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No relationship can ever prosper without proper communication, especially our one with the Lord. However, while the importance of both speaking and listening is very clear to us in our human relationships, many of us rarely devote time doing the latter with God. To deepen our intimacy with Him, know His will, and be fully available to serve Him, we must learn how to properly listen to Him. Doing so requires knowing who He is, devoting quiet time to Him, and obeying Him.
Before we can even begin to listen to Him and recognize His voice, we must know who God is. While we may possess mental knowledge of His existence, works, and roles, truly knowing Him requires us to actively build a living and intimate relationship with Him. A crucial step in doing this is diligently seeking Him. Deuteronomy 4:29 calls us to do so with all our heart and soul, for it allows us to experience the immense extent of His forgiveness (Isa. 55:6-7), providence (Mat. 6:33), and love (Pro. 8:17). Another critical step in knowing Him is daily reading His Word. The Bible is God's primary means of teaching us (2Ti. 3:16-17), guiding us (Psa. 119:105), and revealing ungodly desires and motives (Heb. 4:12); these help us learn about His nature and will. One other key step in knowing Him is frequent prayer. Matthew 6:6 notes that prayer is how we spend time alone with Him, where He blesses us, teaches us new things (Jer. 33:3), and answers our prayers, (Joh. 15:7). To listen to the Lord, we must first know Him through an intimate relationship founded in wholeheartedly seeking Him, daily reading His Word, and frequently praying to Him.
However, similar to how we must allow others to speak so we can truly listen to them, we must also devote quiet time to listening to God. This is especially true during our times of seeking Him through Bible reading and prayer. Unfortunately, our Bible reading can easily be hastily done and our prayers can be spent mostly talking rather than listening. To truly listen to God and bring Him glory during these activities, we must spend quiet time with Him. This follows Jesus' example in Luke 5:16 and Mark 1:35, where He frequently spent time alone with God, oftentimes in the early morning. While the time we meet with Him may vary, it should involve us being still and quiet in His presence, as Psalm 37:7 and 46:10 call us to do. During this time, we should come before Him in prayer, confessing our sins to prepare our hearts (1Jo. 1:9), desiring His will to be done (Mat. 6:10), and bringing our needs before Him (Phi. 4:19). In addition, we should quietly meditate on His Word (Psa. 1:2), His nature (Psa. 145:5), and His works in ours and others' lives (Psa. 77:12). By spending quality time with God while doing these activities in quiet isolation, we humbly make ourselves available to listen to Him in whatever way He chooses to speak to us.
However, truly listening to Him requires that we obey what He tells us. Coming before God to simply allow our ways and desires to take precedence over His is not characteristic of a heart that genuinely desires to listen to Him. Jesus calls out such hypocritical behavior in Luke 6:46-49 and likens it to foolishly building a house on the sand. Thus, if we truly desire to listen to Him, we must obey what He tells us, even if it goes against our opinions, perceptions, and desires. In fact, we should have a resolve to obey Him that mirrors Christ's, who was obedient even unto death as Philippians 2:8 states. Such obedience can only come from a genuine love for the Lord, as John 14:23 states, while such love can only come from God Himself, as 1 John 4:7-10 note. Thus, the desire and ability to listen to the Lord comes from a genuine love for Him, which then provides the resolve to obey and therefore attend to what He says.
As with our human relationships, our one with God will only grow if we purpose to actively listen to Him. To be truly attentive to Him, we must continually grow in knowledge of Him, daily devote quiet time to Him, and surrender ourselves to Him in a whole-hearted obedience grounded in His love. By filling our lives with the seeking, Bible study, and prayer necessary to make these changes to them, we open ourselves to be fully broken before the Lord, which allows Him to richly bless us, fully release the Holy Spirit's power through us, and powerfully use us to bring the lost to salvation.
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