Photo Credit: Yee McAullife via Cordoba101/Flickr
It’s important that we all, individually, learn how to recognize God’s voice. Laura Harris Smith’s book Seeing the Voice of God, What God Is Telling You through Dreams & Visions, is a great resource to help and make reference to. This book provides fundamental principles on the topic, in an easy-to-read and modern perspective. Add this book to your personal library‼️ The portion of her book I’ve included details potential interferences that block or inhibit our ability to hear God’s voice.
STATIC
Smith describes interferences between us and God as static, she defines it as follows:
S – SIN
T – TIME
A – AMBIVALENCE
T – TRIALS
I – ILLITERACY (not reading God’s Word)
C – COMPETING VOICES
SIN is the most vicious hindrance and without resolving “unresolved sins” or unconfessed/unforgiven sin there is no room for resolution. This must be addressed before dealing with any other areas.
“Sin will keep you from hearing God because it keeps you from God. It produces disfellowship, and if left unconfessed and unchanged, it mass-produces it.”
(Smith, 2014, p.178)
Our human nature and diversity makes us so uniquely special, yet it is in our free thinking and free will spirits that the most destructive block can be created. But thank God, He has given us the Answer!
Consider this example: You are sinking in the ocean and a boat comes by. As you flail around, you wait for someone to save you. You do not need compassion because compassion alone will not rescue you. And you do not need a teacher to tell you how to tread water faster, or even a coach to encourage you to hang in there. What you need is a savior. That is what Jesus is–or what He wants to be for you.
(Smith, 2014, p. 179)
TIME can act as another obstacle. Our busy schedules often are put first leaving no time for God. The more we commune with Him, the more we can recognize Him. Another great observation Smith pointed out is STLS, which is “Serving-The-Lord-Syndrome,” this is where we become so consumed with serving others for God that we neglect to sit down as Mary, at Christ feet to simply listen (Luke 10:38-42).
Take time to rest and be still to hear God’s voice. Deal with your distractions before God does, because trust me, He will.
(Smith, 2014, p.184)
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AMBIVALENCE is uncertainty, this doubtful natures causes one to vacillate or fluctuate between different matters. When we waver between attitudes, thoughts and behaviors we are double minded. We may as well call it dual-minded, because it’s like you have two minds and two personalities vying to reign in you. Ultimately anyone that is functioning in ambivalence stops God’s flow over them and shouldn’t expect to receive anything. (James 1:7).
Submerge yourself in Scriptures that remind you God wants to talk to you. Memorize Jeremiah 33:3 (NIV), “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Remind yourself that God’s first item of business after creating mankind in Genesis 1:27 was to speak to them in verse 28, establishing His voice with them so there could be relationship.
(Smith, 2014, p.184-185)
TRIALS disrupt our hearing when they become bigger than God. When we focus so much on our issues that the bulk, if not all, of the time we spend with Him is a list of “I want” and “I need.” There is no longer any room to hear God because we don’t listen. Listening prayer won’t be accomplished overnight, just as we’ve trained our minds to be occupied, we must train our mind to be still.
Because we treat prayer more like a Dictaphone and less like a telephone, we do all the talking and no listening. Ecclesiastes 5:2 says, “Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; therefore let your words be few.” Laura Harris Smith translation: “Shut up and listen.”
(Smith, 2014, p. 185)
ILLITERACY in God’s Word is a common problem. Literacy in God’s Word is necessary to confirm what we see and hear, God’s spoken Word will always correspond to His written Word.
In our quest to see and hear the voice of God, we must read God’s Word to authenticate that what we are seeing and hearing is even from Him. If anything we dream or hear contradicts the Bible, we must abandon it immediately. The Holy Spirit would never rebut Scripture.
(Smith, 2014, p. 187)
COMPETING VOICES is the final block of “STATIC” and comes in many forms. The voices of those around you act as your influencers and whatever they say, good or bad, accepted or rejected can plant seeds.
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These seeds conveniently make themselves visible during times of trouble.
It is not that you cannot hear God’s voice when you are in this place; it is that so many other voices are competing with His that you cannot decipher whose is whose.
(Smith, 2014, p. 188)
Smith believes 5⃣ different voices run through our heads at any given time.
- Your conscience’s voice – the moral voice of right and wrong. (Pure 1 Timothy 3:9, Good Hebrews 13:18, Weak 1 Corinthians 8:7, Seared 1 Timothy 4:2, & Evil Titus 1:5)
- Your reasoning’s voice – the analytical part of you that weighs facts & data.
- Your flesh’s voice – the undisciplined carnal nature.
- Satan’s voice
- God’s voice
Hearing God isn’t something that’s taught in an hour webinar or a book, it is developed through an intimate relationship with God…How do you get to this place? First it requires that you have Peace With God through faith in Jesus…then just wait it will come over time.
Don’t be discouraged if you don’t hear an audible voice either…I didn’t hear God’s audible voice at first. He spoke to me primarily through His written Word, the Bible, from that point “ideas” would just pop into my head or be impressed upon my heart. I’d make note of them in my journal or in the margins of my Bible. Then I began to notice I’d ask God a question and after a while or sometimes immediately these “ideas” would come. I didn’t recognize it then, but recognize it now to have been God speaking through multiple channels. God is so awesome, to think that He takes the time to teach us…He meets us where we are and carefully guides us to where we need to be. So trust God, continue to spend time with Him and your hearing will sharpen…you don’t have to force it…it will happen.
