How to Hear God’s Voice

If you’ve seen my videos, you have probably heard me telling stories about times I’ve heard from God. If you’re unfamiliar with my content, you’ve probably at least heard someone say “God spoke to me” or “I felt God saying…” Some people prefer to use the slightly more cliché phrase, “I felt the Lord leading me.” However they are worded, phrases like this tend to raise questions in our minds. Does God really still speak to believers today? Can I hear Him for myself? I believe the answer is yes. I’m going to explain why I believe that, and then I’m going to give you five key points from God’s Word that I believe will help you tune in to His voice.

Does God Speak to Believers Today?

The Bible is the only word from God we’re given. This idea has been spread throughout the highways and hedges (to borrow a nifty phrase from Jesus) by many groups and teachers over time. It’s also a statement I used to agree with. I do believe that the Bible is inspired, true, relevant, and unchanging. Consequently, if you and I believe the Bible is God’s written word, then we need to go straight to the Bible when asking the question, “Does God still speak?” As we ponder over the following verses, I encourage you to read these with an open heart—with an unbiased view. I encourage you to read with the perspective of a child. After all, Jesus taught that we must become like children if we’re even to enter His kingdom. How can we expect to operate inside His kingdom any differently?

Jesus Speaks

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”

John 10:27

Jesus uses an unflattering yet comforting illustration of a shepherd calling to his sheep. Jesus refers to Himself as the Good Shepherd, and the sheep represent believers. If we are the sheep and Jesus is the shepherd, then following Him means learning to recognize and listen to His voice.

I brought up this verse to make one simple point: Jesus couldn’t have been solely referring to the Bible when He said “My voice.” Not every person who reads the Bible gets saved. Not every person who hears a reading of Scripture follows Jesus. Jesus must be talking about something more personal than the written word. He reveals what He’s talking about a little later on in the same gospel.

Jesus Speaks Through The Holy Spirit

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

John 14:26

When Jesus speaks about His voice, He’s talking about the voice of the Holy Spirit. God is three-in-one: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God the Father loved the world and sent the Son, the Son died for the sins of the world, and the Holy Spirit reminds us of what the Son has done and said.

The Spirit’s job is to point us to Jesus—to be the voice of the Shepherd in our hearts.

Some people would argue that the Holy Spirit was meant purely for the early church believers, but Paul confirms in Romans that He is meant for all New Testament believers.

Every Believer Has The Holy Spirit

“However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”

Romans 8:9

When Paul says, “the Spirit of Christ,” He’s talking about the Holy Spirit. There are not many times in the Bible when the Holy Spirit is referred to as “the Spirit of Christ,” but there are a few. The reason I mentioned a verse that uses this phrasing is because I want you to see how intricately connected Jesus is to the Holy Spirit. Many of us will acknowledge Jesus as our Lord and Savior, but we have a hard time acknowledging the Holy Spirit as our God. According to the Bible, He is an equal member of the Trinity. Paul makes it clear that, if we do not have the Holy Spirit, we don’t belong to Jesus at all.

So, if I don’t regularly hear from the Holy Spirit, does that mean I’m not saved? Not necessarily. If you have chosen to turn away from sin and believed that Jesus paid the price for your sins, you are a forgiven and loved child of God. Think back to the illustration of the sheep for a minute. The sheep that have a hard time hearing the voice of the Shepherd might be surviving, but the sheep that hear His voice clearly will be thriving. They will be walking the closest to the Shepherd—right there beside Him. If you are saved, you are a part of the fold. It may just be that you haven’t learned to clearly distinguish the voice of the Holy Spirit yet, and that’s what I want to help you be able to do.

Why Haven’t I Heard God?

Every believer receives the Holy Spirit upon salvation, however, the same way that any relationship can be improved, we can be filled with the Spirit to a greater degree. Jesus confirms this when He tells us the Father is willing to give the Holy Spirit to any who ask (see Luke 11:9-13). Despite this, many believers think they have never heard from the Holy Spirit at all. You may be surprised to learn that’s simply not true.

If you are truly saved, believe it or not, you have heard from the Holy Spirit.

Here’s what I mean by that: the Spirit of God makes the truth of the gospel known by revealing it to us in our hearts. Apart from His voice, we cannot accept the truth in the first place.

“Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory…For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.”

1 Corinthians 2:6-7,10

Paul is letting us know that the gospel was bound up in an incomprehensible mystery, yet the Holy Spirit is the one who has made it clear to us. The moment we got saved, the Holy Spirit confirmed this simple truth to us: the death of Jesus was payment for all your sins, and you can receive forgiveness by repenting and believing in Him. You may be able to remember a time when you had heard the gospel but you hadn’t yet believed it. I can. The moment I finally accepted it also happened to be the first time I clearly heard from the Holy Spirit. He said, “God loves you, and Jesus died for you.” Until that point, I didn’t believe God could really love me despite my mistakes. The voice of the Holy Spirit changed that.

So, if all believers have received the Holy Spirit, how come not every believer hears His voice clearly? I want to give you two answers.

1. We may not be acknowledging Him.

The first reason we may not be hearing the Holy Spirit is that we may not be acknowledging His work in our lives. Look at the wisdom found in Proverbs 3:5-6:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.”

Most believers want God to straighten their paths—to show them the right and best way to go. We want to follow straight behind our Shepherd, but we’re not always willing to acknowledge God when He’s working in our hearts. We all acknowledge Him on one level or another, but that doesn’t mean we are acknowledging everything He does. We may acknowledge God the Father when we ask for His will to be done, and we may acknowledge Jesus when we thank Him for His sacrifice on the cross, but that doesn’t mean we’re acknowledging the Holy Spirit when He is trying to get our attention.

The Holy Spirit has become a trick to some and a joke to others, but I believe the church in general needs a healthy and humbling reminder that the Holy Spirit is God. I understand why some people are turned off by the idea of the Holy Spirit. People have misrepresented Him in many ways, trying to show off or get rich using His name. However, we can’t stop acknowledging God the Father or Jesus the Son simply because some people misrepresent them. How do we expect our paths to be straight if we’re not willing to acknowledge the Holy Spirit?

I know this may seem a little harsh, but please understand that I’m not writing this judgmentally or in an attempt to make you feel bad. I need to hear this at times, too. The Holy Spirit is pointing out the straight paths for those who are following Jesus. You and I need to be willing to acknowledge His work if we want to learn to better hear His voice.

2. Our relationship may be too impersonal.

The second reason we are not hearing God’s voice is that we may be allowing our relationship with God to become impersonal. Has someone ever asked you this question: “How is your relationship with God going?” Here are some common responses I’ve heard:

“Well, I’m trying my best to do what’s right…”

“It’s like I’m in a constant battle with sin..”

“I really don’t study the Bible as much as I should…”

These responses are not terrible, but they can be signs of a disengaged relationship. Without realizing it, some of us are constantly making our relationship with God impersonal. We focus on what we’re doing for God instead of the friendship we have with God. Before we feel like we can talk to God about a problem we’re having, we think we have to fix our behavior. On the other hand, God always makes it personal. He looks past the behavior and points to the heart. He knows that the more personal we are with Him and the more we let Him in, the more our actions will follow. Our words and actions reflect the condition of our hearts.

Over and over throughout the Bible, God says you will be My people, and I will be your God (see Genesis 17:7, Exodus 6:7, Ezekiel 34:24, Ezekiel 36:28, Jeremiah 7:23, Jeremiah 30:22, Jeremiah 31:33 for a few references). He could have simply said that He wanted everyone to do what He told them to do. Just get in line and you’ll be fine. Instead, He constantly expresses His desire for us to be His—to belong to Him. He also wants to be ours—our God.

My wife Leslie and I attended the same high school, but I could not have called her mine in high school. We were friends, and I even tried to impress her from afar, but that in no way meant we belonged to each other. Now that we’re married, if someone points to her and asks who she is, I can say, “She’s my girl. She is mine and I am hers.” God wants to be able to do the same with us. He doesn’t simply want us to try to impress Him from a distance. He wants it to be more personal than that.
 Some preachers and teachers will claim God doesn’t speak through the Holy Spirit anymore. They study the Bible, serve the Lord through ministry, and obey all the commandments. If God spoke to anyone, it just makes sense they would be the first to hear from Him, right? Since they’ve never heard from God, they reason that His voice must have only been for the early church. I understand why someone would assume this, but I believe they are missing one simple thing.

God desires a personal connection with us, not just a contractual one.

It doesn’t matter how much we seem to be impressing God, He’s really after something else first: our hearts. Jesus addresses this issue through a prophetic word in Revelation 2:2-4:

“I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”

These people are devoted. They do good works, they persevere, they abhor unrighteousness, they don’t put up with false teachers, and they endure for the sake of Christ. Despite all this, Jesus takes up issue with them. He’s saying, you do all these good things for Me, but your relationship with Me isn’t personal anymore. It’s become about the works of God, not the person of God. I’m telling you today, God wants to be intimate with you. He wants to be close to you. If you know you lack this, don’t be discouraged. When Jesus died on the cross, the veil was torn in two, and the Spirit of God left the temple and entered the hearts of believers. Through Jesus, you can approach God intimately without fear or shame. Seek Him the way you would pursue someone you love. Make it personal.

5 Keys to Hearing from God

Now that we’ve worked through a few of the most pressing questions regarding God’s voice, I want to give you five keys to help you hear from God.

1. Humble yourself.

We all have two options in life when it come to humility. Either we choose to humble ourselves, or we will be humbled. No matter how young, talented, and free we feel, we all will get old and face the reality of our finality. In the end, we all desperately need God. When we choose to admit our great need for Him in the present, our relationship with Him blossoms.

Pride isn’t an uncommon enemy either. Every single person struggles with it. If it is any assurance to you, I still struggle with pride—almost every day. The key to hearing from God is not to never experience pride. They key is to reject pride every time it shows itself.

“Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: ‘He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us’? But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, ‘God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’”

James 4:5-6

James directly connects humility with being filled with the Holy Spirit. When we choose to walk in humility, we are in a sense reaching out our hands to take the hand of the Lord. We’re like a young child who has finally realized they can’t pick themselves up. In their humble state, they reach out to their parent for help.

Humility doesn’t mean beating ourselves up. It simply means we see ourselves for who we really are—we recognize our need for grace.

The best way to stay humble is to constantly return to the scene of the cross.

At the foot of the cross, all our secrets are laid bare. All our failures and sins are exposed, and we see ourselves for who we really are. We don’t have to work very hard to distill our pride when sitting at the foot of the cross; the gospel humbles us—it does the hard work. The work you and I have to do is to make the choice to go there. We can choose to visit Calvary in our minds or not. We can choose to meditate on the gospel or not.

What’s amazing about the cross is that it doesn’t just humble us; it also lifts us up. When we see our need, we are humbled. When we see Jesus’ love, we are valued. Jesus didn’t simply pay for our sins. He also invited us into relationship with God. Think about the honor you would feel if a celebrity or world-leader called you their friend. How much more esteemed would we have to be in order to be a friend of God? Through the cross, Jesus has called us friends. As we allow the gospel to humble us, we are in position to walk out that friendship through a consistent fellowship with the Holy Spirit.

2. Ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Seek and wait.

This key is the most basic out of the 5, but it also may be the most needed. I believe the reason many people never hear from God is that they don’t ask to be filled with the Spirit. I love my children dearly, but one thing I have to remind them of all the time is to “ask.” I can be sitting on the floor playing with my daughters for half an hour when suddenly one of them bursts out in tears, crying, “Daddy, I’m hungry!” Astonished, I’ll say, “If you were hungry, you could have asked me for food at any point. Why did you wait until you were desperate?” Jesus uses a similar illustration in Luke 11:9-13 when he instructs us to ask for the Holy Spirit.

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

The truth found in this passage is ground level—it’s basic, but it’s essential. If we want to hear from God, we need to ask for the Holy Spirit. The promise found in this passage is encouraging too. When we ask, we can be sure that God hears us and will respond.

One thing to note is: Jesus doesn’t say that we’ll always be filled with the Holy Spirit immediately after asking. Sometimes, we don’t ask with the correct motives or we’re not really asking in faith. Sometimes it takes time for our belief to line up with our willingness. I’ve had people tell me that they asked for the Holy Spirit and nothing happened, so they gave up. In a situation like this, we have a promise from God that enables us to continue asking. Jesus said ask and you will receive. When we give up, we are inadvertently making the choice to doubt Jesus’ words. Whether we realize it or not, we are choosing to believe He wasn’t telling the truth.

Jesus was telling the truth, but sometimes it takes longer than we expect. That’s why Jesus also tells us to knock. When you knock at the door of someone’s house, the door doesn’t always open the first time. That doesn’t mean you walk away. If you know they’re there, you keep knocking.

There are a few practical things I sometimes do while waiting upon the Lord. I like to go into a quiet room all by myself. I’ll often sing a praise song to God, or at least tell Him how grateful I am for all He has done. I also normally read the Bible, pray, ask God to speak, and then simply wait. If other things come to mind, I tell myself that I’ll think about them later, and I attempt to concentrate on what God wants to do with that time. I might lay face down on the floor, or I might just stand there with my hands open. These are just a few ways one could seek the Lord. The important thing is not necessarily how you do it (though I consider praise and reading the Bible essentials). The important thing is to keep seeking.

If you have asked God for the Holy Spirit but haven’t had any response, keep knocking. Keep seeking Him. Keep waiting upon Him. He is a loving Father who gives good gifts, and He wants to give the Holy Spirit to you.

3. Don’t treat His voice like a formula. Treat it like a relationship.

The previous point leads straight into this one: we must treat God’s voice the way we treat the voice of a friend. God could have made the decision to completely fill every believer with the Holy Spirit the minute they believe, but He didn’t. God knows what we need before we ask, but He still wants us to ask. Why? Remember that He wants to get personal with us. He doesn’t want us to treat him like a robot, and he doesn’t want to treat us like robots.

I know I’m presenting you with a list of five keys, but I encourage you not to focus too much on the list. Instead, focus on God. Focus on your relationship with Him. One aspect of relationships is that they are unique. I have three children, and I love all of them, but I don’t relate to them all the same way. I have a unique relationship with each of them. Similarly, God loves all His children, but He has a unique relationship with each one.

Because of the uniqueness of our relationships with God, not every person hears from the Holy Spirit the same way. His voice doesn’t sound the same to every person.

I remember one particular week when I was struggling with depressing thoughts about the day and age in which I live. Images of the tragedies, hatefulness, and wickedness of our world kept filtering through my mind, causing me to dwell in a state of hopelessness. I kept thinking, “What can I do? How am I supposed to be a light in such a dark time?” Then, I began to daydream about living in another, better time and place. I thought, “I wish I wasn’t born in this time in history.”

Looking back, I can see how these thoughts were a spiritual attack meant to discourage me and keep me from doing what God had asked me to do. Living in another time period wouldn’t have fixed any of the issues, but I couldn’t see that. When I needed it most, the Holy Spirit broke through my despair.

I was driving to a youth group meeting I volunteered at on a Sunday night, and I had just stopped at a stop-light. Suddenly, a scene from the film, The Fellowship of the Ring, flashed through my mind. In the story, the character Gandalf is an old, wise friend of the main character, Frodo. I heard this simple dialogue between the characters in my mind:

Frodo: “I wish none of this had happened.”
Gandalf: “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

As these gentle words flooded my conscious thought, my fears and uneasiness drifted away. I was at peace. Immediately after that though, I thought, “That probably wasn’t the Holy Spirit. God wouldn’t use a movie quote like that to encourage me.” As I believed this doubt, all the fear and anxiety returned.

I arrived at the youth service shortly after, and I sat in the back during the sermon. Pastor Tim Ingram was preaching that night, and he happened to be speaking about the Holy Spirit. I distinctly remember his words. “The Holy Spirit is going to sound different to different people. He might sound like you, He might sound like me, or He might sound like Gandalf.”

I stood up. “Okay!” I thought. “You’ve got my attention, God.” In that moment, I chose to believe that God had used a scene from my favorite movie to speak a specific word of encouragement into my spirit. He had spoken to me in a way that I would understand.

It is important to realize that not every thought that runs through our minds is from God. Sometimes, it’s just our own minds. Other times, it’s a lie from the devil. So, how do you learn to recognize His voice? Imagine that you have a friend who is always kind—the nicest person you’ve ever known. One day, someone you barely know tells you that your kind friend cursed them out. You might respond, “I know them. They wouldn’t have said something like that.” I understand this isn’t a perfect example, because no friend is completely consistent in their behavior. However, my point is that when you truly know someone, you recognize their words. It’s the same with Jesus.

The more we read and meditate on His written Word, the Bible, the more we learn to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit when He speaks to us personally.

The fastest way to start hearing His voice today is to ask God to speak to you while you are reading the Bible. The Bible is God’s general revelation to us, but the Holy Spirit can use it to get specific. He can make words jump off the page at us and reveal “right now” truths that we need to hear in the moment.

4. Test everything you hear with God’s written Word.

Not only can God speak to us through the Bible, but we can also confirm specific words from the Holy Spirit by comparing them to the written Word. Anything the Holy Spirit speaks to us should always agree with Scripture. If it denies or discounts the written Word, it’s not from Him.

Here’s an example. If you hear a word in your mind that you think is the Holy Spirit that says, “Small sins are really okay,” you can be certain that is not from God. It’s a lie from devil. We know this by examining it against verses like Romans 12:2, which says:

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

In this verse, Paul describes God’s perfect will for our lives. God desires that we live righteously—holy and blameless as His people.

You can be sure that the Holy Spirit really is speaking to you in the same way. For example, I used to really beat myself up when I made mistakes. I would be terrified that I had messed up too much for God to love or forgive me anymore. Then, the Holy Spirit would break through that despair and say something like, “I still have grace for you today. My grace is still enough. The death of Jesus on the cross still pays for your sins—even this one.”

I would pick up my Bible, crack it open, and confirm that word using verses like 2 Corinthians 12:9 and Romans 5:8, which say:

“And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

As you grow more familiar with God’s written Word, you will be able to confirm the Holy Spirit’s voice as soon as you hear. Get in there. Read the Word. Hear from God.

5. Choose to obey before you hear.

This final key to hearing from God may be the hardest to do. God doesn’t just desire us to hear from Him; He also wants us to decide to obey before we ever hear. Remember, God looks at the heart. He knows our intentions better than we do. The reason our desire to obey matters so much to Him is because our obedience demonstrates the level at which we are willing to trust God.

God isn’t just interested in Christians doing “Christian things” and trying real hard not to sin. He wants something deeper than that.

He wants faith—belief in the words He has spoken. It is faith that pleases God, and our obedience shows whether we have faith or not. You can’t have one without seeing the other. Our willingness to act is the paint with which we create a visible picture of our faith.

When it comes to hearing from the Holy Spirit, God is looking for our hearts to be turned to Him—to be trusting Him no matter how crazy His words seem to our human minds. Some of us want to hear from God simply for the experience of it, others want to hear from Him so they can appear to reach some high level of spiritual maturity, but God wants us to hear from Him so that we can know Him better. Knowing Him means we’re willing to accept anything He asks us to do or change.

“The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.”

Psalm 145:18

This verse reminds us that God draws near to those who cry out to Him. It also warns us that we must be willing to cry out in truth. This doesn’t mean that we have a perfect perspective every time, because none of us would ever hear from God if that was the case. Calling upon Him in truth means two things: accepting and obeying the truth you do know, and then having a heart that is willing to accept and obey any truth God wants to teach.

A good example of this is the issue of unforgiveness. Many people want God to encourage them with His voice, but they don’t want the Holy Spirit to remind them of the people they need to forgive. To hear from God on a consistent basis, we must be willing to listen to what He actually has to say, not merely listen for what we want Him to say.

One final verse I want to leave you with is Psalm 139:23-24. If you ever struggle with having an obedient heart, which we all struggle with at times, remember the honest, vulnerable words of King David. May this be our prayer as we seek the Lord in truth.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.”