How do you hear God’s voice? Good question. Here’s what I know. God’s voice will never, ever contradict His Word. They are absolutely inseparable. If you want to get familiar with how He speaks, the context in which He speaks and the way He speaks, read His Word. His Word is alive and active, He will prophetically speak through Scripture that was written thousands of years ago to your very situation that’s happening this second.

I would recommend taking time to pull apart scripture, memorise verses, maybe discover context and definitions if that’s your thing to make that conscientious effort to get the biblical knowledge to drop 18 inches into your heart. I can’t tell you how many times through my struggles memorised scripture has looped itself in my brain like a broken record. I believe it’s God, through His Holy Spirit, reminding me of His truth, His faithfulness, His strength.

Another crucial ingredient is prayer. God created us for relationship. In the very beginning, He spoke everything into existence, but with man, He pressed His knees into the mud and formed him from clay. He leaned in close and breathed His very breath into man’s nostrils, filling his lungs. It’s what separates us from all creation, it’s our value and significance, His very breath in our lungs.

When we give our lives to Jesus, I believe yet again He breathes into our nostrils, depositing the Holy Spirit, not a fragment of Himself, but the entirety of Him. The Holy Spirit is God. He’s not a concept or an idea. He has emotions and thoughts, so we need to approach and interact with him as a person. We, therefore, have access to God at all times, more so than Moses, Elijah or Abraham ever did. By prayer, we interact with Him, returning back to the true design of the relationship He intended, that incomprehensible and unceasing connection.

When we mature past monologue prayers, God is bound to speak, sometimes reiterating the Word, sometimes through unseen insight, sometimes with loving conviction and encouragement. Each time different, God moves in unexpected ways.

Remember, God created us uniquely. He is the Lord of all creation, but also the Saviour of the one. It was the one He chased after, He left the ninety-nine. That being said, the way He speaks to you will be personal, completely unlike like the way He may speak to someone else. In the past, I allowed myself to get overwhelmingly disappointed because He didn’t speak to me the way He spoke to my friends until I discovered He craved singularity and creativity with me as well. I am an emotional being. He speaks to me through heartbreak, a burst of laughter, a seizing yet righteous anger, or a fierce slam of love. When He created you, His vision for your way of communication was intricately catered to your soulish personality.

He is in control of how He wants to express Himself to you, and although comparison may lie and say He doesn’t, He is absolutely desperate to be close to you. Desperate, not because He’s weak or insecure, but because of His love for you. When He knitted you in your mother’s womb, He knitted community into your being, especially and above all else, community with Him. Hearing His voice is a promise to all His children, not a whimsical splat on particular, “holy” people. This is the reason why the veil was torn.

The way God speaks is far beyond a booming, audible voice, although for some that might be exactly what you need to connect with Him, but for others it may be through a sunset, an eye-lock with a stranger, through dreams or visions, or many other avenues. God’s creativity is never-ending. Either way, familiarise yourself with His voice through His Word, through prayer, and through His Holy Spirit, expectant and confident.