Listening

"The voice of the Lord is powerful; 
The voice of the Lord is majestic." 

We've been talking a lot in this space about the importance of doing what God says when He tells us to do something. The idea of which makes up the basis of living the unfiltered life that we desire. He speaks, we act. When we hear His prompting, we obey. This all begs the question though, how exactly do we go about actually hearing what He is saying? How do we hear His majestic voice? How do we know what it is we are supposed to do?

We're not necessarily talking about the "What is God's will for my life?" type of question right now. That is more of a big picture, long term discernment type of issue. While that is very much a part of the unfiltered life, what we want to focus on for now are those gentle, subtle promptings and hearing that "still small voice". I don't claim to have a lot of answers on this one but I can share what I've learned and how I go about hearing that voice. I would love to see the comments area below fill up with other thoughts, ideas and suggestions. So with that said, here are a few ideas to help you listen and hear His voice.
  1. Be familiar with His Word. God will never ask us to do something that is inconsistent with what His Word says in the Bible. To know what is and is not consistent, you need to know what's in there!
  2. Develop a strong practice of prayer. When you pray, take some time to be quiet and just listen. In these quiet times, you'll start to get tuned in to what God might be speaking to you. As you get comfortable hearing Him then, you'll be more apt to hear Him in a different, less structured setting.
  3. Keep God near the front of your mind (as opposed to the back!) The more you think about God and what He might be up to, the more apt you are to discern that thing you feel or what you might be hearing is actually His Holy Spirit prompting you.
  4. Be quiet. You can't hear if you're not listening. And it's really hard to listen when you're the one talking.
  5. Be expectant. If you're attitude is such that you believe God is going to "speak" to you, then you will be much more apt to hear Him when He does.
  6. Practice. The more you act on what you feel you are being prompted to do, the more comfortable you will get with it and the easier it will be to answer the question, "Is that God or is that just me?"
  7. Talk about your experiences with fellow believers. Be encouraged by them and help encourage others. My desire is that this space becomes one avenue for you to do just that.
I hope that this is somewhat helpful to you. My prayer is that there is at least one little nugget in here somewhere that speaks to you and makes it easier for you to hear His Voice; and thus easier to live obediently and unfiltered. And please do add comments below. I know for certain that those of you who read this blog regularly have an enormous amount of wisdom to share in this area. So, listen and watch the video below and if you feel prompted to add to the conversation, please do so. Thank you in advance for sharing with all of us.







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