#203 (Wed) You Asked For It# 4, How Can I Hear God’s Voice & Activation Notes

Question: How Can I Hear God’s Voice?

By: Ron Mills

Becoming adept at hearing and recognizing God’s voice is a learning process.

The biggest part of that is familiarizing ourselves to the Voice of God and how He speaks to
us personally.

We learn as we go and for each of us the process may be a little different, however, one
critical aspect of relationship is communication. I have always understood that my
knowledge of God depends on my level of intimacy with Him.

intimacy requires communication – in both directions!

A good quality relationship with the Lord, also requires communication — and if we find it
difficult to hear God’s voice – then we will probably find our relationship with the Lord not to
the depth that it could be. So there’s value in learning to hear God’s voice – simply from a
relational perspective.

2 Cor. 10:4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary,
they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of
God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
6 And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is
complete.

These verses point out that a wrong mindset (arguments and pretensions contrary to the
knowledge we receive from God), can be a hindrance to our spiritual walk. They can in fact
limit our ability to perceive the information we are receiving from the Lord AS BEING FROM
THE LORD!

We need to know that the Lord can speak to us very specifically AND personally.

You Can Hear The Voice of God:

1st fallacy we need to deal with in this whole subject matter is the thought that you don’t hear
God speaking – THAT IS A LIE intended to hold you down!
You might say, “But I really DON’T hear God’s voice!”

I’ve got some real good news for you. Yes, you do. You’re already hearing the voice of the
Lord, and you’re hearing it for two reasons.

1. You were created to hear the voice of the Lord.

God designed you to be able to hear His voice.

– created to have communion with the One who made us
– We possess the tools and resources to facilitate that reality.

Genesis 1: creation responds to God’s voice (tuned to it)

– natural ears always hear (even when sleeping)
– spiritual ears are the same.

Prov. 20:12 (NIV) Ears that hear and eyes that see— the LORD has made them both.

Revelation 2:7 says, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the church.”

John 6:44 “Nobody comes unto me except the Father draws him.”

When you became a believer, it’s because you “heard” the call of the Spirit.

1. You can hear God’s voice because you’re a sheep of the Good Shepherd.

In John:10:27, Jesus says, “My sheep hear My voice.”
Repeated in Jn 10:3, 4, 16

Jesus speaks the truth!
2 Cor 1:20 The promises of God are yea and amen.

Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should
repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it
good?

Rom 3:4 “Let God be true, but every man a liar.”

Jesus made a statement and the statement is, “My sheep hear My voice.” And that’s an
absolutely true statement. You hear God’s voice.

Here’s the problem — although we can hear God, often, we don’t recognize His voice
when He speaks.

Key Point:
“Knowledge is a function of the mind; but hearing God’s voice is a function of thespirit.” … Ron Mills

In my experience, I have discovered that there are things we can all do that will help us to
hear more clearly, what the Lord is saying to us personally. And yes, I am saying that God is
personal in His communication. He wants to speak to you, about you.

Jer 29:11 (NIV) For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper
you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Jer 29: 12,13 call upon Him, He will hear us; we will find Him as we seek for Him with all
our heart.

4 keys to recognizing the Voice of Holy Spirit

#1: God’s voice sounds like spontaneous thoughts.

– the voice of the Lord often sounds just like a thought. The question is … what is the
source of that thought? Did it come from your own mind – or the mind of the Spirit?
– to tune to God, I need to tune to the flow of thoughts that are going through my spirit.
– thoughts birthed by the Spirit, are usually unexpected
– God is spontaneous in the way He speaks to us
– People often mistake something the spirit is saying to them as their own thoughts
because it sounds similar to their own thoughts – or comes to them in a similar
manner BUT WE CAN LEARN TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE!

Heb 5:11 strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by

reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Practicing hearing the voice of God in your daily life …

I suggest that when we listen for God’s voice, we should be listening for a flow of
unexpected or spontaneous thoughts. I believe that most spirit-level communication comes
that way – as unexpected or spontaneous thoughts, impressions, feelings, and visions.

paga, the Hebrew word for intercession, is “a chance encounter or an accidental
intersecting.”

When God lays people on our hearts for intercession, He does it through paga, what we
perceive as a chance-encounter thought, intersecting our thought processes.

When I tune to God, I listen for chance-encounter thoughts or spontaneous thoughts. When
I am poised quietly before God in prayer, and as I focus my attention on Him, I have found
that the flow of spontaneous thoughts that comes is quite definitely from God. – but I’ve
learned to tune in – by reason of use – or by practice!

When I pray for people at the altar, I begin by blessing them and thanking God for them, but
then I pray as spontaneous thoughts begin to flood into my spirit. I may not know anything
about the people or their situation ahead of time, I just pray as the thoughts come to me. It
is amazing to watch people respond to Holy Spirit, as He speaks to them through prophetic
prayer.

#2: Learn to still your own thoughts and emotions.

With your own thoughts and emotions quieted, you can then sense God’s flow of thoughts
and emotions within you.

Habakkuk said, “I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart…” (Hb.
2:1). Habakkuk knew that in order to hear God’s quiet, inner, spontaneous thoughts, he had
to first go to a quiet place and still his own thoughts and emotions.
Psalm 46:10 be still, and know that I am God.

Simple ways to quiet yourself to more readily pick up God’s spontaneous flow.
– Loving God by meditatively listening to a worship recording or singing a worship song
is an effective way to quiet yourself to more readily pick up God’s spontaneous flow.
– Simply worshipping and adoring the Lord is a terrific way to become quiet and
attentive in your spirit

– becoming still (thoughts, will, and emotions) and poised before God releases the
divine flow

– push away distracting thoughts

– stand in the place of fully embracing God’s forgiveness to you through the shed blood
of Jesus Christ. This will invalidate any sense of guilt or unworthiness the enemy
might want to throw at you. (Is. 61:10)

It takes some spiritual discipline, and patience at times, for me to get to that quiet
place, but I have found that if I do this – I can always hear the Lord speak.

#3: Fix your attention on Jesus.

As I fix my gaze upon Jesus (Heb. 12:2), becoming quiet in His presence, and sharing with
Him what is on my heart, I find that two-way dialogue can begin to flow. Spontaneous
thoughts flow from the throne of God to me, and I find myself conversing with the King of
Kings.

It is very important that we become still and properly focused if we are going to receive the
pure word of God.

If we are not still, we will simply be receiving our own thoughts.

If we are not focused on Jesus, we will receive an impure flow, because the intuitive flow
comes out of that upon which we have fixed our attention.

Hab says “I watch to see what He will say to me.”
– not uncommon for the Lord to “speak” in a visual context.
– prophet Habakkuk was “watching” to see what the Lord would “say”
– you can “listen“ with your spiritual eyes?
– Habakkuk started looking for vision as he prayed. He was going to open the “eyes of
his heart”, and look into the spirit world to see what God wanted to show him.
– This intriguing concept – works.
– We must “LOOK” to “SEE”
– 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).

Jesus demonstrated this ability of living out of ongoing contact with Almighty God. He said
that He did nothing on His own initiative, but only that which He saw the Father doing, and
heard the Father saying (Jn. 5:19,20,30). What a supernatural way to live!

At Jesus’ death on the cross, the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom, giving us
access into the Holy Place – the presence of God, and we are commanded in Lk. 23:45; and
Heb. l0: 19-22 to draw near. This is biblical teaching and experience.

#4: Journaling: 

Journaling, is the writing out of our prayers and God’s answers. Yes, it requires some extra
work, however, it provides a great new freedom in hearing God’s voice.

God told Habakkuk to record the vision and inscribe it on tablets…(Hb. 2:2).

Journaling can be a great facilitator to clearly discerning God’s inner, spontaneous flow.
– Start by writing in faith, simply believing it is God.
– We don’t have to test it as we are receiving it. In fact judging it as we receive it tends
to disrupt the flow of thoughts.
– Instead, understand that when the flow is over you can go back and test and
examine it carefully, making sure that it lines up with Scripture.

You will be amazed when you attempt journaling. Doubt may hinder you at first, but
throw it off, reminding yourself that it is a biblical concept, and that God is present,
speaking to His children. Later, as you read your journaling, you, too, will be blessed
to discover that you are indeed dialoguing with God.

Four Keys To Recognizing God’s voice As He speaks To You

1. Tune to spontaneous thoughts
2. Still yourself
3. Fix your gaze on Jesus
4. Journal your thoughts

203 Activation Notes – Hearing God’s Voice For Personal Growth, PDF

203 How Can I Hear God’s Voice, Ron Mills, PowerPoint Slides