How to Hear God: A Simple Guide for Normal People

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Many people struggle to hear God because they have been taught to listen for his voice in ways that are difficult for them to process. Certain personality types may also find it more challenging. Introverts understandably advocate their own preference for stillness and solitude, but it is equally possible and no less spiritual to discern the voice of God through external interaction, or through visual formats. The Revd Mike Starkey is Head of Church Growth for Manchester diocese and author of the Stepping Stones for Growth course. Christin Thieme: So you’ve divided the book into two parts, God’s Word and God’s Whisper. Why did you separate it in that way? Pete Greig: Well, that’s a great question, because it is. That’s right. It’s the most astonishing superpower any of us have, the ability to hear God. Just stop and think about the fact that, if you believe that he made the universe with a few words, what might happen if you hear him say something to you? So this is the key to guidance. This is the key to growing spiritually. Jesus says, “Man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Father.”

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. Greig makes it quite clear that the Bible is the language of God’s heart, and therefore if we wish to hear what he is saying, we have to be immersed in the Scriptures. And then part two, you get into God’s Whisper. What does it mean that the Creator of the universe whispers? I mean, that’s not, I think, what most of us would expect to hear from God, a whisper. John Mark Comer points out in the forward of this book, that Pete and the book have been able to bridge, or gone beyond the boundaries of the “Christian tribalism of our day – charismatic/noncharismatic/Reformed/Weslyan/Angelican/Anabaptist/conservative/progressive/etc, etc.” I’d agree with that comment from Comer, and I agree with Comer that Pete – through this book - is deeply rooting us in “something far more ancient.” This book certainly covers the need for deepened spiritual formation, how to hear God, and it empowers the reader with practices and disciplines that will create a “real, conversational relationship with God.” And so that’s where we started, Christin, my sheep, stupid sheep, like you and me. “My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me.” Say yes to Jesus. Listen to Jesus and say yes to Jesus, and everything else will come into alignment. Because he says, “Seek first my kingdom and my righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:33) .” So yeah, just listen and obey. There’s no other way.So he’s still pointing to the authority of Scripture, even though the greatest miracle ever has just taken place in his resurrection. Pete Greig: Yeah. One of the tools that I give in the book is an ancient practice, an ancient approach to the Bible that has really, really helped me, which is called the Lectio Divina. Some of you listening to this will be familiar with that. Literally just Lectio means read, and Divina means sacred or holy. So it’s the holy reading, the sacred reading. And the Lectio Divina is a 3,000-year-old approach to not just reading the text of the Bible for information and education, but learning to pray the Word of Scripture for revelation and conversation with God. It’s very simple, but very powerful. One of the many problems with this view is that it disregards the fact that people can, and do, misunderstand and misapply the Bible just as much as any other means of divine communication. It also ignores the fact that the Bible itself teaches us to expect God to speak in ways outside of the Bible! Dispensationalism only really makes sense in the absence of miracles, which leads me to the third problem I had with hearing from God… 3. EXPERIENTIAL We launched an app about two years ago in 24-7 Prayer called Lectio 365. It’s L E C T I O, Lectio 365. It’s completely free. You can get it wherever you get your apps. And it leads you every day. It’s me and a few of my friends. We lead people every day in just praying a bit of the Bible together. And we actually deliberately read a few verses twice because it’s like we are trying to go deep. We’re trying to marinate in them. And that’s taken off. We have 165,000 daily users now of that devotional. It’s growing every single month because I think people are just hungry to not just study the Bible, but to really grow in their relationship with God through it.

Pete Greig explains in a simple but deep sense what it really is to hear the living God speak today. I'm amazed by how humble and down-to-earth he is. There's really no sense of him telling us how it's done, but an invite to explore it with him. Most people insist of hearing God’s voice on their own terms. Perhaps we need a newfound willingness to take counsel from a brother or sister, as a mark of humility and surrender. Sometimes he waits for us to humble ourselves.Pete Greig: Yeah, it is one of the expressions Jesus uses more than any other. And so it was like his catchphrase. And it’s crazy when you think that in Jesus’ time he could be walking through your town, like being Jesus Christ, like speaking things that no one had ever heard, doing miracles. And some people were probably just too busy at work to bother to come out in the streets. Many people struggle to hear God because they have been taught to listen for his voice in ways that are difficult or even impossible for them to process. An academic study in the United States discovered a correlation between certain psychological attributes and the way spiritual phenomena are experienced. Certain personality types, it seems, simply find it harder to hear God’s voice than others. This is not helped by the fact that a disproportionate amount of the material on listening to God has been written by introverts (representing approximately 35 per cent of the population), who understandably advocate their own preference for quietness, stillness and solitude. The book comes in two parts: Part 1; vox eterna; Hearing God through God’s Word and Part 2: vox interna; Hearing God through God’s whisper. Part 1: God’s Word Pete Greig: We live our best lives, and not our easiest lives, but our most joyous, living lives. I’m more and more convinced that the most dangerous thing you can do in life is say no to the God who knows you best, loves you most, and only wants the best for your life. And the safest place you can be in life, even though it may sometimes feel scary, is to say to the God who knows you best, wants the best for you, and loves you the most, “Yes. Whatever you want me to say, wherever you want me to go, whatever you want me to do, I will say it. I will do it. I will go there.” Pete Greig: Yeah. And yet it’s one of the things I love most about God, and I think I probably had to unlearn and relearn most. Because you’re right, our assumption is if God speaks to me, it’s going to be a booming voice. It’s going to be unmistakable, angels, dramatic. And yet, mostly he speaks to us quietly and silently. I tell in the book, lots of examples of times that people just miss Jesus completely. They just miss him. There’s the couple on the road to Emmaus.

Pete Greig: Yeah, it’s a masterclass because most, not all, but most of the ways that God tends to speak are modeled in this story. Like Jesus turns up in disguise. That’s probably familiar for many of us. One writer says God comes to us disguised as our own lives. You know, he speaks through the Bible. Actually he’s risen from the dead and he doesn’t just go, “Duh, it’s me.” It says beginning with Moses and the prophets, he explained how the whole of the story of the Scriptures pointed to himself.Pete Greig: No, no. I was already married to my wife. So it’s just confusing, isn’t it? And God doesn’t generally speak in an audible voice and so on. So it’s difficult, but it’s vitally important. So that’s really why I wrote the book. Pete Greig: I use Bible Gateway every single day of my life. Often repeatedly. I cannot tell you how grateful I am for this extraordinary resource. I recently undertook a 330-mile solitary pilgrimage from the Scottish island of Iona to the Northumbrian island of Lindisfarne. Both these islands were centers of Christian faith and evangelization in the 7th and 8th centuries AD. Lindisfarne is particularly famous for the Lindisfarne Gospels. These are breathtakingly beautiful hand-written transcriptions of the Gospels illustrated in bright colors with wonderful designs. They’re one of the most treasured ancient manuscripts in all antiquity. It’s worth remembering how precious and rare the Bible was for many centuries so that we can be truly grateful for Bible Gateway that makes it so easily accessible in so many different versions and languages. What a wonderful gift God has given us in his Word, and in this technology that enables us to read it (and pray it) so easily. Pete Greig: Oh, thanks so much. And I must just say, if they want to get the app, Christin, anyone can get it. Lectio365, that will really help you to put the book into practice.

So I find that reassuring because I don’t find listening to God particularly easy. And I just love the fact that they clearly struggled a bit too. Pete Greig: And this fall, I’m going to be filming a video series, a free video series, discussion starters based around the book, so that’ll be available. If you like the book, that’ll be an opportunity to roll that out with all your friends. Christin Thieme: I love it. Listen and follow Jesus. That’s the summary of the book. And definitely, we need to read the rest of it to hear more about how to hear God. Pete, thank you so much for sharing with us, and for giving us the gift of this book. So there’s the Bible. And then they say, “Our hearts burned within us as he spoke to us on the road.” So there’s those times where you just sense God speaking. Maybe it’s a still small voice. And so there’s a whole bunch of ways God clearly speaks in this story.

Nothing could possibly matter more than learning to discern the authentic voice of God, but few things in life are more susceptible to delusion, deception and downright abuse. When life falls apart and we need God's comfort; in moments of cultural turmoil when we need God's clarity; facing formidable decisions when we need God's guidance; desiring a deeper faith when we need God to say something, anything, to turn the monologue we call prayer into a genuine conversation. The Bible is the language of God’s heart, and therefore if we wish to hear what he is saying, we have to be immersed in the Scriptures. One individual may indeed be flooded with feelings of peace when they propose to their girlfriend, whileanother may be utterly terrified. This probably says more about the way that person is wired than it does about the will of God for their lives.