A Little Guide To Listening For God's Voice

Photo by Ky Olsen

"She gave me a bunch of crap about me not listening to her, or something. I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention." - Harry Dunne, "Dumb and Dumber"

Listening is hard.

It's especially hard when you have a supreme case of ADD, like me.

In college, the amount of time I spent in class listening was nowhere near the amount of time I spent in class daydreaming about nonsense. I couldn't help it. Nonsense is just so interesting.

"What? Did you say something important about the test? Oh, sorry—I was just thinking about how funny the word 'scantron' is."

Hmm, that's weird. Where do I turn in my test?

Welcome to my life.

Honestly, ADD has given me a great picture of what it's often like trying to listen for God's voice. Sometimes it's not so easy. Sometimes it's really difficult to distinguish his voice from all the other voices. Sometimes we can listen for a long time and not feel like we heard anything.

I wrote a post a couple weeks ago about how God speaks and he wants us to listen to him (here). I believe two-way dialogue is the way to grow in any relationship—including one with God. It's not a common thing that people talk about, because it seems scary, subjective, and full of potential questions. How do we navigate through the process of listening for His voice, when it seems so strange and difficult sometimes? I want to go through some questions I've had answered for myself, and hopefully it will be beneficial. Here's what I've got...

Where do you hear it?

I'm of the tribe that believes God can speak through anything: friends, songs on the radio, movies, dreams, thoughts... you name it, he's probably spoken through it. The most concrete words we have from him are in scripture, though, which is why it's called the Word of God. If God speaks through anything else, it's going to line up with scripture.

Sometimes a verse in the Bible will do something to us. It will stand out for some reason. The cheesier among us may or may not call it a "Holy Spirit highlighter." When this happens, take note of what's going on inside you. Why is that happening? What might you be connecting to in that passage, and why? What might God want you to know today? Ask him—after all, it's a two way dialogue!

What does it sound like?

Well, there are some certain qualities that set God's voice apart from the voice of the enemy. I really like this list, because it shows the differences between the character of the two messages.

God's Voice:                      Satan's Voice:

stills you                            rushes you

leads you                           pushes you

reassures you                    frightens you

enlightens you                  confuses you

encourages you                discourages you

comforts you                    worries you

calms you                        obsesses you

convicts you                    condemns you

Try these out to discern the origin of a message or thought or accusation.

What if it's not God?

...But what if it IS God? Asking this question changes everything for me. It changes me from "I guess I won't listen to it" to "Holy cow, I should go write this down and pray about it!" I think we are often too quick to throw out his voice in our thoughts, because we're scared we're going to get it wrong. But what if throwing it out is just as dangerous as "getting it wrong"?

I happen to think God really enjoys it when we try to listen for his voice, even if we feel like we "got it wrong" or come away empty-handed. Our goal is simply to glorify God with our lives. And giving him our undivided attention for a little while, even if we don't come away with a life-changing epiphany, is a really cool way to do that.

I don't have to be perfect at it. It's okay that sometimes I space out when I'm trying to listen, because I'm allowed to mess up. It's like learning to walk with your parents cheering you on. A good bit of advice I got a long time ago was when in doubt, just ask! Is that you, God? It's surprisingly effective...

I'll leave you with an intriguing and almost-scandalous little quote by guy named Brad Jersak: "God's voice is often the voice we hear right after we ask him a question and right before we start trying to reason it away."


Job 33:14 - "For God does speak—now in one way, now in another—though man does not perceive it."

John 10:2-5 - "The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice."