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.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.
Exodus 20:18-21
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.If we want to have life, we need to listen to His voice, for He is our life.
Deut 30:19-20
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.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.
John 16:13
"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."Jesus promises us that we, who are His sheep, will recognize his voice! We are as one flock because we all hear His voice.
John 10:2-5, 16
"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.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.
1 Sam 3:1-7
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?]
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Thanks!
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