Last week we started a new message series called “How To Hear God Speak.” We talked about why it’s important to hear God and how you can prepare your mind to actually hear God speak to you. It’s very important to be able to hear your heavenly Father speak to you. Just imagine what trouble your children would have in life if they couldn’t hear you speak to them. You are God’s child and God is your Father. You never outgrow that relationship. You never grow up to the point that you don’t need to hear your Father speaking.
Jesus said in NIV John 12:49 For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. Jesus heard what His Father commanded him to say and He said it. Jesus’ words and actions were determined by listening to His Father speak and the same should be true of us.
A 5-year old girl named Barbara had disobeyed her mother and was sent to her room. After a few minutes the Mom went to her daughter’s room to talk to her about what she had done. Through teary eyes Barbara asked “Why do we do wrong things, Mommy?” Her mother replied, “Sometimes the devil tells us to do wrong things and we listen to him. We need to listen to God instead.” The little girl sobbed and said “But God doesn’t talk loud enough.”
Sometimes we think that God doesn’t talk loud enough but He is speaking. We just need to recognize all of the ways that He speaks to us. CEV Job 33:14 God speaks in different ways, and we don’t always recognize his voice. If we think that God only speaks in one way and we don’t hear anything in that particular way we may think that God is silent when He’s speaking. As you read the Bible, you see that it is full of hundreds of examples of God speaking to people. In the Bible, God uses many different ways to communicate. He spoke to Moses through the burning bush. He spoke to Jacob through an angel. He spoke to the nation of Israel through a cloud. He spoke to Balaam through a donkey and the list could go on and on.
Today my message topic is “Understanding How God Speaks.” The emphasis in my title is on the word “How.” What are the ways that God speaks? I’m going to talk about five ways that God speaks to us. These are not the only ways but these are five common ways that God speaks to people.
To hear more about this topic, listen to my July 8, 2007 message entitled Understanding How God Speaks