Hearing from God doesn't have to be as difficult as you think. Here are some common ways God talks to you every single day. The trick is in learning how to listen.
Wouldn't it be great if God decided to use billboards to talk to you? Just think,
you could be driving down the road and God could simply choose one of a zillion billboards on the side of the road to get your attention. There you'd be with a mapped out message right from God. Pretty cool, huh? I've often thought that method would certainly work for me! On the other hand, He could use something more subtle. Like a gentle rap on the side of head whenever you veer off the course. Yup, there's a thought.....God smacking people whenever they weren't listening. I'm afraid we'd all be walking around pretty much in a daze from all that "activity". Hearing from God is a learned skill. Of course, you could be one of the lucky ones like Moses, who was walking up the mountain, minding his own business, when he stumbled onto the burning bush. Most of us don't have those kinds of encounters so we find ourselves looking for skills to help us hear from God.
How Can I Tell if God is Talking to Me?
His WORD In order to actually "hear" from God, you have to know some things about God's character. You need to develop an understanding of who God is, and the way He does things. Fortunately, all that info is available in the Bible. The book goes into a lot of detail about how you can expect God to react, what kinds of expectations He has for you, and most specifically, how He expects you to treat other people. It's actually a pretty good book, given its age.
Other People Many times God will use other people to try to get through to you. It's possible for God to use anyone at any time, but I find more messages coming from people who are practicing Christians than non-practicing ones.
Your Circumstances Sometimes the only way God can teach you something is to allow circumstances in your life to lead you to and THROUGH the very thing you need to discover. One of my favorite authors, Joyce Meyer, says, "There's no such thing as a drive-through break-through.
The Still Small Voice Most of the time God uses a tiny voice inside you to let you know when you're not on the right path. Some people call it "the voice of peace". Whenever you're contemplating something and you don't have peace about it, it's a very good idea to stop and carefully look at the options. There's usually a reason you don't feel peace about it.
THE ACTUAL VOICE Sometimes youe're able to "hear" something in your spirit that sounds like an actual audible voice. Or all of a sudden, you just know you heard something. Pay attention to those occasions because it is very likely God trying to tell you something.
When God Talks......Shut Up and Listen Let me give you an example. A couple years ago I signed up to become a hospital visitor for my church. When I first saw the notice in our church bulletin, I immediately felt I should respond. But, I let it pass. Over the next couple of weeks, the thought occurred to me off and on so I said to myself, "If I see the notice in the bulletin this coming Sunday, I'll sign up." Of course, it was in there. But this time when I saw it, there was no getting away from it. I finally had to say, "OK, OK God, I'm going!" So there I was doing hospital visits for the first time. I was nervous, but I prayed A LOT before I went, and I was doing OK. But on my way to my second hospital, I prayed again that God would use me to represent Him to all the sick people, giving comfort, etc. Right in front of the hospital was a crosswalk with a traffic light. As I stood at the corner I kept praying, starting to cross, even though the light was red. I mean, I was in a hurry trying to get to all those sick people! Right in the middle of the street I heard, "So you want to represent Me, and you can't even make it across the street without breaking the law?" I was so shocked by this, I said the most spiritual thing I could think of .... "Oops". God uses lots of things to talk to you. But actually hearing from God isn't so much a matter of "IF" He's talking, it's whether you're listening. For more help in this area, go to How to Hear from God
