“My son, if you receive my words,
And treasure my commands within you,
So that you incline your ear to wisdom,
And apply your heart to understanding;
Yes, if you cry out for discernment,
And lift up your voice for understanding,
If you seek her as silver,
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
Then you will understand the fear of the Lord,
And find the knowledge of God.” Proverbs 2:1-5
Only God knows how many ways He speaks to us. The Lord has brought me a mighty far way from not believing in Him at all to believing in Him intellectually to believing in Him to such a degree that I am totally sold out to Him and am His committed totally devoted forever follower to hungering and thirsting for more of Him, for more of His presence, for more of His voice, for more of His love and mercy and grace and peace and on and on, for more of His wisdom and direction, for more being conformed to Him, for more ability to obey Him, that there are times I feel like I simply cannot get enough of more of Him, of more of the Lord Jesus Christ, like I am chasing after Him, panting after Him, passionately desperately pursuing Him and His will for me, oh, to love and honor and adore and worship Him, how I want more and more of Him, and one of my favorite blessings among His endless blessings is to hear His voice speaking personally to my heart. Here are five ways He speaks to me, and I hope how He speaks to me may help you to be encouraged in seeking Him and His will and His voice with the desire to love and please and honor Him above all else.
1. I study His Word daily, diligently, and devotedly, before the day begins, throughout the day in bits and pieces as I hunger for more of Him, sometimes in the evening, too, with a yearning to learn more of Him, from Him, about Him, and to be changed by Him into the woman of God He created me to be, spending time with Him, daily, no matter what. The Lord always and only speaks to us in line with His Word, so being committed to studying His Word helps His followers figure out when we believe we hear His voice speaking personally to us whether or not it’s actually the Lord speaking. The number one way I hear from God is in and through His Word.
2. I hear God speak to me personally, intimately, specifically to me, about my life, my relationship with Him, His will, His desires, His conviction, His leading, anything He desires to say to me, by His Holy Spirit who always speaks in line with His Word. I hear from God every single day of my life, sometimes in great amounts, sometimes in smaller ones, always significantly, because it’s always significant when God speaks to His children. I make my relationship with the Lord and His will for me my highest priority in life, and the greatest fruit borne from this ever-growing relationship to which I am 100% committed is the ability to hear from Him and to discern His voice when He speaks to me so I can love and honor and worship and obey Him and draw ever closer to Him, and Him to me, as I go out into the world and tell others about Him and encourage them to repent and follow Him.
3. The Lord speaks to me through His children. I make certain that without fail I always have committed followers of Christ in my life, whether nearby or far away and anywhere and everywhere in between. I reach out to them, and they reach out to me, and I fellowship with them whether it be in person, online, or by phone, ensuring we stay in touch, with my heart and ears open to how the Lord might use their hearts and voices to speak to me.
4. The Lord speaks to me in my writing. He has gifted me with writing, just as He has gifted all of us with different gifts. Through this gift of writing, even as I’m writing, yes, even as I write devotionals, for instance, the Lord speaks into and through my heart and out onto the computer screen set before me. He knows my hunger for Him, and for His Word, and to hear from Him, so He uses a gift He has given me to speak to me, to teach me, to change me, to grow me, and to use me in the lives of others.
5. He speaks to me in messages He sends me through a pastor’s sermon, through a musician’s worship music, through a letter or e-mail from a friend who follows Jesus, through a Christian book, or Christian article, through someone’s personal testimony of what He has done or is doing in that person’s life, etc.
Who can count the ways God uses to speak to His people? Can anyone but God? He knows, and we don’t need to. We simply need to believe God speaks to His children, we simply need to desire to hear from Him, we simply need to pray to Him and seek Him and wait on Him, we simply need to spend time with Him and study His Word, we simply need to be solidly planted in Christ’s body of fellow Christ followers, we simply need to be willing to act on what we hear from Him, whether to repent, to take a course of action, to make a change, to answer Him with praise and worship, etc. – and to be thankful the Lord of the entire universe loves us so much that He takes the time, and has the awesome mercy, and amazing love, to speak to His people.
I encourage you to dive into a deep, intimate, personal relationship with God almighty through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and a life devoted to Him, and to be faithful in spending time with Him and to studying His Word and to assembling with Jesus followers, and I encourage you to be loved by Him, to love Him, and to rejoice in the ways He chooses to speak to you. And, when you hear from Him, be faithful, be diligent, be totally committed to respond to Him humbly, in love, and with the desire to honor and obey Him.
Amen!