How To Hear God

I believe God is real and clearly communicates His heart and intentions towards people. Practically speaking though, hearing God isn’t easy. These days you can text a counselor and you’ll hear back within 24 hours, but it doesn’t seem like it’s that easy to hear from God, and God is everywhere. Always there…but not always heard.We can get so distracted by good things, being passionate about a cause, starting a family and pursuing a career. Wrong things done to us & wrong things we have done can also affect how we hear God. To make it more complicated, those of us who hear God, would say we “hear” differently. Some people hear God through visions, feelings, ideas, circumstances, nature, the list goes on…and even though we all hear God differently, we all are called (and expected by God) to live by the same standard. That standard is the Bible. No other message from any method of “hearing” is greater than the message we read from the Bible. (Read that sentence again, it’s true!) The Bible is the standard. If what God is communicating to us, doesn’t line up with the Bible, then I question if it’s God speaking. It could be just a really big, good idea. It could also be an easy way out of addressing a situation, we should address.Three things I know about hearing God:1. The Bible is Gods number one way of talking to us.2. Hearing God takes discipline, it is a process you must practice.3. If we aren’t reading our bible, we can’t hear clearly.When I read the Bible I don’t hear an audible voice like I just pressed play on a podcast. I read the bible in my own voice, but I read to hear God. How? When I read, I look for His words and actions. I become aware of how He leads individuals or people groups. When they obey or don’t obey,  I look for Gods response to it. If God is the same, yesterday, today and forever, (Hebrews 13:8) then I can trust that when I obey or disobey, God will lead me the same way. This is what I look for. I look for “Gods ways.” That is how to hear God, by reading and studying, looking for Him through the pages of the written word.So in order to hear God daily, I need to be reading the Bible daily. Daily learning how He thinks, and what His intensions are for me. I need to let those ideas impact my attitudes and choices.I believe God will support His word with The Word. I believe He will speak to you if you will listen, and read your bible. Hearing = Reading. I challenge you to find a reading plan and start to read, and look for Gods ways. Hide those in your heart, and think about them often. Let His words and actions, from The Word, affect your words and actions. Be encouraged! Be challenged! Read the Bible and live by the standard, because you have heard God. Does that make sense? Photo by rawpixel.com.