What does it mean to hear from the Lord? Is this just a crazy phrase used by charismatics who are delusional and out of their minds? Or is this just confined to a select number of people in the stories that we love to read about in the Bible? Can a person hear from God Himself? Is it even possible? If it is possible, is it Biblically sanctioned – I mean, do we have permission to do it, or is that going too far? 

How do we know if God is speaking to us? What if we’re not sure? Do we have to get it 100% right all the time? What if we get it wrong? What if we think we’re hearing from the Lord, but it’s not the Lord? On the flip side, what if we think we’re NOT hearing from the Lord, but it actually is the Lord? 

If we tell people that God speaks to us, will they think we’re crazy? How do we communicate a message to people that we believe is from God? What if we communicate to someone in love what we believe is from God, and they reject us? What if our view of what God says is tainted by our own brokenness? 

We are going to answer many of these questions today.

Your Background

Some of you may have come from religious backgrounds that try to keep you away from hearing God for yourself. In their minds, they’re doing God a favor. Just look at all the damage done by people claiming they hear from God, but they’re obviously crazy? So religion sets up gates to hearing from God, and very forcefully slams those gates shut, saying to you, “You shall not enter. Only those authorized may enter (and that’s not you!).”

On the contrary, I believe the Lord wants to speak to you. In fact, I believe He has already been speaking to you. God is faithful even when we are ignorant, even when we are not aware of His beautiful voice speaking to us.

What does it mean to hear from the Lord? I believe it is literally hearing from the God of the universe, hearing what He has to say to you specifically for your life and your circumstances.

His Sheep Hear His Voice

“Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…” (Psalm 95:6-8a ESV)

In Psalm 95, we are introduced to the concept of us as God’s people being equated with sheep and hearing God’s voice. 

Notice the pattern: worship & surrender, then acknowledgement of who God is, a revelation of who we are to Him, and then a hearing of His voice. This pattern exists for us today – it’s no different. We freely choose to worship and kneel before the Lord God, our Maker. We realize we are His people, the sheep of His hand. And then we recognize His voice speaking to us.

Also notice how God’s voice is connected to our hearts. We spoke extensively earlier this year about the heart. God can and does speak directly to our hearts. His voice cuts down deep, and that’s a very good thing for us. It also shows us an important truth about hearing God’s voice: when we don’t hear His voice or we choose to not hear His voice, our hearts grow hard. We don’t want hard hearts. We want soft, fleshy hearts that are sensitive to what God is saying.

The Sheep Hear His Voice

Jesus picks up on this conversation in John chapter 10.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 

So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. 

So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” (John 10:1-18 ESV)

There are so many amazing truths that Jesus speaks in this passage, but I want to focus on what He says about hearing His voice.

He mentions that His sheep hear, know and will listen to His voice. He says this in three ways. 

Sheep Hear

In verse 3, he says, “The sheep hear his voice.” This hearing has a robust meaning. It indicates that the hearer is not deaf, but “they have been endowed with the faculty of hearing.” Those who hear attend to and consider what is being said. The word can also mean, “to give audience to,” like a king may hear your case. It also means “to give ear to a teaching or a teacher.”

Sheep Know

In verse 4, he says, “The sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” This sort of knowing implies seeing and understanding, experiencing and becoming confident in it. We can know the voice of Jesus in this way.

Sheep Listen

In verse 16, Jesus says, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” This I believe He was speaking of the Gentiles, that’s us, and it’s a declaration that we will be hearing His voice in the future. It also indicates that He will continue to speak into the future, not just only speak to the Apostles and stop speaking in the future.

When Sheep Do Not Listen

On the other hand, Jesus gives two examples where His sheep “do not know the voice of strangers” (v.5) and “do not listen to them” (v.8). 

We as the sheep of Jesus do not know and choose not to listen to counterfeit voices. 

We learn to recognize the voice of Jesus over time, like an apprentice learns a skill over a lifetime, and we become more and more confident of Him speaking to us. His voice becomes familiar to us, because it brings with it His peace and His power, His clarity and His direction.

Let me just say, you are not excluded from hearing God’s voice. You aren’t somehow forgotten by God. He doesn’t just speak to everyone else and leave you out. Those are all lies from the pit of hell.

The truth is, you are included in hearing from God Himself. God remembers you and thinks about you constantly. He speaks specifically to you and your life and your circumstances. That is the truth of the matter!

Eagerly Desire to Prophesy

We’re going to touch a bit on the prophetic.

In 1 Corinthians 14:1, it says:

“Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.” (1 Corinthians 14:1 ESV)

And I love this translation:

“Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does. Give yourselves to the gifts God gives you. Most of all, try to proclaim his truth.” (1 Corinthians 14:1 MSG)

Prophesying simply is hearing from God and declaring that to others, even if the person you declare God’s word to is yourself!

The Lord wants you to eagerly desire to hear from Him. And it’s really a pursuit of love, which is really a pursuit of God Himself. As you go after a life of love as if your life depended on it, you will find God, and you will hear His voice.

Case Study: Abraham

“Now the LORD [had] said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 

So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 

Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD.” (Genesis 12:1-8 ESV)

Stephen’s Speech

I want to also read to you Stephen’s commentary in the book of Acts about this particular event too. We read in Acts 7 when Stephen spoke in front of the council, before he was stoned:

“And Stephen said: ‘Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.’” (Acts 7:2-4 ESV)

How did Abraham hear God’s voice? It says in several places that God appeared to him. Isn’t that amazing? God appeared to Abraham and spoke those famous words to him.

Did Abraham hear from God in any other ways?

• Genesis 13:14 – “The Lord said to Abram…”
• Genesis 15:1 ESV – “After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”” 
• Abraham has a back and forth conversation with God in the vision of Gen. 15.
• Genesis 15:12-21 – The Lord appeared as a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch and spoke to him.
• Genesis 17:1 – “The Lord appeared to Abram…”
• Genesis 18:1 – “The Lord appeared to him…” (God and two angels appeared physically and ate with him before the destruction of Sodom & Gomorroah)
• Genesis 21:12 – “God said to Abraham…”
• Genesis 22:1 ESV – “After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.””
• Genesis 22:11 ESV – “But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.””
• Genesis 22:15 ESV – And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven”
• Genesis 24:7 ESV – “The LORD, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and swore to me, ‘To your offspring I will give this land,’ he will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there.”

To summarize: 

• 4 times it says “God said to Abraham” without giving details of the mechanism.
• 5 times it says that God appeared to Abraham
• 1 time it says God spoke to Abraham in a vision, and they have a back and forth conversation
• 2 times it says God spoke to Abraham from heaven by the angel of the Lord
• And Abraham, at the end of his life, says, “The Lord, the God of heaven, spoke to me and swore to me.”

It also says that Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6). So when Abraham heard God’s voice, listened and obeyed, the Lord counted that act of faith as righteousness. This is incredible. 

This Is Repeated In The New Testament 

And to show just how much hearing from God and responding to him is an example to us, that phrase is repeated 4 times in Romans, once in Galatians, once in the book of Hebrews, and once in the book of James.

“And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”–and he was called a friend of God.” (James 2:23 ESV)

Hearing God’s voice, listening and responding in obedience and faith, is one of the ways we become God’s friend. God really loves it when you hear from him, and like the prophet Samuel, “let none of His words fall to the ground.” (1 Samuel 3:19)

This is meant as a lifestyle of faith, of back and forth conversations with God Himself, with communion with Him, with the Holy Spirit, with Jesus. 

There are more case studies in the Bible, and we will discuss them another time. For now if you would like to read one of my testimonies regarding hearing from the Lord, please read the post I wrote a few years ago on this very subject. 

You can hear from God. He wants to speak to you. You simply need to open your heart up and listen!