Six simple tips that will help you really hear God’s voice

Every Christian wants to hear God speak to them in their lives. They want to know what God wants them to do in life. It can seem difficult to hear His voice sometimes. You might pray daily and only hear silence every day. It can quickly become a frustrating experience in your faith. Despite your frustration, all Christians can hear the voice of God in their lives. He intended for you to be guided by His direction throughout life. He won't leave you without knowing how to obey Him. Here are six tips you can follow to help you hear the voice of God. 

1. Remove the obstacles.

There are many obstacles in life that can make it difficult for you to hear from God. It’s important to consider what could be getting in your way. You might, for example, have a sin in your life which you haven't confessed to God. Perhaps you know you've been willfully continuing to do something you know God doesn't want you to do. In Psalm 66:18, the verse describes being heard from God when one confesses their sin. Other verses throughout scripture also note God having an unwillingness to listen to sinners. Living in sin will hinder you from hearing the voice of God in your life. You have to sit down and be honest with yourself about how you've been living recently. 

Have you been making something more important than God in your life?  Have you been treating people in a way that God wouldn’t be pleased with? Once you’ve discovered the actions you’ve been doing that have been sinful, confess those sins to God. Ask for forgiveness for those sins. Do your best to not commit those sins in the future. Striving to live a holy life of obeying and honoring God will bring you closer to hearing His voice. 

2. Spend more time in prayer.

Many times, Christians only seek God in the most serious situations. Sometimes, Christians rarely seek God at all. This can hinder you from hearing from Him. God desires a close connection with all of His children. Like any relationship with parent and child, He wants Christians to communicate to Him other than when they need something. Ask yourself these questions. Have you been praying to God daily? Do you talk to Him consistently throughout the day? It’s important that you don’t live a life that makes you feel too busy to talk to God. There should always be a time in your schedule when you sit and down, and spend time in conversation with Him.  

As Jeremiah 33:3 illustrates, those who call on God will hear the hidden things that they haven't known. If you haven't been praying as often as you know you could be, schedule a time to do so. When you talk to Him in prayer, share all your deepest feelings and desires with Him. God desires to have an intimate relationship with you, so it's essential to be intimate with Him in conversation. When you pray more often, you'll open yourself to hearing from God more often. A great example of prayer is prayers for love. You can pray at any time of the day.

3. Accept the answers you hear.

Sometimes, as a Christian, you may actually be hearing God when you aren't sure. The reason you might be unsure is that you may not be happy with the answer you hear. God will give you answers you don't want to hear sometimes for your benefit. He wants to see you grow in your faith and be closer to Him in every way. That can sometimes mean testing your faith like when Abraham was told to sacrifice his son in Genesis 22. As Abraham was following through with obeying God's command, God stopped Him and said that He now knew Abraham feared God. While the command God wants you to obey may not be as drastic as this, He will test to see if you really fear Him. As you seek to hear from God more, be prepared to accept that you may hear things you don't want to hear. When you hear those things, be honest with yourself in acknowledging that you heard God's voice, and obey the command He's given you for your life.

4. Read your Bible.

God can communicate with you in many different ways. You may hear from God in ways beyond hearing a voice speak to you. One of those ways you can hear from God is through reading your Bible. It's important that you read it daily, so you can be able to notice something that God is trying to tell you. Have you ever had a moment where you were reading your Bible, and a specific verse just jumped out of the page to you? It was something that really caught your eye and made you think about something in your life. If so, that may have been God trying to tell you something. In any moment when you feel a verse sticking out to you for some reason, take time to reflect on it.  

Pray to God about that verse and ask Him what He’s trying to tell you. If you feel a strong feeling that verse is speaking to something specific you’ve been dealing with in life, that could be your answer to the situation. Take some action in the way that the verse is suggesting to you. Reading your Bible is a critical component of getting direction and guidance from God in your life. In fact, the Bible is what you need to test everything you think you heard. If anything you hear in your mind or from another person doesn't agree with the Bible, it's not a message from God. God will never tell you to do anything that's a sin. He'll always instruct you in a way that honors Him and ultimately blesses you. Given the Bible is such an essential tool to hearing God, you should schedule a daily reading plan. Start with something simple such as 15 minutes a day. Get in the habit of reading your Bible to hear God's voice better.

5. Listen to other people.

Sometimes, God can communicate to you from someone else. It may be a prophecy or just some message that they received from God to tell you. Continually attend your local church and seek out the insight of your local pastor and the congregation. Having said that, be careful about who you listen to. Someone may say they have a word from God to deliver to you, but it may not be an actual word from God. If what they say is something God wants you to hear, it will be confirmed to you through other people or other situations. 

1 Corinthians 14 talks about prophecy being judged by the church. This means no prophecy is accepted without agreement from the church. Be sure to communicate with your fellow congregants to get a proper judgment on any prophecy you’ve received from someone. Always seek God to be sure whatever message is someone giving you is really what God wants you to hear. Pray and see if you get any assurance about this, or read your Bible and see if a verse sticks out that confirms this. In addition, sometimes, God may communicate to you through the message your pastor delivers. If something in the pastor's preaching really strikes you, that could be God communicating what you need to do in your life. Always listen closely to your pastor’s message for anything potentially that God wants you to hear in your life right now. After you listen to his message, pray to God about what you think He was speaking to you, and He’ll confirm to you whether that’s what He wanted you to hear.  

6. Keep learning to know God's voice.

In Hebrews, it mentions that Christians can train their ear to recognize the voice of God. Verse 14 of Hebrews 5 states, "But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." This verse indicates to Christians that they can get to a point in their faith journey to where they can become accurate in knowing good and evil. This means you can become accurate in knowing whether something is coming from God or coming from other forces. Sometimes, you may feel like you hear something from God, but it’s actually just the desires of your flesh. 

Other times, you may be hearing things that are actually attacks from the Devil. It requires patience and carefulness to continually discern whether what you're hearing is from God. If you’re a new Christian, you’re probably going to make mistakes along the way. As long as you continue to pursue God, you’ll eventually know His voice. Follow all of these tips to help you have the best chance of hearing Him. If you’d like to know more information about finding God, you can click this link: https://www.neverthirsty.org/seeking-god/searching-for-god/