Can you hear God

The Beginner’s Guide to Fasting 1. Get Ready

1. Get Ready

Think back to school and how you used to prepare for class. One of the best ways to fully hear and understand a teacher’s lecture was to be ready when class began. This meant being in your seat with books open and pen ready to take notes. Getting your faculties and materials ready to listen helped you get more from a teacher’s lecture. In the same way, when you fast and seek God, have your Bible open and your notebook ready, and tune your faculties to the voice of God.

2. Get Quiet

Often we can’t hear the other person because we do too much talking. If we want to hear from God, we must quit talking so that God can speak. “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10). If you do all the talking, all you’ll learn is what you already know.

3. Get Focused

When you’ve got something important to say to a friend, you don’t just blurt it out when you first see them. You get focused; you want them to pay attention to you. You wouldn’t share something intimate with a person who wasn’t listening to you, would you? God will not tell you an intimate thought, either, until He has your attention.

4. Get Rid of Distractions

When a man proposes to a woman, he doesn’t want anything to distract them from the moment. He goes to a special place and makes sure he has her attention before asking the “BIG” question. You can listen to God anywhere—on a crowded commuter train, in your office cubicle, jogging or driving. A quiet place is best because there are no distractions, but such a spot is not always available. Learn to block out noises and distractions to listen to God. Watch the businessman reading the newspaper on the commuter train. He’s not listening to the rumble of the train or to conversations around him. He is focused only on the newspaper. With a little effort, you can focus on prayer, reading or meditation.

5. Get Still

The concept of “being still” usually refers to the absence of physical movement, but not always. You can “be still” before God as you jog, exercise in a weight room, or fly on a crowded plane. The secret is developing a “still spirit”—a listening spirit—and not just a still body. “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10

The Beginner’s Guide to Fasting Three-Step Bible Study

1. What prayers do not get answered? List a few times you felt God didn’t answer your prayers.

“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear [me]” (Ps. 66:18).

“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear” (Isa. 59:1–2).

“Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him” (John 9:31).

English Standard Version Chapter 3

The People of Nineveh Repent

6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.