How to hear God is one of the most common questions I’m asked. I don’t pretend to have all the answers but I can share what has worked for me and brought me peace. After all – isn’t it peace we are really after?
There were times throughout my life that I felt close to God and felt that I had heard His voice.
Between those times I often felt very far away and disconnected from God.
Something changed a few years ago and started the shift that has brought me to where I am today – a place of greater peace with God than ever before.
I arrived at a place in my life where I was aware that everything I had tried – religion, ministry, prayer, church attendance, the whole nine yards – didn’t work.
I’m a believer in this statement “If it isn’t working, stop doing it”.
So I stopped all of it. My last prayer to God was something to this effect – “Ok God everything I’ve tried hasn’t worked. So now I’m going to wait right here until you speak to me and tell me what to do”.
And then I did exactly what I said I was going to do. I ceased from all religious activities.
Now you might thing that’s rash and perhaps even dangerous – My response to you would be “Desperate need requires desperate measures”.
The first thing I noticed was an amazing sense of freedom – and I realized how bound I had been to my own ideas about what I needed to DO to reach God and be accepted by God.
One other thing I noticed was that I didn’t feel afraid. There was no sense of imminent hellfire and damnation! Amazing! I actually felt more peace… which I didn’t really expect.
So what happened? Well God tested me to see if I was serious. It seemed like I waited a year to hear his voice although I now know He was doing some work with me to prepare me – now that I was waiting on Him undisturbed by religious activities.
During that time I tried to find some time every day to just be quiet and still and be available to hear God’s voice.
Finally I was rewarded and I received such an outpouring from heaven that I could hardly contain it all. That was the first of several similar experiences.
I really can’t explain how amazing, intense, awesome, enlightening, and did I mention awesome? – that experience was.
So back to you – do you need to repeat my process to hear God’s voice? I really can’t answer that but you can. You will know.
I do know that if you do God will not condemn you for it. Others might – but remember it’s your relationship you’re working on – not theirs.
You may succeed just by spending some time every day being available to God. After all – let’s face it – it’s pretty difficult to have that kind of time to devote to the unseen One we seek.
Some activities may need to be reduced or eliminated – that’s okay. It’s worth anything you must give up!
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I’m not sure of your complete experience. Maybe you was praying and attending church religously, and if that was your experience then I could understand a litle better. But, stop praying…going to church! I wouldn’t advise nobody to do that. Prayer is comunicating with God. Church attendance is a must because we are the body of Christ, and the body is connected. When you become an island to yourself, then you die. Being religious is one thing no one should be after, but a relationship is the thing to strive for; however, you can’t have a relationship unless you have communication and fellowship. And that is prayer and church attendance, because we are commanded not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. I’m quite sure that you are aware of this unless your churh is caught up with some kind of false doctrine or only teaching about money…etc. But don’t stop praying. Men/women ought to always pray! Satan will try to get you by yourself, then transform himself as an angel of light. The devil is a liar!