Have you ever found yourself thinking, “I wish God talked to us the way He spoke to His people in the Old Testament?“
Many times, Scripture describes God speaking to His people through a voice or an angel, or a cream. He even writes on a wall in one account (Daniel 5). So it’s natural to want to hear God’s voice or see a “big sign” that will help you feel confident in God’s direction.
We all experience confusing circumstances. Sometimes you may just want God to send a text message to tell you what to do. Maybe you feel God is far away and want Him to reach out reach out to reassure you He’s still there. Maybe you’ve heard people say the that God of the Bible is personal, but you have never interacted with Him before or how to begin.
He is the same God today that He was in the time of the Old Testament. He still speaks to us today. When Jesus died in the cross and rose again He made it possible for each of us to have a personal relationship with Him which involves talking together every day. He communicates with us.
Many in us just have never learned how to recognize His voice, or we’ve forgotten how we did in the past. I think sometimes with all the distractions in our world His voice gets flooded out or we think our thoughts are from God which leads us down the wrong road.
In 1 Samual 3, God spoke to Samuel as a child in the temple. In Exodus 3, He spoke to Moses out of a burning bush. In 1 Kings 19, He spoke to Elijah in a still small voice.
So God can and does speak with an audible voice, but it’s not often how people hear from God in Western Culture. Because God is the same today as He was then, we can believe He still can and does speak audibly today.
Another way God speaks to us is through miraculous events, such as signs, dreams, and visions. God is speaking and warning us through what is happening in the world today. Yet many people laugh it off and ignore them.
Signs come in many forms in biblical times, from the parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14) to the disciples finding a donkey colt exactly when and where Jesus said they would (Matthew 21:2-7).
Dreams and visions are depicted from the beginning of the Bible to the end. The last book of the Bible, Revelation, tells how John, one of Jesus’s closest followers, received a vision of heaven with streets of gold (Revelation 4). Dreams and visions communicate in one of two ways: with specific instructions or with symbolism to be interpreted by the Spirit as a message to people.
God tells us very clearly in the Bible that the more we seek Him, the more we are going to experience His presence in our lives.
Hebrews 11:6 tells us, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”
He also says in Psalm 14:2, “The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.”
God never leaves us once we invite Him into our lives, but He does respond to our desire for more of Him. Som hoe do you demonstrate your desire for more of God? Pursue Him somehow every day.
Reading the Bible, spending time in prayer, and talking with other followers of Jesus are not just part of a to-do list. God encourages us to do these things because they help us learn about His character and learn how to recognize His voice.
He uses our knowledge of who He is and what He has done to help us respond to situations we face.
Setting aside the distractions of everyday life to focus on God is not just a physical or mental activity. It’s a way of centering your heart on God and communicating that He has your complete attention. It’s just like relationships with other people. If you sit down to listen to a loved one but check your text messages every few seconds they will not feel like you are listening to them, and you’re less likely to hear everything they want to communicate.
How much more does God deserve your complete attention?
You cannot expect to hear God’s voice if you do not regularly focus your attention on Him as fully as you can.
God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit.
In the Old Testament, we mostly read about God speaking to people from outside of themselves. But Jesus promises the people who believe in Him something more.
On the night Jesus was arrested before His crucifixion, He spoke to His disciples (His closest friends). He knew that He was going to return to His Father in heaven soon. His disciples had spent several years walking and talking with Jesus every day. They never had to struggle to hear His voice in that sense.
Jesus would commission His friends to take the message of what He had done to the whole world. But They would not need His guidance every day to make decisions about where to go and what to do next.
Jesus wanted them confident that would have everything they needed. So He revealed to them the news of the future, that God would live within them in the person of the Holy Spirit. God would continue to be someone apart from them, but He was placing His actual presence inside each person who believed in Jesus.
Jesus said:
“I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear to hear them now. However when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears He will speak. He will declare to you things that are coming. He will glorify Me, for He will take from what is mine, and will declare it to you. All things that the Father had are mine; therefore I said that He tales of mine and will declare it to you” – John 16:12-15.
The presence of the Holy Spirit in your life changes everything about hearing God’s voice. If you have chosen to begin a personal relationship with Jesus, His Spirit lives within you. So rather than wondering where God is and how to connect with Him, you can have complete confidence that He lives within you and is always ready to guide you.
God speaks to you through the Bible. In it, God tells you how to live the life He has called you to live. The Bible is full of accounts with lessons, with God speaking the truth and revealing what you need to hear to leaf a life that blesses Him and you.
The Holy Spirit prompts you to act in obedience, to turn away from sinful things, and to reach out to believers around you for support.
God wants to make His voice known to you. Be has no desire to confuse you (Confusion comes to. Satan not God). The combination of His Spirit within you and His living Word, the Bible, in front of you is His plan for teaching you to recognize His voice.
Many people live their lives wondering exactly what God is saying or if He is still speaking at all.
The answer may lie in understanding what distracts them from hearing God.
Our lives are full of things that distract us and compete for our attention. Many are just a part of daily life, so we don’t realize how they are coming between us and God.
A few of them are busyness, outside influences, our behaviors and attitudes, and apathy.
God speaks in many ways, and He speaks often. But there are a lot of voices trying to speak to us all the time. God wants us to be confident about hearing from Him, so He gives us scripture and affirms His word through others, He gives a persistent message. He does not give up. He tells us things over a period time and perhaps in different ways so we can hear Him and be confident that it’s Nis voice.
This is a learning process. If at any point you feel like you misheard God, go back to Him, admit that and ask Him to speak again so that you can understand Him more clearly.
You can future in Christ with time, and become more confident the longer you walk with Him.
God will never tell you go hurt or hate anyone. That is Satan trying to trick you.
From Pity to Praise 