How to Communicate with God

I’ve got a great question for you today as we get started, have you ever forgotten something that you learned at school? Like do you remember what you were learning in science class this time a year ago?

Of course not, because it’s common for us to hear something, even learn it and then give it a little time and we forget the important thing we learned.

Now apply that to your relationship with God for a second, have you ever learned something, and it impacted you and then over time you forgot it? That happens to everyone!

Something we want to do with these next few weeks is remind you of a few things we’ve taught over the years because everyone is prone to forget things and we believe these things are the things we don’t want you to forget! So we’re going to Say It Again! Everyone say, say it again!

Speaking of say it again, have you ever had to repeat yourself because someone didn’t hear you?

(EMCEE NOTE: tell a story of a relationship breaking down because of poor communication.)

Recently my wife was talking to me, and I didn’t realize it, because I was looking at my phone. That’s never happened to anyone in here right? Y’all have never been distracted while someone is talking to you right?

C’mon middle schoolers I know you’ve been there. Well after a little while I realized I hadn’t been paying attention to her, and she was deep in her story… when I finally locked in, she said “So anyway, that’s why we’ve got plans with them this weekend.” Oh man I was so embarrassed; I was so afraid to ask the questions that were coming to my head. Who do we have plans with? What time are those plans? Why are those plans the plans we just had to make?

You know why I was afraid to ask those questions, because it would’ve hurt my wife. Because when communication breaks down, relationships break down.

‌

Communication is THE #1 thing that causes problems in relationships.

‌

So anytime we’re talking about a relationship, we have to talk about communication. They are VERY interconnected. And yet, for as essential as relationships are, not many of us have been taught how to communicate well. And as we know, when we don’t communicate well, it can cause all kinds of problems in our relationships. It happens with our parents, our friends, and it happens with God too.

‌

But what I’ve found in my life is that, most of the problems that are caused by a communication problem, are just misunderstandings. It hardly ever feels like it in the moment, but when I look back, a lot of the problems created by my bad communication are fixable and preventable.

‌

And I say that because I wonder if some of us feel like something is fundamentally wrong in our RELATIONSHIP with God, when the reality is there’s just a misunderstanding between us and God that is both fixable and preventable.

‌

What if, through a story in the Bible, we can learn something that, if we apply it, could change our experience of hearing God?

‌‌

So together, let’s dive into this story and answer: how do we communicate with God?

TRUTH.

‌ Like how do we talk with God, maybe you’ve heard this before but we believe we can have a relationship with God, but he’s not like everyone else I can’t just sit down with him and have a conversation, I can’t text him, I can’t call him, so how do we talk with God?

Well I wanted to use the story of Gideon. We’ve talked about Gideon before but I think if we say it again we can be reminded of some things we’ve learned before.

‌

So a few important things to know about Gideon, is that he’s actually most known for a story in HYPERLINK "https://ref.ly/logosref/bible$2Besv.7.7"Judges 7 where, as he’s preparing to go to war against people from a city named Midian, and God tells him that his army is too big and eventually cuts it down from 32,000 to 300…and they WIN! It’s epic. Great war story to tell the grandkids someday.

‌

But at the center of that story is ‌ Judges 7:2–3

The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’ ” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.

‌

The story of Gideon winning the war against Midian with 300 soldiers began with the first 3 words of verse 2: The Lord said.

‌

I know it seems like a small detail that doesn’t matter, but I’m telling you, it matters a LOT because it tells us who read Gideon’s story:

‌

God Speaks.

‌

Remember, we’re talking about how to communicate well with God tonight. A very important place for us to start when talking about communicating well with God is that is that God speaks. God is actively contributing in our communication with Him. It’s very hard to communicate well with God if we don’t understand that God speaks.

‌But not only does God speak, God speaks FIRST. He initiated the conversation with Gideon. He had the first word. That matters because it meant that the first thing that Gideon brought to the table in his communication with God was that he listened.

‌

Don’t get me wrong, God absolutely wants to hear our voice. Over and over again in the Bible, God invites us to speak to Him.

‌

But.

‌

We are first invited to listen. Part of what trips us up in our communication with God is that we assume that we need to initiate, that we need to break the silence, that we need to be the one to say something first.

‌

If you feel like you’re struggling to hear from God, perhaps it’s time to get quieter, not louder. Perhaps it’s time to stop speaking, not start speaking. Maybe you’re not hearing because you’ve been too busy talking.

‌

God speaks. And God speaks first.

‌

But God speaks to you. He is not speaking to no one. Remember, we’re talking about a relationship. There is a person on the other side of God speaking, and that person is YOU. Gideon had already discovered this by the story in chapter 7 because first learned this in chapter 6.

‌

Look at Judges 6:11–17

the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said,

By the way, that phrase “the angel of the Lord” refers to Jesus before He came down to Earth. So quite literally, God the Son is speaking directly to Gideon.

“The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.” The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.” Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me.

‌

Don’t you get the sense that Gideon is surprised that he is being talked to?

‌

Like we said earlier, sometimes we have misunderstandings with God because we start by talking rather than by listening. But sometimes we have misunderstandings with God because we think He only speaks to adults, or people who haven’t sinned in 9 years, or pastors. We think God only talks to the spiritually elite. The best of the best.

‌

But clearly, Gideon wasn’t any of those things, and he knew it. He essentially told God, “there’s nothing special about me or where I came from.” In fact, he’s so convinced of this, that because he is the one being talked to, he doesn’t believe it’s actually God who is talking to him!

‌

I wonder if some of us have a misunderstanding in our relationship with God because we don’t see ourselves as the kind of person that God would talk to. Maybe you don’t feel like you even have a connection with God.

‌

And you might wonder, “well why’s that matter?”

‌

It matters because being talked to places a responsibility on you to respond.

‌

STORY. [SP’s you probably have a story like this where you have a bad connection.. Feel free to personalize]

‌

Usually when I’m on my way home from the church I call my wife, and usually she’s at our apartment. I don’t know what it is about our apartment but it has to be some type of dead zone. We can typically get a few minutes but then something starts happening on the phone where she can’t hear me, and instead there’s this crackling sound, something with the phone where it sounds like I’m underwater.

This is a problem because in any form of communication, if the connection is bad, it’s difficult to communicate.

‌

Because if you want to talk with God, you want to have a connection with Him. And you can watch this happen in Gideon’s story. After God speaks to him in verses 11-17, he goes and restores his connection to God by tearing down an idol in his town.

‌

After he was spoken to in chapter 7, he goes through the process of whittling down his army.

‌

God spoke to Gideon, and Gideon responded to God.

‌

God is speaking to you, and a connection with God is the only way to keep the conversation going. Those of us who follow Jesus call our connection with God and doing what he says, obedience. But you will never connect, you will never obey, if you feel like what God is speaking is not something that is being personally spoken to you. And maybe that is the place that is causing a misunderstanding between you and God.

‌

But the real fun part is not just that God speaks, or that God speaks to you. The fun part is that God speaks to you however He wants to.

‌

Sometimes our misunderstandings with God come from us putting limits on God.

‌

God and Gideon communicated with each other multiple times throughout his story, maintaining connection. But the way they communicated was different almost every time.

In Judges 6:11, God appeared to Gideon face-to-face.

In Judges 6:36-40, God gave Gideon signs.

‌

In Judges 7:1-7, God communicated directly to Gideon, but not face-to-face.

‌

In Judges 7:13-15, God communicated through a dream AND through another person.

‌

The way that God and Gideon communicated wasn’t the same every time. You know what else is interesting? The way God communicated with Gideon got more subtle over time. Early in the story, God appears face-to-face, the most obvious way. Then God gives Gideon signs, another obvious, although less obvious way. Then God communicates with Gideon but not face-to-face. Then God speaks to someone

‌

The deeper their connection, the more familiar they got with each other, the more subtly they communicated.

‌

It’s like the old married couple who has been married for 50 years (awww ❤️). They don’t even have to say anything anymore, they just give a little look, a little nod, a slight shrug of their shoulder and their spouse knows exactly what they’re trying to say.

‌

Some of us are misunderstanding God because we just keep trying to communicate with Him the same way every time. We assume He will ONLY communicate with us through Scripture. We think He will ONLY communicate with us at Winter Retreat. We limit how God communicate with us, so we aren’t expecting God to communicate with us when we aren’t doing that thing or in that place.

‌

We are misunderstanding God because we assume that because He is not communicating as obviously as He used to that He is no longer communicating.

‌

Both of those options are sad because God is WILDLY creative and He wants to speak to you in some beautifully creative ways. Ways that you would love and enjoy.

‌

And it’s sad because God communicating with you more subtly is quite the opposite that He has stopped communicating with you. It’s actually a progression in the maturity of your relationship together.

‌

God speaks, God speaks to you, and God speaks to you however He wants to.

‌

APPLICATION.

‌

So let’s go back to our question: How do we communicate with God? ‌

Start by listening.

‌

The first thing you bring to your relationship with Him is a listening ear. He has been and is already speaking. He is the initiator. Your first job is to listen.

‌

Here’s a way that I do that practically. When I spend time with God in the morning before I start my day, I will start a timer on my watch or phone. Sometimes it’s 5 minutes, sometimes it’s longer. And all I do for that time is sit and listen. I’ll write down what it is I think I’m hearing. Sometimes I hear God. Sometimes I don’t. But at the very least, I am giving Him space to communicate with me.

‌

If you say, “I do listen,” then respond to what you heard.

‌

Sometimes God has not communicated anything new because you haven’t responded (or obeyed) to what He said last. When you are being spoken to, you have a responsibility to respond. When God speaks, you have a responsibility to obey.

‌

And if you’ve listened and you’ve responded, then pay attention. A pastor named Charles Stone calls it “holy noticing.” I like that 🙂 Expect that God can and will speak to you HOWEVER He wants to. Get a bigger imagination for communicating with God than reading your Bible. Pay attention as you have conversations with other people, pay attention to how certain thoughts or situations make you feel during day. Pay attention to where your mind wanders when you aren’t thinking about anything in particular. Pay attention when you’re outside for a walk.

‌God speaks.

God speaks.

‌God is speaking to you.

‌

God will speak to you however He wants to.

‌

Will you listen, will you respond, and will you be paying attention when He does?

Related Media

Related Sermons

Earn an accredited degree from Redemption Seminary with Logos.