Hearing God’s Voice is Discipleship 101
James 1: 5
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him
Romans 10:17
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ
John 14:16-17
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
(ESV)
In September 2003 I was at my home church in Sheffield, England and I said to my huddle I can’t hear God’s voice, I had heard his voice 2 or 3 times in my life but I could not continually hear his voice on a daily basis. This I knew to be a problem as one of the key tools I was learning at this time was the circle how we hear what God is saying to us and responding what we are going to do about it. I am sure this has been a problem for many of you reading this article as well.
By November 2003 I began to learn to hear God’s voice. I was on a retreat and my leader at that time spoke from Job 33 (not a normal bible passage to teach on hearing his voice I know) and sent us out on a 2-hour silent time on our own. This was for me as an indisciplined, maturing extrovert a great challenge as it was 2 whole hours without talking to anyone else (I may admit I did try and talk to a cow on my journey). However, in that time I began to do what I now know as journalling and was writing down what I felt I was hearing. I even at one point wrote down: “As I was sat on a hill, the train came out of the tunnel”. After writing that out I stood up and saw a train track and a tunnel that I hadn’t previously known was there and at that precise moment, a train came out of the tunnel.
That retreat and those experiences helped me to begin to learn how to discern when God was speaking to me, verses when my proper soul (my non-sanctified thoughts and feelings), or even the devil was speaking and tempting me.
It has been a long process of learning from my errors, and there have been many - some pretty bad, but also times of growth.
Now in 2022, I have the confidence that when I feel that God is speaking to me about my life I can trust what he is saying, and even though I know I won’t always hear or get it right, if I process and am accountable with others in my journey I am going to advance in my discipleship journey in the right way. This is why I believe hearing God’s voice is discipleship 101. If I cannot hear his voice how can I expected to know what his will for my life, whether that is through what the Bible says to me, what circumstances, the still small voice (1 Kings 19:11-13), or even creation, among other ways God speaks to us.
Mark Burgess
Member of 3DM Executive Team North America
Team Leader 3DM Español