Hearing The Voice of God

Have you ever noticed how easily some of your friends can slip into a prophetic flow? They are more likely than you to tell of visions – things God is showing them – things they are seeing, dreams or having a real knowing of what God is saying  - and you know they’re regular people, so it makes you feel pretty unspiritual? Often we’re married to them.

You are you because God didn’t want to have everyone the same. Paul spent time in three of his letters explaining that God has made us unique, given us different gifts and ways of functioning.

I’m not saying that some people are made not the hear the voice of God, we all are! It’s about how we hear not if we’ll hear.

1. •The bible uses the picture of us as sheep and the Lord as our Shepherd … it’s a picture that needs it’s ancient eastern setting:
   

2. •There were no fences and various flocks would intermingle on the hillsides to graze, but when it was time to move the shepherd would use his voice and each sheep would know the voice of their particular shepherd.
   

3. •This meant the shepherd was able to lead them to new fresh pasture, and he could also bring them into the sheepfold at night for protection.
   

John 10:3-5

“I am the Lord’s sheep, and I am able to hear and recognise the Lord’s voice – I can hear the voice of God” … this is our starting point, not our finishing point. Say it. We start with this truth, and from this wonderful reality so much else flows . . . for all of us:

1. -guidance for our lives
   

2. -personal encouragement from God
   

3. -revelation
   

4. -answers to questions about our life
   

5. -a conversation with the Holy Spirit that enables him to direct us in bringing blessing to others, and demonstrate His supernatural touch.
   

We all hear His voice, but because of our differences – we’ll perceive and process the voice of the Lord differently.

In the late 1960’s, as a result of proper and thorough research an important factor of our individual differences came to be understood.

1. •An American psychobiologist Roger W Sperry (who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1981 for his research and discoveries) discovered that the human brain has two very different ways of thinking.
   

2. •Sperry discovered that the right and left hemisphere’s of our brain were quite different.
   

3. •One (the right brain) is visual and processes information in an intuitive and simultaneous way, looking first at the whole picture then the details.
   

4. •The other (the left brain) is verbal and processes information in an analytical and sequential way, looking first at the pieces then putting them together to get the whole.
   

It has been discovered that although we all use both sides of our brain, most of us tend to rely a bit more heavily on one side or the other.

You will note that the left hemisphere of the brain works primarily with analytical functions, while the right hemisphere processes intuitive and visionary functions. Which side do you figure your prophetic/visionary friends rely upon more?

1. •Right-brain individuals simply say, “Oh, hearing God’s voice is easy: you just know that you know that you know!” Well, that doesn’t help a left-brain person at all.
   

2. •Emphasis in educational system: reading, writing and arithmetic (required) v art, music and drama (elective).
   

Luke was a ‘left brain’ man. In Luke 1:1-4 records a left-brain approach – it was analytical, precise and sequential -  resulting in a pure revelation that stands to this day.

John was a ‘right brain’ man. Listen to John. “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice ... saying, ‘Write in a book what you see ...’” (Revelation 1:10,11). This revelation flowed through the right side of the brain – it was visionary, figurative and irregular -  resulting in a pure revelation that still stands today.

David and his son, Solomon, were clearly ‘right brained’ – their music, art, their prose and poetry, their strong emotional side and their visionary encounters with God. Most of the seers and prophets of the bible would also have been ones who accessed the heart of God through their creative and imaginative faculties.

However, I have discovered a prophet who accessed the heart of God through his organised and logical side – and how the Lord worked effortlessly with that to bring him in a prophetic flow. Habakkuk.

Habakkuk 1 note: The Prophet’s Question and  The Lord’s Reply

1. •If you’re not sure if you’ve heard God speak to you or not, may I ask – have you ever asked him a question and listened for his reply?
   

1. •Because of the way Habakkuk’s heard, it wasn’t as “snap of the fingers” easy as his prophetic friends. God worked differently with him ... much methodical.
   

Habakkuk 2:1 – he deliberately puts himself in a listening space. Stillness, atmosphere and focus was important.

Elisha: “Bring me a minstrel, so that I might hear the word of the Lord” (2 Kings 3:15). The music drew him from the left side of his brain to the right side where he was perfectly positioned before the presence of the Lord, able to hear the spontaneous words that were spoken within.

(It’s been verified in Canadian university studies that speaking in tongues stimulates right-brain electrical activity, as opposed to normal speech, which stimulates left-brain electrical activity)

1. •v1 after stilling himself, he intentionally worked with his “perception” I will … watch to see what he will say to me. He’s checking in with his ‘right brain’ and asking, what thought’s have spontaneously come? What am I sensing or picturing? Any fresh impressions upon my mind or emotions?
   

1. •God's voice comes as spontaneous thoughts, pictures, feelings, or impressions. EG: a thought comes to pray for a certain person? Didn’t you believe it was God telling you to pray? What did God's voice sound like? Was it an audible voice, or was it a spontaneous thought that lit upon your mind?
   

1. •A definition of paga, a Hebrew word for intercession, is "a chance encounter or an accidental intersecting." When God lays people on our hearts, He does it through paga, a chance-encounter thought “accidentally” intersecting our minds.  
   

This ‘worshipful stilling’ and ‘watching our thoughts’ is how a ‘left brain’ person can move in the prophetic.

There was, however, one more facet to Habakkuk’s hearing the voice of God.

1. •Habakkuk 2:2 – Write it down! People who rely more on the left hemisphere of their brain can write down an initial thought but then find they can keep writing as their thoughts flow. The voice of God to them is not intersecting their minds through visions, but by writing! (My journaling when on sabbatical).
   

1. •Write your prayers, write what you think God is saying in reply, write the scripture that comes to you, add thoughts here and there.
   

1. •Don’t stop to analyse – you’ll do that good ‘left brain’ thing later, and (after a little more organisation) you’ll see that God is speaking very clearly to you.