Hear God Clearly: How to Know God’s Voice with Confidence

How do we hear the voice of God? What does God’s voice sound like?

How can we know that we are following His lead rather than the voice of mammon?

There are certainly challenges to hearing God’s voice, but they nearly always come down to our focus. Are we focusing on the world, or are we focusing on the truth found in the Word? When our eyes are on Jesus, we can learn to tune in to the Father’s voice and hear Him more clearly.

You Can Hear God

I can’t tell you the number of times my wife Carlie and I have heard people say to us, “I can’t hear God speaking to me. I’ve tried to read the Bible, I’ve tried to sit still and listen, but no matter what I do, I just can’t hear God speaking to me!”

But what does the Bible say about this?

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me (John 10:27).

Jesus is very clear in this passage. If you belong to Jesus, you can hear His voice! The biggest obstacle in hearing God’s voice is right between your ears. You may have these, or similar, thoughts: I can’t hear God. He’s a spiritual being and doesn’t use an audible voice. There’s no way I can actually hear Him speaking to me. People who say they hear God talk to them are crazy: they are hearing voices!

These are all lies from the pit of hell, intended to keep you separated from communicating with the God who created you! God wants to speak to you. In fact, He is always speaking to you.

Wi-Fi and cellular signals are constantly streaming in the air around you, but you can’t take advantage of them unless you have a device that is connected. By believing and confessing the lie that you can’t hear God’s voice, you are allowing your own mind to block the signal!

The first step in beginning to tune in to God’s frequency and hear His voice is to believe you can and confess, “I am a child of God. I am one of His sheep, and I do hear His voice. I follow Him!” As you begin to take that step, you will start hearing Him more often and more clearly. It may even surprise you how easy it is.

It is fundamental to recognize, believe, and confess that as a child of God, He does speak to you and you can and do hear His voice. God wants you to hear Him even more than you do. Your ability to hear Him and follow His voice is vital to living the victorious Christian life in every area, not just escaping the traps of mammon.

But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17).

When you gave your heart to Jesus and became born again, your spirit became one with God’s Spirit. You became brand-new. Even though your flesh and your mind remained the same, your spirit was reborn with a direct line of communication with God!

When God speaks to us, this is where that communication takes place: spirit to Spirit. He doesn’t pop up physically to sit on the couch for a chat! Now, this certainly could happen, but it’s not the most common way that God communicates with us.

There are many ways the Lord can speak to us, but regardless of the method, it is always spirit to Spirit. This is why the Bible tells us that spiritual things are foolishness to the natural mind (1 Corinthians 2:14). However, as a born-again believer, you are able to fully comprehend spiritual things—not through your natural mind or logic, but by the Spirit.

The Spirit of God speaks to our spirits in a way we can easily understand. That is why many times we miss it! It is such an obvious, simple thing we can easily discount as being our “imagination,” when really it is the Lord trying to get through to us.

When the Lord speaks to you, because it is through your spirit, the “voice” can sound like your own. He doesn’t speak in King James! He won’t usually say, “Thus saith the Lord of hosts!”

No, when God speaks, it is that still, small voice. It may be a random thought that pops in out of nowhere. It could be a revelation you have while reading your Bible. It could be an answer to a question that comes to mind as you pray in the spirit.

Regardless of the method, don’t discount it if it comes easily. Relationship with God is not complicated!

Let’s read something else Jesus said about us hearing God’s voice:

No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you (John 15:15).

Jesus said that He calls us His friends! The relationship between friends isn’t one of servant and master. God isn’t sitting on His throne, bossing us around, tossing orders out with the threat, “Do this, or else!”

The relationship we have with Jesus is one of a deep, abiding friendship. This verse even says that because of this friendship, Jesus makes known to us everything the Father God makes known to Him. He wants you to hear every direction, every bit of wisdom, and every word of love He is speaking to you.

It takes a conscious and deliberate decision to begin to grow in your sensitivity to God’s voice. Most importantly, however, it takes faith! If you are going to hear Him speak to you, you must believe that He wants to and that when He does, you will hear Him.

God Speaks Through His Word

The most important way God speaks to us is through His Word. Any other way God speaks is good, of course, but there is no more sure way of hearing God’s voice than by reading the Bible. The wisdom found within is timeless, perfect, and applicable to our lives today. God will use the Scriptures to lead and guide you, to teach you how to live victoriously and make wise decisions throughout your life.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path (Psalm 119:105).

The Word of God is much more than just a book! John 1:14 tells us that Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. God spoke this universe into existence, and Jesus was also spoken into existence through every word of prophecy throughout the Old Testament. Jesus is the Word, and the Word is alive and full of power (Hebrews 4:12)!

Proverbs 6:22 says, “When you roam, they [the Scriptures] will lead you; when you sleep, they will keep you; and when you awake, they will speak with you.” The Word of God will speak with you! It is actually one of the clearest ways God will communicate with you.

However, you have to actually read the Word for it to speak to you! If you have fifteen different Bible versions, but they all stay on a shelf, unopened, the life within them will not benefit you. You must open it up and feed on the Word of God regularly—ideally daily!

Don’t read the Bible as if it is just a novel. Invite the Holy Spirit to reveal the Word to you as you read it. He will help you understand the truth within and how to apply it to your life.