7 Tips to Hear the Lord Better

3

HOW TO BETTER POSITION YOURSELF TO HEAR FROM THE LORD

God is always speaking.

And contrary to popular belief, hearing from God is less about

straining to hear Him speak and more about recognizing His

voice in a world geared toward busyness, distraction, and

numerous demands.

A key component of growing in intimacy with God is engaging

in conversation. And a key part of conversation is listening to

God, hearing Him as He speaks and shares His thoughts. Our

Creator greatly desires to engage in conversation with us. He

desires to direct and guide us through the hectic, disappointing,

and troubling moments of life and steady us with His love.

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”

(John 10:27)

While hearing the Lord is not something we have to strain

to have happen, there are things that we can do to position

ourselves to better hear from our Heavenly Father.

4

FASTINGThe essence of fasting is momentarily giving up a physical

pleasure in order to position ourselves to receive spiritually.

As we fast, whether it be for one day or a week, we are once

again declaring our dependence on God to sustain us and meet

our needs. As we remove a meal, a type of food, or media, our

hearts are sensitized to what the Spirit is saying to us. We do

not fast to earn a special status with God, but to put Him in the

first place in our day and priorities.

REMOVING DISTRACTIONThe everyday pace of the world can be demanding and

exhausting. There are pressing deadlines, urgent emails,

messages on our phones, and a list of people with requests.

Life is busy and often works against our ability to hear from the

Lord. One way we can better hear the Lord speak is by removing

unnecessary distractions. Yes, our phones are important and

Netflix does keep us entertained, but taking time to quiet

ourselves before the Lord, remove distraction, and just listen

helps us hear Him better.

7

READING SCRIPTUREOne of the primary and best ways to hear the Lord speak is

through the Word of God. The Lord gave us the Bible so that we

would better hear Him speak to us and know Him better. All of

Scripture is God-breathed. It is our primary resource of knowing

and verifying what the Lord is saying. The Bible tells us that

“the entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding

to the simple” (Psalm 119:130). Through Scripture, we’re better

able to know the Lord’s character and discern between His voice

and the way He speaks to us and our own thoughts or influences

from the world.

MEDITATING UPON SCRIPTURETo meditate is taken from the word “to mutter” or review

verbally. The act of meditating upon Scripture is the simple act

of verbally going over what God has written to His followers.

Reviewing the truth the Lord has written to us causes faith to

arise within as we renew our minds to believe truth and better

understand our Father as He speaks. Faith comes by hearing. As

we speak God’s word aloud, our ears hear the truth the Lord is

speaking over us, persuading us of His goodness and ability to

lead and guide us.

8

PRAYINGWhen we engage in prayer, we’re actually entering into a

conversation with God. We’re not wishing upon stars or

participating in a fruitless monologue. While we may know

this, there is often temptation to treat our times of prayer as

moments of one-way communication. Just as we take time to

voice our concerns, we must also take time to listen for what

the Lord is saying. While He is able to speak with a thundering

voice over the cacophony of our day, as a loving Father He often

chooses to tenderly speak to us—not yell at us.

PRAY-READING THE WORDThere are times when we are desperate to hear from the Lord.

We want to ask Him for assistance, but things have become so

dire we don’t have the words to even articulate our hurt, fears,

or requests. It’s at these times we can turn to the Word and

utilize the words God has given us. We can flip through the

Psalms and identify with the longing of David’s heart. We can

select passages from the Epistles, and join Paul in asking for the

Lord to mature us and grow us to love others the way He loves

them. As we identify short phrases, we can pray them to God,

becoming sensitive to HIs gentle whispers as He reminds us that

He knows, hears, and will respond.

11

SINGING THE WORDThe Word of God is powerful and, thankfully, it works to cleanse

us, heal us, and restore us to wholeness. As we feed on His

Word, we are better in tune with what He’s saying. One way to

sow the seed of the Word into a ready heart and yield a harvest

of conversation with God is to sing the Word back to God. When

we sing His words to Him, our hearts are open to receive His

truth as He speaks over us.

For practical tips that are grounded in the biblical truth of

scripture, check out Growing in the Prophetic by Mike Bickle.

This resource is designed to help every believer understand how

prophecy functions, the role of prophecy in the church, and what

is needed to better hear the Lord as He speaks.

Another useful resource on meditating on the Word can be

found here.