Hearing from God

Ask the Holy Spirit if that’s Jesus talking to you.
Find a word witness
Hear from others
Have you ever heard an impersonation then when you hear the real person you say the don’t
sound alike.
Face to face – rhema
Human to human – in person
From logos to rhema
Instructions Vs Relationship
Do you want to be told what to do every minute by your natural parents.
Stop thinking you are leaving God when you exit prayer. Think of Him going with Him.
James 1 if any one lacks wisdom let him “ask”
You can listen with the wrong ears. They are called your eyes. We look for God instead of
hearing from Him.
What is imaginations.
Illustration: Blue cow with a red ribbon
Root is image.
It’s images of words that can even create a feelings and emotion.
Illustration: Slithering snakes on the floor now it’s wrapped around your left leg.
Illustration: an ice cube sliding down the center of your back
Jesus is the image of the invisible God
2 Corinthians 4:4
Express image
Hebrews 1:3
Many people teach “show me your will and leave me alone
Show me your secrets then leave me alone
Show me your doctrine then leave me alone
Show me your teachings then leave me alone
Show me your truths then leave me alone
Show me your order then leave me alone
Show me your songs then leave me alone
Show me my wife then leave me alone
Show me your ministry then leave me alone
Show me your secrets then leave me alone
4 Ways to Hear From God
1. Discern God’s Voice Through Bible Study
“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13)
Prayer
We can wrestle with what we are struggling to understand, asking God to answer and reveal
things in prayer.
Our connection with Him deepens as we dive into His Word.
His voice will often pop right off the page with a direct answer to the stirring of our hearts.
Nothing is coincidental with our God.
When we are intent on seeking Him, He is faithful to be found.
Use the powerful tool of prayer, conversation with the one true God, to ask for wisdom in
discerning His voice through Scripture.
Discipline
Jesus awoke early in the morning to be with and talk to God.
If He needed quiet time with His Father, we should be wary to walk out into the world
unarmed.
There is no way around the discipline of studying God’s Word.
In order to hear His voice, we have to know what it sounds like. And to hear it, we have to
quiet all other noise.
“For God’s voice to sink into our minds and hearts, His words have to be there frequently, and
they have to stay a while,” writes Liz Ditty, highlighting the importance of meditating on God’s
Word. “Eastern meditation is characterized by clearing your mind,” she explains, “but
Christian meditation is about filling our mind with the words, thoughts and images of
Scripture.”
Repetition
Hearing the voice of God is about so much more than knowing what to do, “It’s about
relationship.”
Studying God’s Word isn’t just a task we can check off each day; it’s involving Him in our daily
lives.
When we repeatedly let Him into the cracks of our hearts, He starts to sweep them out and
make them new.
Similar truths will start to wave flags of victory in conquered parts of our hearts.
We will begin to remember and recall His faithfulness as He answers prayers and speaks to us
through different seasons of our lives.
2. Discern God’s Voice Through Others
“As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” (James 2:26)
Service
Created in the image of the one true God, we are meant to honor Him in everything we do.
A huge part of our faith is reflected in the way we treat and serve others.
Jesus said, next to the most important commandment to love God with all of our hearts, that
we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.
We are placed in each other’s lives to teach, encourage, help, and hold each other
accountable. When we are actively living a life of faith, He will connect a passage we read in
the morning to a conversation with a friend.
Seeking God isn’t just absorbing scriptural truths; it’s allowing Him to extract what He has put
in us and use it in the community He’s placed us in.
The Bible tells us not to sit idle for good reason.
When we move, our great God grows our faith and His voice becomes more recognizable.
Wise Counsel
Mentors in the faith are important.
They can be found formally or organically, and as we seek more of God, we will find those
people.
Prayerfully ask God to send spiritual mentors who can help you recognize God’s voice and
even speak His words into your life.
3. Discern By Looking for the Good
“But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish
good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:14)
When we diligently study the Word of God, praying for Him to reveal hidden things and
involving Him in our daily lives, we stack bricks on a solid foundation of truth.
As we diligently aim to know and live the truth, we are increasingly able to hear His voice.
As we seek truthful things, we’re forced to confront our own falsehood.
As we pursue justice, we must grapple with our own injustice.
And as we search for whatever is lovely, we learn to reject the tawdry and pragmatic for things
of eternal worth and beauty.
The more we know God, the more we know how far we all fall short.
Remembering who He is reminds us we are all forgiven and never loved less.
4. Discernment Rejects Perfectionism
“Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.” (John 7:24)
Perfection is impossible this side of heaven. One man, Jesus, lived a perfect life without sin.
The more we learn to own and learn from our mistakes the wiser we will be.
Discerning, hearing God and understanding what He’s trying to say to us, requires our
attention.
Nothing gets our attention like pain.
Painful circumstances cause us to focus intensely on Him for help.
When we run from our mistakes, we are cheating ourselves of hearing Him.
Discernment requires time and effort
You can’t simply move through life, thoughtlessly reacting to situations yet never learning from
them.
Take time to reflect on your responses and observe the consequences of your actions and
choices.
If you feel convicted by what you notice, let that motivate you to begin a lifelong pursuit of the
Lord and His ways.