In an earlier post author, Niki Hardy shared her moment of waiting to hear from the Lord for guidance in moving her entire family from Europe to America. No doubt, we have all felt stuck in a season of wait at one time or another. Here she shares some practical advice for those who doubt they can hear God’s voice. And you know how much I love steps to follow so I am, obviously, all in on this advice!

From Niki:

I want to remind you that he is the Shepherd, he calls you by name and you, as one of his sheep, CAN hear his voice (John 10). We so often miss his voice with all the other noise around us but it is there, we just need to learn how to tune into it.

Hearing his voice requires us to use both sides of our brain: the logical, analytical and rational left side AND the intangible, creative right side.

1. ASK: Using our left brain we ask God to speak to us confident he will. There’s no need for fancy prayers, a simple ‘Please God, speak to me’ is just fine. Let’s not be afraid to ask. We are loved, forgiven and enough. God wants to talk to us.
2. LISTEN: Now we must turn our left brain off and use our right brain to listen. God speaks through His Holy Spirit to the eyes of our hearts (Ephesians 1:18) which we access through our right brains. The key to listening with our right brain is to engage in activities that help us switch off our left brain and switch on our right brains and enter into it. Worship, journaling, meditative prayer, lighting a candle repeating a scripture – all these help us tune in to what he might be saying.
3. ACKNOWLEDGE: Still using our right brains and shutting out all our attempts to evaluate what we think we may be hearing, we must acknowledge the thought, scripture, picture that’s popped into our head and write it down. God never speaks so clearly there is no room for doubt, so we must step out in faith and go with it.
4. TEST: Now we get to turn our left brains back on and test what we think we might have heard. Does it sound biblical, like something God would say, are other believers saying similar things to you?

I’ve found learning to hear God’s voice is one of the most fulfilling yet slippery parts of my faith. We wish we could know for sure what he is saying, and yet, although God never speaks with such certainty that there is no room for doubt or faith, we can learn to tune out the world and tune in to our Father’s voice.