How do we hear God?

[SemperFiDawg]

It’s perhaps the most important question a believer can find an answer to.

This subject was prompted by me making a very poor attempt to explain to my 6 year old how to listen to God followed by his very astonished facial expression and question/statement: “My heart has ears too? But I can’t hear them.”

I chuckle every time I think of it. The look of utter amazement on his face.

That, coupled with the fact the subject that has obliqued here recently in a couple of threads regarding confidence in hearing God through the Scriptures vs the HS and then, this morning when I read Luke 8:18 “Therefore, take care HOW you listen ....”

I will leave it to y’all to find the context of the verse, but I’m all ears on your thoughts.

 

[LittleDrummerBoy]

 

[SemperFiDawg]

That’s a 30 plus minute video. If you could condense it to a paragraph or so that would be great.

 

[gordon 2]

I think, perhaps incorrectly, but that at least in part, an individual needs to be in some way or the other " prepared" in the spirit or spiritually, and possibly physically to "hear".

Just like a field that will give a bounty harvest has to be prepared by tilling and be made fertile, so it is with the word of God where seed is that word and the field is the heart and mind of a person.

Hearing is always difficult in communications especially when taking in and processing info has to take place when the "word" or "seed" is being given.

Someone said God is a spirit and I suppose we need to diligently hear in the spirit. Yet hearing with moderation where we are not distracted by all kinds of cares or with so much love that we are drunk within its bliss. I suppose being a receptive field could be being honest with one's self, and how we hear effectively. I suspect it is not the same for all.... we all learn and internalize differently.

Also because we are not fields, but humans we should be prepared to be surprised that God will prepare people with lighting speed by his word and for his word... and that this is good for always and is not to be doubted or second guessed. This might need be a preparation for some, but for some perhaps it is more natural to their faith.

To be an opened heart to God means to be in a relationship of trust. Perhaps that trust is the how of listening? The seed is the word and the seed is the field--funny how that works when you really listen and trust.

The example of Peter as a giver: Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” Now I think this and what follows this is revealing of what kind of heart is attentive to "hearing". "Taking him by the right hand, Peter helped him up, and at once the man’s feet and ankles were made strong.… " Peter was good with his heart, but also helped with his hand. Somehow his heart first and followed by his works to good effect.

So maybe to "hear" simply means to have what Peter had, and that is a heart and a way of life settled in with the Comforter? Now how do we know that we walk somehow like Peter? I personally think that we all have a personality unique and within that personality we have a unique spirit. When our spirit settles into the designs of God in relationship with Him then perhaps we hear like Peter. Peter was a doer...he worked with his hands. The work of his hands and feet before and after Pentecost is different and possibly telling how he heard.

So the heart has ears. LOL... as someone mentioned... But really it seems that the heart shaped and re-wired by God hears but not as the world hears. Those who have ears let them hear.
-------------------

There will be a happy meeting in Heaven, I know
When we see the many loved ones we've known here below
Gathered on that blessed hilltop with hearts all aglow
That will be a glad reunion day.

Maybe good hymns are good because they are from the heart? and about the heart?

 

[SemperFiDawg]

I think, perhaps incorrectly, but that at least in part, an individual needs to be in some way or the other " prepared" in the spirit or spiritually, and possibly physically to "hear".

Just like a field that will give a bounty harvest has to be prepared by tilling and be made fertile, so it is with the word of God where seed is that word and the field is the heart and mind of a person.

Hearing is always difficult in communications especially when taking in and processing info has to take place when the "word" or "seed" is being given.

Someone said God is a spirit and I suppose we need to diligently hear in the spirit. Yet hearing with moderation where we are not distracted by all kinds of cares or with so much love that we are drunk within its bliss. I suppose being a receptive field could be being honest with one's self, and how we hear effectively. I suspect it is not the same for all.... we all learn and internalize differently.

Also because we are not fields, but humans we should be prepared to be surprised that God will prepare people with lighting speed by his word and for his word... and that this is good for always and is not to be doubted or second guessed. This might need be a preparation for some, but for some perhaps it is more natural to their faith.

To be an opened heart to God means to be in a relationship of trust. Perhaps that trust is the how of listening? The seed is the word and the seed is the field--funny how that works when you really listen and trust.

The example of Peter as a giver: Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” Now I think this and what follows this is revealing of what kind of heart is attentive to "hearing". "Taking him by the right hand, Peter helped him up, and at once the man’s feet and ankles were made strong.… " Peter was good with his heart, but also helped with his hand. Somehow his heart first and followed by his works to good effect.

So maybe to "hear" simply means to have what Peter had, and that is a heart and a way of life settled in with the Comforter? Now how do we know that we walk somehow like Peter? I personally think that we all have a personality unique and within that personality we have a unique spirit. When our spirit settles into the designs of God in relationship with Him then perhaps we hear like Peter. Peter was a doer...he worked with his hands. The work of his hands and feet before and after Pentecost is different and possibly telling how he heard.

So the heart has ears. LOL... as someone mentioned... But really it seems that the heart shaped and re-wired by God hears but not as the world hears. Those who have ears let them hear.
-------------------

There will be a happy meeting in Heaven, I know
When we see the many loved ones we've known here below
Gathered on that blessed hilltop with hearts all aglow
That will be a glad reunion day.

Maybe good hymns are good because they are from the heart? and about the heart?

What I have gained in the last year or so is the ability to hear God's voice. There is, as you noted, a lot of competing voices and stimuli, but once I really understood what his voice sounds like, and that it was not my conscience but God(maybe). I can best describe it as God speaking through my conscience. Maybe that's how it actually works. Maybe God and conscious are the same. I don't know but it has the same voice quality as my conscience's voice yet is distinctive in a way I have a hard time describing that set's it apart from what I have always understood as simply my conscience's voice. The moment I learned and understood that was a very poignant moment, perhaps the most important of my life. The more I hear it, the more clearly and more often every day I DO ACTUALLY HEAR IT. ( Duhh hun? Not the brightest ember in the fire here.) Typing that, I'm in just this instant reminded of what I read yesterday regarding hearing the word of God. Jesus said, "Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.” (As always He affirms the truth of scripture and scripture affirms Him doesn't it?)

Looking back it seems it's always been there. I can't remember a time when it was not. There were many times I would not hear; did not want to hear what it was saying. Then there were many times I did hear but didn't understand the authority of the source, attributing it to "just my nagging old conscience." I never really discerned the difference, and am still unsure if there is one. There are times now recently though that there seems a distinctive difference between "my conscience's" voice and "His" voice.

It seems to me based on my experience these "His voice" moments are separate in that they carry more authority and more force. They often tell me to do what I don't wish to do, or what makes no sense to me at all, but once obeyed are confirmed by what I recognize as a miracle. Many, many times they result in a totally "Duh moment" for me where I'm left feeling like a total fool afterward for being familiar with something, but not understanding it, or more frequently understanding something but not applying it. These "Duh moments" are almost always, Always, ALWAYS, followed by scripture being flashed in my head in red as if to say "It's written right here Dummy. You've read it a thousand times." Then there are the deeply personal times when I'm in prayer and am stopped immediately with his voice and he responds just a you would if we were having a conversation, or when I'm troubled and am up on a ladder or driving and he speaks to me the exact words I need (and sometimes do not want). These are the most personal of conversations, but conversations they are.

I say all this to say, I place my confidence in the relationship that my Living, Breathing God has established with me over that of my confidence in my ability to discern scripture. There is no life or hope in scripture that exists outside of the living, breathing God that it points to. Scripture is just script without him, him alive, and loving me. The book can't love me. He can and does.

 

[gordon 2]

Your witness is very interesting. I know of one other person who had or has that kind of relationship with God. Your description of God speaking to you is near the same as his. We are all different and I suspect God will witness his presence according to what we need and are perhaps with time or immediately comfortable with.

 

[SemperFiDawg]

Your witness is very interesting. I know of one other person who had or has that kind of relationship with God.

Are they institutionalized? Just kidding, but that was my first thought. "I'm going crazy. I have slipped over the edge and am hearing things." It was at the time the lowest point of my life. I had lost everything.........everything and there was no one to blame but myself. My career was threatened and I had my closest male family member dying of terminal cancer. I sat through a meeting that evening wondering if I was gonna make it through without either crumbling into the floor and crying or running out into the street screaming. I've never felt anything like it. I literally felt like the very fibers of my soul were being separated like the way threads separate on a frayed cloth as it's being run back and forth between your fingers. I made it to the car and started home. I hadn't gone a mile and that "voice" came to me and said very distinctly "You need to thank me for the pain." It was soooooooo.......there. Almost tangible. I thought literally , "I've lost it and have slipped into insanity." but the message was still there. When I got home I called a man I revered for his deep relationship with God and was aware of what was going on with me personally. I explained what was had happened and asked him point blank if he thought I had slipped over the edge into insanity. He said "No. I don't understand it either, but I don't think you're crazy. Just do it. Get down on your knees and thank Him for you're pain. You have nothing to lose." As soon as I hung up with him I hit my knees at my bedside. I said, "God I'm not thanking you for all the tragedy that is causing my pain, but I thank you for the pain. Amen." and I stood up. By the time I had reached a standing position, it was gone. All my pain, all my sorrow and grief, gone. I have no idea or understanding of that. It was my first witnessed miracle. That was my first inkling of what God sounds like. Over the following weeks and months there were more and more of these, a voice with a message followed by me listening and doing it, followed by a miracle. Sometimes these miracles involved me and had the effect of teaching me a valuable lesson. Other times it involved others, some I knew, some I never saw before or again. I could see the miracle and the person it affected, but had no idea who they were or what it meant, only see the wonder written on their facial expression and realize a miracle just happened. Sometimes the miracle was instantaneous and others I didn't witness it till days afterward. Oftentimes I could trace it back through a chain of actions involving several people over a course of days that I had witnessed and maybe even taken part in but had just seems happenstance at the time. These still happen to me quiet often. Each and every time I'm made aware of God's total, TOTAL sovereignty and wonder just how dull I must be, that every-single-event in time is ordered and how much of it slips by me every day; the miracles I miss because I'm too spiritually dull to see them.
. But I am forever grateful for him allowing me to hear him, recognize his voice and sometimes in some very small way to be part of his miraculous, miraculous plan.

 

[gordon 2]

As long as no one is harmed, including yourself...I don't see a problem.

 

[SemperFiDawg]

As long as no one is harmed, including yourself...I don't see a problem.

LOL

 

[Israel]

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Blessed indeed says the Spirit, for they have ceased from their own labors and their deeds do follow with them.

 

[gordon 2]

LOL

You laugh my brother. I hope it is due joy. Knowing perhaps it was not addressed at you alone. ( Post 8.) It was perhaps not addressed at you at all, and instead at the voices or consciousness of the worldly, perhaps due my mind a creature of doubt itself that the heart has much work to convince or perhaps my ear is design to sound for them the voices of the world and which mind would worry that a man to the heart of God would not return His gifts to himself as gifts to others-- and yet the heart knows that if a man's inner love can be for God's love, so can his inner voice be for God's voice.

Let me take liberty and make myself a hat for all seasons. And what is that hat but my comfort that God claims all men and women his own to make themselves hats not unlike my own. He calls! He calls! And I answer where is the gate, my home? And I go there where the voice, the voices and the fragrance is witness to all my soul...

My smile is one of joy. The wages of love is life.