Responding to God's voice

Do you feel stuck in your growth in hearing Gods voice? You might be right where I was once I'd learned all about the ways God speaks and how I could recognize Him.

For a long time I believed that growing in this meant getting more spectacular revelations and interpreting faster and more accurately. In my mind it was better to have an open vision, than a vague picture. I judged myself according to these standards and have been highly frustrated for many years. I loved hearing His voice and helping others by prophesying. I longed for deeper revelation of His heart, but at the same time I felt stuck at the level where I was.

​

"I longed for deeper revelation of His heart, but at the same time I felt stuck at the level where I was."

​

 

For many years this was the case, until He showed me another way to discern my ability to hear His voice: by my response. I learned that when we grow in our response to the Lord. Trying to learn to prophesy 'better' without changing our response to His voice, is like trying to make a flower grow while keeping it in a tiny pot. You can water it all you like, you can practise and pray until you are exhausted and frustrated. Nothing will change when we learn to respond to His voice differently.
 

​

The mailman

Here's the painful truth I needed to learn: when God knocked on my door I treated Him like the mailman delivering a message.
 

My heart was in the right place, but it was immature. I was simply unaware that someone could respond differently to hearing His voice. I loved recognizing His voice and found self-worth in realizing I heard His voice and He spoke to me. Since I had very low self-esteem, this was an amazing experience for me every single time. I diligently journaled all my experiences, tried to categorize them and literally have several boxes in my basements with years of prophetic experiences. I studied hard to understand the messages in the multitudes of dreams, words, and images He gave me. I asked Holy Spirit to give me the answers to the puzzles He gave me.

 

"When God comes at our door He isn't coming as a mailman delivering a message. He's coming as a Friend wanting to share His heart."

​

The problem wasn't that I didn't care about hearing His voice. I cared greatly. The problem was that I was focused on two things:

1. The mechanics of hearing His voice, like the different ways of hearing His voice and writing them down.

2. Understanding the message correctly, like interpreting what He was saying correctly and passing it on as well as I could

What was missing is the essence of it all: RELATIONSHIP. You see, when God comes at our door He isn't coming as a mailman delivering a message. He's coming as a Friend wanting to share His heart. I was so focused on the mechanics and the message that I basically thanked Him for the message and closed the door. When He knocked on my door with a letter written by Himself, I was so focused on the letter that I never even realized I could have spoken directly to the Writer.

 

The message or the Messenger

It took me a long time, but slowly God showed me that the Messenger is more important than the message. Of course, we want to listen to what God says and this can't ever be underestimated. But if we're not connected to the Person, then how can we truly understand what He wants to say.

Much of the intention someone's words is conveyed in their body language, their tone of voice, their loves and interests, their dreams and history. When we connect with the Person first, we will understand their communication better. If we don't, we remain stuck wondering if we got it right.

 

Isn't this where a lot of confusion comes into our lives? When we hear God speak, but don't understand His tone of voice. When we feel He might be angry with us, but really He's just concerned about our well-being. When we feel we're getting contradicting messages from Him. I believe much of our misunderstanding of God is the result of receiving revelation or knowledge without the context of relationship.
 

​

"God doesn't just drop prophetic words and then shakes His head in disappointment if we don't understand. "

​

 

Engaging in conversation

For a long time, I felt that when God spoke in riddles or pictures – which He usually does – it was my responsibility to find out what He was saying. I felt I could ask Holy Spirit to give me another revelation to clarify what He was saying, but I felt I had no rights beyond a formal exchange of information.
 

When my father or a good friend tells me something, I don't retreat to discover the deep meaning of what they meant to say, we simply engage in conversation. “I'm sorry, I don't really know what you mean, would you explain it once more?”, “Oh sure, that makes more sense. But what about this part then?”, “I'd really love to know why this is so important to you,” God calls Himself our Friend and Father. Throughout the Bible, He engages in conversation, rather than leaving us stuck with a vague word or picture to interpret for ourselves.

Think about Moses, Gideon, Abraham, David, Elijah, Peter, Paul, Daniel. Even when He knew very well that Adam and Eve had sinned, He still came looking for them. Instead of simply judging them, He started a conversation. It was His kindness to ask them what had happened, to allow them to explain their actions and explain the consequences.

God doesn't just drop prophetic words and then shakes His head in disappointment if we don't understand. He tells us something, hoping that we will respond and talk to Him about it! If He wanted to leave us guessing, then why would He speak at all?

But there's something even deeper than engaging in conversation with the Messenger at the door.

 

The hidden things that move His heart

When I was writing this article God showed me a picture of a car. In the picture, I was sitting at the wheel and He was sitting next to me. Since I planned on using a door as the analogy I really didn't understand what He meant to say, so I engaged in conversation. I asked Him to show me what He meant with the car. He showed me the same image of the car, but this time the car was moving. I realized He wanted to show me more so I let Him change the image into what He wanted to. In the image, Jesus told me how to drive and lead me to a park. We got out of the car and walked to the bushes. He lifted the bushes and there was a wounded puppy underneath it. He said: “I wanted to show you this.”
 

Immediately I understood that He was saying: “I don't just want to bring messages and help people to understand them. I desire people to come with me, and allow me to show the hidden things that move my heart”.
 

​

"When we are willing to leave our frame of reference behind, we make room to hear His thoughts and see His ways."

​

 

Throwing out our frame of reference

The Bible says that God's ways and thoughts are so much higher than ours. Yet as long as we keep standing at the door with God, we're still trying to capture Him within our (door) frame of reference. He's so awesome that He will meet us in our frame of reference. That's exactly why Jesus spoke in parables so much: He made the difficult truths of His Kingdom understandable by using our frame of reference. This is a great place to start learning about Him, but there will be moments when God will challenge us to leave our frame of reference behind and simply go with Him wherever He leads.

 

I can't express how much freedom I found when I started holding on to Him as a Person, more than my own thoughts, feelings, and ideas. It allowed me to break out of that limiting box I had for God in my life. The strict boundaries of ideas and doctrines I had so willingly held on to but were never God's plan for my life. When we are willing to leave our frame of reference behind, we make room to hear His thoughts and see His ways. We need this so much!

 

Looking at the puppy-revelation we can see that Jesus wants to take us places, but it will require us to open our minds to look beyond the original prophetic experience. If I would have stuck with the picture of me and Jesus in a car, I could have never seen the puppy. If I would have stuck to the standard interpretation that a car represents a ministry I wouldn't have either. What if I would have been stuck in the idea that God needs to be behind the wheel, not me?
 

God breaking frames
The puppy revelation is a small example of God asking us to go beyond the initial revelation and be open to anything. But let me share some more examples, both personal and biblical:

​

----

I was in a church service when I had a long, interactive vision. At some point, I felt God pulling me upwards and I became scared. “No God! Don't elevate me so much. I'm scared to become arrogant!”. God spoke to me lovingly, but stern: “It's time to get rid of that fear now.”. My frame of reference broke when God told me not to fear arrogance. To me fearing sin sounded very spiritual. I was convinced my fear kept me from falling away from God. God knew my fear was actually a self-emposed securtiy measure that interfered with His grace and peace. And He knew I needed to be grounded in peace soon.

That evening I struggled through my fear of arrogance, It really was a rough wrestling match between the Lord and my flesh before I could surrender my deeply rooted conviction. When I was done struggling and entered a place of surrender God brought me to even greater heights in the Spirit.

Less than three weeks later I was miraculously healed from my literal fear of heights as I stood on “top of the rock”. Another confirmation that God and I had dealt with this fear. About three weeks after that I was publically accused of arrogance by people I considered my friends. Their words hurt, but my heart was at peace because I knew God didn't doubt the state of my heart. That peace carried me through one of the most difficult times of my life.
 

----
 

When Peter was resting on a rooftop terrace, God showed Him unclean foods and told him to eat. During this vision, God told Peter to go against a law and tradition that had been in place for centuries. Imagine if God would ask you to do something you are sure is wrong? I would have been so confused! I understand Peter's hesitation all too well, yet this revelation leads to the salvation of everyone who isn't Jewish (most of us included).

----

When John was in exile on the island of Patmos, Jesus showed up. Jesus looked so different that even John, who had laid against Jesus' chest, didn't recognize Him. Afterward the revelation kept going in the oddest direction. Can you imagine seeing all that without ever having heard anyone speak about it? Seeing heaven, seeing the destruction of earth and seeing the new Jerusalem? I'm pretty sure John's frame of reference was completely broken after the revelation.

----

Noah is an amazing man of faith! Again: can you imagine being Noah? Getting detailed instructions on how to build a boat on land. One that you could never get to the shore because it's way too heavy. He acted WAY outside of anyone's frame of reference, but he did it anyway. Image having animals come to the arch... There was absolutely no frame of reference there! Yet his willingness to act anyway saved mankind.

​

​

Different every time

I can't tell you what it will look like when God asks you to let Him lead you beyond your frame of reference. It can be small or large, be a message for you personally or for others. Maybe it will like a long and interactive vision, maybe seeing a Bible verse a completely different way, maybe a string of seemingly random revelations, maybe flying with God over countries seeing what they need to do to repent. Who knows?

What I do know is that we need two things:

1. A pure and willing heart. In full surrender to God, without any secret agenda. Ready to follow Him, even when He leads us to strange things that might even seem, unlike God.

2. Time. We'll never get what He fully has for us if we're rushed

 

​

"When we change our response, we create room to grow our relationship with Him."

​

 

It's our response that determines our ability to recognize and hear God's voice.
Are we focused on the mechanics of hearing His word? Are we focused on the message He's giving us? Or are we focused on the Person who desires to be with us? Whatever we do, we are listening to Him, so neither of these are wrong. But if we want to grow, we need to put our flower in a new pot. When we change our response, we create room to grow our relationship with Him.