Hearing God's Voice

What does God's voice sound like?  Not like you would think.  Not in my experience, anyway.  To differentiate God's voice from your own is difficult because the Holy Spirit is inside of you, it is part of who you are, yet it is also distinct and separate.  I remember the first time I realized the voice of the Spirit.  It was strange because it had been there all along, yet I just didn't realize it.  I didn't understand what it was.  I remember marveling to myself that I had for so long prayed for God to help me hear Him, when He had been speaking to me all along.  God speaks to all those who are in Christ Jesus, the only difference is awareness.

That I hear God's voice is always something that seems to cause suspicion in others and discomfit in me.  I get it.  Our immediate understanding of the word "voice" is a literal voice forming words with sound.  When someone says they hear God's voice, that's not what they mean.  Even so, there are a lot of people who claim to hear God and you never know which ones to believe.  The church is in such a mess right now and honestly you shouldn't believe anyone who says they hear God's voice.  My advice would be to cultivate such an intimate relationship with God that you hear His voice yourself.  Read the Old Testament dialogues of God with the patriarchs and prophets and read the red letter text in the New Testament so you can learn what God's voice sounds like.  That is my advice because God's voice sounds like Scripture.  His voice sounds like the word He's already given us.  Read your Bible with a seeking heart and you may find yourself just like I did one day, recognizing His voice and marveling that He has been speaking to you all along.

We gain knowledge of God and how He speaks by reading and studying the Bible.  But I learned what God was like and gained understanding of Him through countless hours of intimate prayer. Knowledge and understanding are not necessarily the same things.  There are many people in the church who have knowledge of God from Scripture, but they have no understanding of what God is really like because they spend little to no time in prayer.  Prayer is where the Holy Spirit puts your Scripture knowledge into proper understanding.  Prayer puts personality to the text.  It is where what you read about God in words is translated to understanding of what He is like through experience.  God has given us His word to learn about Him, but He has given us prayer to know Him.  Prayer is where you commune with God and experience His personal nature.  That is why there is so much disagreement in the church as to how certain Scriptures should be translated, interpreted, and understood.  Some people interpret according to the reasoning of their own mind and human understanding, and others translate according to spiritual understanding and their knowledge of what God is really like.  It is the difference between lifeless doctrine and the living word.

Every saint in Christ is capable of "hearing" the Holy Spirit.  Every disciple of Christ is capable of cultivating a personal relationship with God to a level of intimacy in which they perceive His presence, personality, instruction and guidance.  Everyone in the Body of Christ has been given some sort of spiritual gift to be used for the edification of the body and for God's will, purpose and glory.  Along with those gifts, comes an extra measure of the Holy Spirit for whatever is needed to use that gift effectively and uniquely.  For those with the gift of mercy, the Holy Spirit gives them a supernatural measure of empathy.  For those with the gift of giving, a supernatural measure of generosity.  For those with the gift of teaching, a supernatural measure of articulate communication.  For those with the gift of encouragement, a supernatural measure of hope and optimism.  For those with the gift of administration, a supernatural measure of organization and confidence.  For those with the gift of service, a supernatural measure of selflessness.  For those with the prophetic gift, a supernatural measure of discernment and sensitivity to God's voice.

God gives us these gifts because of His grace and by the power of His Spirit, but we still have to learn how to use them correctly or we can cause harm in the body rather than help.  If I gave my four-year-old daughter a Yukon Denali SUV, it would be a powerful, marvelous gift.  But it would take her time to grow in maturity and experience to have the knowledge and understanding of how to use it and not hurt herself or others.  So, discover what your spiritual gift of God's grace is.  Learn how to use it.  Mine is to hear Gods voice and even though He's been developing it in me for years, I'm still learning.  And one of the things I've learned is when people tell you they can hear God, don't believe them.  Never believe them.  First, learn to distinguish God's voice yourself.  Then, and only then, will you know which ones of us are telling the truth.

Just as each of us has one body with many members, and not all members have the same function, so in Christ we who are many are one body, and each member belongs to one another.  We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If one's gift is prophecy, let him use it in proportion to his faith; if it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is giving, let him give generously; if it is leading, let him lead with diligence; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. (Rom 12:4-8)

...All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, Who apportions them to each one as He determines. The body is a unit, though it is comprised of many parts. And although its parts are many, they all form one body. So it is with Christ. (1 Cor 12:11,12)

Do not extinguish the Spirit.  Do not treat prophecies with contempt, but test all things. Hold fast to what is good. (1 Thess 5:19-21)

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)