God Wants to Talk With You - Hearing the Voice of God Pt.1

Stop! ... Look! ... Listen!

Written by David Berg May 2009

People would make better decisions and arrive at them a lot easier if, instead of trying to reason things out themselves, they would pray. God has all the answers. Prayer is not just getting down on your knees and speaking your piece, but more importantly, letting God speak His. If you’ll do that, He’ll tell you what to do.

If you really want to hear the Lord, He will talk to you. But in order for Him to get through, you’re going to have to get quiet by yourself, somewhere, somehow, sometime. He says, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). “In quietness and confidence shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15). How many “quiet times” do you have?

You don’t have to be down on your hands and knees, praying frantically, to be heard by God. Prayer should be something you’re doing all the time, no matter what else you’re doing. Quiet times are important, but you can’t always wait until conditions are perfect or you’re through doing this or that to pray. Sometimes you have to pray as you go. It’s like thinking on your feet.

If you’re confused, worrying, fretting, and fuming, then you’re not trusting; you don’t have the faith you ought to have. Trusting is a picture of complete rest and peace of mind, heart, and spirit. You may have to continue working, but your attitude and spirit is calm.

When you truly trust the Lord, you can have peace in the midst of storm and calm in the eye of the hurricane. It reminds me of an art contest that was held in which the artists were asked to illustrate peace. Most of the contestants handed in paintings of quiet, calm scenes of the countryside—absolute tranquility. Well, that’s a form of peace, but the hardest kind of peace to have was illustrated in the picture that won the award. It depicted the roaring, foaming torrents of a storm-swollen river, and on a little tree branch overhanging the rapids was a nest where a tiny bird sat, peacefully singing in spite of the raging river. That’s when your faith gets tested, in the midst of turmoil.

Look at all the people in the Bible who had to learn to hear from God and to wait for Him to work—David, Moses, Noah, Abraham, the apostle John, and Jesus Himself, to name a few.

When Moses was a smart young man, 40 years of age, he really thought he knew how to do the job—but he made a terrible mess out of it and had to run for his life! It took God 40 years to straighten Moses out and show him that he had to depend on Him (Exodus chapters 2 and 3).

Jesus spent 30 years of His life in preparation and only a little over three years in His public ministry. On the eve of His ministry, He went out and spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness, being tested by the Devil. He had to defeat the Devil first (Matthew 4:1–11). If you don’t get alone with the Lord and beat the Devil first, you won’t get far.

Trying to force the situation just won’t work! It doesn’t pay to rush around trying to get someplace or to do something when you’re supposed to be waiting on the Lord to find out where He wants you to be and what He wants you to do.

If you’re hurrying and rushing around, fretting and impatient, you’ll never be able to focus your full attention on the Lord and get His solutions to your problems and His answers to your questions, and thereby make the best decision in each situation. You must stop, look, listen, and wait in communion with Him until you get His answers. When you have learned to do that, you will have learned how to make Spirit-led decisions.

He gives the very best to them who leave the choices up to Him!
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God Wants to Talk With You - Hearing the Voice of God Pt.1 - Rick Warren




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