Greig’s book really challenged me. It flipped the script and made me recognize how often God has and does speak into my everyday life through his Word, conscience, community, creation, prophetic words of others, and even my dreams. In the section on Lectio there was a tendency towards individualistic discipleship, which ironically was counterbalanced for me in doing the Lectio Course as a group exercise. He does return to the need to hear God in each other later, but there might be a tendency to see this as a separate thing altogether. How do we move from studying scripture objectively and hearing its message generally to receiving God’s word personally in our own lives? The most powerful tool I have ever discovered, one that has revolutionised my own personal relationship with the Bible and has become the model for the devotional I help to write, record and release each day, is the ancient tradition of lectio divina – the slow, prayerful reading of scripture which harnesses the power of imagination and meditation (see 24-7prayer.com/resource/lectio-365). 3. Prophecy

Learning to hear God’s voice – his word and his whisper – is the single most important thing you will ever learn to do.”There is no aspect of God’s creation through which he cannot and does not speak. We must learn to discern the voice of God in the whole of life, not just in religious contexts. We must learn to listen more carefully to those people our culture ignores, because God speaks most consistently from the margins – through children, through the poor, through those who suffer. Pete Greig: And yet that’s what we love about Jesus. Right? He was ordinary and yet extraordinary. He was humble. He didn’t force himself on people. So if we’re going to learn to hear him, we need to begin to think that his voice might sound a lot like our thoughts. It might sound like a Bible verse. It might be one of those pictures that comes into your head and you think, “Is that just me, or could it be God?”

He is also the Senior Pastor of Emmaus Rd, Guildford, Ambassador for the NGO Tearfund, and an Associate Tutor at St Mellitus Theological College, London. These are not gifts that have died out in the church. They have not been “replaced” by the Bible. We weigh prophecy against Scripture, but the Bible itself teaches us that prophecy is a gift of the Holy Spirit for all Christians essential for the building up of the church. In How to Hear God I give some important guidelines as to how we can hear God in this way and how we can handle this gift appropriately (because tragically it has often been abused). In his latest book, he offers insight and tools to help turn your ordinary, everyday prayers into a real, conversational relationship with the God who is speaking, more than you know. Desiring a deeper faith, we need God to say something, anything, to turn the monologue we call prayer into a genuine conversation.So, yeah, it’s about reading slowly. It’s about reverence for the text. It’s about using your imagination. It’s about turning the Bible from being a picture frame to a window frame. Okay? So too often we look at the Bible like a picture that you study and analyze. It’s fixed. It’s there in the picture frame. But what if instead we treat the Bible like a window frame? So through the Bible, we kind of open the window and look out on the world. As Pete points out, for followers of Jesus, “hearing [God’s] voice is therefore the most natural thing in the world…but whenever God’s word is confused, abused, or ignored, it can become one of the most perplexing and painful things too.” For many, hearing God’s voice has become confused, abused, and at times even ignored. For this reason, far too often, we assume it is impossible for us to accomplish. This book reminds us that it is essential that we develop and commit to intentional practices and disciplines that help us to rediscover our connection to God the Father, the Creator and sustaining life-force of all of Creation. These practices and disciplines – as well as this book – are good reminders that God’s voice is often missed because it comes different than we want to expect; rather “when it comes, as it mostly does, [it is] in a voice hushed to a “gentle whisper.” Far too many followers of Jesus have never been discipled on or encouraged around how to discern the distinctive voice of God, and this book helps them commit intentionally to spiritual practices and disciplines to discern and respond to the voice of God. Sadly, as Pete points out, even those of us who these practices are not new for, can at times, too easily become “distracted psychologically, emotionally, intellectually, or spiritually” to hear “the voice of God.” For us, the realignment of our spiritual lives is essential, through committing intentionally to spiritual disciplines and practices. This book is certainly an encouragement towards realignment. God wants to walk with us in daily conversation as he did with Adam and Eve, and with the same intimacy he had with Moses. Occasionally he will communicate through dreams, visions and audible voices as he did with Peter. But mostly he will speak in a quiet, gentle voice as he did with Elijah, sounding ordinary as he did with Samuel (Gen 3:8, Ex 33:11, Acts 10:9-19, 1 Kings 19:12, 1 Sam 3). And do you know what? The real aim of this book isn’t just to teach people how to hear God in religious contexts, like prayer and Bible study, important as those things are. What happens when we start to hear God in all of creation? Like when we switch on the normal radio? When we go for a walk? When we talk to a non-Christian who doesn’t believe God exists, and yet we start to hear God in what they’re saying? That’s when one day the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. That’s what it says in Habakkuk (2:14).

Where else could you read about the spiritual dimensions of Doctor Who? Where else could you learn why Christians should take UFOs seriously? Where else could you be inspired by discussions of life after death and eternity? Pete Greig: Yes. But I don’t think I’ve always recognized the voice of God. Right? This is less about theology than psychology. See, the theology is open and shut. God speaks. Like Genesis 1: He speaks, boom, creation happens. John 1: God comes as Jesus, the Living Word. Greig has once again produced an engaging book on an important element of Christian discipleship, drawing on sources from across the denominational/theological/historical spectrum. The section on Lectio was particularly helpful, indeed I started to read this because of the parallel "Lectio Course" which we studied as a church group throughout Lent.Exploring the story of Christ's playful, poignant conversation on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection, Pete draws deeply from the insights of a wide range of Christian traditions; weaving together the evangelical emphasis on hearing God in the Bible, and the charismatic commitment to hearing God in the prophetic, with the contemplative understanding of God's "still, small voice" within. Pete Greig has given us another masterpiece. Wise and winsome, profound yet playful, How to Hear God is the book we need. From the wild charismatics to the monkish contemplatives, there is a feast here for all. A hundred years from now, this book will remain a crucial resource on the journey of faith.' associate senior pastor of New Life Church and aut Daniel Grothe It only takes a minute to create your own Bible Gateway free personal account and you’ll immediately upgrade your Bible Gateway experience. Do it right now!

Pete Greig: Normal people. Busy, normal, confused people who sometimes wonder if God even exists. Yes.

Each one of us has been born with an extraordinary superpower: an innate ability to hear the voice of God. Discerning God’s voice is one of the most astounding yet confusing things a human being can ever learn to do. Astounding because, well, what could be more amazing? With four words – “Let there be light” – (just two in Hebrew) God created more than 100 billion galaxies (Genesis 1:3). “The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born” (Psalm 33:6, NLT). What on earth might happen if he were to speak a few words to me? The primary mark of true discipleship (especially perhaps in a bewilderingtime such as this) is a posture of attentiveness towards his word. The word translated as “listen” in the passage from John about sheep and shepherds comes from the Greek akouó, from which we get words like ‘acoustic’ today. We may feel as dumb and defenceless as mere sheep, but our Good Shepherd has promised to lead us through this dangerous terrain if we will listen carefully for the acoustics; the nuance and tone of his voice.