Prefer a podcast? Click here to listen to the podcast version of this message.
Transcript:
Hello, welcome to Walking in Step with God. I am Steve McDonald. Today we explore the topic “Hear the Voice of God” as we continued our series ‘Experience God’. In this series, I hope to share all of the ways we can experience God in our day-to-day lives. An experience with God can be quite subtle or may be very dramatic, but all of the ways in which God allows us to be aware of His presence are done out of love.
Before I changed my life around and decided to live a godly life, I can honestly say that part of my doubt about God was based on the fact that there did not seem to be a way to see evidence of Him. I thought that if God wanted to be known, then He should show the world that He exists.
Now, I believe differently. I understand the importance of having faith in God and believing in Him first and foremost. In my experience, the more I turned away from the world and towards God, the more I experienced His presence. The more I learned to trust in Him and seek out His guidance, the more I was able to witness and experience His influence in very tangible and obvious ways.
I believe that it is a privilege to experience God in such a way that interacts with our senses. I believe that God rewards those who seek Him and honor Him with the ability to experience Him in clear and tangible ways. This certainly seems to be the case in my lifetime. The most profound experiences with God in my life have been in recent times when my faith in Him was strongest.
Today, we are going to focus on 3 ways that I believe you can hear the voice of God. Let’s discuss ways in which we can sense and experience God speaking to us.
Before we get started, if you are watching on YouTube, I would immensely appreciate it if you could click that like button and subscribe. I also invite you to share your comments throughout this video. Your engagement will help us reach more viewers. If you are listening to our podcast, please be sure to follow us and leave a rating for this episode.
By the way, If the message you hear today resonates with your heart, and you feel led to partner with us in this ministry, we invite you to prayerfully consider becoming a financial supporter.
Every act of giving, no matter the size, helps us continue to create resources like this message, reaching more people with the life-changing power of God’s love and truth.
Here’s how you can help. I will be right back.
Welcome back. Let’s continue in our discussion of 3 ways to hear the voice of God.
People
The first and one of the most powerful ways God will allow you to hear His voice is through other people in your life. God can and will touch the hearts and minds of others to provide you with advice or direction.
I have witnessed this in so many ways. I have witnessed people asking God what to say to an individual, and He gave them the precise words to speak. I have witnessed people who don’t believe in God at all, show up at a place and time to intervene in a situation that helps someone in crisis with guidance and direction.
Personally, I have experienced God’s voice through emails, phone calls, and circumstances where someone–even unbeknownst to them–communicated with me in such a way that it was clear it was in response to a prayer or a question I asked God. There have been incidents where this occurred and I was filled with amazement and wonder. There was even a time when I was so fearful of God’s response, that I dropped my knees to ask God for forgiveness.
You also can experience God’s voice if you trust that He will use others around you (even strangers) to convey information to you when He knows you need to hear the literal words spoken out loud.
Nature
Another way you can hear from God is through nature. God has created everything in nature, so it is only natural we can experience God as we immerse ourselves in nature.
When I mention nature as a means for God to allow us to hear his voice, I believe we can experience hearing the sounds of nature and God ‘speaking’ to us in these sounds.
I am not suggesting per se that the sounds of waves hitting the shore or leaves rustling in the wind carry actual words in our language. I am suggesting that God knows how to use the sounds of nature to bathe us in His presence. He knows how to use the calm and peaceful sources of a rustling wind to touch our spirit in such a way that we sense His knowing of our circumstances and can be reassured we are not alone.
Walking in nature is a common practice of many to experience and speak to God, knowing and expecting interaction with Him through the interaction of nature all around during the walk.
If you have not tried it, I invite you to take time for a walk, especially a walk immersed in nature. Speak to Him and pray to Him as you walk, and then allow your mind to be silent as you take in the sounds of nature around you. Expect Him to touch your spirit in a way that you recognize was not there before.
Silence
The third option I would like to present today to hear the voice of God is through silence. I make a point to have quiet time with God every day and I am so thankful that I have learned the benefits of this practice.
I am not suggesting that in the quiet, we hear the literal audible voice of God speaking. I believe we ‘hear’ God’s voice in our spirit. When we place ourselves in a quiet environment and posture ourselves to be in complete stillness, I absolutely believe that God will speak to us by allowing our hearts and minds to sense His presence, His advice, His direction.
A very tangible example of this is when I am experiencing doubts about a situation in my life, or if I have questions on what the best way to handle a situation may be. I bring my concerns to Him and sometime later, either in quiet time with Him or even just going about my day, I believe, 100% that God responds to me in very clear words and even concepts. Not a ‘voice’, but the understanding that would come from hearing someone’s voice. The ‘end thought’, if you will. It happens so often, that I have learned to be ready to type out the directions on my smartphone so that I can capture them all. This happens in such a way that is absolute and without question, God speaking to me. A skeptic might say that the thoughts and direction that pour into my mind are of my own brainstorming. I disagree, there have been direct responses to questions I had where the responses contained context that I was unaware of. Context I would have had no way of knowing in advance. In these situations, God knows I don’t know, so He has provided me with direction and instructions on the things I did not know.
I encourage you to incorporate silence in your time with God frequently. Let this time be allocated to honor Him and allow Him a space where you are focused on Him for you to receive what He has to say.
Wrap Up
In this message, we explored 3 ways that we can hear the voice of God. We discussed several ways that God can and will use others to convey ideas, directions, and instructions to us. God will even use people that don’t believe in Him if it will accomplish His goal to give you the information you seek (or need). We learned how God can use the sounds of nature to give us a signal of His presence and touch our spirit in such a way that we will experience calm and peace. A walk in nature is an excellent opportunity to be immersed in God’s creation and to allow the sounds of nature to envelop you with His presence. Lastly, we discussed the fact that silence is an excellent environment for us to be made aware of God’s presence. We can bring our questions before God and God may choose times of silence you have with Him to provide you with the answers you need, not necessarily a literal voice in the room, but the concepts and context of the answers to your questions can and will be placed on your mind and heart in such a way you can then carry out those instructions.
God loves all of us unconditionally and rewards faithfulness with His guidance and presence. God can and will speak to us in many ways. He knows the ways that are best for us that will get our attention. Trust in God and trust that He hears every word that you speak, and expect His response in a way He knows is best for you.
Are you interested in discovering more about the guidance offered in this message? Learn more in the companion article Going Deeper with the Word: Hear the Voice of God
