In the last post, we said: “You can hear the voice of God.” There is an expectation in scripture that all believers would know His voice and follow His lead. We also discussed the “revelatory gifts” of scripture: prophecy, words of knowledge, and words of wisdom, and how they work.
Today, we will begin to look more in-depth at how you can hear the voice of God. All throughout the Bible, we see God speaking to His people in various ways. These are not always categorized into the three revelatory gifts mentioned before. Although there is no limit on how He might communicate with us, I want to explore eight ways He speaks to His people in the Bible. This will be followed in the next post on how to develop discernment in our hearing.
READING SCRIPTURE
“All Scripture is breathed out by God…” — 2 Timothy 3:16 ESV
Even from the early days of the church, it was recognized that the Bible is a collection of books that were authored by men as they were directed by the Holy Spirit. That means that as we engaged with the Bible, we are reading a letter to mankind, written by the Holy Spirit Himself. As we trust in this fact, it becomes clear that the Bible is the foundational means for hearing God’s voice because it is in the Bible that we learn all about God’s character and His ways.
Since the Bible is true and written by the Holy Spirit, we can also trust that the Holy Spirit will never speak anything to us which is contrary to the scriptures. Therefore, not only does the Bible help you learn to hear God’s voice, but it also builds discernment for whether it is God’s voice you are hearing at all. We cannot neglect this foundation if we want to hear God speaking to us.
SPIRIT TO SPIRIT (OR INTUITIVE HEARING)
Often times you will hear Christians say, “I feel like God is saying…” What they are usually talking about is hearing God with an intuitive hearing, rather than hearing God’s audible voice. It is the Holy Spirit inside of us, speaking to us from the inside.
Oftentimes, these words come more as impressions or as “outside thoughts,” not originating in your own mind. In the Old Testament, it is the Hebrew word, “nabi” meaning “to bubble up.” The thought you have is a Holy Spirit-given thought that seems to bubble up from the soul, rather than from the mind.
In my experience, this is one of the primary ways they hear God speak in the busyness of daily life for most Christians. It certainly is for me. Growing in discernment between the voices in your head will be key in learning to hear God speak this way.
HEARING THE AUDIBLE VOICE OF GOD
This is when God speaks out loud, and we hear it with our natural ears. One biblical example is when Jesus blinds the Apostle Paul at his conversion, and speaks to him audibly with a loud voice, “Why are you persecuting me?” The Lord then spoke to him of his destiny and gave him instructions on what to do immediately.
The audible voice of God seems to be rare among Christians, but it does still happen. There are a few people who hear it regularly; however, the majority of people who do experience the audible voice of God only do so once or twice in a lifetime. This has never happened for me.
DREAMS
Dreams are another very prominent way that God speaks to people. Some believe it is because that is the time our rational minds are at rest, and He can speak to us without us reasoning it away.
Deuteronomy refers to one type of prophet as a “dreamer of dreams.” (Deuteronomy 13:1)
This is not to say that all dreams come from God. (Though it is likely that many dreams are from God, though we haven’t realized it.) You still need discernment in determining where the dream comes from and if it has meaning to reality.
VISIONS AND TRANCES
There are different types of visions given in scripture.
Visions (Internal) – In general, a vision is similar to a daydream, though it does not come from your human mind. Instead, you see something play out in your head in the same way an intuitive word from God “bubbles up” from the soul.
Open Visions – Open visions are external. They play out in front of you like you are watching a tv screen. Rather than just being a daydream, it overlays reality so that you can see with spiritual eyes what is going on. One example is Elisha’s servant, whose eyes were opened to see the angel armies supporting them from the mountaintops.
Similar to visions is a trance. According to Jamie Galloway of Global Awakening:
“A trance is when you completely lose consciousness of your physical surroundings because you are overcome by the Spirit of God. It seems you lose your logic and are overcome with what God is presenting to you as if it always was.”
We might say that a trance is when an open vision does not just play out in front of you. Instead, you are actually pulled into the vision completely, and therefore, lost to reality around you. A person in a trance may seem fully awake and conscious, but in reality, their mind is somewhere else. Again, this can be from the Spirit of God, or can also just be a fleshly preoccupation with some thought that has consumed the person.
Peter finds himself in a trance on his rooftop while praying in Acts 10:10.
PHYSICAL SENSATIONS
Physical sensations often occur in relation to words of knowledge for healing. You might call it a God-given sympathy pain. It would be where you experience a sudden pain in your knee, where you should not be feeling pain. This could be God prompting you to ask the people around you if they have knee pain. It builds faith that He wants to heal.
In our ministry, we seek words of knowledge for healing in prayer, and then call them out to the whole crowd at our crusades and events. We have seen many people healed in this way.
Sometimes God can give you physical sensations leading to other things, like perhaps feeling something in your ring finger could be pointing you to ask questions about the persons marriage or if they are married.
Physical sensations can go along with intuitive hearing as they may just be a very direct way for God to initially get your attention.
VISITATIONS
Visitations are when a heavenly being, whether an angel or even Jesus Himself shows up to you in person. Sometimes the visitor will have a message to speak to you. Other times they may use non-verbal communication to tell you what they were sent to say.
Angels are all around us. It shouldn’t be a surprise that sometimes they come just to see us. It is also worth noting that you won’t always know they are angels (Hebrews 13:2). Sometimes they will come to you in the form of a person and give you a word from God, or simply converse for a while or ask for charity, then leave without you knowing their true identity.
INSPIRED SPEECH
Inspired speech happens often in the public presentation of the gospel. It is when you open your mouth to say one thing, and something completely different than you planned comes out. Yet what does come out is more profound than what you meant to say or reveals some deep, hidden truth. In a surprise to everyone, God speaks through your mouth. Inspired speech will always be helpful to the person or group of people you are ministering to, rather than condemning or judgmental.
Some of the greatest prophetic words I have heard or received have been inspired speech.
THE DESIRE TO HEAR
There are many ways God can and does speak. The biggest question is, “Are we listening?” If you haven’t experienced any of these phenomena in your walk with the Lord, do not get discouraged. Instead, press in closer to Him and ask Him to help you hear His voice. He will!
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on anthonyingram.com.
Featured Image by Reinhart Julian
