Hearing From God
I was created in the image of a loving God for the purpose of living in action with God, my creator and friend. But I was not born with the ability to engage in this action without first learning and growing into that purpose for my life through a process that begins with a God-initiated conversation. God’s desire is to bring me to a place of friendship with him. And a true friendship is most solid and sincere when characterized by constant communication. Communication is the way I get to know the community of the Trinity and the means in which we share our presence with each other. And just as with any other relationship, connection requires intentionality in being present towards each other.
The Trinity speaks to me very individually, "which is only expected between persons who know one another, care about each other, and are engaged in common enterprise" (1). God desired fellowship with me before I was even created and he has been speaking to me every day since. I, however, as a child learning to interact, must take steps to meet God where he initiated. Brother Lawrence stated that "we can make a private chapel of our heart where we can retire from time to time to commune with Him… Everyone is capable of these intimate conversations with God" (2). Entering this intimacy with God requires active listening and deliberate steps to recognize his voice.
The first step to fully entering conversation with God is to listen expectantly with my heart, attempting to quiet the noise inside my distractible and results-driven mind. "The only way you can live in His presence in uninterrupted fellowship is by means of prayer... not a prayer that comes from your mind. It is a prayer that begins in the heart" (3). Dallas Willard stressed the importance of simply cultivating a quiet, inward space in our hearts that is constantly listening, over trying to approach God with my own agenda or asking for specific direction (1). In fact, Brother Lawrence found listening with the heart to be so important that in prayer he "does not advise much talking… long discourses often being the cause of wandering" (2). Listening for the familiar, sweet voice of God is the first step to a loving relationship with the Trinity. Listening is always the prelude to loving (4).
Practically, for me, this intimate listening usually begins in Scripture, by reading praise psalms or the events of a gospel. But the invitation to converse can also well up inside my own deep longings or within an interaction with another imagebearer. Whatever the means God chooses to originate the conversation, it begins with careful listening to a message forming inside my heart. "I wait and listen with determined sensitiveness… and sometimes it requires a long time" to quiet my own thoughts enough to be fully receptive to receiving God’s thoughts (5). But God’s word does come to my heart, and more so with regular practice.
God created the physical universe to function by the communication of thoughts and intentions shared through the use of words, symbols, or images (1). Even my awareness that God is present in my heart has to eventually take the shape of a certain kind of thought in my mind, represented by words or an image I can understand. This is a beautiful, quiet, and heartfelt exchange of an infinite God making his movements in my inner spirit known to my finite mind of flesh. And it is in that communicative exchange that I often receive an inward rebuke – Jeanne Guyon called it a "deep inward burning" or a "tender confusion" (3). Whatever the wording, it is an inner impulse that leads me towards the notions God wants to reveal and cast his light upon. Or conversely, I sometimes get a deep sense of joy and peace, as if my "innermost being seems to say, ‘Yes, this is true and right’" (1). These messages come from within, moving outwardly towards the events and people in my life.
Dallas Willard taught about God’s movements from inward to outward and even asserted that "the form of one’s own thoughts and attendant feelings is the most common path for hearing God… because it most engages the faculties of free, intelligent beings involved in the work of God as his colaborers and friends" (1). God tenderly moves through my heart and personality, but with such power that the revelations bubbling up have a distinctive quality of being "reality" rather than just "knowledge" (3). It is the mystery of unrestrained and divine love patiently working its way through my predictable and limited bodily processes. In Genesis, God spoke chaos into a beautiful and organized cosmos. If he can do that on a universe-size scale, I trust he can do that in my own heart as well. So I am learning to watch for these organized inner impulses that have the voice of the Good Shepherd written all over them and then to let my thoughts simply dwell and reside there.
God has been conversing with me my whole life. And I have instinctively followed his soft, gentle voice because the peaceful tenderness of the invitation was something my spirit craved, especially when my outside world could be chaotic or confusing. I am in awe of how often I have been drawn to God, even in the complete unknowing of who or what was doing the drawing forward. Apparently this can be a somewhat common occurrence, as Dallas Willard says that "whatever the reason, it seems that we must be told that God is speaking to us" and "only later do we come to distinguish his voice as his voice" (1). My experience is that deep inner peace leads to clarity and often direct guidance – and this is God communicating and leading me, sweetly and subtly, as I allow him. "The thoughts and feelings in the mind and spirit… should be treated as if God were walking through one’s personality with a candle, directing one’s attention to things one after another" (1). This describes a majority of my experiences with God, as the Good Shepherd has indeed been like a candle lighting my way. Truly this must be what Paul meant when he says "we must have the mind of Christ" (6). God’s action of moving through my heart and slowly revealing that movement to my mind, in words and images, is how I come to have the mind of Christ and learn to live fully in the kingdom of God.
And lastly, as God illuminates my inner thoughts, my response is not passive. I have a responsibility to stay engaged in the conversation – to stay inside his candlelight. Whatever steps I can take to divert myself back to God’s constant presence is good and pleasing to him. "Take delight in and become accustomed to His divine company, speaking humbly and talking lovingly with Him at all times, at every moment" (2). The habit of turning my mind inward to my heart brings such joy because my thoughts, my imagination, my mind, and my heart intensely crave the tender voice of their creator.
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| Canadian geese, while kayaking on the Kootenay River in British Columbia, Canada |
1.) Willard, Dallas. Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1999.
2.) Brother Lawrence and John J. Delaney. The Practice of the Presence of God. New York: Image
Books/Doubleday, 1977.
3.) Guyon, Jeanne. Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ. Sargent, GA: SeedSowers Publishing, 1975.
4.) Hudson, Trevor. "Listening to the Divine Whisper." Renovare Residency II, Cedar Springs Conference Center, Sumas, WA. February 20, 2018. Lecture.
5.) Laubach, Frank C. Letters by a Modern Mystic. Colorado Springs: Purposeful Design Publications, 2007
6.) The Life with God Bible. New Revised Standard Version, Harper Collins, 1989.
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