How to Grow in Hearing God’s Voice.
REVELATION ENABLES US TO SEE WHAT GOD SEES.
All things are naked and laid bare before Him. Any covering is upon our own eyes, not God’s. When God opens our eyes that we may know the intent of our heart and the deepest thought within us in the measure that He Himself knows us — this is revelation.
As we are naked and laid bare before Him, so are we before ourselves as we receive revelation.
This is revelation: to allow us to see what our Lord sees.”
– Watchman Nee
Everyone CAN hear the voice of Jesus.
The Lord DESIRES for every man, woman and child to hear, know and understand the voice of Jesus.
However, not everyone HAS ears to hear from God, and not everyone recognizes the voice of Jesus.
If you refuse to learn, grow, and SACRIFICE in your journey as a Child of God, do not expect to have your ears tuned to the voice of the Holy Spirit.
The Pharisees, Sadducees, and teachers of the religious law heard the voice of Jesus. They heard His pitch and tone, yet they didn’t “know” His voice. They didn’t recognize who was speaking to them nor the authority He carried.
They thought their status and titles gave them the authority to know and speak on God’s behalf. They were deceived and missed their opportunity to come into relationship with God who came to earth.
They were religious, yet blinded.
“Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.”
–2 Corinthians 4:4
Just because one holds the title of “Christian”, does not mean their ears are open to the voice of Jesus. Upon the moment of salvation, your ears do not necessarily become finely tuned to hearing what Jesus is speaking to you.
You cannot hear Jesus through osmosis. The blood of Jesus broke open the heavens so that you can come into relationship with God. This is just the start of your life with God; there is a need to WALK forward with Jesus. You cannot stay at confession of faith without moving into intimacy with Jesus. If you stay at confession without going deeper, you will have a difficult time hearing the voice of Jesus.
3 Ways to Grow in Hearing God’s Voice
Humility
It is prideful to pretend that you have your ears finely tuned to the voice of Jesus when you still struggle to determine the will of God. Be honest with yourself. That’s step one in hearing the voice of Jesus more clearly: humility.
With pride comes jealousy, comparison, and offence.
1 Thessalonians 5:20 says, “Do not despise prophecies.”
It is impossible to hear God if you do not humble yourself before Jesus. If you refuse to humble yourself before God, you will be offended by those who accurately hear His voice and speak His prophetic words.
Deal with Your Offence
The religious leaders killed Jesus out of envy. Because Jesus “dared” to speak for God. Jesus spoke with boldness, faith, and real authority. Those three things are offensive to the religious spirit.
Those who are demonically bound cannot hear the voice of Jesus clearly. They often react as the Pharisees and Sadducees did in Jesus’ day. They despise prophecy and the prophets who dare to say they have heard clearly from God.
When you refuse to heed the words of God’s prophets out of jealousy and offence, you not only cut off one of the ways Jesus is attempting to speak to you (through His prophet) but you also cut off relationship with someone who can mentor and lead you in hearing the voice of Jesus clearly (2 Timothy 3:14). Those who are bold, confident, and have faith to say, “thus says the Lord”, are not super Christians: they are crushed Christians who have humbled themselves before the throne of Jesus. Their humility and yielding to the Holy Spirit have tuned their ears to the voice of Jesus.
Submit to the Crushing
Have you ever tried to maintain multiple conversations while grinding coffee and making supper?
I have!
Being a father of three boys and the husband of one wife, this type of scenario happens almost once a week.
Jasmin and I will be having a conversation while I prepare supper. Israel and Samuel will come running down the hallway, screaming in delight as they square off with their toy lightsabers. In comes our dog, Negan, barking for water; right behind him is our youngest, Isaac-Aaron, asking me for a snack. “Dad, Dad, Dad! I want a bar.” All I hear is noise; whatever Jasmin was telling me gets drowned out.
The voice of Jesus is the same. Distraction and other voices will drown out His voice. Our flesh, our desires, and our wants can all become noise in our ears that keep us from hearing the voice of Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says:
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
This speaks of continual communication with Jesus. How do you pray without ceasing? How can we silence the noise around us to commune and hear the voice of Jesus clearly?
Communication with the Holy Spirit is accomplished in/through our spirits. We are to commune spirit to Spirit. Our flesh blocks this communication, making it impossible to pray without ceasing. When the flesh is brought into submission to the Holy Spirit (or broken), communication with Christ opens up. (Romans 8:13)
The Lord desires to do a work within us to bring us into deeper intimacy. This process of sifting requires humility before Jesus, and godly submission to His servants. It requires the personal work of dying to self: consecration, vulnerability, sacrifice, and openness to the Holy Spirit.
“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”
– Matthew 16:24-26
Obedience costs you something. Sacrificing time to be with Jesus will cost you something. Heeding the voice of the Holy Spirit when He wakes you up in the middle of the night will cost you something. Giving up your time, your desires, and going without the pleasures of this world will cost you something. Giving Jesus your, “Yes”, no matter what the cost, has a price.
The Lord does not cause pain and suffering, but He does ask you to give up lesser things.
“…We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God…”
– Acts 14:22
Pain and suffering is unavoidable in this life. How we react to suffering will mean the difference between numbing the voice of Jesus or hearing Him crystal clear.
Watchman Nee wrote this about the “breaking” of our flesh and the resulting spiritual returns in his book “The Release of the Spirit”:
“Our spirit is released according to the degree of our brokenness. The one who has accepted the most discipline is the one who can best serve. The more one is broken, the more sensitive he is. The more loss one has suffered, the more he has to give. Whenever we desire to save ourselves, in that very thing we become spiritually useless. Whenever we preserve and excuse ourselves, at that point we are deprived of spiritual sensitivity and supply. Let no one imagine he can be effective and disregard this basic principle.”
There are things that are not necessarily sinful yet distracting, from the “main thing”, which is following Jesus.
“You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is beneficial.”
– 1 Corinthians 10:23
Are you intentionally pursuing the Lord in every part of your life? When you hear Him speak, do you react in obedience, or ignore His directives? Are your affections set upon the pleasures of the world, or on the King of Kings?
Do you surround yourself with people who have given Jesus only part of their affections, or do you spend time with those who have given over their whole lives to Jesus?
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
– Romans 12:1-2
Are you a living sacrifice, or a Christian in name only? Have you submitted to the testing of Christ, or have you clung to your own comforts?
It is only by testing that discernment is cultivated, and it is only through discernment that you can know the voice and will of God.
My Testimony
In my early 20’s, after a number of years of learning and growing in the prophetic, I allowed rejection and hardship to mold me and dampen the voice of Jesus in my life. I went into a season of suppressing the prophetic gifting that the Lord had imparted to me and ignoring many of the directions of Jesus, believing His grace would cover my disobedience.
His grace is sufficient. He forgave my disobedience. But I lived an Ephesians 4:14 life, as a child “…tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” Always doubting, never knowing, unsure if the voice I was hearing was my own or the voice of Jesus, listening to the voices of people, the opinions of man rather than the opinions of God.
As I have ministered the last eighteen years it has become abundantly clear to me that the majority of the Church in Canada (and abroad) has grown content with living in the same confusion and doubt that I once lived under. The majority are happy never being sure and confident in the voice and directions of Jesus Christ. This breaks my heart! Jesus, through His breaking of sin and death at the cross has made the voice of God completely accessible. The excuses I have heard in not being confident in the voice of Jesus vary but the prevailing one include: “We can’t know all the mysteries of God.” Or they say, “Only God knows. We can never be 100% sure in what we think is the voice of God.” This may seem like humility, but in reality it exposes a lack of faith and trust in Jesus. Worse yet, many would rather trust and take the word of a “man of God”, and what he hears from God, rather than hear the voice of Jesus themselves. This is the sin of the Israelites when they said to Moses, “…You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” (Exodus 20:19)
For myself, there grew a quiet dissatisfaction. This confusion was not what I read in Scripture. The people of God are to be confident and bold in hearing and knowing the voice of Jesus.
I had experienced in the past the words of Jesus sparking revival through me; I had given prophetic dreams and words and saw them come to pass. I longed to have that open communication with heaven once again! This dissatisfaction led me to a desperation to know the voice of Jesus. For the last two decades, I have been on a journey in hearing and obeying the voice of Jesus. Once I gave Jesus my “Yes,” His voice grew clearer. Once I submitted myself in humility before His throne, He exposed the lies. Words of knowledge started to flow; prophetic words began to again be relayed to me. As these were proven true and accurate, I started recognizing the difference between my own voice and His. I remember the moment when I said to Jesus, “Is this your voice?” And I heard Him respond like water pouring over glass, “Yes, Byron, this is what My voice sounds like.” Where I once doubted not only the voice of Jesus but His desire to lead my life into something more, I now am confident and secure. In the past, I was given the gift of prophecy; in this new season, I have been tried and tested to steward the prophetic and to train and equip the saints in hearing His voice.
With Jesus, there are no lost years. He used those years of dysfunction and inactivity to bring me into tender humility and appreciation of the beautiful voice of Jesus. He has used everything, mistakes and missteps, to bring me into greater maturity as a leader in the Body of Christ.
I am still growing in hearing God’s voice. I have learned to stop and discern when to move and when to wait. As a son who hears his father’s voice across the room, yet doesn’t quite catch all the words he has spoken, I wait until my Father draws close so that I can receive the message that He wishes to convey to me.
When I am unsure or not confident in what Jesus is saying to me, I lean in closely to listen. I spend that extra time in prayer to ensure I am hearing the heart and directions of the Father correctly.
The voice of Jesus is precious to me. I know the sweet voice of Jesus. I have sacrificed to clearly hear His dictates, desires, and directions.
A life of intercession brings increase.
A life of intercession moves communities, regions, and nations.
Intercession leads to power.
Intercession leads to intimacy.
Hearing His voice requires humility, submission, and sacrifice.
It starts with a spark and ends in flames. Give Jesus your “Yes!”
