For years I prayed, "God speak to me. Give me a sign." And I got nothing. Turns out He really was speaking but I had 5 things blocking the signal nobody told me about nor did I ever hear a pastor teach this.
So, here are 5 things I quit that finally let me hear God's voice.
1. I quit checking my cellphone the second I woke up. The first 10 minutes of my day used to be going through my emails, my notifications, the news, messages, txt's. By the time I even thought about God my brain was already on fire with everyone else's voice. And here is what I realized. Whoever gets the first 10 minutes of your day gets your ear for the next 23 hours. PSALM 5:3 "In the morning will I direct my prayer to you." The day I started giving God the first words I heard, was the day His Word was clear to me. I started hearing Him for the remainder of the day.
2. I quit assuming His voice would sound dramatic.. a thunderclap, a burning bush, a "thus saith the Lord" moment. So when nothing dramatic happened I assumed He wasn't speaking. But, in 1KINGS 19 it says God wasn't in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire. He was in "the still small voice" (a whisper). The reason you can't hear Him isn't because He isn't talking, it's because you're listening for fireworks when He speaks in whispers. So lower your expectation of how He will speak and watch how much He's been saying.
3. I stopped consulting everyone before consulting God. Big decision-group chat, career question-Linkedin, relationship advice-my friends/coworkers/Google. All before God. And by the time I finally got around to praying, I'd been influenced by 17 different opinions! JAMES 1:5 "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that gives to all men liberally and upbraids not, and it shall be given him." ASK OF GOD FIRST NOT LAST. The reason you can't hear His voice on the big things is because you drown it out with everyone else's before He gets a turn to speak.
4. Stop dismissing te "quiet nudges".. that random thought to text someone you haven't talked to in months. That uncomfortable hesitance right before signing something. That sudden urge to pray for a specific person. I used to think that was just me but here is what I finally realized. Most the time God speaks?.. He sounds like a gentle thought, a "gut feeling," an internal alarm, NOT a thunderclap- a soft whisper. And the day I stopped writing those signals off as just my own mind and started saying, "Lord is that You?" Was the day I understood He had been talking to me my entire life. I just giving Him my own name.
5. Quit being intimidated or afraid of silence. The moment things got quiet I reached for my phone ,to watch a podcast, put in my air-pods, turn on the TV, MAKE SOME NOISE. But silence is the room God meets you in. And the reason you can't hear Him in 5 minutes of stillness is because you haven't given Him 5 minutes of stillness. STARTWITH 60 SECONDS! Sit in your car, when you're jogging alone, mowing the lawn with time to think and pray secretly, etc. Don't pick up your phone the moment you wake up. Just practice silence in your own way and space and watch the volume of His voice come up.
These 5 changes didn't happen overnight but the moment I removed the noise it was obvious God WAS speaking to me for a long time. God never went silent I was just never quiet enough to hear Him.
Until He Comes,
-Pat-
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