When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. John 16:13 (NLT).

As children of God, we have the distinct privilege of having access to the Father’s heart through the Holy Spirit. His intent is not for us to be in the dark about our lives, or about the future. He’s a good Father and desires to guide us and share His thoughts and heart with us along the way.

God is always speaking, but His primary language is not English. He communicates with us in many ways including: dreams, visions, His still small voice, impressions, pictures, through circumstances, the Word, and through people. Learning to discern God’s voice takes time and intentionality on our part. As we cultivate our relationship with Him, it becomes easier to discern His promptings. Just like a mother who intuitively knows the voice of her own child and can identify that voice anywhere, in the same way, we can learn to know the voice of the Lord. 

He speaks from his character

Although God speaks in a multitude of ways, His communication will never contradict His character or His Word. In Exodus 34:6-7 we see God’s character and nature as He reveals Himself to Moses:  Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin…

Moses, in a sense, had been asking, “God what are you really, really like?” This question is key to discerning His voice. He came to set captives free and bring us back into communion with Himself. The Word reveals that God is relentless in His goodness, and unchangeably so. His outlook towards us is consistent because God is constant and unchanging in His nature (Heb13:8). He speaks and acts out of his nature of love, even when our emotions are in disharmony with his character. He is faithful and gracious toward us all the time. Therefore, any voice that we hear that is condemning or accusatory is not the voice of God. Any angry judgmental voice is not from God. Anything we hear must be compatible with who He really is.

Our five-year-old daughter recently began struggling with feeling sorrowful and weepy at bedtime. In an attempt to be proactive in training her to recognize the Father’s voice, my husband and I began to ask her questions to get to the bottom of what she was feeling and hearing. She was able to identify and verbalize that she was feeling like she wasn’t good enough. Often times, behind a negative thought or emotion, there can be a voice spewing a hidden lie into our hearts. In this case, we began to pray and have her declare the truth about her value and worth in order to weed out this demonic and oppressive voice attempting to define her identity.

For many of us it is more challenging to discern between our thoughts and God’s thoughts than it is between our thoughts and the devil’s thoughts. Years before I was married, I was discerning if I was to continue in a dating relationship with a particular person, and I was feeling confused and uncertain. It was difficult to see clearly because my emotions were involved and a part of me really wanted the relationship to work. The Holy Spirit was indeed answering my question through a repetitive dream. In this dream I felt light, and was floating and moving forward toward a red barn. Every time this person would get near me, I would fall to the ground and stop moving. This happened again and again. It was a clear picture that he was holding me back from moving forward with God. When it comes to the things of the heart, it’s wise to have a trusted friend or mentor help you sift through your thoughts and emotions and what you sense God might be speaking to your heart.

The following are ways to connect with the Father and increase your ability to hear and see in the spirit.

Position Yourself

When you’re ready to hear the voice of God start by contemplating his character, his nature, and his heart: the voice of the Lord is kind, gracious, loving, peaceful, compassionate, generous and joyful. In stillness listen for the voice that is kind. It is the voice that builds you up and secures you. Even when you’re not doing well with God or you’re in a difficult place, His voice will always demonstrate His love for you. He will tell you the truth in such a way that sets you free and edifies you. He will stir you up and cheer you up.

Quiet yourself so you can hear and see God at work. In stillness God speaks and shows us things that are important. If we want to hear the still, small voice of God within us, we must become quiet. We must be still and listen. Psalm 46:10—“Be still and know that I am God.” David commanded his soul to cease striving and to wait in silence for God only (Ps. 62:1, 5).

Use Holy imagination to visualize a “Meeting Place”

• Start by picturing yourself in a place that you feel safe—a place of emotional security. It could be a place from your childhood, a favorite chair, or by a stream or lake.
• Once you are there, invite Jesus to come and be with you.
• As you visualize yourself in the scene with Jesus, begin to look and tune into what He wants to show you.
• If you are unable to find a “safe place,” you may also use a favorite scripture and speak it quietly to yourself, this works similar to a breath prayer. Both the safe place and scripture enable you to experience the presence of God. In this place we are better able to receive from the Lord.
• Go ahead and ask Him a question. Interact with Him and watch what He does or Here are a few suggestions to start with:
• Jesus, is there anything you want to say to me?
• Jesus, how do you feel about me?
• Jesus, is there anything you want to show me?

Look with the eyes of your heart as you pray. Jesus saw pictures or visions all the time and demonstrated this for us. He said that He did nothing on His own initiative, but only what He saw the Father doing, and heard the Father saying (Jn. 5:19-20,30). Daniel simply said, “I looked,” and he saw (Dan. 7:2,9,13). We need to use the eyes of our hearts to look as we engage in conversation with God. He will show you pictures to ponder or pray into as you engage with Him. Daniel was seeing a vision in his mind and he said, "I was looking...I kept looking...I kept looking" (Dan. 7:2,9,13). If we don’t look, we won’t see. He gave us the eyes of our hearts to see in the spirit realm, to see the vision and movement of God all around us. Inner vision comes so easily that we have a tendency to reject it, thinking, “It’s just me.” (See also Hab. 2:1,2).

God often communicates through spontaneous pictures or visions. Have you ever been driving down the road and the image of a person you know suddenly appeared in your mind? This could be the voice of God calling you to pray for that individual. Or, the Holy Spirit could be alerting you about a situation. The Bible confirms this; the definition of the Hebrew word for intercession—paga—means "a chance encounter or an accidental intersecting."

Fix your eyes on Jesus—As you fix my gaze upon Jesus (Hebrews 12:2), becoming quiet in His presence, and sharing with Him what is on your heart, you begin to tune into His thoughts. When you fix your eyes on Jesus, the intuitive flow comes from Jesus and his desires. If you mistakenly fix your gaze upon some desire of your heart, the intuitive flow will come out of the desire of your own heart, and you’ll want to avoid that.

I pray that the eyes of [my] heart may be enlightened, so that [I] will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe (Ephesians 1:18-19, NASB).

Prayer

Father, I pray that you would open my spiritual eyes and ears to see, hear, and sense Your activity in and all around me. I desire to know You more. I invite You, Holy Spirit, to guide me in all Your ways and to see as You see in each situation I find myself. Please increase my awareness of Your voice and communication with me. Give me an understanding heart and a greater sensitivity to Your ways. Help me to discern between Your voice, the enemy’s voice, and my own desires. I pray that Your gentle warnings would be louder than the enemy’s empty threats. Increase my desire for Your Word so I will crave Your instruction, guidance, and wisdom.

In Jesus' name, I ask for an increase in dreams, visions, and Your voice in my life. Enable me to recognize Your voice above every other voice in Jesus’ name, amen.

Tags: holy spirit, hearing god's voice, visualization