Friday, March 30, 2012

How To Hear From God

God speaks to everyone, every day.

We miss it, because we usually do not expect to hear from him. When we (at least some of us) think of 'God speaking', we expect to see the clouds parting and hear a booming voice from the heavens.

While that may happen, he speaks through billboards, lyrics of a song (not necessarily “Christian”), movies, a thought, a friend, a stranger, a sermon, a book, a scripture, a tweet, a facebook update (that has a scripture, or not), the text on the side of a truck or via several other means through which we will know (but can’t prove) that it was  him.

Whenever I hear, see, feel or read anything that resonates with my heart, I consider that as him speaking to me. But (and this is a BIG but), what he says will align with his nature, that is, love. For instance, “gawd told me to ram a plane into a building”, is insanity. God’s communication will comfort, heal, guide, help and/or bring light to a seemingly bleak situation. Condemnation is not from him.

Religion gives out the impression that hearing from God is only reserved for the spiritual elite. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice”. Period. He did not say, “My super-spiritual sheep hear my voice”.

Although mountaintops and prayer closets are nice distraction-free zones, he does not indicate that one has to be holed up in a room to hear from him. In fact, trying hard to hear from him can be even more distracting. He is not afraid to speak amidst the chaos. This is the Creator of the universe that we are talking about and he is not limited on how he chooses to communicate with his children.

Simply start noticing (no need to strain), and pay attention to the heart – you will be surprised how simple this business of "hearing from God" is.

Also, avoid the temptation to over-analyze -- based on the simple premise, that a loving father longs to communicate with his children, much more than they realize.

No comments: