Listening for God

I. What Keeps me from Listening to God?

When it comes to hearing God are there things that keep us from listening (Listening implies thinking, believing, feeling, doing, or responding to what God says, not merely hearing with your ears)?

Stuck in hearing in a particular way. (The question is asking if this is really a problem, meaning if there is a way I know my kids understand me more clearly I will most often use that to communicate to them. I don’t feel God is really any different, there are ways that He speaks to each person individually that we understand. The problem would then be imposing my way on everyone else. You see this often with believers, they hear a certain way and expect everyone else to hear in the same way. There are two equal problems with this: a) It can cause us to not listen as closely to others when they say they heard God speak and it is not in our preferred way. b) It can keep us from thinking that our hearing of God is beyond being questioned.)

Tuning God out. There are definitely ways we tune God out, often it is through our inattention, we are inattentive because we limit when and where God can speak to us in some cases. The person who says that God can only speak while sitting at their Bibles with a journal will limit how they interact with God throughout the day. But even the one who believes that God can speak while they are on the move may believe that God does not want to speak or that they don’t need to hear God voice in specific situations because they “got this”.

Perhaps the biggest way we tune people out is when we are busy and focused intently on something. When we are working on something we can tend to tune out the people around us. Maybe we think God is tuning us out?

Lack of faith.

“Is this God speaking”

Lack of Courage.

“I am too scared to do what God is asking me to do even though I know that it is Him speaking.”

II. Ways we hear God?

Other people

(“When we don’t allow other people to speak into our lives, it is often a sign that we are not allowing God to speak to us either.” (Dixon, p. 91)

a. Teaching of others

b. Counsel of others

c. Prophecy of others

Angel

Word of the Lord

(how God delivered from the Egyptians)

Audible voice (v. 23)

Thought/impression/internal voice (v. 25)

Thought: Random thought to do, say or believe something

Impression: Imprint/gut feeling; fades quickly if you don’t act on it, easily dismissed

Internal Voice: More than an thought a voice that is clear

visions/dreams (7:13-14)

Fleece: Sign (with the intention of assurance)