Do you realize that God is speaking to you in your daily life?
I began to enjoy prayer after discovering that God responds when I pray. God can speak to us in many ways, but I will share seven ways that God used to speak to His people in the Bible.
1. God will speak through dreams.
In the Book of Genesis, we find that God spoke to Abimelek through a dream to warn the king of Gerar about his attempt to marry Sarah, the wife of Abraham, just because he didn't know the truth. But God came to Abimelek in a dream one night and said to him, "You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman." (Genesis 20:3) Besides this instance, God also spoke in a dream to the magi in Jesus' time to warn them not to return to Herod, but told them to leave the country by another way.(Matthew 2:12). Yes, God will speak to us in a dream even today, so develop the habit of recalling your dream in your mind before you wake up (because once you wake up, you will probably forget it) and try to record it as soon as possible on your notepad or mobile phone before you forget it. It will be the first step to understanding what God is trying to communicate to you in your dream before you know the interpretation of it.
2. God will speak through visions.
The Spirit of God revealed a vision to the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 11:25). The prophet was being led to the exiles in Babylonia. Daniel also saw a vision of the Lord on the bank of the river Tigris during the time of Cyrus, king of Persia.(Daniel 10:7). Does God only speak to people with a vision in the Old Testament? No, look at Peter in Acts 10:9-16 and 11:5). In a vision, God spoke to the apostle about the gentiles also being welcome to the kingdom of God as well.
3. God will speak through the prophets, or people with prophetic gifts.
Without the prophets, we wouldn’t be able to understand God’s will at a particular moment of time, such as when God used the prophet Jonah to call for the repentance of the residents of Nineveh even though the prophet didn’t even want to go to this city in the beginning. The prophet Agapus passed a message of warning to the church that there was going to be a big feminine coming to the entire Roman world, so the church could prepare for all these issues when they finally came true in the reign of Claudius. (Acts 11:27-30) The Bible also mentions that there are nine spiritual gifts, and one of them is the gift of prophecy, or what some people would call a prophetic gift. That means God will frequently speak to a person and use that person to speak out to those whom He wants to speak to. The message will always be a personal message to an individual when it falls into the category of personal prophecy.
4. God will speak in a still small voice.
The Prophet Elijah will be a perfect example of God’s way of speaking to us. The prophet had just been through a big spiritual battle with all the false prophets on the mount of Carmel and fled from the life-threatening message from Jezebel. He just wanted to quit. However, when God restored his prophet, Elijah, he heard the Lord speak to him in a new way, "a still small voice," as the scriptures stated. (1 Kings 19:11-13)
5. God will speak through angelic beings.
The Lord will use angels to speak to us whenever he wants to. For example, God used two angels to save Lot and his family before he wanted to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. (Genesis 19:1-17) God sent his angel to tell Joseph that he shouldn’t be afraid but should take Mary as his wife. (Matthew 1:20)
6. God will speak through animals.
God will sometimes use a funny way to speak to us when we don’t pay attention to what he says. For example, the Lord used a donkey to speak to Baalem when this prophet wasn’t listening to God. (Numbers 22:29 –31) Do you remember how God spoke to Jonah and drew his full attention to speak to him? By using a big fish, Jonah started to really listen to God in the belly of this big fish (whether it was a whale or not, we are not sure). For Elijah, God used the ravens to bring him food day and night to show God’s providence and care for him as well. (According to 1 Kings 17:2–6)
7. God will speak through the scriptures.
(which is the most important and our standard of discernment as well.)
As the apostle Paul said, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Nothing is more important than God’s written word. Although there are many ways that God will speak to us, no voice or message can be contradicted with God’s words, and we should use this as a standard and measurement of all the voices and messages that are claimed to be from God. In order to do so, you will at least have to read your Bible every day and do your Bible study often. Otherwise, it will be difficult for you to know what the scripture says about the message you will encounter, whether in a church or with an individual.
Conclusion
There are many other ways that God will speak to his people as well. As long as God uses it, we need to be aware of how God speaks to us. Will God only use the Scripture to speak to us? In principle, yes. In our daily situation? No, we can’t limit God, since God uses a variety of different ways to speak to his servants in the bible as well. Some people may argue that since the canon hasn’t been completed in that period of history, God would use different ways to speak. However, after the canon has been established and the New Testament churches have been built on solid foundations, we don’t need any other ways to listen to God except the Bible alone. Again, I can’t agree with people like that since we can’t limit God and God loves to speak to us in his own way with his own strategy. Since we are all created differently, some would receive a message with a vision or a dream in a better way. Some would be born with a rational mind. That type of person may be better able to communicate in a more logical way or with a written message on a piece of paper. It really depends on whether you are a right-brained or left-brained dominant person. God knows what the best way is for you to receive his voice, and we should never narrow down how God speaks to us. He knows what will be best for us in terms of communication, so just yield to the Holy Spirit and experience God’s voice in a new way. Whenever you encounter difficulties in hearing God’s voice, it is a wise decision to pray for confirmation and see how God will confirm his voice with the scripture and also by your Christian mentor or pastor, who knows how to discern God’s voice as well. Hearing God’s voice is an exciting experience and also a life-long learning process. I pray that you will become more mature in your communication with God each and every day, and don't be afraid to make mistakes along the way. One tip I can give you is that the more you draw near to Jesus, the more you can discern his voice. As Jesus says clearly, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." (John 10:27) The more you draw near to Jesus, the more you know whether it is God’s voice or not. A sheep knows the voice of the shepherd due to their close relationship. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you in your communication with God, and I am sure your prayer will be rewarded.
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