Does God speak to me?
Have you ever heard God’s voice? He speaks to all of us, but how? Here are 3 tips to hear His voice.
I had the joy of leading a retreat recently (along with Fred) that was focused on answering this question which we hear so often. “Does God speak to me?”
“How can I begin to hear God’s voice?”
“I’ve never heard God speak. How do you hear Him?”
“I can’t hear God’s voice. Maybe only a few people get to hear him.”
Just this past month, Fred and I had the joy of speaking at a high school camp for two weeks with two different groups of campers. During both weeks, we had several young people come up and ask, “How do you hear God?”
One of the young girls, in complete honesty, shared the following:
“I feel like I do all the things I’m supposed to. I go to a youth group. I volunteer and do service. My family is a good family at the Church. And I’m trying to get closer to him, but I don’t know what else to do.”
Notice in this moment, her identity was not found in God, it was found in what she was DOING for God. She felt as though God would only speak or bless her with a close relationship if she did all the right things.
Have you ever felt the same way? Like you do all the right things, and yet have never heard God’s voice?
This was the heart of so many that attended our recent retreat; they were searching to hear from their Heavenly Father. And many did…
There was a woman in her 80s who shared, “I always hear others say that God speaks to them, and I’ve always wanted to be one of those people.” My heart broke for her in that moment, but her desire was answered. That day, she heard God for the first time.
There was a gentleman who said he had never heard God speak, but through tears, he shared “I did today. At mass, I heard God speak my name.”
“The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out… “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep… I know my own and my own know me.”1
It is easy to believe that the “right,” if you will, to hear God’s voice is won by something that we do, but this is not the case! You are his sheep, and he calls you by name! You get to hear his voice, simply because you are his… and he knows you.
Your identity is not found in what you do for God! It is found in what God already did for you!!
“The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep…”
God desires to speak with you, but if you believe the lie that you must earn it, or that only the holiest hear God, then you empower the liar (the devil) quote. Believing this lie or empowering a liar can leave us spiritually deaf to the truth, that is to Jesus. “I am the way and the truth and the life.”2 And He who is Truth, says, “I am the good shepherd” who calls my sheep by name and they hear my voice.
Here are three simple tips to prepare both your heart and your environment to Hear God speak:
Know his voice through Scripture and Prayer
Perhaps you read that and thought “Yea yea yea. That’s not a real tip.” “I’ve heard that one before.” “I do that enough. What else?” Or perhaps you read it and thought, “I know. I’ve really been meaning to build that habit more.” Either way, this tip cannot be overlooked; it is first and foremost! “I know my own and my own know me.” Do you know the Good Shepherd?
God has one voice and that voice does not change! The book of Hebrews says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”3 The Word which became flesh through Jesus is the same always,4 but how often do we take our own liberties on who Jesus is or what he speaks… sometimes at the expense of Truth. God does not always say what we expect or want to hear, but he says what we need to hear. One of the ways he speaks to us is through the living Word–Scripture–and through prayer.
In order to familiarize yourself with his voice, read his story and speak to him daily in prayer. St. Teresa of Avila said, “prayer in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us.”5 Can you imagine having a best friend, but knowing nothing about his or her life? Or never even asking about his or her life? Jesus is our friend,6 so he wants us to care enough to ask about his life, and he wants to share it with us!
Scripture is where you read his story, and prayer is where he continues that story in your own life.
Ask for God to speak to you
If you feel far from God, if you desire a closer relationship, or if you have never heard his voice and want to, then simply ask for what you desire. This may seem so simple… elementary even, but Scripture says, “You have not because you ask not.”7 What else does the living Word say about asking?
“Ask and you shall receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.”8
“Those who hunger and thirst… SHALL BE FILLED!”9 Do you hunger for a relationship where you speak as friends? Then you shall be filled!
“How much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him.”10
This tip might be elementary, but it is exactly how we are meant to come to Jesus–with the heart of a child willing to ask. Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”11 Children rely on their parents for everything! A baby needs his mother to feed him or father to clean him. Young children need parents to provide physical needs and a loving home, and the list goes on. In this example, Jesus is calling us all to come to him with the humility of a child, relying on him for everything. This means having the humility to ask for what we need. If you want to hear his voice, it is not selfish to ask. Remember, you do not need to earn the “right” to hear his voice. You are his sheep; he calls you by name. Simply ask to hear it.
This humility to ask also requires a humility to receive that which God has to give and the way he will give it. It might begin with a word from another person, a passage in Scripture, or a memory. His response might be that “still small voice” in the back of your head. Simply be open to the gifts he will give because you asked.
Don’t simply embrace silence, but create silence
We can take a page out of God’s book that silence is key to hear his voice and to do his will. Jesus went off to pray in the silence many times. Before beginning his public ministry, he spent forty days in the desert before beginning his public ministry, in silence; he gave the Church the Our Father after a time of private prayer; the night before his death, he turned to the Father’s will in the silence of the garden while experiencing agony. Jesus must intentionally create moments of silence by leaving the crowds. He does this to speak to the Father and to hear the Father, and so must we.
We live in a world where silence often must be intentional, because it is so easy to drown it out with noise. Noise can be music, television, video games, friends, you name it; but noise can also simply be something that fills the time while distracting the mind. For example, noise can be the quiet scrolling through social media or the reflex to take out one’s phone during a short elevator ride.
If God speaks to us through the “still small voice” as he did to Isaiah,12 this happens in the quiet. Naturally, the devil would want to drown out the quiet moments so we cannot hear God. C.S. Lewis wrote of this in his famous book from 1941, Screwtape Letters. In one of the letters, the demon, Screwtape, wrote tips for keeping the “patient” away from God.
“You no longer need a good book which he really likes to keep him from his prayers… a column of advertisements in yesterday’s paper will do… you can make him do nothing at all for long periods. You can keep him up late at night… staring at a dead fire in a cold room.”13
These temptations of the evil one are still true today, except day old advertisements have become binge watching television. The “dead fire” is a bright screen. Today, there are more weapons in the devil’s arsenal to keep our mind too busy to hear God. This is why we cannot simply embrace silence when it comes, because it may never come. In order to hear God’s voice, we must intentionally create an environment for him to speak. This means, set time aside in the day to create silence and ask God to speak.
Let us conclude by doing exactly this. In the silence, invite God to speak now. “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name.”
Prayer Activity:
Quiet your surroundings.
In your head, speak your full name to yourself. Note what your own voice sounds like
In the quiet, sit until you hear your name spoken to you.
This is the voice of God. He speaks your name in the “still small voice.”
*This article is a shortened version of a talk I give. For more details click here.
Jn 10: 3, 11, 14
Jn 14:6
Heb 3:8
Jn 1:14
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2709
Jn 15:15
James 4:2
Mt 7:7
Mt 5:6
Mt 7:11
Mt 18:3
1 Kgs 19:12
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, pg 59-60