So many people have come to me repeatedly asking me how to hear from God? I assume that most people who ask me this don’t believe that they can hear God themselves and they need some divine word that will open their ears and allow them to hear God audibly. The very first answer that I give them is, “Spend time in prayer.” Most people reply with, “I do pray, but I still can’t hear him.”
There is no secret trick to hearing God. Anyone that claims to hear God regularly spends time with God. Sure, some people have an innate ability to get revelation on matters, but even a person that was naturally gifted to do so has to spend time using that gift, and listening to God, and speaking to him. If you never get to know God in your life, then that gift can easily be corrupted, and the channel that you think you are hearing that is the voice of the Almighty, may just be the voice of the almighty self, money, or another spirit trying to get you to “bless” someone with curses that will cause a person to turn from God. If you truly want to hear his voice, then you need to spend time listening to him.
Praying in tongues is a great time to hear something from God. There have been so many times that I have been in prayer just closing my eyes and praying in tongues when suddenly images of a person pop into my head. I focus on that image and continue to pray, and God will show me pictures of things that are going on in their lives or use dream symbols to speak. Sometimes I will hear a voice, other times I will simply see what’s happening, and have a feeling attached to it so I can have compassion for what they are going through. After he stops showing me those images, I will begin to speak out what I was seeing and explain what those things meant.
Praying in tongues is not only a gift from the Holy Spirit but it also enables us to allow the Spirit of God to pray his will through us. Romans 8 teaches us that the spirit of God actually intercedes for us in both inexpressible groans, and by conversing with us and through us. “26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”
Verse 27 is where we learn that the Holy Spirit speaks through us. The word for intercedes in Greek is entugchano. This word means intercede at face value, but a deeper inspection of the word reveals that it means to light upon or come on, to intercede, to converse with and the consult by way of meeting, and to hit the mark (which is the opposite of sinning which is missing the mark). By allowing the Holy Spirit to come on you and intercede through you and for you, you are allowing the perfect will of God to be prayed for by the Spirit of God himself. If I could have anyone pray for me, it would be God.
It’s ok to test out your spiritual muscle to see if it was God, or not. There is no shame in learning. Speaking in tongues doesn’t seem profound when you don’t understand it, but even just “randomly” letting your mouth wander off will help bypass your logical thinker and go straight to accessing the spirit. This is partly why God speaks to us in dreams at night. This bypasses our logic, and human rationale, and allows God to speak directly to our spirit at a time where our flesh cannot interject.
As you see pictures, or symbols think about what those symbols mean to you, and how does that symbol apply in your life? In doing this it will reveal what God wants to do in someone’s life or your life. If a person pops into your head while you are praying for someone in tongues that may be an indication that this person has positive characteristics that they share with this person. Even if you don’t like the person that pops in your head think of the first great thing that hits your mind and speak that over them.
For instance, I once looked at a person and saw John Lennon and Elton John. The first things that came to my mind were not that they are worldly and unsaved, but that they are musicians, and they both played the piano. I told this person that his gift of worship will be used on greater levels to influence nations and that God will use his skill on a piano to shake people to the core in worship and set people free from Bondage.
That was the first, and last time that I have ever met that man. Right after I gave him that word he went on stage because he was part of the worship team, and he played piano and sang, and it was Powerful! If all you can think about is the negative things, then speak the exact opposite over them. God wants to tear down strongholds, not people. That was a lesson that I learned after destroying many people with, “Prophetic” words. I would tear them down and tell them all the bad things that they had done in life and call out their bad attitudes in front of whole congregations, and then would say, God, loves you! When you do something like that, you are just as guilty of sin as the person who is caught in the trap of fornication. God doesn’t remember your sins. He says so in his word, which means that that is a reality. Therefore, since we are imitating his nature, and are images of him presenting Christ to people, then that means that we should not be practicing the things that the enemy does to people, but rather, be practicing the way God speaks to people.
It is ok to make mistakes. It is ok to learn how to operate in a gift of the Spirit. God will forgive you, and he will have grace for you to deliver you from improperly using it. Especially if you are a young prophet. Young prophets tend to be ‘know it all’s in their early walk in life, and God has enough grace to bear with us as we leave behind the black and white prophetic side of things, and transition into the love of Christ side of the prophetic.
The more you practice, the easier it will be to quickly get into the spirit and discern between what is him and what is another source. Hebrews 5 states, “Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” Paul shows that the meat of the word or the solid food is doing the word and exercising your gifts and what you have learned on a regular basis.
The Greek word he uses in this verse is Trophe, which means meat, but it is a type of meat that is given to a soldier as payment or worker that has earned his meal for the day. This is where we derive the word trophy. The meat of God is not only understanding and doing the word of God, but it is also a reward for stepping out in faith. Someone else shared this same value, his name was Jesus. John 4:34, “Jesus said unto them, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.”
Interestingly enough, the Greek word John used in this verse for meat is Broma, which is food of any Kind. That is spiritual nourishment that you take in to grow and maintain a healthy state of well-being. In your mind, you may be saying, or have heard, “Milk is food for babies.” Yes, it is, but it is not solid food. It will not sustain a full-grown adult, and it is unhealthy to be feeding off a mother well into your mature years. In the same manner, it is not healthy spiritually for a Christian to always rely on the church to do everything for them, and never progress beyond the hearing of the word, and the foundation of Christ, and always remain in the same un-grown, seedling stage of your new life in Christ. Getting out there and being active as a part of the body of Christ has its own reward and nourishes your spirit. This nourishment helps grow the capacity of your spirit to be able to do and be usable by the Holy Spirit.
Stepping out and using what God gave you, doing what he commanded you and being the image of Christ to the world has other benefits. God will re wars you. Paul states in 1 Corinthians 9:13–14, “13 Do you not know that those performing the holy services eat the things from the temple, and those attending to the altar have a share with the altar? 14 In the same way, also the Lord ordered those who proclaim the gospel to live from the gospel.” And in 1 Timothy 5:18 he proclaims that the worker is worth his wages. A heavenly wage may not be money. It could be a promotion at work, getting a meal paid for, or whatever you have need of provision for. God will always take care of us and meet our needs, but stepping out in faith will move him to reward you on a greater level.
This simple principle of practicing and using your gifts will not only apply to hearing the Holy Spirit, but it will be an invaluable tool for you when interpreting dreams. If you only took away one thing from this lesson, then let it be this; practicing something means that you will make mistakes. You may not get it right in training, but the whole purpose of practice is so when you get out there in the game you have the skills developed to be able to succeed when needed.
Practice, Practice, practice and you will see your accuracy average increase to the point where you will not only be hitting a home run at every swing, but you will knock it clear out of the park and into the beyond. That is how you will destroy the work of the enemy and see Jesus manifest regularly in your life.
Here are some training exercises to use to help you hear from the spirit of God. If you are willing to take time to train, listen, and learn then you will see definite growth and progression in your ability to hear God. The key is spending time. This is showing God not only that you want to hear his voice or interpret dreams, but it tells him that you value spending time with him and are willing to do whatever it takes to hear his voice.
My wife loves that I listen to her and I love that she listens to me. Because she shows interest in hearing what I have to say, and vice versa, I love to hear what she has to say, and I will take time to hear her not only to acknowledge that she is speaking, but to really understand the message she is conveying to me, what her heart is on a matter, and to show her that I value her voice as much as she values mine.
Psalm Reading:
This particular exercise will draw in a new age person. It’s cunningly worded to make a person think you are some sort of mystic like they are accustomed to and it opens a door to be able to give them scripture and spread the gospel in a way they are willing to hear.
Find a partner, or a willing participant (they don’t even have to be Christian! Psalm reading is a great tool to use to evangelize and share the gospel with the unsaved. It works anywhere, anytime, for any person).
Have them pick a date that comes to their mind. For instance, 6/24.
Go to the psalm that shares those numbers. If there is not a Psalm 6:24 (there is not), then try Psalm 62:4.
Read the verses before, and after that psalm, and pray for God to reveal to you how this Psalm applies to the person. After reading the verse and praying you can begin to tell them what you believe God told you. This psalm starts out by saying that God is my refuge and speaks of how men will try to break you down, but God will build you up, and no matter what happens in your life trust in God. Trusting in him and acting on that trust will be rewarded by God. (this is particularly accurate because that is my birthday, and my whole life people have attacked me, and put me down but God has always been where I find rest, and he always rewards me for the actions I take in faith for him.
Some other ways to hear in the spirit, are to remember things. Holy Spirit is responsible for bringing things to your recollection and causing you to remember. Jesus told the disciples that the Holy Spirit would come and remind them of all the things he had said, surely enough they remembered everything he said, and understood it (John 14:26; John 2: 20-22).
Imagine your childhood home. What color was it? What color were the carpets? How many pictures were on the wall? What were the names of 7 streets near your home? It may sound silly to you, but this will help you not only to access the Holy Spirit, but also to recall dreams in the future, and that you have had in the past. All things that have been shown to you are hidden in the archives of the Holy Spirit.
Take note, it doesn’t say he will just give you the word says he will bring to recollection all things he has said. That means that you must have the word in you in order for him to pull up the word for you to use. That same principle goes along with accessing the gifts. You’re aren’t receiving something new; you’re activating something that is already within you. You’re tapping into the Holy Spirit that is responsible for all gifts.
Sit in silence while you are at home and just listen. What do you hear? What do you see around you that is happening, what can you feel in your uttermost being? Take the dream Symbol Guide and look at the things he is showing you. Research what the symbol may mean, and You will start to begin to hear God (I might add, try to think about what he’s showing you through a symbol, then look it up to see if that’s what it meant. You’d be surprised at how accurate your interpretation will be without even looking up the symbol).
If you will implement these exercises daily, in a very short period of time, you will start hearing recognizing how God speaks to you very quickly. Remember, in 1 Timothy 5:18 it says that a worker is worth his wages. If you diligently pursue God, you will see the reward or wage of that work manifest in your life in abundance.