Hearing God's Voice by Vicki Brawner

“My own sheep will hear my voice and I know each one, and they will follow me.”‭ John‬ ‭10‬:‭27‬

 He hears you and sees you.

I want to remind us how to hear His voice - in a way we can be sure it’s His voice. When we hear His voice, we receive His love. His voice always brings inner healing. 

This will help you have an intimate daily lifestyle with Him through conversing with Him. This is a gift you can enjoy daily. If you hear God’s voice, that Voice will accompany you as you walk out your life. You can stay in and be protected by the presence of God all the time and rise above your circumstances.

Have you ever had a spontaneous thought? An emotion that is not yours? An image that popped into your head? Maybe an audible voice? A video in your mind? (When it comes like a video in your mind, that is a vision.)

John 6:44 - “‘The only way people come to Me is by the Father who sent me - and pulls on their hearts to embrace me. And those who are drawn to me, I will certainly raise them in the last day.’ Jesus continued, ‘It has been written by the prophets, “They will all be taught by God Himself.” If you are really listening to the Father and learning directly from Him, you will come to Me!’”

So - nobody comes to Him but those who hear His voice and learn from Him.

Even when you were ignorant and lost, He was talking to you. The Father speaks to every person in the world - He is speaking to all. Those who learn of and from the Father, come to Him. How much more He speaks to you who believe!

Your imagination is a gift from God. Many times it is easy to dismiss the voice of the Loving Father, because something will pop up in our imagination, and we will mentally “shoo” it away with an “Oh, that was just my imagination!”

In actuality, a sanctified imagination that is submitted to the Word of God is the place you hear and heal. He loves to speak to you in your imagination - because He is the Creator of it, and He can speak clearly here. 

There is a simple way to learn to hear God’s voice - it may sound too simple - but it is actually powerful!

But first let’s go over a couple of blocks that can prevent you from hearing His voice in your imagination. Imagine with me that your mind is a whiteboard. Many things get drawn on this whiteboard - images you have seen, and experiences that have happened to you. We have all seen things we shouldn’t have seen, and had things happen to us that should have never happened. These two things clog up our ears, and we cannot hear.

So first of all, we are going to ask Him to sanctify our imaginations by cleaning off our whiteboards of all the images we have seen that didn’t benefit us...movies, horror films, advertisements, things you saw as a child, things that just come across your path that cloud your vision and clog up your ears. We can ask him to erase these things.

There are experiences that have happened to us that He never intended. We live here in a fallen world - we don’t live in a bubble - things have happened to you that left a stain. When you go to access this beautiful tool, all you hear and see are the stains. The devil has stolen this tool that God has given, and perverted it. The Father can easily erase these from your whiteboard - clearing away any obstacle from being able to hear Him.

~ There was a woman who was a pastor for eight years but had never heard God’s voice. But for the eight years prior to her becoming a pastor, she had been addicted to pornography. When she came to Christ, He healed her of the addiction, but her mind was still stained and her ears were blocked by the bad images. When she repented and asked him to erase the whiteboard of her mind, she could immediately hear His voice! 

So we can say this 30-second prayer to cleanse our whiteboards. Put your hand on your heart and say: “Father God, I confess and repent of having seen images and bad videos, and even seeing bad images that were out of my control. I ask you to remove any stain from the experiences that have happened to me. In the name of Jesus, I give you control of my mind and ask you to clean it with your blood so you can draw your drawings and write your images. Amen.”

Now that the whiteboards of our minds are clean - let's put into practice four simple keys to hearing His voice.

The first one comes from Habakkuk 2:1-2. Habakkuk was in a time of war and having a conversation with God - he really needed to hear God’s voice and get His instructions. So he went up to the top of the watchtower, listened for the Lord, and God told him to write down what He was going to say to him.

Key #1:

Be still. Go to a quiet place. Calm down. 

~ Psalm 46:10: “Surrender your anxiety, be still and realize that I am God. I am God above all the nations, and I am exalted throughout the whole earth.”

If you are like me, your mind is pretty busy and loud! So let’s do a little exercise to be able to get quiet! We need to make sure we are hearing God’s voice and not all the other voices in our head.

So first: we are going to ask God to silence our own voice. How do we recognize our own voice? When it is speaking to you about you! That’s your ego. Fears about your safety, about whether you are good enough or not, doubts, any skepticism...that’s not Him, that’s all you. So we ask Him to silence our own voice. Visualize your voice coming out of your head, and being sealed up in another container. Now you know your voice is being silenced.

Second: let’s ask God to silence the voice of the world around us. These are all the other voices in our heads. Usually, the voices are what we think other people would say to us about our problem or situation. Also - the voice of common sense goes in this category. Although common sense can be of use, if you spend much time in the Word, you will recognize that God rarely operates out of what we would call common sense. His power goes far above and beyond common sense - and it oftentimes doesn’t make a lot of sense to our logic anyway!

So, once again, picture the voice of the world getting swept up from all over your mind, and being placed in another container and set aside, so it will not distract you from hearing Him clearly.

Third: let’s ask “In the Name of Jesus” for the voice of the enemy to be silenced. His voice is recognizable because it is always accusing. You can visualize, and sometimes even feel his voice being ripped out of you. It is the one voice that does not want to be silenced, so continue to pray until you feel it or see it going away from you. Continue until you are convinced that the voice of the enemy no longer has any power or voice over you.

Once these three voices are silenced, the only voice left will be that of the Lord.

Key #2: 

Focus on Jesus. Set your mind on Jesus. If at this time you get quick distractions - little reminders - write them down, set them aside, and go back to thinking of Jesus. That is normal. We are all running at such a crazy pace that sometimes there are things in our mind just waiting to come to the front for a time when we are still for a bit. Don’t feel irritated or upset - just know that things are filtering up to the top because you are sitting quietly for a moment. When the list is done, and all the things are done filtering to the top, focus on Jesus.

 ~ Hebrews 12:2: “We look away from the natural realm, and we focus our attention and expectation onto Jesus who birthed faith within us and leads us on into faith’s perfection...”

Key #3:

Spontaneous Thoughts. When you are quiet, you are focusing on Him, you will receive spontaneous thoughts - this is His voice. This is where He speaks to you, heals you, encourages you, and speaks truth to any lies you are believing. His words always bring peace. He always speaks in love.

Key #4:

Write it down. Why? So we don’t forget. It can be so powerful in the moment, so life-changing that you may feel like you will never forget this moment. But when this becomes a lifestyle, (hopefully, you will begin practicing this daily 🙂) He is going to have a lot to say to you. You don’t want to forget any of His precious words.

This can be done daily in your quiet time with Him. You don’t have to wait for a prayer line at church, or an appointment with a pastor or counselor - He will speak to you every day, heal your wounds, and speak truth to any lie you are believing.

You can start your time with, “Lord, what would you like to heal in me today?” Go through the steps 1, 2, 3, 4. When He shows you what He wants to heal, you can ask him to show you the root of that pain. Let Him take you to the very moment you were wounded. When He takes you there, ask him, “Jesus, where were You in that moment?” He will show you right where He was. He will take away your pain, He will restore your broken heart. He will renew your past.

~ I had a friend who was carrying an immense amount of grief because her uncle had passed away, and he had been the father figure in her life as she grew up. At his passing, her family would not allow her to cry or to show her grief. She was told she needed to be strong for the family and hold it together. She was never able to properly grieve his passing, and she had such a huge wound in her heart. He told her he wanted to heal that space, and allowed her to weep and weep and weep. Then he showed her right where He was at that time, holding her close. Then He healed that wound, showering her with so much joy she could not contain it. She broke into joyous laughter as He healed her heart. It was a red-letter day for her!

Or you could ask Him, “Jesus, what lie am I believing?” When he tells you, ask Him, “And what is the truth?”

~ My sister was out with her friends having lunch one day. The gals got to talking about all their different medical issues they were facing, as they were all aging and talking as women do. As they were all describing what they were going through, my sister began to feel nauseated and light-headed. She excused herself to go to the restroom, and once there, she actually fainted and woke up on the floor of the bathroom, bruised and bleeding. She knew she wasn’t sick, so she was wondering what could be the matter. As she thought about it the next few days, she was reminded how every time someone spoke of medical issues or health problems they were facing, or even going to the doctor with her husband for routine check-ups, she would feel sickly and faint. I shared these simple steps with her and suggested she ask the Lord if there was a lie she was believing that was causing her to react this way. A few days later she told me He showed her several instances in her life when she was a child that she had seen car accidents up close - they were pretty gory - and these had scarred her. The enemy had used these instances to bring fear to her about anything medical. She didn’t even remember these moments until He brought back her memory. He healed her and restored her memories, and she no longer has this problem! He will speak truth to a lie you may be believing that you are not even aware of!

You could also ask Him, “Who would you like me to forgive today?” Let Him take you to the time and place, let Him give you the supernatural ability to forgive. Let His forgiveness wash over you.

~ We were ministering this message to a group of women when we were in Colombia, and gave them some time to go through the four steps and then ask God who He would like them to forgive. He supernaturally gave them the ability at that moment to let go of things they had carried for many years. One lady shared that she was able to forgive the man who had killed her son! Another one shared that she was able to forgive her husband who had been abusing her for thirty-eight years! Another one said she was able to forgive herself for not loving her husband that she had been married to for over forty years. This is real stuff!! God is about forgiveness. He knows we do not have the ability within ourselves to accomplish it, so He is waiting for you to let Him do it IN you! He is faithful!

So, let’s try it right now.

Pray with me: Lord, in the name of Jesus, I ask You to sanctify my imagination. Clear the whiteboard of my mind of anything that is not of You. I confess and I repent of images I have seen or things and experiences that have happened to me, even things out of my control.

I ask You now in the name of Jesus to silence my voice in my head. I take my voice and put it in a container, and set it aside.

I ask You now in the name of Jesus to silence the voice of the world. Sweep it all up from all around my mind, and place it in another container to set aside so I won’t be distracted from hearing Your voice.

I now ask in the name of Jesus that You silence the voice of the enemy. I ask that it be ripped out and sent away, clearing my mind and ears from any and all voices but Yours, Lord.

In the name of Jesus I give You control of my mind and ask that You clean it with Your blood so you can draw Your drawings and write Your images.

Now, imagine yourself walking on the beach with Jesus. Ask Him what He wants to say to you. Write down what you hear. 

Blessings, Dear one.