I just started reading a book that has been on my bookshelf for 10 years.  Last night, I finally started reading it.  It is called “Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship With God” by Dallas Willard.  Read this excerpt from the book and see if it doesn’t hit you between the eyes:

How do we hear God’s voice? How can we be sure that what we think we hear is not our own subconscious? What if what God says to us is not clear?

Being close to God means communicating with him, and this communication is a two-way street—telling him what is on our hearts in prayer and hearing and understanding what he is saying to us. It is this second half of our conversation with God that is so important but can also be so difficult. How can you be sure God is speaking to you? The key is to focus not so much on individual actions and decisions as on building our personal relationship with our Creator. Hearing God is but one dimension of a richly interactive relationship, and obtaining guidance is but one facet of hearing God.

I believe it is God’s goal for us to have a “richly interactive relationship” with Him.  I believe we can hear Him, but only when we understand a few things:

1. How He speaks.
2. How we can listen.
3. What is really motivating our desire to hear from Him.

Perhaps you have tasted it before, or maybe you can honestly say you’ve never experienced that kind of relationship with God.  Let me say with clarity that it is possible…and it is amazing.  I would say with equal clarity that it is what He had in mind when he created you in the first place.

I’m going to spend the next few weeks blogging through this book.  If a “richly interactive relationship” with God is what you desire, I’d invite you to stay tuned.  If you know someone else that longs for that same thing, invite them to subscribe to RunInSuchAWay using the “Subscribe to this Blog” box in the upper right-hand corner.

I can’t wait!

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