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Hearing from God is essential to the life of the believer. For example, when God speaks, He reveals His plans to us. When God speaks, He gives us direction. We must hear God’s voice. We must hear what God is saying to us.
Why then are we not hearing from God?
Perhaps our reason may be one of the following:
- we don’t understand God’s timing.
- we don’t know our position in relation to God.
- we don’t know who God is.
First, when we don’t understand God’s timing, we may feel that God is taking too long to say something to us.
Psalm 40:1 states: I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry (NIV).
To hear God’s voice, we have to wait patiently. And as we wait, we must remember that our time and God’s time are totally different. When we are waiting for God, we count time in seconds, minutes, hours, days, and so on. But God is not constrained by our clock. 2 Peter 3:8 states: But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (NKJV).
Second, when we don’t know our position in relation to God, we may live lives with little care about what God has to say to us.
John 10:27 states: My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me (NKJV).
To hear God’s voice, we have to know that God leads, and we follow. God is the Shepherd. We are the sheep. God is the greater. We, as sheep, are the lesser. If we don’t accept this order, we will act in ways that confirm that we don’t need God and we don’t need to hear from God.
And third, when we don’t know who God is, we assume that God should speak as we direct. That God should speak as we command.
Isaiah 40:22 states: It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in (NKJV).
Deuteronomy 10:14 states: Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it (NKJV).
God is not someone we direct to go here or there. God is not someone we command to move. The scriptures tell us that God sits above the circle of the earth. And that God owns it all; heaven, highest heavens, earth and all in it.
There is no one greater than God.
There is no one higher than God.
To hear from God, our posture should be one of reverent submission. This posture will compel us to wait – for as long as it takes – for God to speak to us.
John 8:47 states: Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God (NIV).
Except where indicated, scripture references are from the American Standard Version (ASV), Darby Translation (DARBY), or King James Version (KJV) – all public domain.
