Hearing The Voice Of God – Part 1

God enjoys speaking to His children and the many chapters in the Bible is testament to the fact that we serve a speaking God. God loves speaking to His people and in the old dispensation (in the old testament), His voice was mostly heard by his prophets and priests, but in the new dispensation (in the New Testament), He has given everyone access to His voice; so we read in Acts 2:17 that, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams”.

God is always speaking, but our challenge is that we cannot hear Him. The Bible says in Job 33:14, “For God may speak in one way, or in another, Yet man does not perceive it”. One of the traditional or common ways that God can speak to you is through His servants the prophets, but I won’t be talking about hearing God through a prophet on this occasion. I want to talk about other ways God can speak to you.

I will share with you ways in which by scripture, and by my experiences, you can perceive the voice of the Lord. The Bible tells us that as believers, we must be led by the Spirit, although we are flesh and blood.

The first way you can hear the voice of the Lord is through His word. The Bible says in Isaiah 40:8, “The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.” Reading the Bible daily or consistently, guarantees you access to the voice of your Maker. When you buy a new gadget it comes with a manual on how to set it up successfully; in the same way the Word of God gives you guidelines on how to live your life and make choices. I remember a few years ago I read the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:30- 36 which reads as follows:

“Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among [i]thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”

In that same week I read the scripture, I was faced with a real life situation in which a motor rider had had an accident and passersby refused to take him to the hospital because he was bleeding profusely. As I got to the scene, I asked the people around what was going on and when I was told, I decided to pick the victim of the accident up and take him to the hospital (see attached photo). It then dawned on me that the scripture I was reading was telling me about a real life situation I was going to be faced with, and I had the choice of becoming a passerby or a Good Samaritan. God speaks to us mainly through His word, so developing a good quiet time routine assures you hearing the voice of the Lord daily.

It then dawned on me that the scripture I was reading was telling me about a real life situation that I was going to be faced with, and I had the choice of becoming a passerby or a good samaritan. God speaks to us mainly through His word, so developing a good quiet time routine assures you hearing the voice of the Lord daily.

You can also hear the voice of the Lord through your dreams. The Bible says in Job 33:14-15, “For God may speak in one way, or in another, Yet man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, When deep sleep falls upon men, While slumbering on their beds”. This scripture means that God can speak to you in dreams. God spoke to Abraham in a dream in Genesis 15:12 and told Him about His descendants becoming captives. God also spoke to Joseph about how his siblings will bow down to him in the future through his dream in Genesis 37. God spoke to Joseph, the man Mary was betrothed to about their unborn son Jesus In Matthew Chapter 1 and also about Herod’s plan against Jesus in Matthew Chapter 2:13, which reads,

“Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.”

Dreams are one of the great mediums God can speak to you. I have had many dreams where God showed me various opportunities, plans of the devil and mandates or assignments He wanted me to embark on. This blog, which is a mandate from God, is a result of a dream. Many people have many dreams but do not understand. You will need the gift of interpretation to understand your dreams. I will touch on this in another blog post. Do not think your dreams are a waste; write them down, and begin to seek interpretation and you will realize that God has been speaking some profound things to you through dreams.

God can speak to us using many things or through various mediums. In Numbers 22:28, God spoke to the prophet Balaam through a donkey. The scripture reads, “Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?”.

You need to be led by the Holy Spirit to discern the voice of the Lord as He uses diverse means to speak to us. I personally do not play with scriptures behind “trotros” (commercial buses in Ghana). Anytime I see a scripture, I take a snapshot or quickly look up the scripture and 99 percent of the time it speaks a word that encourages or it speaks directly to an issue I am facing or it gives just the word I need for that season of my life. See below a picture:

Sermons on Sundays are also one of the ways to hear the voice of God. Have you been to church where the preacher’s sermon addressed your issue or question you had in mind all week? God uses men of God to tell you His mind concerning various things such as, where He wants to take you; or a word that can transform your walk with Him. When Peter entered the house of Cornelius in Acts Chapter 10, Peter preached the exact words that Cornelius and His household needed to hear to be saved. He did not have to lay hands or anoint any of them and the Holy Ghost fell on them. The scripture reads, “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word”. It is time you take your Sunday sermons in church seriously as it carries the word of God for the season.

Are there some other ways God has spoken to you? Share in the comments section below, I would love to hear from you..