Have you ever really wanted to hear God’s voice? Maybe you don’t think that God talks to His children anymore, at least not the way He did in the Old and New Testaments. You might say, “sure, He talked to the prophets and Moses and a few others but that’s about it”. You may have even have wondered, “Even if He did speak to us today, what is required on my behalf in order for me to hear Him?”.

In regard to the above questions, first of all, God is always speaking to us.  It's really a problem of, can I hear him or recognize His voice.   However, let’s look into God’s word and see what He actually says about speaking to us and what is required. Let’s start by going to Hebrews 3:7,8 (Amplified Bible) “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as [happened] in the rebellion [of Israel] and their provocation and embitterment [of me] in the day of testing in the wilderness”.

The background for the above scripture is that the Israelites had been delivered from bondage in Egypt by God through Moses and after about 3 months in the wilderness they then came to Mount Sinai where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. After three days God was to come down to the top of Mount Sinai and speak to the people, after they had been sanctified by Moses. Well, when God spoke, the mountain shook and there was “thunderings and lightnings” and the people were afraid when Moses brought them to the foot of the mountain. (Exodus 19:17) It further says that the people fell back and stood afar off from the mountain. Then in Ex. 20:19 it says, “And they said to Moses, You speak to us and we will listen, but let not God speak to us, lest we die”. Now, why would they say that? Well, it’s because they knew enough about God to know that He did not tolerate sin in His presence and they were unrepentant and did not want to get zapped.

So today, in order to get into God’s presence and hear from Him, is it a matter of repenting and getting right with Him or not repenting and getting zapped? Going back to Hebrews 3:7, it says “if you will (or want to) hear God’s voice do not harden your hearts . . . as in the day of testing in the wilderness”. The fear of getting “zapped”, so to speak, was in their own minds because Moses said to them, in Ex. 20:20 (you might call this 20/20 vision) “Fear not; for God has come to test you so that the reverential fear of Him may be before you, that you may not sin”.

In summary then, the requirement to hear from God is to be in a repentant, reverential and submissive attitude toward Him and then come “boldly” to the throne of grace as it says in Hebrews 4:16. We can do this now because we have an advocate (or legal representative) before the Father in the person of Jesus Christ whose shed blood makes us righteous (if we indeed have been born again) and qualified to be in His presence and hear Him speak to us. If we will do this we will then hear His voice (that still small voice) and allow His peace to guide us.  Don't you want that?

Glory to God,

Hal Mitchell

Halmitch@cox.net