As I read back through the posts on Willard’s “Hearing God”, some themes stuck out to me…here goes:
- Our Motive: Too often, we want to hear from God to determine the correct course of action in a specific circumstance. In these cases, we can be overly concerned with helping ourselves rather than helping others or honoring God. The goal of hearing from God should be the transformation of our minds, lives and hearts. When this happens, we will know and do the will of God quite naturally!
- His Word: God speaks in many ways, but He always speaks in unison with His written Word. Do you want to hear from God? Do you want to be transformed by Him? Figure out a way to regularly read and meditate on the Bible. You must do this.
- Our Experience: In addition to the Word, God can and does speak through prayer, our own “inner voice”, experiences and other people. When we promote these secondary methods of communication above His Word we can get into trouble. However, when all of them combine into a unified message, we can be reasonably assured of God’s desired direction.
- Our Hindrances: Think he doesn’t speak to you? Consider some possible reasons you don’t hear from Him when He speaks. First, perhaps you aren’t listening. Second, perhaps you don’t really want to hear what He is telling you. Third, maybe your life revolves more around you than it does around Him.
As Jesus Himself promised, if we seek Him, He will be found! I know of many cases where His voice was clearly heard by His followers. My prayer for all of us is that we would seek Him with the right motives, through His Word in our everyday experiences. My prayer is that we would find Him, become more like Him and therefore do what He would do!
