Jesus said in John 10:27, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
I don’t know about you, but for a long time, this verse bothered me. I was supposed to be listening for his voice, but mostly all I heard was silence.
The silence pointed to a deeper frustration. All my life I had struggled with this problem: I had accepted Jesus as my savior and was supposed to have this personal relationship with him, but it didn’t feel very personal.
How Most of Our Prayer Times Look
As a teenager, my mom would ask me the same question every morning at the breakfast table: “Did you have your devotions?”
She meant, had I read the Bible and prayed?
My devotions were dry, routine affairs. I’d whip through a chapter in the Bible. I’d run down a list of prayer requests, and I’d check that part of my day off the list. What a contrast with, say, a date with my girlfriend. When I took her out for dinner and a movie, sometimes we missed the movies because we couldn’t stop talking. Our conversations had a momentum all their own.
How discouraging that the relationship that was supposed to be the most exciting and wonderful in my life had become a check on my to-do list.
Our Daily Prayers Can Be So Much Deeper
Maybe you are like me—you grew up having monologues with God and have never heard before that he wants to talk to you. You’ve not really learned how to hear his voice.
I remember the first time I heard his voice. It was years later; I was desperate. I had been betrayed by someone very close to me and I needed to know that God cared. I asked him if he would share with me what he thought of me. The next thing that happened changed my life forever. God spoke inwardly to me in a way that might as well have been audible. He said, “Seth, I love you.”
That did it. I was a junky, ruined for anything that smacked of a tame, compromising faith. I shared with my children what they called “praying the new way.” One of them heard God say, “I love you more than the flowers and the trees.”
After that, we all began to grow in our ability to listen. We would ask the Lord questions, then listen, and he often spoke.
What Does Listening Prayer Look Like?
In 1998, Allie Pohlmeier traveled with a team from Judson College to do a project in Matamoros, Mexico. As so often happens, her heart was touched by what she experienced, particularly by one family for whom her team built a home. They painted it green.
Before leaving, she took a picture of herself with that family in front of the home.
In the spring of 2005, she returned to Matamoros on an AIM project. One day, she asked the Lord what he wanted her to do. Then she waited and listened. Allie felt the Lord saying, “Find the green house.”
“But God,” she said, “Matamoros is a huge place! There may be a million people living here. I have no idea where that house is—how in the world would I ever find it?”
God said, “Find the green house.”
“But God,” she said, “that’s a crazy thing. I don’t even know the name of the neighborhood. I have no idea what the family’s name is. I’ll look stupid!”
God said, “Find the green house.”
Eventually Allie gave in, and taking the picture of the house with her, started off.
She looked up and down the first street—no green house. She felt ridiculous, but knew she must obey. She saw a girl walking down the street, so she approached her.
“Could you look at this picture and tell me who these people are,” she said to the girl, “or where this house might be?”
The girl studied the picture and slowly a look of amazement came to her face.
“That’s me!” she exclaimed, pointing at the picture. “That’s our house! I’ll take you to it. It’s just around the corner.”
As it turned out, she was only a block away from the green house!
What Allie experienced shouldn’t be unusual for those of us who listen for God’s voice. Christianity is a personal faith. God wants to talk to us. He wants to guide us, but we have to listen.
How to Listen to God
How do you listen to an all-powerful but invisible God?
The Bible has a lot to say about it. Over and over God interacts with people in a variety of ways. Our God is endlessly creative in how he communicates with them.
God spoke to Daniel through visions, Balaam through a donkey, Peter through a rooster, and of all things, he spoke to Moses out of a shrub.
He is a God who says, “Listen for my voice.”
Examples of Listening Prayer
There are hundreds and hundreds of examples of God speaking to people in the Bible. It’s his modus operandi—and he gives detailed instructions for this in both the Old and New Testament.
We also have a rich history of God speaking to man from Jesus’ time until the present—people like Augustine, Mother Teresa, Joan of Arc, and Brother Lawrence.
In our relationships, we are so distracted and busy that it’s often the exception rather than the rule that people listen to one another, much less listen to God. We need to learn how to listen.
Listening Prayer Can Transform Your Church
Recently I spoke to a church. They asked me to ask for the church’s missions faith promise offering. I asked, “How did you do last year?” The answer came back, “Not so well, people gave just 46 percent of faith promise monies they had pledged.”
I thought, “That’s interesting. I’ll bet the reason the figure is so low is not that they don’t have the money, but that they didn’t hear the Lord correctly. If they heard him clearly, then the figure would be 100 percent.”
So I did a survey. “How many of you feel as though you hear clearly from the Lord?” The answer came back: 46 percent. The same figure!
I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Frankly, almost everyone struggles to hear God and many people have never heard him.
Listening Prayer Exercises
Learning to hear the Lord’s voice isn’t complicated. But it does require some discipline to find a quiet place and to allow some time just listening.
Perhaps the hardest part of listening prayer is clearing your mind. With all the noise of life regularly cascading through your mind, it can be hard to hear God’s voice. There’s no formula, but let me share a few principles that have worked for me:
- Set aside at least half an hour to start. When you are ready, quiet yourself. If stray thoughts come through your mind, write them down on a separate piece of paper.
- Read some scripture. Ask the Lord to speak to you through it in a way that you can understand. Ask God to protect you in Jesus’ name from deception.
- Then write down your question for prayer. Pause. This is where you wait and listen. God may direct you to another passage of Scripture. He may share a tender word. Whatever you feel he may be saying to you, write it down.
- Ask him to confirm anything he shared with you.
Simple Strategies for Better Prayer Times
- Use a journal; it will help you focus. Plus it’s a great resource to look back and see the journey the Lord took you on. It also helps fine-tune your spiritual ears to better hear him. Writing down your impression of the Lord’s responses creates in you an expectancy that he will respond.
- Use two different pens. I like to use the first color to record my thoughts and the second pen to record what I sense God is saying. The different colors clarify “who’s talking.”
- If, when you sit down to pray, you often have a to-do list pop up in your head, then have another piece of paper handy to make a list with any other thoughts that pop up. It’s okay and it’s natural. Just let them come out so you can focus.
Questions To Test What you Hear from God
- Was it a clear word or just an impression? God may give us different degrees of confidence in what he has said. We therefore need to humbly admit our fallibility. Get someone you trust to check your impression and to confirm it or not.
- Does it exalt Christ? (John 16:14)
- Is it scriptural? Scripture is our authority. God does not contradict himself. (Proverbs 30:5-6)
- Do other Christians confirm it? (Proverbs 20:18, Proverbs 15:22)
- Does God cause it to actually take place? (Isaiah 55:11, Deuteronomy 18:21-22)
Can You Really Know the Voice of the Lord?
Vicki Gross was struggling with how to recognize God’s voice, and described a breakthrough that the Lord gave her.
I was on a school bus full of jabbering, yelling kids. My son was in the back of the bus. There were 20 rows of children making noise between us, but as I listened, in the back, I could make out the distinctive voice of my boy. To anybody else who didn’t know him, his voice would have blended into the cacophony, but because I know him, I recognized his voice.
The Lord showed me, ‘That’s how you recognize my voice, too. Because you know me, you recognize my voice, even above life’s noise.”
God’s voice is distinctive. He promises that we, his sheep, will hear it. The more you pause and listen for his voice, the more you will find that your ears tune in to it—you become familiar with it. It just requires your listening.
I tried for several years to listen to God’s voice… But can’t. I am giving up now.
Is it that God isn’t talking or you aren’t getting the answer you want? That was a struggle I had for a long time. Remember, God doesn’t always speak to you in the ways you think He will. He may use someone around you, an unrelenting notion in your heart, scripture, or a plethora of other methods. God often speaks to me through songs. Don’t give up because He hasn’t given up on you. It will happen. Just be still.
Oh don’t give up dear! God wants to talk to you. It just takes time and practice. A lot of the time its not that hes ignoring you. Or he doesn’t want to talk to you. Its just that a lot of people don’t know how to listen to him
Don’t give up here is a place you can learn how. Mark &Patti Virkler have videos and books on how to hear God. I have been trying also with that video below and have trouble.
http://www.cwgministries.org/galilee
I read Mark Virkler’s book and heard his preach/video,but still cannot hear Lord’s voice, maybe I am a fool.
You’re not a fool Lynn. God’s Word is what speaks so clearly to us. It’s so rich that we need not look for anything outside of it. Check out this https://www.gotquestions.org/listening-prayer.html
And Scripture says that people hear His Voice outside the pages of Scripture. It never contradicts Scripture. Probably just more refined or specific things.
https://graceinsightandart.wordpress.com
Teachers never talk during a test. If you give up, you will not pass the test…this time.
It depends on what is going on in your mind. Sometimes I hear nothing because there is something going on. For me, the best way to listen is to wait until something happens, then pray about it.
Please dnt…just think right whn u do. He could be around the corner
Don’t ever give up.. God will never give up on us.. I pray for you to hear Gods voice just don’t ever give up
Don’t give up. He’s listening, you have to hear through life’s noise what he is saying is your path!
Still trying?
Hi Hwang.
Try going through a traumatic experience and crying your heart out to God when he is the only one left to comfort you. That should do the job.
Best wishes.
Don’t give up
I learned a very valuable lesson in prayer recently. Our pastor gave a message on never walking away from the altar empty handed. We may not get the answer we want or desire or even think what our prayer intention is. Recently in my own life God revealed part b if prayer to me. Often times we pray for a very specific situation in life ( bills, sickness a job etc…) I prayed in the middle of turmoil last summer for wisdom and knowledge. I started back to church and trying to get closer to God and develop my relationship with Him. In late November and early December I was deceived by am employer financially and it began to hurt our families budget. Instead of taking it to court I prayed to God that what is done in the dark be brought to light. Little did I know both prayers were to be answered months later now in 2018. A true reminder of Gods timing and will not always what our thoughts and desires on earth be. TO God Be the GLORY!
Try to listen to God in prayer in community. I am thinking specifically of a Lectio Divinia group . Hard to find but worth it.
Read the Bible that’s how you hear his voice.
Took me years over 30 years to hear his voice but the more u want to hear his voice. Also the more dedication time n love u give to him and to others then u will know when its Gods voice.
I have been a believer since May 26th 2003 and I have probably only gotten lucky in knowing something was from The Lord but now in my life I am really really working on my walk with him but I don’t hear him if it says my sheep know my voice but I can’t hear him or don’t recognize it does that mean im not saved? I struggle with this :/
We are saved simply by accepting Jesus Christ as our lord and saviour. The steps we take after accepting Him only help us to grow in our relationship with Him. Anything we do or don’t do after honestly and truly accepting Him, does not change the fact that we are saved, because being saved means all our sins and shortcomings are forgiven.
I used to hear God’s voice very clearly, but in recent years, it has become muffled. I blame nobody else but myself for that, but I believe that I am still saved. I encourage you to pray, to seek Him, and in time, according to His plan, He will reveal Himself to you. I also encourage you to understand that if you have been a believer since 2003, you are most definitely saved.
There is no luck or accidents with God. Its God’s grace working in your life. “In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Maybe you aren’t listening like you should or expecting something big. It might be just a thought or feeling that may be how God is speaking to you
Not everyone will Hear… that’s ok. Don’t stress
I have been a sinner all my life I have lied to my family and my girlfriend, and it was because of my current girlfriend that brought me back to God. I was an atheist for a while about a year ago. I thought he didn’t exist and was just a made up character. Question is am I saved now? I’ve accepted Jesus Christ as my savior and thanks to lovely girlfriend. Will He forgive me?
Yes Taylor He forgives you! 🙂 He forgives all our sin as we come to Him sorry for what we did. The power of His forgiveness is greater than any sin because He was without sin and died for our sin. One drop of Jesus’ blood is sufficient to cover all the sins for all of mankind for all of History. Hard to comprehend but He truly died for your sins because of His great love for you!
Ils insultent Marca, organe puissant du pays dont la version papier est une grosse merde, car la finale de la Liga de foot et le Nadal Fed se déroule en même temps. Impératif financier impossible dans d’autres pays. Connaissant l’Espagne, quelques décideurs ont dû baisser leur froc contre un chèque. Cela pouvait être aisément évité. Et 2de raison, Santana, paraît qu’il est trop pro-Nadal, enfin je sais pas.5 finales d&l2f17;a8fi#ée, c’est un record Franckie?
Yes, He will He is real good at forgiving. I know if i was you get baptized and ask them for the Holy Spirit. You know what the best thing to do is ? Confess all your sins to Him. I confessed all my sins and He forgave me. I have the Holy Spirit but for some reason I bought books on how to hear Him and I can not still hear him. So if you do not hear the HolY Spirit you can not do the Healing heart wounds you know generational sins and curses,Severing Ungodly soul ties, replacing negative expectations and renouncing inner vows, receiving divine visions(People that could not forgive)Breaking word curses and casting out demons. We all have demons in us. But we have to get rid of their home by doing all those prayers first. The book is called Prayers that heal the Heart. But if you can not hear God I do not think you can do them. Cause you have to ask the Holy Spirit what is in your heart. You know like ,anger, Depression, etc.
If you gave your life to Jesus you are saved just have faith
If course … you’re saved the moment you asked for Jesus 🙂
may I borrow the “listening prayer exercises” portion of this post to share with my congregation to provide a bit of a guide for them?
There is also a slim book called God Guides that was written by a missionary that has The Listening Prayer. This prayer is especially powerful as you are binding everything that is not God and asking for his wisdom.
I believe God is faithful to his word.all we need is to pray,be patient,read the word of God,focus and always get connected with the spirit of God in us.
I believe prayer is about God being a part of my life and his trans-formative power to make me into the person I am meant to be.. That I am becoming more like Him and that I bare the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22) in my life that can be seen by those I meet: love, joy, peace patience,kindness, gentleness, self-control..It takes a lifetime to see perfection in this and in Jesus I have hope. If you are looking for a quick miracle, I think you will be disappointed, but if you are looking for new life in Jesus, you have come to the right place. II Corinthians 5:17
Ask God to help you hear His voice, and then have FAITH (believe) that He will do it. Faith is the key. He is faithful!
Hello…when you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior…You heard his voice…He called you…you heard him!!You became his child…now stop making excuses!! Stop the sin!!Get right with him ask for forgiveness and walk with him..Read his word,witness for him,do it all in faith…you will hear his voice..If you don’t have the Holy Ghost pray and ask God to fill you with the power!! Take care and God Bless.
Thanks god you are really live in this World
As you read the Bible, listen to the voice — it’s His voice. Get comfortable with the sound of His voice and the way He thinks as you read.
very spiritual educative
cant wait any longer to ave it
Are you sure that voice is God…or is it you?
Good video.
This sounds exactly like what Mark Virkler teaches and, quite frankly, sounds a little too new agey.
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about ¨questions to test what you hear from God¨ when we ask: is it scriptural, it maybe scriptural when we see that word in the bible BUT we also have to see the context, because the devil may throw you a word and attack you with scripture as it did to me 2 days ago, and it messed me up for several hours until I was able to see the deceit with The Lord, let me tell you what the enemy threw at me at 5:00 in the morning, I heard ¨wash your hands¨ then searched in the bible and found the statement ¨wash your hands, you sinners¨ I was like wow, what have I done wrong? well, I thought about some struggles I have about getting things done or having negative thoughts sometimes of worry or a bit of unbelief, but this is usually very temporary as I am constantly waging a battle with the thoughts that come which many of them are arrows from the devil and I overcome them by remembering the promises of God by bringing every thought captive to His obedience, so getting back to what happened I was decieved for a moment, then fell sleep when I woke up hours later I was still feeling inadequate with the feeling that ¨there is something wrong in me¨ well, turns out to be when really looking at it with The Lord that if I have truly surrendered to The Lord and I put effort in living according to Him and obeying Him and I have repented of my sins and believed in Him as my Lord, Saviour, The One and Only King of All Creation and My Papamama, then I am a Saint, not a sinner, and refering back to the letter of First John, He explains very clearly that we may have sin but he cleanses as but He cleanses us continually if We walk in The Light of Him 1 John 1:7 and secondly a Saint does not habitually sin, meaning it doesn´t habitually practice Sin, 1 John 5:18 so if any is reading this if you are truly communing with The Lord and have repented and believed in Him as your One and Only God and Creator and Parent and you put all your effort through His Holy Spirit in Obeying Him, then You are a Saint, you are not a sinner, DO NOT let the enemy decieve you, and if you happen to sin, well, you must really look at it with The Lord and make sure that this is not something habitual or a habit, because we cannot take His Sacrifice in vain, but if you are going through your personal santification by the hand of The Lord then just Put on that Breastplate of Righteousness, by believing in the Justice and Righeousness that He The Lord, has achieved for you through His accomplished work in The Cross and Resurrection and believe it, that you are a Saint, because He has made you righteous and just, All Glory be to Him, the enemy acuses and acuses and if it happens just tell Him, I am redeemed and I am a Saint of God because of The Blood of The Lamb of God¨ this is the way to defend in front of the false accusations, believe it and proclaim it, be alert. God Bless You All. Amen
First I heard a voice like thunder say my name and I thought it was God. A year later, I heard a voice that claimed to be Jesus and started out saying things you might expect Jesus to say. Eventually, though, the voice turned dark and would tell me things like I was going to hell. I believe this was a demon pretending to be God and Jesus; he definitely tricked me for awhile. Asking Jesus for help was what saved me.
http://www.spiritualattack.org
Hello friends, context is so important. The John 10 passage about sheep hearing God’s voice is referring to salvation, not our ability to hear or listen for his voice. His Word so richly gives us the direction we need for Godly and faithful lives. If you look at the whole section and not just grab one verse it will help you see the point of that important message. The “hearing” being referred is talking about all who have heard the call of salvation and become followers of the Good Shepherd, Jesus. Dig into this deeper, you’ll find great stuff. Check out http://www.str.org
I have a suggestion that helps me. Just love Jesus. Sit there in your chair, and think of every instance that you were helped out of a spot, or every time you thought that He helped you, and realize that he probably did so on occasion without you knowing. Just think how grateful you are, and how He left the 99 for you – you are the one. And how many times in your life he left the 99, just for you.
Hi Eric! Thank you so much, brother, for this clarification. I hope more of us would read it and understand that context is king. You’re right: Jesus is indeed talking about salvation here. Then this calls for an indirect application instead of a direct one. I’d say that because he identifies himself as the Good Shepherd, he not only saved us, but will always shepherd us as well to help us walk with him. He does this through the indwelling Spirit, the paraclete, Who will surely speak to us in keeping with the Word. Yes, I agree with you that John 10 is not enough to explain the case of listening to Jesus’ voice. I also pray that we can always edify one another through these posts, knowing that he is the Good Shepherd and we were nothing before he rescued us. Blessings to all!