Hearing God

[The following talk comes from materials that I have collected over time in my journal, both from what God is telling me, and from sermons and books.]

Hearing God

1. Hearing God is not about "hearing", but about "listening". All of us have been hearing God all our lives. It is just that we often do not recognize that it is God speaking to us, and we always see it as our own thoughts, or other people's thoughts. There are two aspects of listening: one is recognizing, the other is understanding.

2. God speaks to us in a myriad of ways: through sermons, the bible, friends, songs, movies, nature, etc. One other way God speaks to us is through His Voice. There are two types of Voice: the audible voice of God, and God's inner voice speaking to us in our minds. I believe that God wants to speak to us both audibly, and through that inner voice. I have never heard God's audible voice, but I continue to have the faith that one day He will do it. (Note that when God speaks to the people in the Bible audibly, the non-believers often hear it as thunder because they do not understand it.) In this talk, I will share about the inner voice of God.

3. God desires to speak to us through that inner voice. This is the key message of my talk. One of the purposes God has given me is to declare to the whole world that God is dying to talk to all of us! He desires to talk to us much much more than we desire to hear him!

4. Here are some biblical verses which talks about God's desire to speak to us:

Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, "You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die." And Moses said to the people, "Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin." So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.

Exodus 20:18-21

The Israelites were afraid to have God speak to them, even though God gave them the invitation. This invitation is still valid today. When we accept the invitation to hear him, a deep respect of who God is will fill us. We start to walk in holiness because we have experienced the person and goodness of God. Like Moses, we need to take a step forward to accept the invitation, because God does not force himself on us. We will find that after we accept the invitation, we don't have to use our effort to hear Him. He will speak to us by His grace, rather than by our works.

Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Deut 30:19-20

If we want to have life, we need to listen to His voice, for He is our life.

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

John 16:13

The Holy Spirit is the one who speaks to us through the inner voice. He only speaks what He hears from the Father. Here is an experience I had when I was in Budapest in Nov 2004. I was asking Jesus why He doesn't stay back on earth, living forever, and teach us right from His own mouth. That way, we can hear Him clearly and not doubt what He wants us to do. Then, Jesus told me that because He is flesh, He can only be in one place at one time. Whereas the Holy Spirit can be everywhere speaking to everyone at the same time. That is why Jesus says He has to go so that the Holy Spirit can come. In fact, the Holy Spirit and Jesus both speak the exact same words, because both of them hear from the Father. The Holy Spirit desires to teach and speak to us clearly, just as Jesus did. He is a real person, like Jesus. He is our personal companion, with us guiding us and strengthening us wherever we go. We need to interact with Him exactly as if Jesus was standing right next to us! We need to learn how to interact with Him.

"The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice. [...] I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd."

John 10:2-5, 16

Jesus promises us that we, who are His sheep, will recognize his voice! We are as one flock because we all hear His voice.

"The Heavenly Man", Pg 346
Brother Yun says, "My message to the Western Church is to get back to the basics in order to hear again the voice of Jesus speaking to you." Hearing the voice of Jesus, according to Brother Yun, is a basic part of our faith.

5. Paul tells us to eagerly desire the spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy (1 Cor 14:1-5). Prophecy is simply hearing the heart of God and sharing it with others to minister to them. Prophecy is being God's mouthpiece (Exodus 4:16). Prophecy has to start with us learning how to hear God. This applies not just to hearing the inner voice of God, but to all forms of hearing God. What is the primary purpose of prophecy, or even just hearing God? It is to know Jesus more. "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." (Rev 19:10)

6. Some people think that the Scriptures are all there is to hearing God. The Bible demonstrates again and again in the Old and New Testaments that God speaks to us outside of the Scriptures (See Paul, Peter, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Elijah, etc).

The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions. One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was. Then the LORD called Samuel. Samuel answered, "Here I am." And he ran to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me." But Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down." So he went and lay down. Again the LORD called, "Samuel!" And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me." "My son," Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down." Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD: the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.

1 Sam 3:1-7

This passage shows us that while Israel had the Scriptures of Moses, the Word of the Lord was rare in their time. It does not mean that the Scriptures were rare. It means that God did not speak much to the people. Samuel was trained in the temple, but the Word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. Many of us have been attending church: we believe in the Lord and we know a lot about Him. But we need to have the Word of the Lord revealed to us as well.

While God speaks to us outside of Bible, He will never ever EVER contradict His Word in the Bible. Personally, I have often heard God speak something, and later found out that there is a scripture that says exactly that! In fact, hearing God's voice makes us hunger even more for the Bible, so that we can hear His voice even more clearly. The Bible is the only Word of God that is 100% correct because of the anointing that He gave to the authors to pass His word to His people. Other than that, all of us are flawed vessels, and we will always be capable of making mistakes: either wrongly recognizing something not from God as His, or understanding that He said wrongly. That is why we always need to come back to Scripture and Fellowship for discernment.

7. My own experience.

When I first became a Christian, God spoke to me a lot through pop music. Later, I read the Bible more and God starting speaking to me through that too. Also, God used many people around me to speak to me. I thought that I knew all about how God speaks to us.

When I came to Stanford, I spent my first year learning about spending quiet time with Him. In my second year, my thoughts started to say, "This is I (God) talking to you. Do you not recognize it?" I shook it off because I thought it was blasphemous -- to pretend that my thoughts are actually from God. I told God to cast it away if it is not from Him. However, the thoughts came more and more often. One day, I realized that it takes faith to believe that God would speak to me that way. I confessed before God that He was trying to talk to me. Suddenly, the floodgates seem to open, and God starting speaking a lot to be through that inner voice, often telling me things that I know I would never have thought of because they are too wise.

It has been a process of learning to discern (recognize) God's voice, and understanding what He is saying. For instance, there was once I was praying and He said, "India" to me. I thought He wanted me to go to India for a missions trip that December. I tried to buy air tickets but they costed at least US$2500. I emailed many missionary centers but no one replied me. I realized that God was closing doors on me. I thought, "God, why did you tell me something, only to close doors on me?" Then, I thought that perhaps it was not God. But God reaffirmed that it was from Him. I shared that word with my room-mate Joel, and he gave me a book on missions in India. He said that he had read it before, but just when he was packing his bag to come to Stanford, God told him to bring it to Stanford but he didn't know why. So I read that book and found out that what India needs is not more missionaries but more financial help and prayers. I started contributing financially regularly to the India missions field.

The second time was just recently, this January. I was sharing about God wanting to talk to us with a christian friend. We were on bus 95 to Buona Vista, where we will take bus 105 to Orchard and change to bus 143. God told me, "105 will take a long time to come; 143 will arrive on the dot." I was afraid to share this with my friend because I was afraid that it would be wrong. But God gave me the faith. So we were at Buona Vista, and indeed 105 took a long time to come. The, bus 111 came, and my friend suggested we took it. I was not sure, and I thought that the prophecy would now be ruined. But we got on the bus anyway. When we came to Orchard, and walked to the next bus-stop to catch bus 143, bus 143 arrived just when we stepped into the second bus-stop. We were totally amazed. It was a learning experiend for both my friend and I. I learned that God did not say that we would take bus 105. I had recognized God correctly, but understood him wrongly.

8. How do we start hearing God? First, you need to desire it with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength! "Eagerly desire the spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy." Be willing to try and make mistakes because this is how we learn. This is humility.

9. Hearing God is a growing process. Never let yourself reach a place where you say, "I know everything about hearing God."

10. God desires to speak to us every moment of the day. Like what Bingren shared yesterday, it is fun and enjoyable soaking in the presence of God throughout the day. Speak to him when you are enjoying that time, and He will speak to you.

11. Let me end with this invitation to hear God's voice from Rev 3:20

"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me."

[See also Does God Speak To Us?]

Why I am a Christian

The following is taken from my website (which is now not available):

I became a Christian on 5 August 2000. After looking through the journal which I kept when I was in Delta Wing, I recount the following story to the best of my ability:

You can't prove that God exists.
I have been an atheist most of my life. I believed strongly that God does not exist, because there was no scientific evidence for it, and because there was no need for God in any of our scientific theories. I was always intrigued by the objectivity and simplicity of math and science: I was convinced that our world was inherently meaningless, and that we could invent systems of meaning using symbolic systems to describe and predict events in our universe.

Arguing with Christians
I used to argue with Christians on their beliefs. It seems that their system of meaning, built on a symbolic system that assumes the existence of a supernatural and all powerful being, was also infallible. Just as science, built on the axioms of relativity and quantum mechanics, was infallible. I didn't like the way Christians put down the Theory of Evolution, and I didn't like the way they put so many restrictions on the things they can and cannot do in life. What I did like was their strong sense of purpose and morality, as well as their love for one another. However, there was no reason for me to change my point of view: I was very comfortable with the way my life was turning out.

Prayer at Harvest Event
Clarence and Ruiwen (from the Student Council) invited me to a Christian event at the National Stadium. A speaker from Argentina was sharing on how God had changed his country and people. There were even some miracle healing at the end of the talk. Just when the helpers were passing round the offering bags amongst the audience, I remarked to Clarence that it seems to me that the speaker was trying to deceive the audience of their money. Brainwashed by the so-called "miracle healings", the audience was tricked into believing in the speaker's supernatural anointing and donated money for fear of God. Clarence and Ruiwen spoke to me calmly, and asked if I thought it possible that God really exists. I replied that it was possible but unlikely. They asked if I would take a moment to imagine that God really exists and pray to Him to reveal Himself to me. Seeing that there was no harm in doing so, I agreed and closed my eyes for a short prayer. When I opened my eyes again, there was no thunder or lightning. There was no sign at all.

A Strange Dream: God says "I exist!"
That prayer was made around June 1999. One year later, when I was in Officer Cadet School, I was sleeping one Sunday night in July 2000 in my bunk. I just returned from a relaxing weekend, and everything was going smoothly in training. That night, I dreamt that I built a wonderful new invention: an escalator that travels to the sky! The invention was ingenious in that the bottom step would break up and reassemble itself on the top of the escalator, hence raising the flight of steps towards the sky. The people on earth were all very proud of me, and they came to the Launch Ceremony to bid me farewell. All of them were extremely happy and excited for me, except for my sister, who appeared as a 5 year old girl in my dream (in real life, she was 18). She seemed sad and was tearing. Now, as the escalator launched off, candy was released from the bottom of the escalator, and everyone scrambled to get their greedy hands on them. Only my sister stood at one side and continued to watch. The escalator climbed towards the sky, and soon, I could not see the earth. I was surrounded by clouds and blue sky. I wanted to reach the heavens to see the moon, the planets and the stars. However, my sense direction then became confused: I did not know where was Up. Like the people on weird staircases in M. C. Esher paintings, I flipped myself onto the other side of the escalator and the escalator changed its direction of movement. After several of such confusing changes, I found myself coming back to Earth. I could not figure out why my invention could not ascend to the heavens. Suddenly, everything blacked out. I knew I was semi-awake. I did not hear any voice, nor see any words, but there was a loud and strong meaning: "I EXIST!" I woke up and found myself in my bunk. I was shivering with cold sweat, and I knew something just spoke to me, and I knew that something was God. The meaning did not tell me that it came from God, but in my heart, I just knew, somehow, that it was from God. I was really scared. Lying in my bed, too afraid to move, I heard voices murmuring around me going, "He's awake! He's awake!" I was so afraid because I knew I was not dreaming anymore, but the voices were still continuing. And I knew that the meaning did not speak to me in my dream, it spoke to me when I was almost awake. Eventually, out of tiredness, I fell asleep again.

Discovering God's Identity
When I woke up the next morning, I did not dare to tell anyone what had happened. Eric Ong was my room-mate then, but I did not tell him about my dream. I sat on my bed, shaken by the events in the night. I closed my eyes and spoke to the God who had given me the meaning: "God, tell me if you are the God of Islam, or of Buddhism, or of Christianity. If you are real, let me know you are real." That Wednesday, Joseph, also from my platoon, came up to me and invited me to go to church with him that Saturday night (5 Aug 2003) It was weird because no one from my platoon has ever invited me to their church. I agreed to go because I wanted to find out more about Christianity. It was as though the Christian God heard my prayer and was beckoning to me.

A Prayer for Jackson
A more miraculous thing happened during Exercise Zebra that Saturday. In Exercise Zebra, we had to execute a platoon attack on a knoll that had communication trenches dug everywhere on it. One of my section-mates, Jackson, was rushing up the hill in the final assault, and he accidentally fell into a trench. His chest hit the concrete side of the trench, and he was in a lot of pain. He could not breath, and he thought he was going to die. At this point of time, I was at the side of the hill while I watched all the instructors rush to him. I closed my eyes and did my first serious prayer: "God, if you are real, please help Jackson, protect him from harm and let no bones be hurt in him. If he is hurt, may be recover quickly so that he can resume with his training soon." So Jackson was rushed to the hospital where the doctors inspected his injury. Two hours later, he returned to the platoon safe and sound. "What happened?", we asked him. He told us that the doctor thought that he had broken a few ribs, but when they took an X-ray, they realized the everything was okay. Furthermore, there was no cut or bruises on him. He still felt a bit sore, but other than that everything was fine. I was so excited and happy for him. I told some people about my prayer for him, but no one believed me.

A Prophet Speaks on Dreams and Visions
After Ex Zebra, we booked out, and I followed Joseph to church. That day, a prophet was visiting the church (Faith Community Baptist Church at Marine Parade). He spoke about the book of Revelations and the end times, and how young men and women would have dreams and visions during those days (Acts 2:16-17). I was so shocked that he was talking about dreams and visions; it was as though he knew what I was going through then. My heart pounded wildly, wondering if it was just another coincidence. The events of Ex. Zebra that morning had already shaken my mind and my spirit. When it came to the time for the alter call, the pastor asked those who felt the need to know Jesus Christ to step forward so that they can be prayed for. There was such a strong tugging on my heart that I responded to his call, and asked Jesus to step into my life. I prayed that the Lord would teach me more about Himself.

Discovering God's Character
Two days later, when we booked in again on Monday night (7 Aug 2003), my platoon-mate Adrian came to me and said that his girlfriend Carolyn bought a book for me. At that time, I did not know Carolyn at all, and she did not know who I was. However, Carolyn had heard from Adrian that on some occasions, I had attended the platoon Christian fellowship (back then, they used to get together to talk about the problems they experienced during training, and to sing worship songs). Adrian explained that Carolyn and him were walking down Orchard Road on Saturday when they passed by a Christian bookstore. She suddenly felt a strong urge to buy a book for me. The book was "Questions of Life: a beginner's guide to the Christian Faith" by Nicky Gumbel. I was shaken by Adrian's story, because the book answered my prayer to know more about Jesus. Could it still be a coincidence? Even then, I did not dare to tell Adrian or anyone else about my dream.

My Sister's Prayer for my Conversion
About two weeks later, I decided to tell my sister about my dream. I had been afraid to share because my family was Taoist and I knew my parent would object to my being a Christian. I told my sister how I felt she had a role to pay in my conversion because she was different from everyone else in the dream: she was sad. She gave me a surprised look, was silent for a while before she told me how about one week before my dream, she went to a church with a friend, and there (even though she wasn't a Christian), she prayed that I would be converted. Today, I am still very amazed and thankful to my sister for her prayer.

The Lord's Grace and Love
I thank the Lord for His grace in revealing Himself to me. I was such a wretched and rotten person, yet He was willing to bring me into His Kingdom. He was changed me in so many ways since July 2000. I am so glad I have seen the true light instead of still being kept in the dark, bounded by my reluctance to accept new ideas due to my strong intellectualism. Sometimes, I ask Him what the significance of the escalator in the dream was. He told me that the escalator represent how I try to reach Him or disprove Him using logic. However, just as the escalator failed to reach the heavens, so will my logical attempts. In my philosophical debates, I would be lost and confused, always coming back to square one. What I really needed was a step of Faith. He revealed that all my life, this issue of Faith is something which I would constantly be struggling with on many new and deeper levels. But He assured me that He would be there with me every step of the way. Because He loves me.