BEYOND THE AUDIBLE VOICE [The Heart That Hears]

BEYOND THE AUDIBLE VOICE; The Heart That Hears

 

How can I hear God, 

How does He speak ?

These questions are questions we all , including me have asked in our Journey with God.

 

Hearing God unlike the normal meaning of hearing, is beyond just Hearing an audible voice or whatever it is generally that Hearing represents .

But The Act of Hearing God encompasses not just Hearing but also  Understanding , and other factors that play measure roles in hearing or understanding what we have heard.

Let’s Start with Hearing in itself.

How do we Hear God?

Firstly,

We hear Him first and foremost by being able to listen to Him, 

By being where He is,Proximity; You can’t hear who you’re not even close to or have a connection to

and lastly, Having the right receptive means of hearing Him; You cannot hear if you do not have ears to hear.  [James 4:8]

One of the prominent principles of Hearing is in Sensitivity; This involves pruning and setting our Hearts in a way that we can approach Him and also setting our Environment in a conducive way That He can approach us. 

God can Talk to us Anywhere and Anyway .But He won’t talk to us Everywhere and Everyway. 

In writing about this topic I would use a lot of analogies to explain some points [that was how The Holyspirit taught me] so now let us talk about Environment as a factor; Mathew 6:6

We all know that there are certain things a friend can tell you in public and things that friend won’t say in public but rather in private, so one who doesn’t get to the place of privacy with that friend won’t be able to hear whatever it is that friend is trying to communicate . This table would explain why you would not hear any information about you or your destiny every time from the pulpit or in public fellowship.

An analogy on the State Of Our Hearts would be; 

When we are angry, sad, depressed or in a sour state, not everyone can communicate or Everything can be communicated to you. This would even affect if you would be able to hear whatever would be communicated.

More than being close to the person , it is also important that we have to be attentive and be conscious that the person is not just with you but is speaking or trying to communicate.

Hear and pay attention, do not be arrogant, for the Lord has spoken.. Jeremiah 13:15

We can actually be close or be in proximity to this person and not still hear. How ?

You can be carried away or not pay attention. Are you conscious that He is there with you, let alone speaking ?. 

This implies that we can be in God’s Presence and possibly not Hear Him. 

Why ?

Because we are distracted or we are focused on other things .

Analogy 

Someone can be beside you actively talking to you but because you’re distracted by your phone, tv or whatever, you aren’t conscious that He is speaking or That He is even there, so we won’t hear what has been said, or hear rightly.

This Analogy just shows that yes we can actually be Conscious of The Fact that God is With us, but not be Conscious of When He speaks or that He is speaking . Because we can be distracted by all that comes and is In His Presence , You can be too carried away by theatrics in Church, in Prayer that we do not pay attention to When He Speaks, So it’s not just about praying, shouting or groaning in The Place of Prayer, are you conscious of when He is speaking or expressing Himself. Never Forget! “Prayer Is Communication” and “Communication Involves Listening and Hearing”

Now How does He speak?

There’s no unique, fixed or established way that God speaks .

God can speak through visions, Dreams, An Audible voice (rarely), through People , Scriptures , Feelings, Happenings and many more.

We’ve all done communication classes at some point, if you’ve, you would be able to understand that Speaking or Communicating with someone is beyond just Words. We communicate either by Signs, Expressions, Body, Language e.t.c.

So if Humanity is diverse in means of communication, what more of Divinity ?

For God does speak—now one way, now another—

   though no one perceives it. In a dream, in a vision of the night,

    when deep sleep falls on people

    as they slumber in their beds, he may speak in their ears

    and terrify them with warnings, to turn them from wrongdoing and keep them from pride,(Job 33:14-17)

 

When I say Communication through Feelings, I mean sometimes when God desires to communicate He can express Himself through Emotions like Anger, Love, Hurt, Peace. So it’s possible we get to an environment or try to talk to someone and we feel love, anger or any other emotions towards the Place or Person. God can communicate that way too. The Spirit of God dwells in us , so this means that whatever  He feels, you have the capacity or possibility to Feel and more. Think about it, why are they called ''The Fruits Of The Spirit'' They are characters of God expressed from within us by His Spirit.

Acts 17:16

His spirit was stirred within him when he saw the city full of idols

1 Samuel 11:6

“And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly.”

 

So after we’ve Heard or We are Hearing , Does it End there ? 

Most definitely NOT!

How Do We Now Get To Not Only Just Hear Him But Also Understand Him?

To truly understand what someone has said, even after we’ve heard it, we must do more than simply come close; we have to engage more deeply and put in intentional effort beyond just listening.

Why do we hear?

We hear to act, to move , to obey , to grow and many more.

To do anything about what we Hear , one major thing that affects what we do after Hearing is our Understanding [perception and reception]of what we’ve heard, 

There are many principles that work towards this. They are :

The State of Our Heart.

Intimacy / Knowledge 

&

Maturity 

Let’s Get into these Principles.

 State of The Heart

God can actually speak but where our Heart is, or The state of our heart would determine the perception and reception of what we have heard, 

How ? 

Analogy

You are angry at your friend , so the friend says “leave me jare “ a common phrase that won’t have normally meant it literally, but because you’re already angry you pick offense or you perceive and receive the statement as He/She actually wants you to leave. This is just an analogy. Same way if you’re happy whatever you hear would follow the tone of happiness.  This is the same way with Hearing God, Our perception and Reception of God’s Word is highly dependent on The state of our Hearts. This is just like the parable of the sower. The same applies to when we study scriptures. (Jeremiah 23:18-24)(Ezekiel 2:1-2)(Zachariah 7:11-13)

 Intimacy and Knowledge

 Our level of knowledge and intimacy with the person that speaks to us determines How we also Understand and Receive what that person is saying . “You can’t understand who you do not know”.  When you don’t know or see the person behind a statement you’d judge or understand based on just the tone and literal context to that statement. But a statement is not just about what is said but Who Said It.  

This is why Intimacy and Knowledge has been put together because there is in existence a direct relationship between them; The deeper the intimacy the more the knowledge and the more the knowledge the deeper the intimacy (vice versa). 

In Relation To Maturity

Our Maturity in understanding and perception of what has been said is “dependent”on how much we’ve come to Know (or How much we’ve grown in Knowledge), and how Intimate we’ve become with the Person.  [1 sam 3:9}

Analogy 

You ask your mum “mummy where do I keep the plate” your mum replies “put it on my head” this statement is beyond what it means literally. Maturity of which is basically the level of knowledge acquired by constant communication and interaction (intimacy) with the Person. This is what would make you understand that; the statement isn’t literal but sarcasm which states that you already know the obvious place to put it, But an immature person in this regard who doesn’t know your mum would follow the literal meaning and put the plate on your mum’s head.

So most times in our journey with God, the reason we keep making the wrong choices , its not that God isn’t speaking or that we’ve not heard, maybe we have , but have you understood? Did you understand?.(psalms 119:125) 

So when you’re not intimate with Him you can never understand or grasp what He has spoken (John 8:47), that’s why Jesus didn’t communicate somethings then to the Apostles because they had not matured enough to grasp it. (John 16:12) So sometimes too it’s not that He doesn’t want to speak but it’s because if He does , would you understand? . So take to account that whenever God speaks to you, or Whatver He has spoken to you at any stage of your work with you, It means that He has given you the capacity to understand it, and if you didn’t it’s because you were not conscious. 

A man that hasn’t heard is better off than a man that has heard and didn’t hear well, because definitely he would run in the wrong direction. But the man who hasn’t heard is still safe. 

It’s just like a child won’t be privy to a lot of information available till he/she is grown. That’s why we need to grow deeper in our intimacy with God , which gives us access to knowledge necessary for our Growth. 

Deep calleth unto deep !

So what we hear, understand and if we hear at all is very subjective to our Level of Maturity.

Maturity improves discernment !.

Maturity (this means intimacy too, I can use them interchangeably) can also influence How much God needs to say or what is being said

Some people just need a word to run. Some people need the right prophecy.

Seek to Have a relationship with God, it’s a major solution to hearing and understanding. 

 

YOU CAN HEAR WHO YOU DO NOT KNOW BUT YOU CANNOT UNDERSTAND RIGHTLY WHO YOU DO NOT KNOW”

 

I’ll end with an analogy that would aid in understanding the entire topic.

Maro is the founder and king of a country. He spoke many things and wrote many things, and all of these were recorded.

Then Maro dies.

Now, his spirit comes to live inside Charles.

At this point, Charles wants to truly know who Maro was and who he is.

Unlike others, Charles has an advantage, because Maro is now inside him.

So as Charles reads everything Maro said and everything written about him, he is not left to interpret it alone. He can ask Maro directly to explain what he meant.

Through constant study and continuous interaction with Maro’s spirit, Charles begins to grow in knowledge. And as he grows in knowledge, he grows in understanding.

With time, Charles becomes deeply familiar with Maro, his ways, his thoughts, his intentions, and even his patterns.

This consistent interaction builds intimacy, and that intimacy produces maturity.

Now, when someone comes to Charles and says, “Maro said I should tell you something,” Charles does not depend on the person alone. He turns inward to Maro.

Because of his relationship with Maro, he can discern:

• What Maro would say
• What Maro would not say

So Charles cannot be easily deceived or misled.

No one can take Maro’s words out of context to confuse him, because Charles is in constant fellowship with Maro and understands him rightly.

This is to buttress on the scripture !

“But there is a spirit in man: And the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.”

Job 32:8 KJV

 Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth…” — John 16:13

We have The Spirit of God in us !!

Let’s be conscious of This fact !

He would help us understand! 

It’s Him we fellowship with ! 

He speaks . Do you listen ?

Thank you for reading to the end. I pray that this write up would do a work in your hearing and understanding of our God and His Words.

Feel free to share your contribution by commenting, if you have any questions you can comment too.

SELAH !!