"Hearing God" (IV)

The Practice of Listening for God's Voice

Dallas Willard writes on page 201, "Hearing from God is not a gimmick. Talk of method is, strictly speaking, out of place here, although it is possible and helpful to lay down general, practical guidelines. After all God is not someone we 'work up' for a result, even though certain behaviors before him are more or less appropriate. Above all we must beware of trying to force God to speak. This is especially true just when we are most likely to attempt it--that is, when we are not in peaceful union with him." On pages 213-215, Willard lays down some practical "helps" for those obedient Christians who want to move into a life more dispositioned towards conversing with and hearing from God, but not before yet another disclaimer: "God's word is to be reliably and safely sought and found--free of mystification, gimmickry, hysteria, self-righteousness, self-exaltation, self-obsession and dogmatism... [This] is not a formula for getting God to speak to us on matters that may concern us... It is instead a formula for living with God's voice, for hearing his word in a life surrendered and brought to maturity by him." (213-215)

Foundational Steps

(1) We have entered into the additional life by the additional birth, and so far as it lies within our understanding and conscious will, we plan and make provision to do what we know to be morally right and what we know to be explicitly commanded by God. This commitment includes the intention to find out what may be morally right or commanded by God and hence to grow in our knowledge.

(2) We seek the fullness of the new life in Christ at the impulse of the Spirit of God in service to the good wherever it may appear, venturing beyond our merely natural powers in reliance on God's upholding power. Thus we move from faith to more faith (Rom 1:17) as we find him faithful. Above all we venture in the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ and his kingdom as presented in the New Testament Gospels.

Steps to Hearing God

(3) We meditate constantly on God's principles for life as set forth in the Scriptures, always striving to penetrate more deeply into their meaning and into their application for our own lives.

(4) We are alert and attentive to what is happening in our life, in our mind and in our heart. For here is where God's communications come and identify themselves, whatever the external occasion may be. It was said of the prodigal son that he came to himself (Lk 15:17) and then he found the truth and repentance that saved him from his plight. When God came to Adam after he had sinned, he did not ask, "Adam, where is God?" but "Adam, where are you?" (Gen 3:9). We must purposefully, humbly and intelligently cultivate the ability to listen and see what is happening in our own souls and to recognize therein the movements of God.

(5) We pray and speak to God constantly and specifically about the matters that concern us. This is essential to our part of the conversation with God... Nothing is too insignificant or too hopeless to bring before God. Share all things with God by lifting them to him in prayer, and ask for his guidance even--or perhaps especially--in those things that you think you already understand.

(6) Listen, carefully and deliberately, for God. When God does speak to you, pay attention and receive it with thanks. It is a good habit to write such things down, at least until you become so adept at the conversational relationship that you no longer need to. If he gives you an insight into truth, meditate on it until you have thoroughly assimilated it. If the word he has given concerns action, carry it out in a suitable manner. God does not speak to us to amuse or entertain us but to make some real difference in our lives. On pages 199-201, Willard gives his own plan for "listening to God" that can be utilized in Step 6:

    (a) Get down on your knees and say, 'Lord, I need to know what you want me to do, and I am listening. Please speak to me through my friends, books, magazines I pick up and read, and through circumstances.' The simplicity of this should not mislead us. When we are in a proper, well-functioning relationship with God, this is exactly what we are to do.

     (b) Listen. This means that we should pay a special kind of attention both to what is going on within us and to our surrounding circumstances. It is important to observe regular times for listening with respect to the matters that especially concern you. Frederick B. Meyer writes, 'Be still each day for a short time, sitting before God in meditation, and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the truth of Christ's indwelling. Ask God to be pleased to make known to you what is the riches of the glory of this mystery (Colossians 1:27)."

     (c) After I ask God to speak to me... I devote the next hour or so to some kind of activity that neither engrosses my attention with other things nor allows me to be intensely focused on the matter in question. Housework, gardening, driving about on errands or paying bills will generally do. I have learned not to worry about whether or not this is going to work. I know that it does not have to work, but I am sure that it will work if God has something he really wants me to know or do... Often by the end of an hour or so there has stood forth within my consciousness an idea or thought with that peculiar quality, spirit, and content that I have come to associate with God's voice... I may decide to reconsider the matter by repeating the same process after a short period of time. Remember Gideon (Judg 6:11-40). Remember too that scientists check their results by running experiments. We should be so humble. If nothing emerges by the end of an hour or so, I am not alarmed. I set myself to hold the matter before God as I go about my business and confidently get on with my life. Of course I make it a point to keep listening. Very often, within a day something happens through which God's voice, recognizably distinct, is heard. 

     (d) It is much more important to cultivate the quiet, inward space of a constant listening than to always be approaching God for specific direction... [The] obedient, listening heart, mature in the things of God, will... find the voice of God plain and the message clear, as with the experiences of the friends of God recorded in the Bible.

(7) In those cases where God does not speak to you on the matter concerned, take the following steps: (a) Ask God to inform you, in whatever way he chooses, if some hindrance is within you; (b) Take counsel from at least two people whose relationship with God you respect, preferably those who are not your buddies. This may be done in a group setting if it does not concern an inherently private matter; (c) If you find a cause for why God's word could not come, correct it. Mercilessly. Whatever it is. Just do it; (d) If you cannot find such a cause, then act on what seems best to you after considering the itemized details of each alternative. 

"If we proceed in this way, we will come to know God's voice as a familiar personal fact, which we can both comfortably live with and effectively introduce others to. We will know what to do when God speaks, but we will also know what to do when he does not speak. We will know how to find and remove any hindrance if there is one and how to move firmly but restfully onward in loving peacefulness when there is none. We will know that God is inviting us to move forward to greater maturity, relying on his faithfulness alone. We will know, in short, how to live in our world within a conversational relationship with our Father who is always there for us."