Hearing from God

In some cultures there’s the idea that Deity is distant, and that God is remote from us, untouchable and interaction is unattainable.

The reality is that He is as close as our heart and mouth.

The heart is the seat of belief. It’s place in our being where faith enters and is actioned.

In ancient times people believed that the innards were where we encountered spiritual issues. They considered the physical heart, or the bowels as the place of inspiration and spiritual illumination.

Of course our heart is the blood pump that helps sustain our lives, and the bowels are part of our digestive system, but there is still a correlation between these inward human regions and a connection with God, not physically, but spiritually.

In the knower

That’s why scripture speaks of the heart as the place of faith and of ‘bowels of mercy’ being where we experience compassion, as the Kings James version translates the Greek.

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

Colossians 3:12-13

The bowels were regarded as the seat of passions, and the heart is what we would call the place of the emotions today–inside the chest or diaphragm area, or where we breath and where our heart beats.

It’s where we sense laughter, or fear, or trepidation, or joy unspeakable, or anticipation. We can actually feel love there.

The Hebrews regarded the heart and bowels as the places of tender affections, kindness, benevolence, compassion and mercy.

What we know as believers is that this is where, inside our bodies, we sense the moving of compassion towards God and other people. When we speak in tongues it is from here.

It could be called the ‘knower,’ or the place within where we know God. The Greek calls it the dianoia, ‘through knowing,’ or ‘the understanding,’ although this refers more to the intellect than the heart or bowels, but there is a link to the inward person of the heart.

Whilst our mind and thinking might be impressed by benevolent thoughts, it is in the spirit, or the inner being that we sense this expressive entity within.

Spiritual discernment

God is a Spirit, and those who come to Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24). He communicates with us through our spirit, what the Bible calls the inner or inward person (Rom.7:22).

If we are to hear from God it will be in the heart not the mind, although the mind will translate for us what the heart is telling us. God works through the whole person. We’re not led by our senses or by feelings, but they play a part in our responses.

We are led by the Spirit, who communicates with us through the Word and our regenerated spirit, which has come alive to God and has been given a new level of understanding when we are saved (Gal.4:6). God’s love is poured into our hearts (Rom.5:5). Love is of the heart.

We do have to learn how this works. We have to discover how to hear from God. Mostly He will relate to us through His Word, through scripture as we read, study and act on it.

In the course of this interaction with the Word we will learn how to understand the promptings of the Spirit as He helps us grasp His will for our lives. He bears witness with our spirit (Rom.8:16). We know in our spirit.

We can hear from God, primarily through His Word, but also, as we grow, through the intuition and inspiration and direction of the Spirit. We hear through the gospel, through the preached Word of God.

It will rarely if ever be an audible voice, although this is still possible, but it will seem as if He is speaking to us because we will learn how He communicates with our spirit. His sheep know His voice (John 10:27).

In prayer, we speak to God, so we should give time to allowing God to speak to us, to learn how He prompts us and directs us.

It’s usually a gentle prompting, not a loud voice, or an obvious conversation, but a knowing in our heart what to do in certain situations. We perceive in our spirit what He wants of us.

Part of hearing is listening. Part of seeking is waiting. Part of seeing is watching.

We can hear from God.