"What Is the Best Way to Hear from the Lord?"
Psalm 5: 1-3; Romans 12: 1-8
by Rev. Carson Overstreet
Van Wyck Presbyterian Church
July 1, 2018
Give ear to my words, O Lord;
give heed to my sighing.
Listen to the sound of my cry,
my King and my God,
for to you I pray.
O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
in the morning I plead my case to you, and watch. - Psalm 5: 1-3
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness. - Romans 12: 1-8
In my own times of waiting, I have just wished for that Fed-Ex envelope to show up. You know, the big one with your name printed on it – so you cannot miss it. And inside God has sent divine instructions of why, what, when, and how. I have prayed for and even pleaded for God to speak directly to me in that way. Guess what? I still have not received it.
And yet, our spiritual ancestors heard from God in mysterious ways. In my study this week, I needed to be reminded how they heard God.
Adam and Eve heard from God by living in harmonious relationship where they heard God’s very presence (Genesis 3:8).
Noah heard the Lord’s voice directly (Genesis 7-9). Abraham heard from the Lord as an old friend (James 2:23).
Jacob heard through a wrestling match (Genesis 32:24). Moses heard through a burning bush (Exodus 3:2).
The Israelites heard through the prevailing cloud, a pillar of fire, and through the prophets’ challenging words (Exodus 19:9). Samuel heard while lying on his bed (1 Samuel 3: 3-9).
Elijah heard through fasting (1 Kings 19:4-9).
The Psalmist trusted he would hear from the Lord through prayers of praise and petition (Psalm 5: 1-3).
Isaiah heard in the context of worship (Isaiah 6:8).
Daniel heard through dreams.
Mary heard by way of an angel (Luke 1:28-37).
The Magi heard by way of a star. (Matthew 2: 1-2, 9, 12).
The disciples heard from the Risen Lord during worship, a fishing trip, and when Jesus broke bread with them (Matthew 28: 16-17; Luke 24: 30-31; John 21: 4-7).
In reading God’s Word, I cannot say that there is one way to hear God which is better than the others. Our spiritual ancestors did not choose the way God spoke to them. God always takes the first step in speaking to us.
However, the Apostle Paul reveals what was common among our ancestors and what is true in preparing our posture of faith. We will become more fully aware of God’s activity when we prepare with anticipation.
Cultivating a relationship with God is primary in order to hear from the Lord. Henri Nouwen says, “Getting answers to my questions is not the goal of the spiritual life. Living in the presence of God is the greater call.”[1]
From the beginning we are created to live in relationship with our Creator. When our desire to be with God increases, then we trust Holy Spirit is already at work to tune our hearts to God’s heart alone.
As we grow in deeper relationship and spiritual maturity with God then we become as Paul says, “transformed by the renewing of our mind” (Romans 12:2). We are changed by the power of God as we make room for God to renovate our hearts and minds.
It is just like renovating a house. The project always begins on the inside to ensure the whole structure is sound. This allows the renovation to take the shape of the builder’s hands and greater vision.
Our hearts and minds are renovated through prayer. If we are to live by God’s Spirit then we must be guided and keep in step with God’s Spirit (Galatians 5:25).
Prayer creates a spiritual renovation to ensure we have the necessary gifts of the Spirit: love, joy peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5: 22-23). We need God’s Spirit to hone these gifts as tools within us to be spiritually in tune with God.
Our relationship with God and our daily commitment to prayer are essential to reshape us by the Creator’s hands and will. As we are re-shaped we are being equipped to discern the ways God’s is speaking into our lives.
Paul says that God’s will is: good (honorable and upright); God’s will is acceptable (pleasing to God);God’s will is perfect – not in the way that you and I think of perfect as without blemish. But the Greek word for perfect is “telos” like a telescope…it yields a gradual development of integrity and virtue. And this is what we are trying to listen for in our lives.
To discern is to look through our circumstances with God’s will as a telescope to search for God leading.us to what is honorable, pleasing and virtuous.
There are four ways to discern and listen for God speaking to us.
1. Listen. Nouwen says, “The great movement of the spiritual life is from a deaf, non-hearing life to a life of listening…Living a spiritually mature life requires listening to God’s voice within and among us.”
The best way to listen for God is to set a daily time and space to be with God. There will be days that life’s responsibilities and distractions sidetrack our best plans. But the more we ask the Spirit to help discipline our time with self-control, the more receptive we will be to hear, accept, and affirm God’s leading.
2. Meditate on God’s Word. Scripture is a primary means in which God speaks to us. Nouwen says, “By selecting a particular scripture verse from the gospel reading of the day, a favorite psalm, or a phrase from a devotional reading, a safe wall is [placed] around our heart which allows us to pay attention.”[2]
I meditate on God’s Word using a slow reading called Lectio Divina (Divine Reading). This entails reading a short passage of Scripture three times slowly. Between each reading is a space to pause and reflect on what the Spirit is saying. The beauty of Lectio Divina is that even as we are reading and listening for the Lord to speak to us, the Spirit is actually reading our hearts and minds [3]. It is also helpful to keep a journal to reflect what you may be hearing from God.
3. Pray. God will speak to you and me in a variety of ways and settings, but there is no substitute for hearing the Lord through prayer. At its very core, prayer is a two way dialogue with God; listening and talking. The Psalmist always trusted that God would hear his praises and petitions and that God would indeed answer.
As we wait to hear from the Lord, talk with God as a beloved friend and share whatever and whomever the Spirit places upon your heart and mind.
Pray for God to really see your life and then write down the areas of life that you want God to look deeply into. Be prepared for God’s challenge that leads to transformation and just know that it usually is not easy.
Praying Scripture is one of the most powerful ways I have heard from God. Such as Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God,” I pray, “ Lord, help me to be still and know that you are God.”
A colleague in ministry is encouraging me to pray by fasting. I have not fasted in prayer before. But she is teaching me that fasting is not necessarily giving up food for 40 days. Rather we can fast from eating lunch for 30 minutes or by giving up that one-hour t.v. show each day and use that time window to pray and listen to the still small voice of God.
4. Community. The truth is that we cannot hear the fullness of God’s voice all alone. We will hear bits and pieces by ourselves, but we hear the Lord best when in community. Growing in spiritual maturity means that if we are to have the mind of Christ we must humble ourselves and lean into the rich and diverse gifts of the spiritual network that surrounds us. This is the hope of Paul’s words to discerning God’s voice in our lives.
We need one another to hear from the Lord and discern what is good, acceptable, and perfect.
The prophet among us reveals the truth with words of challenge said with care. Those who serve in the ministry of compassion helps us to gage our direction according to Holy Spirit’s compass. The teachers among us instruct us how to apply God’s Word. The exhorter renews our motivation with words of encouragement when God’s direction seems too hard. The giver shares the generosity of Christ to sustain a weary heart. Those who lead help us to diligently discern the better part over and above the good. Those with hearts of compassion hold us in God’s mercy when we need it most (Romans 12: 6-8).
God speaks to each of us in a myriad of ways and through people, places, and venues that we cannot imagine choosing for ourselves. God is free to surprise us and speak through nature, books, the wisdom of strangers, movies, art, music, and those nudges of the Holy Spirit that we cannot explain not easily turn away from.
Barbara Brown Taylor is an Episcopal priest, professor of religion, and author; she says, "The effort to untangle the human words from the divine seems not only futile to me but also unnecessary, since God works with what is. God uses whatever is usable in a life, both to speak and to act, and those who insist on fireworks in the sky may miss the electricity that sparks the human heart"[4].
What is the best way to hear from the Lord? Well, Frederick Buechner says it best:
Listen to your life…There is no event so commonplace, but that God is present within it, always hiddenly, always leaving you room to recognize him or not to recognize him, but all the more fascinatingly because of that, all the more compellingly and hauntingly.
Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace. [5]
In the name of God our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer…Amen.
Sources Referenced:
[1] Henri Nouwen, “Discernment” (New York: Harper One, 2013).
[2] Henri Nouwen, “Discernment,” p. 4.
[3] Henri Nouwen, “Discernment,” p. 11.
[4] Barbara Brown Taylor, “Leaving Church” (New York: Harper One, 2006).
[5] Frederick Buechner, “Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner” (New York: Harper Collins, 1992), p. 2.
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