Hearing God’s Voice in Harsh Times

An African-American man wearing a bright red hooded sweatshirt and black jeans leaning against a steel paneled wall looking upward toward his backside with his open right hand held up near his right ear

How fundamentally important it is for us to know God’s voice. But He only speaks to the ones who are willing to “come and stand by Him.” If we truly want to hear Him speak to us, we need to wait on Him to open our hearts through-and-through as we spend quality time with Him every day. We’ll then become aware that He loves to talk to us. We won’t feel hurried while we’re in His company. And He won’t hold anything back from us. He’ll never permit us to remain confused or fall for deception. How will we ever survive unless we can hear and know God’s voice during our trials? 

Do we want God to meet with us and listen to us? Then we must get hidden from view, where He is. We need to talk to Him about every aspect of our life and thank Him in advance for hearing our prayers.

We Need to Separate Ourselves and be Open to God’s Voice

We should always remain open to hearing God’s voice, and to obey to what He says when we do. Those who can truly pray are the ones who can hear God speak. They always get His attention. Do we want God to meet with us and listen to us? Then we must get hidden from view, where He is. We need to talk to Him about every aspect of our life and thank Him in advance for hearing our prayers. He spoke a message directly to the heart of Moses, and as a result, he was never the same again. God will speak directly to us too through His Word, and will tell us how to get through every crisis.

An etching by Jan Luvken of clouds and lightning of God's voice over Mount Sinai with large crowds of Israelites looking on at the base
Image by Jan van Luken from Look and Learn (CC0 1.0)

The Lord is a living God Who personally spoke to His people, Israel. He gave them plans for the way to survive in much detail. He made His voice known clearly to them. How excited they should have been to hear God’s voice addressing them—but they backed away from it. They knew that if they listened, He’d talk about their idol worship—the sin they hid and preferred!  

When they seek a quiet place with Him and He starts to talk to them, they are afraid that He’ll point out their favorite sin.

Being Afraid of God’s Voice

Even in our day, we should be excited to be able to hear our Savior speak. But how many of God’s people don’t choose to hear or even know His voice today? When they seek a quiet place with Him and He starts to talk to them, they are afraid that He’ll point out their favorite sin. But, when hard times come, how is He going to talk to them if they’ve tuned out His voice? How can God work with any of us unless we’re in agreement? And how will He then lead and guide us?

A Caucasian man seated on a stone tiled ground against a brick wall in an old building with legs arched, hands holding a Bible and eyes closed in prayer
Image by Ben White on Unsplash

If we’ll continue to watch for Him to come near, and take time to talk to Him, the Lord will scatter our enemies while pushing all demon forces away. We’ll realize how blessed we are to feel His hand holding ours all the time.  

If you’ve already made your mind up not to lay your false gods down, then go in your own direction. From now on, God will only speak to you through someone else.

Do you want to know and hear God’s voice in the coming days? Then you need to prepare yourself to hear Him talk to you about being purified and cleansed before you receive His direction. He told the ones who didn’t want to hear His voice: “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!” (Deuteronomy 5:29). If you’ve already made your mind up not to lay your false gods down, then go in your own direction. From now on, God will only speak to you through someone else.

The Bible says that “the wages of sin is death,” and, if you have a heart full of self-reproof, you will agree. You know that if you continue in your sin, it’ll destroy you! Therefore, deny all rights you may think you have to go on in sin. Remember, Jesus Himself is the Word of God! Every time someone repents, he is agreeing with what Jesus said concerning confessing and forsaking our sins.

Once we are confronted with our sin, the Word of God tells us that we must embrace Christ’s death on the Cross. Then we are crucified with Him—but we’ll also be resurrected with Him into newness of life! The victory He achieved over the dominion of sin in our life becomes our victory. Now sin won’t dominate us anymore!

A graphical image of several rows of silhouetted figures in several shades of grey, black and white with one group of five colored in light blue
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

God is going to set certain people apart to be an example to the rest of society very soon. They won’t be involved in any panic that’s coming. They’ll be totally at peace—because they trust the Lord with their entire being. And God will speak to their hearts, saying: “If you love the sound of My voice, come into your secret place of prayer to be with Me so I can lead and guide you, and give you My direction.” 

Let His voice lead and instruct you in every detail concerning what you should do. God’s voice in and to us is His Holy Spirit, and He’ll speak to us—if we’ll just open our ears.

Knowing God’s Voice Necessitates a Deep Relationship

Tell the Lord now that you’re ready for Him to take over in your life. Tell Him that you want Him to guide every move you make and to deliver you. Let His voice lead and instruct you in every detail concerning what you should do. God’s voice in and to us is His Holy Spirit, and He’ll speak to us—if we’ll just open our ears. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,” Jesus said. He knows the way out and He’ll direct us to it.

People stated that God’s voice had thundered when He spoke audibly to His Son. Yet Jesus never regarded it in that manner for His ears were trained to recognize His Father’s voice through the nature of His soul (see John 12:28-30). Our soul’s disposition makes the ears able to hear what it interpreted at once, because it decides what we’ll hear.

It’s time to make up our minds to hear God’s voice for ourself. Even before we make our prayers and requests, God hears them. And if we’ll just listen, He and His Word will speak directly to us and tell us how to get through every crisis! 

[Image credits: Featured image (when applicable) Ben Lambert on Unsplash; Opening image by Larry George II on Unsplash]