Psalm 46:10; John 15; Job 33:14-15; Romans 10:17; John 10:27
In his book Directions, author James Hamilton
shares this insight about listening to God:
Before refrigerators, people used icehouses to
preserve their food. Icehouses had thick walls, no
windows and a tightly fitted door. In winter, when
streams and lakes were frozen, large blocks of ice
were cut, hauled to the icehouses and covered with
sawdust. Often the ice would last well into the
summer.
One man lost a valuable watch while working in an
icehouse. He searched diligently for it, carefully
raking through the sawdust, but didn’t find it. His
fellow workers also looked, but their efforts, too,
proved futile. A small boy who heard about the
fruitless search slipped into the icehouse during
the noon hour and soon emerged with the watch.
Amazed, the men asked him how he found it.
“I closed the door,” the boy replied, “lay down in
the sawdust, and kept very still. Soon I heard the
watch ticking.”
Today we are going to see what God’s word has to say
about preparing to hear from Him.
As I examined the Scriptures I found
5 Actions to Prepare to Hear God Speak
The first is to:
Be Still –
Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God.”
Psalm 37:7 “Be still before the Lord and wait
patiently for him;”
If we desire to hear from God we need to be still.
It’s no accident that time alone with God is called quiet
time.
If your quiet time is filled with background noise and
interruptions it is going to be very difficult to hear from
Him.
Do you remember when the Lord spoke to Elijah on the
mountain?
God told him to go out of the cave and stand on the
mount before God.
Elijah went out & heard the wind, but God was not in the
wind.
Elijah saw an earthquake, but God was not in the
earthquake.
Elijah saw a fire, but God was not in the fire.
Elijah heard a low whisper and he recognized God’s voice.
Silence is external, stillness is internal –
Cindy McMenamin
We are so connected these days between calls, texts,
emails, social media; they all notify us and fight for our
attention.
We can silence our phones and TVs ,but we also need to
quiet our minds and listen closely for the voice of our
Savior. Even when it’s quiet we can still hear the noise of
our brain worrying about things or replaying previous
conversations, stressing about money or relationships or
work.
God wants us to silence all of the noise and be still so we
can hear Him speak to us.
The second action to help prepare to hear God speak is to:
Be Present –
John 15:1-5 “I am the true vine, and
my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me
that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every
branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may
bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of
the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me,
and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by
itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you,
unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the
branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it
is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can
do nothing.”
If we expect to hear from God, we have to spend
time in His presence. Jesus calls it abiding in Him.
When we abide in Christ we bear fruit.
When we don’t abide in Him we are cut off. We need His
nourishment in our lives like the branches need the vine
and the vinedresser.
There’s a good illustration about being a part of the body
of Christ, but I think it applies to abiding in His presence
too.
A pastor goes to a church member’s home who hasn’t
been in worship for some time. He didn’t say anything,
he just took an orange coal from the fireplace and
grabbed it with the tongs and placed it on the hearth.
After a few minutes the very hot orange coal turned black
and got cool to the touch.
The point is that we need to be connected to the body of
Christ.
We also need to stay connected to our vine so we can
continue to bear fruit and hear from Him.
Check out John 15:15 “No longer do I call you
servants, for the servant does not know what his
master is doing; but I have called you friends, for
all that I have heard from my Father I have made
known to you.”
When we stay present with the Lord we will hear from
Him.
The third action to help us prepare to hear from God is to:
Be Expectant –
Job 33:14-15 “For God speaks in
one way, and in two,
though man does not perceive it.
In a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep falls on men,
while they slumber on their beds,”
God doesn’t always speak to us in the same way He has
in the past. We must be expectant and open to any
way God decides to speak to us.
Balaam wasn’t expecting God to talk through his donkey,
but God opened the beast of burdens’ mouth and showed
Balaam what he was missing.
When we pray, we must try not to limit what we ask God
to do. God can speak to us in so many different ways. We
should ask Him to reveal Himself to us rather than give
Him something specific we want Him to do. If we are
expecting God to do something in the same way He has
in the past, we may be disappointed. God is living and He
is certainly not boring or stuck in a rut. He keeps things
fresh and does even more than we can think of or even
imagine.
The fourth action we can take to prepare to hear God is:
Be Obedient –
John 10:27 “My sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me.”
Sheep know the voice of the shepherd. They won’t follow
a different shepherd because they can’t trust him.
They have a relationship with the one who feeds them,
leads them to water and protects them from enemies.
When the shepherd calls the sheep obey. They know the
shepherd is there to lead them, guide them and protect
them.
It’s the same way with Jesus. He is our shepherd. He
knows us. In fact, He knew us before we were even
formed in our mother’s womb.
And we must follow Him. He has been very clear in the
Scriptures of what He desires us to do.
Love Him and Love others.
If we expect to hear Him speak we must be
obedient.
Notice what Jesus promises in the following verses.
He promises to give His sheep eternal life. More than
that, He promises that no one can snatch His sheep from
the hand of the Father, because He and the Father are
one.
When we hear Him speak, we must obey.
The fifth action to help us prepare to hear from God is to:
Be Faithful –
Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from
hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
I want you to think about the person who shared Christ
with you. Maybe it was a pastor, or a friend or someone
else. Aren’t you so grateful that they were obedient to
the great commission?
If we expect to hear from God, we must be faithful.
Verse 16 says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who
preach the good news!”
Those who are faithful hear from God and also take the
good news to the ends of the earth.
God sends His word with believers in order to save the
lost and hurting world.
The Bible also tells us that Jesus is the word.
We should be faithful in reading the word.
We should be faithful in our times of prayer.
We should be faithful in meditation.
We should be faithful in listening to sermons.
God speaks in a myriad of ways.