God speaks to each of us in different ways, but there are a few helpful ways to posture our heart that always helps us to hear His voice. Let me share five ways that you can situate yourself to better receive words from Jesus.
1. Humility
Proverbs 11:2 (NIV)
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
Pride is a major stumbling block to hearing God’s voice and receiving from Him. It is a refusal to listen, learn and gain the wisdom that God says He will give to any who ask Him for it.
Humility is essential in approaching what we believe we have heard from God, realizing that as humans, sometimes we get things confused or only partly right. It feels dangerous and irresponsible to run around telling people, “God says this” or “God told me to tell you this.” It can quickly turn from a true blessing in a prophetic word from God to a manipulative way to control or spiritually abuse others in God’s name. It’s more spiritually healthy to deliver a word we think we have received from the Lord with, “I feel like the Lord is showing this to me about your situation, so I want to submit it to you to test and get confirmation that it is accurate.” Humility is critical to hear from the Lord.
Proverbs 3:34 (NIV) … (God) shows favor to the humble and oppressed.
James 4:6 (NIV) … “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
We see in the Bible that our posture of humility always welcomes the presence of God. Humility and surrender are at the core of all true worship. While I feel more and more confident and comfortable that I can hear God’s voice every year that goes by, I still want to walk in a place of holding things loosely and really working toward humility.
2. Purity
It’s clear from God’s Word that when we are holding onto unconfessed sin, it’s much more difficult to hear what God has to say. In Matthew 5:8, Jesus says, “...the pure in heart will see God.”
Psalm 66:18 (NIV)
If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened;
Holding on to sin that has not been confessed to Him interferes with our communication with God.
1 Peter 3:7 indicates that if husbands mistreat their wives, their prayers will be hindered.
Isaiah 59:2 confirms that when we sin it separates us from God.
If we want to tune in to hear God’s voice, we must pursue purity. When we are walking in regular confession of our sins to God and with a pure heart, hearing God becomes much more attainable.
3. Stillness
Psalm 46:10 says
“Be still and know that I am God.”
There is an effort that we need to make to quiet our hearts and listen. Even in the midst of a storm, or in battle, we may not be able to cause all the circumstances to be calm, but we can find stillness in our own soul, in our hearts.
Our culture is filled with noise and distractions, but God is always speaking and we will hear His still small voice when we listen, wait, and we still ourselves.
Psalm 131:2 (NIV)
But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.
Psalm 37:7 (NIV)
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
Psalm 62:1 (NIV)
Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him.
Isaiah 30:15 (NIV)
This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength…
I don’t think it’s easy to choose into a place of stillness with God, but I do think it’s essential in positioning ourselves to hear his voice.
4. Fix Your Eyes on Jesus
Hebrews 12:2 tells us to fix our eyes on Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of our faith. He’s the beginning and the end. When we gaze at our problems and all the brokenness of the world, we won’t carry God’s heart – we will instead become overwhelmed by the pain and loss around us. But, when we keep our gaze on Jesus, and focus on God’s supremacy over all things, the problems of this world shrink and only deserve our glance, not our gaze. Keeping our “gaze” and “glance” in the right place will help us receive God’s heart for what’s happening around us.
There is a perseverance to keeping your eyes and ears open toward Jesus. Many people don’t want to keep looking or listening to Jesus if they don’t hear or see something right away. I’ve learned that if I keep focused on Jesus, I will finally receive what I need from Him.
In Matthew 7:7–8 (NIV) Jesus says,
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.
In the Greek, these verbs ask, seek and knock are all present tense participles… in other words, “keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking.” There is a perseverance that Jesus is calling us to, and a patience in waiting on Him to hear His voice. Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus is critical to hearing God’s voice.
5. Release Your Burdens to Jesus
Psalm 55:22 (NIV)
Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you;
1 Peter 5:7 (NIV) says
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
In order to eliminate distractions, I will generally first surrender all my baggage and unload my burdens at Jesus’ feet before I start trying to hear His voice. There is a freedom and peace after we invite Jesus to come in and take over. When I unload my burdens at His feet and ask Him to come and help, I feel lighter and more ready to receive from Him.
Jesus made it clear that trusting Him with tomorrow is critical.
Matthew 6:34 (NIV)
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Jesus is reminding us that He has enough grace for us today, but not tomorrow.
In Matthew 11 Jesus invites us to take on his “light yoke” when we come to him burdened with the weariness of our soul. The light yoke corrects our pace of life and allows us to walk with Jesus, and like Jesus.
If you are having difficulty hearing God’s voice, I believe these five postures will help you to hear and discern what He is saying to you.
So, as you consider adjusting to these five postures, may you receive grace from the throne of heaven to surrender more to His will, to still your Spirit to increase your sensitivity and hear his voice, and that will bring breakthrough and peace.
(To listen to this message as a podcast, click here.)
We invite you to come worship with us at Neighborhood Church in Chico.
Our Sunday Morning Worship Service is at 10:00 a.m. in the Dome.
You can also live stream our service on Facebook and YouTube at 10:00 a.m.
For the next few weeks we will be teaching, writing and podcasting about hearing the still small voice of God – come along on this journey of learning and awareness of what Jesus is saying and doing.
You will also find all our blogs, podcasts, and Sunday services and messages on our website ncchico.org that you can access at any time. Sunday services are under the Media tab. Blogs and podcasts are listed under Pastor Andrew's Corner.
Need encouragement? Text the word Encourage to 530.296.3689 to receive an encouraging scripture or quote from me several times a week that is sent right to your phone.
