Many of us have found ourselves hard pressed and unable to press through the confusion and noise that has filled this world, so many are looking for counsel from the Lord but believe they cannot hear him or believe he is not speaking. The truth is the Lord is speaking and the Lord desires for his children to know him and to walk in the clarity of his voice because that’s where we will find safety and understanding.
You may be wondering,
but how?
How can I
hear his voice for myself?
How can I
really hear him and walk in the revelation of what he wants for me in this
season?
I myself
found myself in this very spot a few years ago and that’s where my journey of
seeking the voice of the Lord began. I realized that the many circumstances
that seem caotic usually are the places that lead us to finding his voice if we
take the time to look for his voice in those moments.
I am
actually reminded of prophet Elijah who himself had to find the voice of the
Lord for himself in the midst of change, turmoil in his society, fear and the
unknown concerning his tomorrow (1 kings 19)
Is that not
where many of us are finding ourselves today?
The Lord was
faithful to meet him where he was, that he refreshed him, He spoke to him and
also gave direction concerning his next steps.
17Elijah was a man with a nature like
ours [with the same physical, mental, and spiritual limitations and
shortcomings]- James 5:17a AMP
This means
we have the access to what Elijah experienced with the Lord, that in the same
way the Lord showed up to him we can expect for him to show up when we seek
him.
HOW TO POSITION OURSELVES TO HEAR.
1.
BELIEVE
I believe that our belief plays a huge role in
us being able to hear the Lord and comprehend that it’s the Lord speaking to
us. As we pursue the voice of the Lord and hear what he wants to say to us we
need to believe these three things.
·
Believe
God speaks today
·
Believe
He cares and wants to talk to you
·
Believe
that you have the ability to hear him and obey.
Lets look at
the below scripture..
“It’s impossible to please God apart
from faith. And why? Because anyone who
wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and
that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.” Hebrews 11:6 MSG
It takes
faith to hear the Lord and it takes a heart that believes in Gods ability to
show himself to his people and speak into their very circumstances and actually
give direction and solutions to things that may seem impossible.
For some
time in my life I believed the Lord spoke to an elected few, I was not taught
that the Lord wants to talk to me as an individual and have an intimate
relationship with me, I believed hearing the Lord was hard and that I needed to
really be anointed in the prophetic for me to have the Lord direct me in life
but that’s not true. We are created to walk out our life with the Lord and to
have him direct our path and counsel us concerning the circumstances we may
face in life.
Heres why we need to hear him:
24The very steps we take come from
God;
otherwise how would we know where
we’re going? Proverbs 20:24 MSG
24Man’s steps are ordered and
ordained by the Lord.
How then can a man [fully] understand
his way? Proverbs 20:24 AMP
Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to
my path. Psalms 119:105 NKJV
23 The steps of a good man are [d]ordered by the Lord,
And He delights in his way.
24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down;
For the Lord upholds him with His hand. Psalms
37:23-24 NKJV
From these verses
we see the importance of hearing the Lord for ourselves that way we will know
where to go and how to get there, we will know our ways are aligned with the
plan the Lord has for us and that will give us peace even in the midst of life’s
storms.
Now who can
hear the Lord?
The One thing that qualifies you to
hear!!
“27My sheep hear my voice, and I know
them, and they follow me.”-John 10:27 ESV (2016)
As a child
of God you are part of the Lords sheep fold, you know his voice in your heart,
you have the ability to hear him as he speaks to you because you are His and
are able to walk to his instruction and follow him.
So let us
throw away all the lies we believed that we cannot hear him, that he speaks
only to the elected few and let us position ourselves with open ears to hear
the voice of the Lord as he speaks.
·
What
are some things you have believed concerning hearing the Lords voice for
yourself?
·
From
reading the above would you say you have believed the truth or a lie?
·
How
can you solidify your belief in the lord speaking to you and your ability to
hear him?
2.
BE AVAILABLE TO GOD
In any
relationship in order for our thoughts and perspectives to be heard and
understood the other person has to avail themselves to hear and see things in
our perspective for them to understand our heart towards a particular matter, they
cannot assume to know but they need time invested in the relationship to know
our heart, our nature and thought Patterns. The same apply with our
relationship with the Lord.
There needs
to be an availability that is not rushed that grows over time to get to know
his nature and his heart and as we learn this we are able to know his voice and
discern that its actually him speaking to us in that moment.
Would you
say you are seeking the Lord or seeking his heart daily? For us to hear we need
to be making room for the Lord to speak. We need to be making time to be alone
with him to Listen and also position ourselves to receive what he would want
for us to know at any moment.
Hebrews 11:
6 at the end states that “that he cares enough to respond to those who seek
him.”Meaning that He desires for us to look for him to consider what his
view may be, to involve him in our lives.
Lets look at
the meaning of seek, I found this meaning from Hebrew4christians.com website:
SEEK." Two different Hebrew
words are used to express the idea of "seeking" the LORD in this
verse. The first word is darash (דָּרַשׁ), which means to inquire or search
carefully for something, and the second is bakash (בָּקַשׁ), which
means to request something desired.
Now our
seeking looks different for each of us according to our lifestyles and routines,
but we always need to make room. The lord did promise that those who seeK him
will find him.
13-14“When
you come looking for me, you’ll find me. Jeremiah
29:13-14MSG
13Then [with a deep longing] you will
seek Me and require Me [as a vital necessity] and [you will] find Me when you
search for Me with all your heart. 14I will be found by you,’ says the Lord,-Jeremiah
29:13-14a AMP
This is a
promise the Lord intends to keep, he will show up and speak to you and give you
direction. You will not seek him in vain or lay out your heart to him and he be
unresponsive. Diligently make a decision for seek after him daily.
Now our
lifestyles are different and our seeking will also look different for each of
us, however that looks like the Lord will meet you where you are so find your
rhythm with him.
Do not be
afraid to seek /search for him and do not grow weary in your seeking of him.
Over and
over in scripture we see people who intentionally sought the Lord,
intentionally made space even in the midst of the busy day to day
responsibility of life they still chose to set aside time to pray,to be in the
presence of the Lord .
The Lord
Jesus set out this template for us that
we can easily follow in his footsteps to seeking our heavenly father, no matter
how busy He was He always made time since He knew for his assignment to be
fulfilled he needed to constantly be receiving counsel and direction from His
heavenly father.
Lets look at
some of the verses where we see the Lord Jesus setting aside time to pray.
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a
solitary place, where he prayed. Mark 1:35NIV
16 But Jesus often withdrew
to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5:16NIV
12 One of those days Jesus went
out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to
God. Luke 6:12NIV
From these
few verses and many others we see how the Lord Jesus made time to be with the
father to pray,to listen and to receive direction concerning his ministry on
the earth.
The words
that stands out for me : Very early in the morning,Solitary place, often withdrew,
lonely place, Mountain side and spent the night praying.
All these
places are places away from the noise of the world, away from distraction, away
from other people to be alone with God and he did it with intentionality.
How much
more then are we called to do this in our very lives. It may be Morning, Midday
or all night long what matters is the heart posture to dedicate ourselves to
times alone with our heavenly father.
“Here’s what I want you to do: Find a
quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be
there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you
to God, and you will begin to sense his grace. “The world is full of so-called
prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs
and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall
for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows
better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray
very simply. Matthew 6:6-13 MSG
Keep it
simple and trust deep in your heart and expect God to show up.
3. READ THE WORD
One of the
safest place to be as you seek to learn to hear the voice of the Lord is to be
in the word of God.
The word of God is the heart of God for his people
·
The
word of God teaches us the nature of God
·
The
word of God transforms our thinking to be aligned to Gods perspective on
matters.
·
Most
of all the word of God is God himself.
I would not
recommend anyone to bypass the word of God especially when learning to hear the
Lord, this is a guard rail that will protect you from deception and dabbling
into things that are “ spiritual” but not of the Lords doing. The word of God
is our foundation for all things.
Here are a
few scriptures that will put the word of God into perspective and why this is
not just a book.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the
Word was God.- John 1: 1 NIV
There’s nothing like the written Word of God
for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every
part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing
us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live
God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks
God has for us. -2 Timothy 3:16-17 MSG
It is
impossible to know the heart of God and to know his will outside of his word,
in most cases a lot of answers to life’s questions are found in the word and that’s
the first place the Lord begins to talk to us and direct our lives and as we
live out the word and obey what he has already said in his word ,our hearts
become open to all the other ways the Lord will speak to us through the Holy
spirit.
The minute
we start to view the word the same way described in John 1: 1 that the word of
God is God himself, then we will begin to revere the word of God and allow the
word to speak into our hearts and lives. When we approach the bible we are
approaching God himself and we will begin to see the Lord begin to highlight a
verse or a passage of scripture that speak directly to our heart and address
the one need we have been praying about. We will realize the Lord has just
spoken to us through his living word ( Rhema) which is a now word from God to
us.
For now take
a moment to look at your perspective towards the word of God, how have you
viewed it compared to what I have just shared here with you?
Would you
say you have given the word priority in your journey of seeking the Lord?
If not, how
can you start making time /create room for the word in your life?
Every word
of instruction and every word of promise from the word of God is God speaking
to you. Let’s start listening and valuing it by taking action to what the Lord
has already said in his word.
22-24 Don’t fool yourself into
thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go
in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t
act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later
have no idea who they are, what they look like.
25 But whoever catches a glimpse of
the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his
eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of
action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.- James 1:22-25 MSG
What a mouth
full,we have come to the end of this blog and I hope this has helped you see
how you can position yourself to hear the voice of the Lord today.
Please be
cautioned that this is not a formula to hearing the Lord however knowing it is
our responsibility to position ourselves before him so we can hear him speak,
my intention here is to show you what is possible and also to show you what the
word of God says is the best way to position ourselves.
My prayer is
that as you pursue him that you would find him and that his voice would make
you realise and experience the love he has for you and how vast and deep are
his thoughts and plans concerning your life.
Was this
impactful to you?
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