How to Hear from God
God wants to speak to all of us all the time. He desires a relationship with every one of us, and communication is the basis of relationship. Samuel learned this at a young age from Eli, the priest.(I Samuel 3:9) We all need to know that God can and does speak. Then, we need to know how to hear from Him.
Eli told Samuel to go back to his quiet place. Noise drowns out the voice of God, and we live in a very noisy world with many interruptions. We must find that quiet place, and go there often. Then, we must sincerely from our hearts call out to the Lord to speak to us. This shows we are ready to hear Him. It shows our willingness to talk with Him, not just to Him. Also, we address Him as Lord, because that is who He is. We are His subjects. We are wanting to hear from the Lord of all, knowing He is in charge. We are not going to Him to get our way, but to know His mind and will, as He speaks to us. Finally, we submit as a servant. What does a servant do? The servant does whatever the Master asks. That must be our heart, if we are to hear from God. He is not going to waste His words on those who will not obey very often, unless He is just graciously calling us to repentance or showing us our punishment.
Once we hear from God in the quiet place, and we learn to recognize His voice from all of the voices in the world around us, we can discern His voice in the midst of our busy lives. However, our hearts must still be saying the same things to Him all day long that we say in the quiet place in the morning.
I pray that we will all be like Samuel, and hear from God clearly and often. It will please God greatly to speak with us every day and all day.
Tomorrow, I intend to read I Samuel 6-8.
Eli told Samuel to go back to his quiet place. Noise drowns out the voice of God, and we live in a very noisy world with many interruptions. We must find that quiet place, and go there often. Then, we must sincerely from our hearts call out to the Lord to speak to us. This shows we are ready to hear Him. It shows our willingness to talk with Him, not just to Him. Also, we address Him as Lord, because that is who He is. We are His subjects. We are wanting to hear from the Lord of all, knowing He is in charge. We are not going to Him to get our way, but to know His mind and will, as He speaks to us. Finally, we submit as a servant. What does a servant do? The servant does whatever the Master asks. That must be our heart, if we are to hear from God. He is not going to waste His words on those who will not obey very often, unless He is just graciously calling us to repentance or showing us our punishment.
Once we hear from God in the quiet place, and we learn to recognize His voice from all of the voices in the world around us, we can discern His voice in the midst of our busy lives. However, our hearts must still be saying the same things to Him all day long that we say in the quiet place in the morning.
I pray that we will all be like Samuel, and hear from God clearly and often. It will please God greatly to speak with us every day and all day.
Tomorrow, I intend to read I Samuel 6-8.