How to hear God's voice

My goal is for this title to catch the attention of people who don't want anything to do with God, people who want to hear from Him but don't know how, and even people who have figured it out for themselves. Maybe add a comment below on how you hear from God (since it is different for everyone) if you do!

I'll start of sharing from my own experience and gradually move toward what the Bible says. Growing up in the church, I always heard stories that started with "God told me..." and I really thought nothing of it. In my mind they were hyperbolizing and since I had heard it through my whole life, the phrase became desensitized in my mind. I had faithfully, with my family, gone to three different churches by my seventeenth year of life and it hadn't sunk in for myself at that point. It wasn't until I moved to my fourth and final church that it became real to me. Wait. People really are hearing straight from God all the time. He really is very present and involved in everyone's lives. How in the world do I get myself some of His insight on the daily?!!? That was the new struggle for me.

"What am I doing wrong? Does He just not want to tell me things? What does His voice even sound like? How do I know if it's Him or not?" Probably questions most people have faced about God if they've considered communicating with Him at one point or another. Well, here's how I figured the answers out. First of all, it turns out, I had been hearing from God for most of my life without even realizing it, and I believe that to be the case for most people. Many call it "intuition," or their "conscience," or "fate," but it can also be the Lord directing you subtly in your thoughts. Have you ever felt prompted to do something nice for someone? Or maybe felt the need to make one choice over another, having no strong opinions going into it? Maybe you've even sensed something about to happen, and then it does.

But second of all, God speaks in conversation too.

Back before Jesus, God spoke through prophets. Faithful people He KNEW would spread to others what He was speaking got to hear straight from God. Then Jesus came to Earth and people got a face to face relationship with Him. When Jesus left, each person who accepted Christ from that point forward got The Holy Spirit.**(scroll to see reference)

Knowing that I've always felt little nudges towards certain things and it was probably God most of those times came as a huge comfort to me. But then I thought, Well... How do I communicate with him in conversation? So here's where that journey went. I learned what it felt like when God was speaking to me in my mind. (Sounds schizophrenic if you aren't a Believer, but it's a real thing.) I will have a strong thought that seems like it would be in all caps if it were typed out (it's not an actual voice, just a thought, don't worry!! lol), and my heart will flutter (think a middle school crush butterflies feeling). He also gives me mental pictures that symbolize a situation in someone else's life or my own life. Sometimes He tells people something secret going on in another person's life which is totally an invasion of privacy but it always works out for the good of someone in the end. He will confirm things through other people, whether they say "God's telling me to tell you ______," or whether something gets brought up again and again. I've only ever had one vision--I saw myself praying over Ben's injured knee and it was healed, so I told him to go get prayer for it AND IT HEALED. (God likes speaking in visions a lot; just read the Bible about it!) I get lots of spiritual dreams as well. (Quick blurb: Since childhood I had super demonic dreams of me or someone else being possessed and the dreams were loud and would echo even when I woke up or made me sweat or cry in real life and even made me not want to sleep at night, but as soon as I got baptized in the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11, Acts 1:4-5) all of those dreams turned into me casting the demons out and the dream turning into victory!!!!) It has also been amazing to witness a loud prayer in Tongues happening somewhere in the room where people are meeting to pray and be with God, and then an English interpretation of it echoing it from another part of the room. I love being able to see the various ways God chooses to communicate with His creation.

FUNNY STORY: My friend group had to make a rule that we cannot ask the Holy Spirit to help us know who the mafia is during the game of Mafia. Is it cheating if He tells us?? Is He trusting us that we won't tell people if He tells us?? Literally. I may or may not still use that hack and just not say "OK well Jesus told me it's David..." I keep it subtle. I figured it out "all on my own." Wink wink. (PROOF that God cares about the littlest things, SO PRAY AND ASK AWAY!)

Most importantly, God speaks through His Word, the Bible. Since God is everlasting (the same yesterday, today, and forever: Hebrews 13:8), so is His Word. I couldn't even tell you how many times I've read through the Bible. But I can tell you that every single time I re-read a book, something new jumps out and applies to my life currently. It is so important to read in context, however, it is so cool how specifically in the New Testament, the commands and the stories can be applied to our lives even now in a different culture.

"The more I seek You, the more I find You; The more I find You, the more I love You." -Kari Jobe

The more you listen for God, the more you will hear Him. "Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it." Hebrews 2 speaks of the importance of consistency.

"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come." -John 16:13

It is often a misconception that God created us and then just walked away as if it were all for nothing. But if you read the Bible you can see that all of creation leading up to this very moment was God designing a way for us to be with Him always even in our sinful condition. He is PERFECT and HOLY and we are very much not. But we can strive to be like Jesus and He lets us partner with Him through His Holy Spirit in order to do that. Effective communication is important in any relationship. Knowing He listens to you is comforting, but how come we never listen back? It's like having that one friend that never knows when to stop talking or let you speak. We don't want to be like that to God. Trial and error. Effort with frustration. These things might happen. But the more you practice, the more you'll learn how He speaks to you. It's usually very different or specific for each individual. Don't overthink it; just go for it.

**John 14:15-26

“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."