Stephen G. Derges explores how we hear God

Stephen G. Derges

In the last article we explored the way God speaks into our lives through events, circumstances, people and of course, the Bible. But we also established that whilst He uses a variety of different approaches, He's not limited by our age or the fact that we're not perfect and even if we don't get the message the first time, He still keeps on calling our number.

I'm convinced that God wants to communicate with us and it happens in many different ways. In my experience and in that of many others, there have been occasions when God has 'spoken' in various tangible ways.

These ways sometimes include dreams and visions. When challenged on the Day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter quotes the prophecy of Joel that, "In the last days, God says, 'I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on My servants, both men and women, I will pour out My Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.'"

It seems pretty conclusive to me that God's promise is that we will be enabled to dream dreams, see visions and prophesy. There's no element of discrimination here - both sexes are involved; status issues are unimportant - we're all servants; and there's no age barrier. And because in this account a wide variety of nationalities were present, there can't be any racial disqualification either.

God isn't exclusive in that sense - He longs for everyone to have a relationship with Him and once we do, He wants to continue to speak to us and empower us.

I'm not going to go into any details here about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit but, just so you are under no illusions about this, it is Biblical to believe that the Holy Spirit wants to speak to us and that He'll use different communication methods to do so.

Just think: more than 50% of the Gifts of the Spirit outlined in 1 Corinthians 12 involve speech:

• Message (or if you have an older version of the Bible - Word) of wisdom


• Message of knowledge


• Prophecy


• Speaking in different languages


• Interpretation of those languages

And it's not just in dreams and visions or so-called 'spiritual' gifts. God has given us intelligence and creative minds for a purpose. He allows us to think through situations and to feel emotions which prompt us to action. Spontaneous thoughts, associations and ideas can all be used by God to communicate to us His plans and purposes.

It's an amazing privilege to be able to speak to God. We don't need an appointment, there's no special ritual or ceremony to perform and neither do we have to go through someone else to receive God's help when we need it. But it's an even more amazing privilege to hear God speaking to us.

So having established God wants to 'speak' today what is it that stops us hearing Him?

I'd like to outline just three potential 'reception blockers' I've had in my life:

I'm too busy: our lives can easily be driven by diaries, schedules and appointments. These are often good things but they can get in the way of relationships, not just with God but with other people.

Life is demanding. Careers have to be forged; bills have to be paid; goals have to be achieved, exams have to be passed. But if we allow busyness to rule our lives, God will be forced into a timeslot in an electronic organiser - it's usually called Sunday morning! Some of us find it easy to plan God out of our day-to-day activities - He's got His time and place but it's not now!