Hearing from God is one of the most difficult aspects of having a relationship with God.  It’s not as simple as picking up the phone, dialing a number and hearing God’s voice on the other end.  However, it also doesn’t have to be as difficult as people think or believe that it is.

Over the past two weeks we have looked at different ways to hear from God.  I did not give an exhausted list, but rather I tried to highlight some of main forms in which He communicates.  Then, I decided to change directions and ask the question of “why can’t we hear clearly from God?”  The last post was about our inability to hear clearly because many times our prayers are so concerned about our will being done rather than the will of God.

For my final post on this subject, I want to hit on another reason it is difficult for us to hear from God.  One of the greatest reasons that it is difficult for us to hear from God at times is because we Grieve the Spirit of God.

Ephesians 4:29-32 states, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.  Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

The very first time I was asked to plan, write and speak a sermon it was on Ephesians 4:29-32.  As I read this passage I was shocked at what I was reading.  Could I really grieve the Holy Spirit?  I had only heard the term grieving when someone lost a loved one.  Was that the same thing?  Could God really grieve like a loved one does when someone passes away?

As I began to study the passage more, I began to understand the heart of God more.  The Holy Spirit, who is the third person of the Trinity, is grieved, feels sorrow, when we have bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, malice, corrupting talk or any other number of sins in our lives.

Did you catch that?  The Holy Spirit…God…is saddened when we sin.  It is like His heart breaks, like the heart of a grieving widow, when you and I live a life of sin.  Therefore, if God is grieving when we live a life of sin, then it will be very difficult for us to hear clearly from Him, not because of Him, but because of our sin.

Our sin, when it is un-confessed and unrepentant will always present a barrier between us and God.  God wants to have a relationship with each of us and wants that relationship to be one of intimacy, where we can know the depth of who God is.  However, God also can’t be with sin because He is holy and stands apart from any sin.  He does not associate with sin in any way because of His holiness.  Therefore, if we are living with unrepentant sin, then our ability to hear from God will be hindered.

If you find yourself in a place today where you are finding it difficult to hear from God then I want to encourage you to take an inventory of your life.  Is there any un-confessed sin in your life?  Is there anything that could be grieving God?  If you aren’t sure, then simply pray a prayer of “God, search the dark corners of my heart and reveal to me any unrepentant sin.”  Allow God to speak to you and bring to your mind anything that you may not have remembered, then confess it and receive God’s forgiveness.

The beauty of God is that His grieving only lasts as long as our denial.  Once we have confessed, then “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Pray, Confess, Receive.  Do these three things and see God’s grieving turned to rejoicing.

Side Note: I am speaking on this subject this coming Thursday at theWell.  If you are a college/20 something in Charleston, South Carolina, I would love to invite you to come out and hear more on this subject.  For more information check out theWell

Have you ever wanted something so badly that it was all you could think about, dream about or talk about?  It was the one thing that consumed your mind and heart for days, weeks, months or years.  It was the one thing that you wanted so badly to happen that you pleaded with God, even trying to strike a deal that if He would just do this one thing, you would do whatever He commanded.   You prayed.  You hoped.  You had faith that He would answer your prayers.  I believe that most people have been in this situation before, I know I have.

I don’t think that praying desperately for something is wrong or ungodly.  In fact, I am going to do a future post about prayer and what God has been teaching me this year and much of that will center around the idea of pressing in on God.

However, there does need to be some caution given as it relates to us being consumed with one thing and asking God to answer “just this one thing.”  That caution is this…God is more concerned about His will than yours, and if you are more concerned about yours, then it will be difficult to hear from Him. 

This is a hard truth for many people to swallow.  Doesn’t God love me?  Yes.  Doesn’t God want the best for me?  Yes.  Then why wouldn’t Godanswer my prayers the way that I want Him too?  The simple answer is that His will is greater than ours and sometimes what we think is best or loving is not.

You see, God has this whole thing figured out.  He has been God for a long time and hasn’t needed any help along the way.  If God wants to do something, it only takes the whisper of His voice and it is done.  He doesn’t need us and yet the beautiful thing about God is that He wants us.  He wants us to be engaged with Him.  He wants us to know Him and pursue Him.  He wants us to press in on Him with our prayers.  However, He is still more concerned about His will than our own and when we are more concerned with our will being done; it becomes more difficult to hear the voice of God in our situation because all we hear is our voice.

But what about John 15:16 where Jesus says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you”? Isn’t that a promise that if we just pray something and use the ending “In Jesus’ name” then we will get whatever we ask for?  Well, if you are reading this passage from no knowledge or understanding of the culture in which Jesus is speaking in and to, then yes….just pray whatever you want, say the magic words and God will grant you three wishes.  However, if you take a closer look at what Jesus is saying, then you will begin to understand the depth of this passage.

(Let me state it simply because of space)  When Jesus tells His disciples that all they have to do is pray in His name and the Father will give them whatever they ask, He is not saying you can get whatever you want with a magic formula but rather praying in Jesus’ name is to pray in the will and heart of Jesus.  To do anything in someone’s name, in that culture, was to understand who that person is and exactly what they desired and to do that thing.  It would be like if you made mac and cheese and brought it to my house for supper tonight.  This is exactly what I want, so you would be doing it in my name.  J

To pray in the name of Jesus is to know Jesus so intimately that you know what HE desires; therefore, you pray what HE desires.  When you are praying in Jesus’ name, you are more consumed by His will than your own, making it easier to hear the voice of God.  Many times people can’t hear God’s voice because they are so consumed with their own.  They want what they want and can’t hear God saying anything differently.

Press on.  Keep praying faithfully, consistently and boldly.  However, in the end, pray for God’s will to be done.  God loves you.  He loves healing people, restoring marriages, freeing people from sin, creating the miracle of pregnancy.  He probably loves to do what you are praying for.  You can trust Him.  So pray as Jesus said.  Pray in His name and wait expectantly for the Father to accomplish His will.

Over the years, I have heard many people who have struggled with discerning God’s voice.  It has not just been others who have expressed a wonderment of how God speaks, but I have struggled with this same concept many times.  How do I know when this feeling in my stomach is God speaking or just too much queso?  How do I know whether someone is giving me biblical wisdom or just their thoughts that stem from their experiences?

The last two weeks, we have looked at different ways to hear the voice of God.  I have tried to make it clear that God speaks in a variety of ways and that we all hear more clearly in different ways.  I could continue this blog with 100 more ways that God can and does speak to people; however, I sensed that I needed to turn the corner a little bit and talk about some of the reasons WHY we don’t hear God.

When many people determine that they are in a season that they can’t hear God, most place the blame on God.  “God isn’t speaking to me.” “God is choosing to be silent in my life right now.”  “I’m not sure why, but God is just not talking.”  Many place the blame of our inability to hear God’s voice on God. Now, I am not saying that God isn’t remaining quiet in your life right now; however, most of the times in my life when it is difficult to hear God, God is not the reason

If you want to hear God more clearly in your life, then one discipline that you must practice is silence.  In a culture that inundates us with noise, silence is a commodity that we don’t cherish.  Think about it.  How often do you have silence in your life?

When you are alone in your car, do you turn the radio on or just drive in silence?

When you are sitting at your house, do you turn the TV on or just sit in silence?

Silence is awkward for many of us.  Even the thought of driving in your car in complete silence makes some of you break out sweating.  It seems weird.  Isn’t anyone who does that socially inept?  If we could be listening to something, talking to someone (or something for some of you), or reading something, then that is better than silence….right?  So we are taught.

But, what if God wants to speak to us?  What if God is attempting to speak, but we have drowned out His voice by the radio, TV, newspaper, ipad, ipod, iphone or any other idevice?  Maybe the problem is not God, but that we have lost the art of listening.

Psalm 46:10 states, “Be Still and Know that I am God.”  The Hebrew (the original language) word for “Be still” is “raphah”.  This word literally means to relax, become idle or to cease striving.  Therefore, when we cease striving, relax or become idle then we can know that He is God.  Why?  Because, it is in our stillness many times that God’s voice is clearly heard.

Try it.  It will be awkward, but that is okay.  Try just being silent.  Try sitting there and allowing God to speak to you.  If you do want to take the challenge, then I would encourage you to pray a simple prayer.  It is a prayer that will lead you to a place of being submissive to what God wants to say, a place of being able to receive all that God has for you.

If you want to be still, if you want to cease striving, and know that He is God, then try it.  Pray this prayer…

“God, I want to hear your voice more clearly.  I want to hear you speak during this time of quietness.  I ask that you prohibit any of my thoughts or any noise around me from distracting me.  I want to hear you right now.”

Now, just sit and listen.

Have you ever felt like God was speaking to you, made a decision and then realized it was a mistake?  If you haven’t, then you are probably perfect and don’t need to read any further.  But, for those of us who have allowed a feeling to be mistaken for the Word of God, this post may help you.

Over the years, I have encountered so many people who allow their feelings to control their decisions.  Don’t worry; you are not one of them.  They get a quiver in their liver and so they make changes claiming God spoke to them.  They feel a desire to be with the opposite sex, so they act on that feeling claiming that if it wasn’t God then they wouldn’t have felt that way.  They get a feeling that they should stop serving, therefore they disregard wise counsel and end up disconnecting from the Body of Christ.

This has always been a tough one for me.  I am in no way a robotic guy.  I have emotions.  I have cried during movies like Blindside or the Help.  I might have even shed a tear during an episode of American Idol or Teen Mom…neither of which can I confirm nor deny…just don’t ask Sara.  When something tugs at my heart strings, I may react; however my emotions are not a big part of my daily life.  I don’t wake up in the morning feeling depressed and carry a box of tissues around with me at work.  I don’t allow my emotions, most of the time, to dictate how I act or what I “hear” from God.  So when I hear people say that their emotions impact how they hear God, it has always been a tough pill for me to swallow.

It is tough for me to accept because of how many people have abused the name of God, and will of God, because of their emotions.  Many people claim that God has spoken because they “feel” Him or they say that God is moving because they can “feel” it.  There have been many times when I have heard people walk away from a worship experience and they “felt” God, but I have often wondered if it was just the bass kicking through their body, the rhythmic sounds of the band, or the powerful words of a preacher that they were “feeling”.

So what does God’s Word say?  Matthew 22:37 states, “And He (Jesus) said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”  This is a pretty popular verse.  It is known as the Great Commandment and many churches use it as part of their mission statement.

The word “soul” in the Greek is “psyche” which translated means “the seat of the feelings, desires, affections.”  Therefore, God tells us that we are to love him with all of our feelings.  He doesn’t say to remove your feelings or that your emotions don’t play a part in Him speaking.  In fact, it says that our emotions are a vital part of our relationship with God.  If we are to truly love God with everything, then we must love Him with our emotions.

This is tough for some that I know.  Expressing emotion is a difficult thing and I would encourage/challenge these individuals that they must learn how to engage their emotions in order to fully love God.  If we are commanded to love God “with all your soul”, then we are to love Him with all our emotions.

However, this is not an excuse to allow our emotions to manipulate God’s Word to us.  God can speak to you through your emotions, but be cautious that your emotions don’t speak to you about God.  Much like the promptings of the Spirit post, whenever you get a feeling that God may be speaking to you, test it (1 John 4:1) against God’s Word and wise counsel.  If it passes the test, then proceed knowing God spoke, if not, disregard the emotion and stand on what you know is truth…God’s Word.

This has been a pretty cool blog series. I have loved hearing from many of you about what God is teaching you and how you are being challenged to listen to God in different ways. It has been a blessing to me because I firmly believe that if we can effectively hear from God and do what he calls us to do, then we will see greater growth in our lives and God’s Kingdom will come on Earth as it is in Heaven.

I believe that God speaks differently to each of us. There are some primary ways that He speaks, but many times how we hear primarily from God can differ from individual to individual. We’ve discussed hearing God from His Word and the promptings of the Holy Spirit. I gave the warning last post that if we can’t confirm a prompting by God’s Word or wise counsel, then we need to tread carefully, because it might not be from God.

I find that it is easier to confirm a prompting by God’s Word, than by wise counsel. What does it mean to have wise counsel anyways? Most of us surround ourselves by those who are like us and who will agree with us. If you don’t agree with me, just think about the people you hang out with the most. They are probably very similar to you. They have similar values, similar distastes, similar convictions. This isn’t a bad thing, however many times surrounding ourselves with people like ourselves means that we won’t receive accurate truths about ourselves.

Most of us say we want to hear the truth. Most of us acknowledge that believing and living out truth will allow us to live more fulfilled lives (John 8:32). However, most of us don’t like it when people speak truth into our lives. Hearing the truth may hurt, it may be tough to swallow, but if it is truth, then it will always lead you to a place of freedom and God’s best.

So how do we receive wise counsel in our lives? Well, let me give you two simple steps to take if you want to test the spirits (1 John 4:1) and receive God’s best in your life.

First, seek out truth-tellers. These are people of wise counsel that we need in our lives. These are the people you want in your life when you are trying to discern what God may be saying to you. A truth-teller is one who knows God’s Word, seeks God on a regular basis, and is willing to speak the truth no matter what the situation or who the audience.

Be aware of those who want to be “truth-tellers” but really are speaking from their own experiences or their own ”wisdom” without basing their “counsel” on God’s truths and wisdom.  These are people who want to be wise, but they are really just blowing smoke and you need to be cautious not to inhale.

Second, give people permission to speak truth. If you want people to tell you the truth, then you must be willing to give them permission. There are people in your life who are willing to tell you the truth, however many will not do it until you give them permission.

Being a pastor, there are many times when I want to speak truth into someone’s life. If you know me, then you know I am pretty bold and willing to say what I think. Sometimes this is not beneficial, but when it is welcomed, then it can be exactly what someone needs to hear. However, I have been learning over the years that the most effective ministry takes place only when people welcome God’s truth into their lives. Without the permission, many truth-tellers in your life will stay quiet when you need them to speak.

There are going to be many times in your life that God is going to speak to you through a prompting and when he does, make sure you have people in your life that are not going to tell you what you want to hear or who will confirm your emotions, but rather seek out people who will tell the truth, truth that is based on God’s Word.

Next time, we will tackle the topic of hearing God through our emotions. Does God speak through emotions? If so, how do we discern what is a godly emotion and what is just my feeling? Hope you will join us.