! If we simply enjoy the presence of God, it all just flows from there! I can personally attest to this. Whether there have been heavy things on my mind, unanswered questions, or even receiving from God things that I was not even searching out for such as particular ideas. When we are with Him, stay present, and even enjoy the process, much fruit is born. Check out John 15!
But why does connectivity to the voice of God seem hard sometimes? There is much that has complicated this and got in the way-layers of distraction, doubt, and noise that often cloud our ability to listen.
IN THIS NEXT ARTICLE we will explore essential components that set us up for hearing the Holy Spirit clearly—and we’ll also consider some words of caution to keep us grounded along the way.
See you in the next post!