How to Hear God’s Voice
God’s voice is there all the time, we just have to tune in, like tuning the dial on a radio. We live in a world of chaotic noise so it is a matter of picking up a specific frequency and ignoring everything else. It is a matter of learning how to tune in to God’s voice, for He is always speaking in the continuous present tense.
In the Beginning the Word
The Apostle John begins his writing with the statement, ‘In the beginning was the Word’, John 1:1. This is the same terminology that Genesis starts with, Genesis 1:1. Before the universe was even created, the Word existed.
The ‘Word’ has all the attributes or essence of deity in it. God’s Word is His all-powerful self-expression in creation, wisdom, revelation, redemption and salvation. Once it is spoken it is never ‘unspoken’.
The Word Created
God created the universe from His Word. He spoke to nothing, and it became something, Genesis 1. ‘By the Word of the Lord, the heavens were made. And by the breath of His mouth all their host’, Psalm 33:6. His Word is the most powerful force in the universe.
In scientific terms, God’s Word is cause and effect. The Word is God’s unseeable energy and power. ‘The worlds were framed by the Word of God’, Hebrews 11:3. ‘He holds all things together’, Colossians 1:17.
The Word Formed Man
God breathed on clay, and it became a man, Genesis 2:7. When sin entered in, God decreed the death of all men, Genesis 3:19. Immortal man became mortal, open to all the miseries and sufferings of life, separated from God, for the wages of sin is death, Romans 6:23.
When He announced the death sentence, God also announced man’s way back to Him through the death and resurrection of His only begotten Son, Genesis 3:19.
God’s Voice Before the Written Word
God’s Word existed long before the written word, the Bible came into existence. Yet, when God speaks the Word is a continuous present verb tense, Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. The definition is an action that is now, frequent, and continues into the future. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit all speak in the continuous present.
God’s Voice is like a continuous roll of thunder that never ends. ‘My word which goes forth from My mouth will not return to Me empty. It will accomplish what I desire and will succeed in the matter for which I sent it’, Isaiah 56:11. People explained the sound of God’s Voice as thunder, John 12:29, yet they spoke a reality. Only their unbelief stopped them from interpreting the sound correctly.
God’s Voice is Unchangeable
God’s Word is unchangeable. Jesus said, ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away,’ Matthew 24:35. He also said, ‘My words are spirit and life,’ John 6:63. His Word is valid yesterday, today and forever. for God’s Word is eternal, Psalm 119:89. It is everlasting rather than timeless, with no ending.
God lives in His Word, which is what makes His written word so powerful. When you read the Bible, it is a living word that is full of fresh revelation each time you read it. It is a Word for today as the Spirit of God speaks to you. Without His Voice there would be no revelation, for the written word is the inevitable outcome of God’s continuous Voice.
God’s Word is Everywhere
The ancient Hebrews called God’s word, wisdom. It was everywhere. ‘For the eyes of the Lord move and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His’, 2 Chronicles 16:9. He is everywhere, Psalm 139:7–10.
God actively seeks us out, as a Shepherd searches for His sheep, Ezekiel 34:11. ‘If you will seek Him, He will let you find Him, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you’, 2 Chronicles 15:8. God asks man to respond to His Word, which is His love, John 3:16, for ‘He loved us first’, 1 John 4:19.
There is no escaping the Word of God, for His word affects the heart of all men. Man has been given a free will, so he can choose to accept the Word of God or reject it. Man will be without excuse when he comes face-to-face with His creator, Romans 1:21.
God’s Voice is Quiet
Even though God’s Voice is universal, fallen man has trained his ear to ignore the voice of God. When God speaks many explain it away with, “That’s just my thoughts”, or they choose to listen to their own ego-driven instincts.
The prophet Elijah felt as if the Lord and everyone else had abandoned him. He hid miserably, and forlornly in a cave in the mountains. First there came a strong wind that broke the rocks to pieces. Then an earthquake, and then a fire. God wasn’t in any of those. Finally, there was a gentle blowing sound. God was the quiet whispering voice.
Religion revels in pomp and ceremony, noise, size, activity and bluster. Yet it is through the still small voice that the Word speaks to the heart of the believer. It is a voice that speaks on a personal level. ‘Be still and know that I AM God’, Psalm 46:10. Our strength lies in listening to that quiet, friendly voice when we learn to cease from striving. The unbeliever foolishly wants to be a god in his own right, just as Satan tempted in the Garden of Eden, Genesis 3:5 and Jesus in Matthew 4.
God’s Voice is never Silent
God is constantly communicating. He is more willing to communicate than we are to listen, because the Heavenly Father desires a relationship with His sons and daughters for His pleasure. That is why He sent His only Son to pay the price and die an horrendous death, that we might have open communication with the Father. Jesus said, ‘I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me’, John 14:6.
It is God’s nature to speak, and He speaks continuously, always in the continuous present. If only we would still the clamour of the world and tune our ears to hear the still small Voice. The chaos of voices rush at us every hour of every day, trying to gain our attention. In this world of instant communication, we struggle to find places of quiet, yet it is the key to hearing God’s Voice. That still small voice that is deep within our psyche.
Eight times in book of Revelation the promises of God are prefaced with ‘To he who has an ear to hear…..’.
Conclusion
Don’t be fooled by those who would proclaim a false Word, for unerringly His Word to His people will align to the written Word. Whatever you ‘hear’ line it up with the Bible for God cannot operate outside His Word of John 1:1.
Become familiar with the sound of the Word, just as we are familiar with and recognize the voice of a loved one. Tune in today, for God’s Voice is constantly speaking to you. Ask, Seek and Knock and don’t quit until you hear it above all other noise.
