How to Hear From God

"I just want to know what God wants me to do" is one of the most common sentences in Christian life, and it usually arrives with real distress attached. The expectation behind it is often a voice or a sign, and when neither comes people conclude that God is silent or that something is wrong with them. Both conclusions deserve examining, because the way God is described as speaking is different from the way people usually listen.

Elijah on the Mountain

The passage worth starting with, because it corrects the expectation directly.

Elijah has just won an enormous public victory and then collapsed into exhaustion and despair. He is hiding in a cave and asking to die.

God tells him to stand on the mountain. A great wind tears the mountains apart, but the LORD is not in the wind. Then an earthquake. Then a fire. God is in none of them.

Then a gentle whisper, or in some translations the sound of sheer silence, and that is where God is.

Notice also what happens before any of that. God lets him sleep, and sends food twice. The first response to a prophet in despair is rest and a meal, which is worth remembering when you are trying to hear God through exhaustion.

Scripture First

This is the primary channel, and treating it as such solves more problems than any technique.

A great deal of what people want to hear from God has already been said. How to treat people. What matters. What to do about resentment, money, honesty, and how to live in a household. None of that requires a special revelation, because it is written down.

Which means the honest version of "God isn't speaking to me" is sometimes "God has spoken and I am hoping for a different answer."

Reading regularly is what makes this channel usable. You cannot recall a passage you have never read, and most people who describe God speaking to them through Scripture are describing something they encountered while reading normally rather than while searching for an answer.

Our guide on how to study the Bible covers reading it well, and praying through Scripture covers turning it into conversation.

Other People

The channel most often ignored, probably because it requires admitting something to someone.

Proverbs repeatedly commends counsel: plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed. That is presented as ordinary wisdom rather than as a last resort.

Two cautions. Ask people who will disagree with you, not only people who will agree. And be honest about the situation, because counsel based on an edited version is worthless.

A specific pattern worth watching for: several people independently raising the same thing without conferring. That is not proof, and it is worth paying attention to.

Circumstances, Carefully

Doors opening and closing is a real category and an easily abused one.

The problem is that circumstances are readable in whatever direction you prefer. An obstacle can be a closed door or a thing worth pushing through, and Scripture contains both. Paul is prevented from entering Bithynia; Paul also continues into cities where he is beaten.

So circumstances are better used as confirmation alongside other channels than as a primary signal on their own. Alone they mostly reflect back what you already wanted.

Internal Promptings, and How to Test Them

The category people usually mean, and the one that needs the most care.

Most Christians through history have described something closer to a persistent impression than a voice: a thought that will not leave, a discomfort about something, a name that keeps surfacing.

Four tests are worth applying, and they are ordinary rather than mystical.

Does it agree with Scripture? A prompting that contradicts a clear command is not from God, however strong it feels. This test alone rules out a great deal of harm.

Does it match God's character? Contempt, cruelty, and self-righteousness do not come from the God described in the Gospels, whatever spiritual language gets attached to them.

Do mature people confirm it? Not a vote, but people who know both you and Scripture and are willing to say no to you.

Is it exactly what you wanted? The hardest and most useful test. If the message from God happens to endorse precisely what you had already decided, hold it loosely. Genuine promptings are frequently inconvenient, and the ones people later confirm often involved doing something they were avoiding.

Also worth noting: persistence over time is more meaningful than intensity in a moment. A thing that is still there in three months has survived a test that a strong feeling on a Sunday has not.

When You Hear Nothing

Sometimes the silence is genuine and prolonged, and it will not do to pretend otherwise.

Scripture does not hide this. Job gets no answer for a very long time and then does not get the answer he asked for. The Psalms repeatedly ask how long. There are centuries between Malachi and Matthew.

Some things worth doing in that stretch.

Check the ordinary causes. Exhaustion and depression flatten everything, and Elijah was fed and allowed to sleep before he was spoken to. Our piece on praying when you don't feel like it deals with this at length.

Keep doing the last clear thing. If nothing new is coming, continue with what was already given. That is not passivity, it is faithfulness.

Write things down. Memory revises a silent season into something worse than it was. A record is genuinely useful later, which our piece on prayer journaling covers.

And say the silence out loud in prayer. Complaint is a legitimate form of address and it is everywhere in the Psalms.

Most Decisions Are Wisdom, Not Revelation

A reframe that relieves a lot of unnecessary anxiety.

People often assume there is one correct choice and that failing to identify it means missing God's will. But Scripture generally gives principles and expects wisdom to be applied, rather than issuing instructions for each decision.

For most choices: rule out anything that violates a clear command, seek counsel, consider which option better serves other people, weigh what you know about how you are made, and then decide.

James says that if anyone lacks wisdom they should ask God, who gives generously. Notice that the promise is wisdom rather than instructions. Our piece on the book of James covers that passage.

And God is described throughout Scripture as guiding people who are moving. Very few of the people who were directed in the Bible were sitting still waiting for clarity when it came.

Family Discussion Questions

• Is there something we already know we should do that we are waiting for confirmation about?
• Who in our lives is willing to disagree with us?
• When have you sensed God nudging you toward something inconvenient?

The Bottom Line

God is described as speaking primarily through Scripture, then through wise counsel, then through circumstances and internal promptings, in roughly that order of reliability.

Test promptings against Scripture, against God's character, against people who will disagree with you, and against the uncomfortable question of whether it is exactly what you wanted.

In silence, check for exhaustion first, keep doing the last clear thing, write it down, and say the silence out loud.

And treat most decisions as a matter of wisdom rather than revelation. James promises wisdom for the asking, which is a different and more useful thing than instructions.

Frequently Asked Questions