Title: Hearing God's Voice Subtitle: A Biblical and Practical Guide Author: Brad — Darash Bible Scholar 1. It Is Written: Every Believer Can Hear The most common question in the Christian life is also the most answered in Scripture: "Can I hear God's voice?" Jesus settled it Himself in John 10:27 — "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." Notice the scope: not "some of my sheep" or "the especially anointed sheep" but my sheep. Every single one. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." -- John 10:27 The Greek word for "hear" here is G191 — akouō. It means more than sound hitting the eardrum. It carries the sense of attending to, considering, comprehending, obeying. When Jesus says His sheep hear His voice, He means they recognize it, they trust it, they respond to it. This is not a special gift for a select few. It is a defining characteristic of being His. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God." -- Romans 8:14 Paul makes the same point in Romans 8:14. Being led by the Spirit is not an optional upgrade — it is the mark of sonship. If you are a child of God, you have the capacity to hear your Father. The Holy Spirit in you is not a silent tenant. He is a speaker. The question is not whether God speaks; the question is whether we are listening. 2. The Carnal Mind vs. The Spiritual Mind The most direct reason most believers do not hear God's voice is not that God is silent, but that another voice is louder. Paul names the enemy: the carnal mind. "Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to God's law, neither indeed can it be." -- Romans 8:7 The word "carnal" translates G4561 — sarx, the flesh nature. It is the part of us that operates independently of God. It analyzes, calculates, worries, strives, and never stops talking. It is the voice in your head that runs through yesterday's regrets and tomorrow's anxieties while the present moment passes unheard. Nathan May, in his testimony on learning to hear God's voice, describes it this way: "We actually have two minds — a carnal mind and a spiritual mind — two completely diametrically opposed forces competing against each other. The carnal voice is loud, abrasive, always analyzing, always computing, always on." This is why most Christians struggle: they are trying to hear a whisper while standing next to a jet engine. The carnal mind is the jet engine. It has been fed by years of media, worry, busyness, and digital noise. The average person checks their phone over 100 times a day. That is 100 interruptions of silence. "For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace." -- Romans 8:6 The solution is not to try harder. It is to silence the wrong voice so the right one can be heard. Paul says the spiritually minded mind is life and peace. When you cannot hear God, the first diagnostic question is not "Is God speaking?" It is "Which mind am I feeding?" 3. The Still, Small Voice When Elijah stood on the mountain, he experienced wind, earthquake, and fire — but God was not in any of them. Then came a still, small voice. "He said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before Yahweh." Behold, Yahweh passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before Yahweh; but Yahweh was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake; but Yahweh was not in the earthquake. After the fire there was a still small voice." -- First Kings 19:11-12 The Hebrew phrase is qol demamah daqah — literally "a sound of thin silence." God's voice is not a shout. It is not forced. It does not compete with noise; it transcends it. This is a pattern throughout Scripture. God speaks to the quieted soul. Elijah was a prophet, a man of power who called down fire from heaven. Yet when he needed to hear from God most, he did not find Him in the spectacular. He found Him in the silence. Many believers expect an audible voice because they assume that is how God speaks to "important" people. But the testimony of Scripture and thousands of believers across history is that God speaks most often through a gentle impression, an inner knowing, a peace that settles, or a word of Scripture that suddenly comes alive. Maynard Edwards of the Scottish Rite once said something inadvertently true: "Freemasonry does not provide salvation of the soul or grant entrance into heaven." But the Holy Spirit does exactly that — not through ritual, but through relationship. He leads by peace, not confusion. He convicts gently, not abrasively. His voice is the still, small one. "However, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth." -- John 16:13 How does the Spirit guide? Not by force. By leading. The same way a shepherd leads sheep — by a voice they have learned to trust. 4. The Practical Habit: Silence and Listening Hearing God is not a theory. It is a discipline. Nathan May shares a practice that transformed his ability to hear: Every day I read Scripture slowly and deliberately. Then I sit in silence for 10 to 15 minutes. I pray: "Mind, submit to my spirit. Holy Spirit, take me to the Father." Then I wait. He describes the result: "You will notice a peace like no other. That carnal mind suddenly just dies down. All of those intrusive thoughts stop because you are in the presence of the Holy Spirit." This is not mysticism. It is New Covenant reality. The psalmist wrote: "Be still, and know that I am God." -- Psalms 46:10 The Hebrew word for "be still" is raphah — to slacken, to let drop, to become weak. It is the opposite of striving. You cannot force revelation. You create space for it and it comes. Dr. Charles Stanley taught for decades that "the primary way God speaks is through His Word." This is the anchor. Any impression that contradicts Scripture is immediately disqualified. But within the boundaries of Scripture, the Holy Spirit personalizes truth to your life. "The spirit of man is Yahweh's lamp, searching all his innermost parts." -- Proverbs 20:27 God speaks to your spirit, not primarily to your intellect. Your spirit is the lamp. Write down what you sense. Keep a journal. Over time, patterns emerge. You begin to recognize the Shepherd's voice the same way you recognize the voice of a loved one — by spending time with them. As one testimony puts it: "If one of your family members were standing in the other room and talking to you, you would instantly recognize their voice because you spent time with them. In the same way, we need to spend time with God to recognize His voice." 5. Testing What You Hear Not every impression is from God. The Bereans were called noble not because they accepted everything Paul said, but because they tested it against Scripture. "Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so." -- Acts 17:11 The same standard applies to every inner impression, every "download," every sense of leading. Test it. The Holy Spirit never contradicts His own Word. "Beloved, don't believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God." -- First John 4:1 Nathan May confirms: "The Holy Spirit will never contradict His word. Everything will line up with the word of God. I write everything down and I always test it with Scripture." Three tests for anything you sense from God: 1. Does it agree with Scripture? If it contradicts the written Word, reject it immediately. The Spirit is the author of Scripture; He does not argue with Himself. 2. Does it produce peace? God leads by peace (Colossians 3:15). Confusion, fear, and compulsion are not His signatures. 3. Does it bear fruit over time? Many impressions take months or years to unfold. Write them down and watch. Not every impression is a command; some are preparations. Jamie Winship, a former police officer who learned to hear God's voice in high-stakes situations, says: "Obedience is better than sacrifice. When you hear from God and obey, you step into a reality where He goes before you." Testing what you hear is not a lack of faith. It is biblical stewardship of revelation. 6. The Fruit of Hearing When believers begin to hear and obey God's voice, the results are not abstract. They are tangible. Nathan May testifies: "In February, God spoke to me during prayer. He said, 'I want you to commit to doing a video every day for three months and see what I can do.' I started doing that, and one week later one of the videos went viral. Within three months, Facebook grew to 50,000 followers. God is able to do more than we can ask or think." This is not a formula for prosperity. It is evidence that God leads those who listen. Lydia, whose testimony is recorded by ARISE Church, describes how God pursued her heart in her own home — not through a church building, but through a personal encounter. She learned that God speaks where you are, not where you think you should be. "Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great and difficult things, which you don't know." -- Jeremiah 33:3 The promise is not that the answer will come in your timing or in the form you expect. The promise is that He will answer. Walking by the Spirit means learning to recognize His voice in the ordinary rhythms of life. "Whenever he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. They will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him; for they don't know the voice of strangers." -- John 10:4-5 The goal is not a daily audible voice. The goal is a life led by the Spirit — where you know the Shepherd's voice well enough to distinguish it from every counterfeit. This is the birthright of every child of God. Not the privilege of the few, but the promise to all who are His. 7. Source Transcripts Read online: https://junifye.publifye.pro/hearing-gods-voice Made with Junifye.