[This is part of the Hearing God's Voice series.]
“Dear God, I need to know Your will concerning my life. I ask You to show me what You want. Amen.”
Imagine if you prayed that for 5 seconds and then went about your day forgetting you even prayed it. Why? Because your old man wasn’t in the habit of finding God’s voice in your everyday life. I’m teaching my boys to listen to my voice, but I’m specifically working with one who is in the habit of tuning me out! You might be in the habit of tuning God out, but don’t realize it.
The Sit Down Part
The first thing you need to do to hear from God is to spend time with Him. If you don’t spend time with a friend you won’t get to know that person very well. I’m master of the obvious today, but learning about God doesn’t have to be complex!
If all the time you give to God on a regular basis is listening to the Christian radio station to and from work and reading a Psalm before you pray “now I lay me down to sleep,” then you probably aren’t going to know God’s voice.
In today’s society we are able to send digital messages in a fraction of the time it used to take us to contact someone. But have we taken that into our relationship with God? How do you text God? Would that be like saying a 5 second prayer during the day? 
Life. Is. Busy. Yet you will make time for what you want! Do you want to know His voice? Then sit down, and spend time with the Father. You might miss a day, but make it your goal to have a daily appointment with God. I call it Daily Time: Determining Again I Live Yielded; Today I‘m Maintaining Evidence.
The Shut Up Part
If you ask God for something without nagging Him, then you might miss the answer the first time around since it doesn’t always come the way you expect.
He won’t leave you hanging, though.
God is speaking to you much more than you may realize. Stop and listen when you are in His presence because sometimes He will speak to you immediately after you ask Him. Other times you have to wait.
Still other times He will speak to you through natural things. It could even be a cute statement a child makes. It’s like these hints are subtly tucked in your peripheral vision, but you don’t give them the time of day. They may slightly give you pause, but you keep going about your business. You continue to experience these messages that may seem unrelated until you sit down and gather your thoughts in His presence.
Then a little later an ordinary moment of your day suddenly becomes profound when the subtle messages come back to mind and you start to see those hints for what they really are: God’s answer.
As you reflect on the stream of revelations, your eyes are opened and you clearly see that a recurring theme is present. You know He has spoken! Suddenly His obvious answer is right before your eyes. When this happens to me I’m caught between feeling slow like a dumb sheep, and feeling really special that God spoke so significantly.
Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice. John 18:37c NKJV
Have you found that you heard from God more when you spent more time with Him? Has something “little” happened to you and you know it was God speaking to you?
Was this post helpful to you? Consider sharing it. The next post in this series will be about what you should do to learn God’s voice. Subscribe so you don’t miss it!
Photo credit: Melvin Gaal (Creative Commons)
Posted by Rambling Heather on August 2, 2011 at 6:54 am
This is such a needed post. I find that I’m often in such a hurry that I miss out on the hearing part of my time with Father. Thank you for this reminder.
Posted by KellySinging on August 2, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Thanks for sharing, Heather. I pray that your times with Him will be amazing and you will hear much of His heart.
Posted by Tracye Thompson on August 2, 2011 at 7:13 am
This post could change a life. God is speaking…. whoever has ears to hear let him hear. This is being a doer of the word. God Bless
Posted by KellySinging on August 2, 2011 at 3:43 pm
I pray that God will change us, and that we will actually do and not just say.
Posted by rachel @ finding joy on August 2, 2011 at 7:19 am
Your post was awesome (as usual) and had me thinking about how often my prayer time is about me, or me and my agenda, or me and my needs, etc… So few times am I quiet.
Time to be quiet. And to listen. Really really listen.
Posted by KellySinging on August 2, 2011 at 3:46 pm
He has so much to speak to you, Rachel, about yourself and about others. You have the ability to reach out to others in the natural and you could reach out to others in prayer and God will meet your needs. When you take care of the Father’s business, He takes care of yours. Love to you.
Posted by Hope Wilbanks on August 2, 2011 at 7:35 am
Fantastic post, Kelly! I especially like your analogy of “texting God” prayers. So true. We’re so inundated with input from technology today that it’s really hard to just be quiet.
Posted by KellySinging on August 2, 2011 at 3:48 pm
You know, I have wanted to spend time with God all day, talking to Him all day, praising Him all day and that is good. But there have been times, even recently that I have replaced my sit down with the quick here and there all day. And He has been showing me that intimacy doesn’t come that way.
Posted by Heather on August 2, 2011 at 8:09 am
This morning I was finding comfort in David’s cry, “o my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer.” then God spoke in said, I am answering but your ears are full with twitter and Facebook and others that you have no bandwidth for my voice. Thank you for echoing what I was thought I was hearing today.
Posted by KellySinging on August 2, 2011 at 3:51 pm
God said that to you, too, huh? It’s like I go to pray and all I can think about are all the people on twitter, etc. I pray for them daily, anyway, but it’s like I have to pray for them first so I can focus.
Posted by Pastor Brenda on August 2, 2011 at 11:46 am
WOW…..can I say that again: WOW!
Do we all need this or what???
Posted by KellySinging on August 2, 2011 at 3:52 pm
Yes! I need this, too!