One of the struggles that I encounter as a Christian is the urge to hear clearly from God. I would agree that even the most prayerful Christian will still find it difficult to hear what God wants to get across consistently.
But why is this so? It seems we’re doing the right thing but somehow we cannot hear him well.
1 Samuel 3:1-8 tells the story of the boy Samuel, who was ministered to the Lord before Eli. Now Eli is a man of faith and is a high priest.
In verse 1, it talked about the environmental condition on why Samuel did not recognize God’s voice — “Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon.”
The same is true for us when we are so clouded with our emotions and are preoccupied with a lot of things in life. It is not because God cannot get to us but it is because the posture of our hearts are not ready to receive what he has to say.
The story also highlights the importance of having a spiritual mentor. In Samuel’s case, it was Eli who recognized the voice of God calling him.
In Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Ever wonder why fasting always work when we want to receive God’s guidance?
We empty ourselves as we align to God to be able to hear from him. It is a counterintuitive approach but it is how our Christian life is built.
As we consecrate ourselves, we are also invited to surrender fully to His timing. Sometimes, what we want to hear may not come in the package we want, or it may not come with the schedule we expect.
If this happens, we can’t force our way to it and trust that the Holy Spirit will help us discern what we need at the right time.
Hearing God clearly is a spiritual muscle that often takes a while to develop. And here are the points we need to consider for us to do so (based on my experience)…
- Read and medidate the Word everyday
- Slow and wind yourself down
- Obey what’s clear and do the last thing you heard from God
- Seek Him passionately
We don’t need to obssess on things we need to do to get closer to him but we can always take the first step — it means we can take that small, aligned step and He will do the leading.
Trust God to get to you at the right time and with the right way. He will meet you where you are at.
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