Do You Want To Hear From God?
I have yet to meet a Christian who didn’t want to hear from God. As believers and followers of Jesus, we all want to hear from God. So today, I want to give you 5 very specific steps that can help you hear from God.
5 Specific Steps To Help You Hear From God
1. Get in God’s presence
Let me start with a few questions. How can we expect to hear from God if we don’t get in His presence? Can we hear from God on the go? Will He speak to us when we are throwing up popcorn prayers as we scurry throughout our day going from here to there? Actually, I do think He can and sometimes does. But we aren’t set up in the best way for this to happen if we miss the opportunity to get in God’s presence.
So exactly what do I mean when I say, get in God’s presence?
With Jesus as our example, I will tell you.
Prior to the initiation and establishment of His earthly ministry, Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness alone.
Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.
Luke 4:1
Matthew 14 shows us two times when Jesus set out to be alone in His Father’s presence.
First, when Jesus heard about the death of John the Baptist, He sought solitude.
When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself.
Matthew 14:13a
Second, after Jesus worked all day healing the sick and feeding thousands…
And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came He was alone there.
Matthew 14:23
Luke 6 tells us about Jesus addressing the disgruntled Pharisees and scribes who were indignant with His healings on the Sabbath. Luke 6:11 tells us that they were filled with rage over what to do about Jesus. The very next verse tells us how Jesus responded.
Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray,
and continued all night in prayer to God.
Luke 6:12
So, as we see in these specific verses, Jesus got alone with God to prepare, initiate, and establish His earthly ministry. In times of grief and after hours of compassionately giving of Himself, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and even facing those who sought His harm, Jesus got alone with His heavenly Father. However, Luke 5:16 lets us know that this was not for only the big issues of life, but that this was common to Jesus.
So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.
Luke 5:16
If Jesus needed to get alone with God the Father to hear from Him, surely, we too recognize the importance of separating ourselves from our life and our busyness to be in God’s presence.
2. Be Specific In Your Prayers
How many times did Jesus ask someone what they wanted from Him? Matthew 20:29-33; Mark 10:46-52; and Luke 18:35-43 recorded the story of blind men crying out to Jesus. And Jesus responded.
So Jesus stood still and called them, and said, “What do you want me to do?”
Matthew 20:32
Two other times Jesus asked a similar question to His disciples.
Andrew and an unknown disciple:
Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?”
John 1:38a
James and John:
And He said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?”
Mark 10:36
Think about the times that the Bible shows us how Jesus knew what people were thinking even when they had not said anything. I submit that Jesus knew what they wanted, just as He knows what we want. However, the point isn’t that Jesus knows, but that the priority to Jesus is a relationship with us. Asking questions, wanting His answers, and spending time in His presence is the essence of relationship.
3. Get in his Word
From the beginning, God has spoken to mankind. He can speak in many different ways, but I believe His primary way is through His word. The Bible is our tangible way to know God, to know what He likes and dislikes, to know who He is, what He does and does not do. It also shows us how He created us to be. The Bible is our standard and our guide.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Psalm 119:105
How can we know what God says, if we don’t spend time reading and learning the Bible? I believe we hear from God when we read and grow in our knowledge and understanding of the Bible.
4. Be still in His presence
Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
Psalm 46:10
This point ties into our first point today of getting in God’s presence and taking the time to get alone with God. However, if you are like me and you don’t do well with stillness, you might do steps 1-3 and think you did what you needed to do. In my 30 Days To A More Confident And Connected Prayer Life Program, every day one of the practical exercises is to sit still and quiet in the Lord’s presence for 2-3 minutes before ending your prayer time. That is the hardest part of the time I spend in prayer.
My default setting exemplifies a Martha. I’m a doer, always striving to accomplish something and see results. But I have learned that the greatest results come when I give God time to whisper to my heart when I have sought Him through prayer.
5. Engage your faith
Simply stated, our faith pleases God and He rewards us when we seek Him in faith.
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Hebrews 11:6
Dear Sister,
Today I gave you 5 very specific steps that can help you hear from God. But understand that this isn’t a to-do list. This is about a relationship with God and as long as we seek Him out of a desire for relationship and a personal encounter with Him, we have tuned into His heart. But if we only seek Him when we are facing a problem or issue in life, we miss the whole point. Jesus loves you and wants to be in a relationship with you!
