How to Hear God

Excerpt from Breaking Through Boundaries Chapter 10 "Can't Hear God"

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. Romans 8:14

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. Galatians 5:16 (All NIV)

The truth is, we can all hear God. We just have to listen. We need to trust.

Part of my testimony is that I complained to God that I couldn’t hear Him. But the truth was, I didn’t trust what I was hearing was Him. In the last decade, I have greatly developed hearing God for my life. I first had to develop practicing His presence. Meaning, I had to develop my thoughts to always, always, always be aware that God was with me. He is omnipresent. Always present. Never not present. He is everywhere I am at all times no matter what I am doing.

From this perspective, the next thing I had to overcome was the religious part of me that had been taught that praying to God meant going somewhere and getting on my knees, folding my hands together and closing my eyes while I spoke in King James type talk to some being way up in the sky somewhere hoping He could hear me. It went something like this, “Dear heavenly Father, most holy God, hear me O Lord, Jesus. I prayeth Jesus that you forgiveth me Jesus, touch me and bless me Jesus. Oh Jesus you art faithful Jesus, thou art the one who saves me Jesus. Ok, you get the picture. Well one day I heard Jesus laughing at me. Not being mean, but like a big brother looking at this little sister who just didn’t get it yet. He stopped me mid-prayer one day and said, “Listen to yourself. What do you think your friends would do if you talked to them like that?” He asked me to picture myself standing right in front of my husband and He went on with, ”Oh John, I pray you heareth me John. My beloved husband, John. Oh how I loveth you John. I need breadth from the store, John. Oh John could you blesseth me by going to the store, John? Oh John, I need help my beloved John, could you help me, John?”

My eyes got so wide! I was like--OH MY GOODNESS! I told Him, “I thought you liked that?” But yeah, to talk like that to anyone else just sounded stupid. I didn’t realize just how many times I said His name in a sentence. It was like I wanted to make sure He knew I was talking to Him and only Him. But He wanted me to see how I would respond if someone did that to me. I said, “I’d just tune them out. I’d be annoyed.”

In time we would have many talks about how I was to engage Him. God is multifaceted. He is King, Father, Husband and Friend (as a short list). And in this season He would teach me to come to Him in different ways at different times for different purposes. At this time, He was looking for me to experience Him more as a friend. He wanted me to learn the art of praying without ceasing.

What did praying without ceasing look like? I surely did not have the time to sit on my knees all day. He would teach me to think of Him as my good friend, a life partner who wanted to go through life with me, who wanted to be a part of everything I was doing everyday, and that He got joy in being with me. He reminded me that the Holy Spirit was sent to be my teacher. I should start asking questions.

So I did.

This was when life became so much more amazing! I began talking all day everyday about everything. We would sit outside together and talk about the birds, trees, bushes, grass, water, wind, you name it. I did most of the talking. He mostly spoke by opening my eyes to truths.

God “speaks” differently than we do. He is not limited by speech. I would learn that He would speak to me in countless new ways.

He would speak by implanting thoughts;

Giving impressions;

Give heart unctions/gut feelings;

In dreams, visions and mind pictures;

Through my emotions (at times he would have me feel the emotions of the one I was speaking to so I knew how they felt and therefore, knew how to minister to them);

He drops in ideas;

Reveals secrets--His, and sometimes of people near me;

Knowings (you just know stuff);

Leads by strong desire to do things;

Single word of knowledge;

Drops names in my heart that He wants me to call or pray for;

Invasive thoughts; (give directions by having a thought pop in while I am in thought about something else);

Changes in atmosphere;

Tingling in or on parts of my body that we understand together what it’s for;

Feeling pain where someone else has pain;

Smelling fragrances;

Awareness--He will make me aware of things;

Road signs, TV, Radio hosts, songs, license plates, etc;

Discernment, when He reveals what spirits are active in people or places;

And of course, His Word.

I’ll stop there, you get the idea now. It really is limitless the ways God can speak and reveal what He wants you to know.

Being led by the Spirit takes faith--just being open for God to be God without us getting in the way. It takes overcoming fear. Religion will limit you by causing fear to do anything for fear of being outside of God. But that’s where relationship comes in. God knew how terrified I was of doing anything that was not of Him. I prayed daily for Him to keep me close and never let me be deceived. Accuracy in hearing Him would be proven by the fruit it bore. Every time God spoke in a new way and I trusted by stepping out in faith, He would prove it was Him by the fruit it bore. People got healed and they got delivered and grew closer to Him. The more this happened, the more I trusted and opened myself for more. “How big are You?” I’d ask. “I want to experience all of You.” I’d say.

When I first started learning all of this, developing a life of being led by the Spirit, I would at times get upset that it seemed God was not speaking, or was not giving me full answers. My friend Joel told me to start asking yes or no questions. You will feel it in your heart if it is a yes or a no. This helps your heart to learn to trust you can in fact hear. He went on to say: “If you don’t feel a check in your spirit that is a distinct no, then follow it as a yes and see where it goes.”

I started to ask God to give me ideas when I would be out working my horses or working with dogs during work. He would at times give me an outright answer to my problem by making a suggestion. Or He would answer my question with a question. He wanted me to think and process the situation and show myself I already knew the answer, I just needed to accept it and act on what I knew inside was right.

Because I struggled to trust that the still small voice inside was actually God, I made a deal with Him one day. I told Him that from that day forward, the first thought to come to me after I asked Him a question, I would attribute that to Him. I would follow that first thought with faith believing it was Him. If I was wrong, then I trusted He would make things right as I tried to follow Him in this way. I would quickly learn the truth of the scripture that read, “The mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it is unable to do so.” CSB

The carnal mind is enmity against the Spirit of God. I found this to be a fascinating way to kind of check which voice I was hearing. The Spirit of God is all about restoration, healing, deliverance, doing good, being kind, being faithful, being gentle, bringing joy, peace and love. But the carnal mind will come against walking out things of this nature. So, when that first thought came in and wanted me to do something that fell in line with God’s Spirit, but then the very next thought ALWAYS came against that, I knew the first thought was of God and the second was of my own sin nature.

Example: “God, do you want me to reach out and pray for that person over there?”

1. I begin to feel compassion for the person, sadness that they have a need for healing. I feel no check in my spirit against it (this is all part in how God speaks).

2. So, as I ponder what I am feeling, my carnal mind chimes in and says, “They will not receive you. They will probably be annoyed at being bothered. They are busy shopping. It probably won’t work anyway.”

3. This question shouldn’t have needed asking in the first place as you will find it in God’s word that we are to pray for the sick. So of course the answer was yes without Him needing to say anything.

Has this ever happened to you? You KNOW in your heart that it is good for you to love another by praying believing for God to touch them, you know that He desires to reveal Himself to them in these special and unique ways, but your carnal mind will instantly come against your stepping out and doing good. This is how I know that I am to follow the first thought or inclination I get after asking the question.

The following is an example of an interjected thought. I have two stories I will put here. Both had to do with my animals.

First one: It was winter, snow covered and cold. I was sitting on the couch watching TV with my husband when all of a sudden I think, “the chickens are thirsty, they have pooped in their water pan and won’t drink it.” At the same time I have this thought, I “see” them in my mind's eye like you would do if I were to say, “kitten”. You instantly can picture a kitten in your mind. This is the same here. I saw the chickens walking around the waterer wishing for a drink. I kind of blew it off as me just being a worry-wart about the care of my animals. It could wait until I went out later that night at regular chore time. As I sat there a bit longer, the thought pops in again, “The chickens are thirsty, they have pooped in their water pan and won’t drink it.” The thought sounds like my own, but the interesting factor was, I was busy thinking about something else when it would “interrupt.” This time, I told God, “I think this is you, so I’m going to follow it.” I got up, got my coat and boots on and went out to the chickens. They had in fact soiled their pan badly. I dumped it, cleaned it, and put in fresh water. I no more than got it sat down and every chicken in the coop rushed over and drank deep!

The verse: “What is the price of two sparrows--one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.” Matthew 10:29 NLT

God cares about every life and He knew they were important to me too. So, He told me their needs. Not only did He demonstrate His love for the little things, but this also gave me a new way to trust hearing Him.

Second one: To solidify that I could trust these intrusive thoughts were of Him, He did it again. It was again a very cold winter day. I had a male rottweiler that lived outside. On really cold days I would take him indoors at night so he was nice and warm. On this particular day, it had been really nice out. But as the sun went down, it got cold FAST! Really cold. But I was unaware of it because I was sitting in my nice warm house watching TV with my husband again. I’m not a big TV person, but when my husband gets home from work, that is how he relaxes and I always sit with him for a few hours. Once again, as I am engrossed in what is going on in the house, a thought comes in. “Jake’s cold.” It catches my attention, but once again, I kind of blew it off at first because I was in the middle of the show. Again the thought comes in, “Jake’s cold.” I tell God, “I think this is you again. I’ll go out now.” I bundle up and go out. BRRR! I get to his pen and he is standing at the gate so happy to see me as he full-body shivered with the cold. I let him out and he joyously bounces all the way to the warmth of the indoors. Isn’t God good!!!

I want to share another example of hearing God for you here. This is on how to be led by Him via Mind Pictures.

I am going to use an excerpt from my book, “My Supernatural Life”, as I go into great detail there on various ways I hear God with personal testimonies. Here it is:

God wishes to be active in every aspect of our lives. Not just ministry. He is interested in you and just hanging out with you doing what you like to do.

So, one day I was gathering up tools and supplies to do a little construction project in my dog kennel. It is winter and I was losing too much heat through the dog doors.

My intent was to make the openings smaller and to construct plugs made with wood and 2” styrofoam to insulate it from the wind and heat loss. As I was gathering up the saws I would need, I felt led to grab a jigsaw. I had no apparent need for the jigsaw, but felt led to grab it anyway. So in obedience to that thought, I did.

I also needed a Miter saw and a Circular saw.

I couldn’t find the Circular saw so I went without it for the time being.

My relationship with God is such that I talk to Him all the time as if He is standing right next to me every minute of every hour of every day. So, I’m chatting with Him about what wood I need.

I go to the utility barn and I start finding all the 2X4’s I need. I was SO happy because in my treasure hunt I was able to find just enough wood to do my project without having to go shopping for it. It was below 0 out with wind chills in the -30 range and roads were drifted badly everywhere.

I measured and cut all my boards and felt accomplished. I started to put them in place when I got to the last few boards and made a grave discovery. I had cut one board 3” too short! I was reading the tape measure upside down and instead of cutting 29.5” I cut it 26.5” UGG! I had JUST the right amount of wood! So, I went back out in the cold and was thinking to myself, I wonder where else to look, when a picture popped into my mind. I saw myself walk into my horse barn and that there was a board just inside the door on the left.

I started to dismiss it because I am in there every day and I didn’t remember any lumber left in there. But in obedience to that picture that popped into my head, I decided to see if it was God. If so, this was a new way for us to talk. (I actually talked to God as I walked to the barn stating, I am just going to trust this picture is from You.) You guessed it, I walked into the barn and hidden behind some binder twine was a 2X4 that was perfect for my needs. YES! Thank you, Jesus!

So, I go back to work and as I am screwing the boards in place, I see I am not going to have enough screws to finish the job. So this thought pops into my head to go take one screw out of each of the boards I had already put into place. I do so and had exactly enough screws to finish installation. Many people would never give God credit for that thought. They would just think they were smart and figured it out on their own. But I know that all good things come from God and therefore I honor Him with the praise and glory due Him for even the smallest things. It is in the small things like this that God will do the great things in other areas because He knows we attribute these thoughts to Him and are instantly obedient to them. We are developing trust and relationship.

At this point, I took a little break and told God, I really need that red circular saw! At that moment a new picture popped into my head. I saw that it was in the back of my husbands old van in the front yard. So, in faith, I went out to the van. it was covered deep in snow and I had a really hard time getting a door to open so I could get in. But once in, I not only found the red circular saw, but I found more screws the length I needed and the bible I had been looking for (I have many translations and was looking for this one earlier)!

Finally, I needed to cut the foam and had been pondering the best way to do this when God reminded me of the jigsaw he impressed on me to bring out. It worked perfectly!

This was so much fun working side by side with my Father. He works in my life like this all the time! It is all relationship.

By taking the time to learn to hear His voice in all these different ways, It has made my life an adventure. It always requires faith. God is moved by our faith.

This next mind picture story I will never forget! This is where learning to trust God in these things gets exciting and fun!

One day I was taking a new lady out to teach her how to minister on the streets. I took her into a WalMart store and I asked God for a picture of who He wanted us to minister to. I instantly got a very clouded picture, No details, all I saw in my minds eye was a woman about my height with a toddler in the front seated section of her cart. so, I told this to the lady with me and off we went looking.

It was amazing just how many mothers with toddlers there were in the store. They were EVERYWHERE! So, this lady friend starts pointing out women and toddlers and I would say, they’re not it. She asked me how I knew. I said, I don’t know, I just know I will know when I see them.

After awhile, I saw this toddler in a cart and I KNEW it was the right baby. but the mother was wrong. I began to walk away when who I thought was the mother walked away and another woman began pushing the cart. It was her! I never saw her clearly in my mind picture, but somehow I knew.

So, I stopped her and said, “Ma’am, you might think this is odd, but God hand picked you to receive a blessing today. I’ve come to pray for you. Is there something you need prayer for today?”

She looked at me dumbfounded and said, “What?” I repeated myself to her and then started to prophesy over her. This was in itself a HUGE act of faith for me because I was still learning to trust that if I opened my mouth, that God would just show up. Why? because He loves THEM and wants them blessed and to know Him. It has nothing to do with me. Far from it!

So, I started to tell her that I knew she had been praying and praying and praying for some things and God wanted her to know He heard her prayers and was going to answer them.

She looked at me with this look that scared me! I thought she was mad at me. But then I saw the tears come.

She said, “Who are you?” I told her my name. She said, “You don’t get it! I just got released from rehab. I am a heroin junky (she pulled up her sleeves and showed me all the needle tracks.) and they want to take away my little girl. My family is a wreck. I have been praying like 20 times a day to some God out there. I don’t know His name or anything about religions, I just hoped there was something bigger than me out there that could help me and here you are saying this!!”

I smiled at her and said, “Yes, God showed you to me just now in the store in a vision and he sent me to tell you his name is Jesus and he loves you.” (she made me repeat that as well, she just couldn’t believe what she was hearing!) I then went on to share the gospel with her. I told her what Jesus did for her and what he wanted to do for her now. I prayed for her deliverance and for all traces of her past to be removed. That Jesus loved her and sought her out today to make himself known to her.

She left there changed on so many levels that I am sure I will not know the depth of it until I get home and God shows me.

I would have never experienced this had I not trusted that first cloudy, unclear vision and just stepped out in faith and obedience that God was going to do something if I did something first. Trust!

(end of excerpt)

***

Hearing God requires faith. It requires relationship and trust. In the beginning, I was so fearful of being wrong that it would many times hinder me and keep me from experiencing God’s best. What made the difference for me was, I had an incredible hunger to know just how interactive God wanted to be with us, His children, AND I had equal hunger to reveal Him to the world as the true LIVING God. He is active in our lives and interested in communicating with us.

The sons of God are led by the Spirit of God. (Romans 8:14)

I don’t know how people get through life without Him. It is by learning to trust that I heard Him and by always being obedient to the leading of His Spirit in all these fabulous ways, that I was able to grow in all the areas you are reading in this book and so much more.

The common thread that must be implemented is faith. In every form of communication, you have to first step out in faith believing, trusting. You have to take a risk. Risk being wrong. You will be amazed as you grow and develop your relationship with the Holy Spirit in this way, how amazingly you will be rewarded as He reveals all He is willing to do with you, through you and for you. Talk to Him.

***

Tips to begin:

1: Set aside time to be alone with Him as often as you are able. I spend time in set-aside prayer every morning before I rise and every night before I fall asleep.

2: Practice His presence. Be aware of Him with you everywhere you are all day long.

3: Invite Him into everything you do. Ask Him questions. What would you do, Lord? Then follow His leading by faith.

4: Talk to Him all day about everything like you would your best friend.

5: Step past the thoughts of your carnal mind. Be bold in doing good and what will bless others.

6: Develop your relationship with God believing He wants to speak to you.

7: Have faith. Trust He wants you to hear Him more than you want Him to speak.

8: Don’t limit how He can ‘speak’.

***

Father, thank you for being so willing to speak and lead us by Your Spirit. I ask you to create hunger in my brother/sister to hear Your voice in everything they do. Develop them in the subtle ways You speak. Confirm it for them so they can learn, just as You taught me, that what they are hearing is in fact You. Bless them on their journey in trusting You, In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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