We often hear about “hearing God’s voice” and “listening for God’s voice” in Christian circles, but what about when it seems hard to do? What if you are still at a point where hearing God’s voice is difficult for you, or you have doubt that it can happen, or you don’t know how to go about doing this? I most certainly do not have all of the answers, but in this post I address some of the challenges I’ve faced and solutions I’ve found to help me with these challenges. Read on and comment with your challenges and/or solutions!
Challenge: Finding time to sit and listen for God’s voice.
Solution: Schedule it throughout the day; 10 minutes here, 20 minutes there is better than nothing because you think you need a two-hour block of silence and therefore “don’t have adequate time.”
Just as it may be hard to go from never working out to working out five times a week, it may be difficult for you to go from limited quiet time with the Lord to two hours of non-stop quiet time every day. Of course the more time you spend with God the better, but starting out by dedicating at least 10 minutes in the morning before getting distracted by the world and checking your email, social media, app alerts, text messages, etc. to just sit in the stillness of the morning and be in the Lord’s presence will do wonders in starting a quiet time routine that can increase in length as you become more and more comfortable doing it.
Look into journaling, playing worship music, and meditating on and praying Scripture to help usher in God’s presence and quiet yourself down to be able to sit and listen for what God has to say to you. It may not happen in that 10 minute sitting, but you could experience revelation later in the day and you will be able to recognize it as an answer to your prayer that you brought to God during your quiet time. God talks to us throughout the day (and night if you’re a dreamer!) even outside of dedicated quiet time, so take heart that you can in fact always make time to hear God’s voice.
Challenge: Believing you can hear God’s voice.
Solution: Increase your faith.
I know, I know, this is easy to say and hard to do, but faith comes by hearing the Word of God. See Romans 10:17. So, if you have doubt that God can talk to you and has something special to say to you, read about how God has done it in the past and does it now. Listen to sermons or talks about hearing from God and how others have heard from Him. Ask for more faith. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” – Matthew 7:7-8.
Challenge: Knowing whether you are hearing God’s voice or your own voice.
Solution: Pray for wisdom and discernment, learn how God talks to you, and assess whether what you hear lines up more with Scripture or with worldly views and selfish ambition.
Having wisdom and discernment is important for figuring out whether something comes from God, from your own wants and desires, or from negative limiting beliefs. Thankfully, we can ask God to give us wisdom and discernment to help us in this and other areas in life. See James 1:5 (“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”); Hebrews 5:14 (“But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”); 1 Corinthians 2:11-13 (“For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.”).
You may also want to read up more on how the Holy Spirit helps Christians discern what is coming from a good or evil source, and different ways of how God talks to you. You may not always “hear” God’s “voice” through an audible verbal sound outside of your body. Instead, you may hear God communicating with you through a song that plays at a particular moment you are thinking of the subject of the song, or you are reading Scripture and a verse jumps out at you and applies directly to your situation, or you get a word from someone in your life about what you have been praying/thinking about but you didn’t even tell the person about what you were thinking about! But you may also hear/feel a voice as well, perhaps a small still voice or prompting feeling from within you.
Moreover, keep in mind that God would not tell you to do something that goes against His Word. This can help you distinguish when something comes from God or some other source. For example, if you ask God what you should do in a situation where someone betrayed you, I doubt you are hearing God if the answer is “go get revenge on the person who betrayed you so they know what it feels like.” The Word says, “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ To the contrary, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” – Romans 12:17-21. So, keep Scripture and the character of God in mind when you are wondering if your thoughts are from Him or somewhere else!
I also highly recommend checking out How to Hear from God (Spiritual Growth Series): Learn to Know His Voice and Make Right Decisions* by Joyce Meyer, which does a much better job than I can at explaining all this! I have the 2-in-1 book and study guide. 🙂
*This is an affiliate link. You can read my disclaimer about my use of affiliate links here. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Grace for the Grind™ Career Mastermind is a FREE private online community for Christian women lawyers, law students, pre-law students and young professionals who want less stress and more of God’s grace for the professional grind. You can learn more about Grace for the Grind and join for free at https://app.graceforthegrind.com!
