On a recent flight to North Carolina, I was talking with the lady sitting next to me about talking with God — and she asked me, “How do you hear God?”
She went on to say, “I’ve been a Christian for most of my adult life. And I’ve never heard God speak to me.”
I could identify with her completely.
For many years after I became a child of God, I rarely heard Him speak to my heart.
I thought that my outward obedience to the Bible was enough to satisfy the inward hunger of my soul.
Turns out, conforming to the rules isn’t enough.
God designed us for so much more.
So I asked my seat companion, “How do you know what your husband of 42 years wants before he asks?”
She thought about it and said, “Well, I’ve lived with him long enough to know him.”
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She was completely on point.
This woman identified one of the primary reasons Christians don’t hear God’s Spirit: We don’t know Him.
Jesus gave us a clear idea that we’re designed to hear Him when He said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27).
As His children, we’re enabled to hear Him.
But there is another reason people don’t hear God.
People don’t hear God speak to their heart if they’re spiritually dead.
A dead body can’t hear a single thing.
Doesn’t it make sense that a dead spirit would also have a hearing problem?
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Jesus told Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again’” (John 3:6-7).
Accepting the gift of eternal salvation, purchased by Jesus’ own death and secured by His resurrection — this is what gives us life.
Being born into God’s Spirit equips us to hear Him.
His Spirit will never lead us where His love can’t keep us.
When we passionately seek to know God by spending quality time with Him every single day, we will begin to hear His Spirit.
His Word promises: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).
Seeking God first in our life makes His Word a “lamp to our feet and a light to our path” (Psalms 119: 105).
God paid the ultimate sacrifice so we could live.
His love is worth trusting.
His Spirit will never lead us where His love can’t keep us.
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