Learning To Listen To God, My Experience Part 1

Recently, I am reading a book titled “Walking With God” by John Eldredge. One lesson that is taught on the book is that God is speaking using various channels including speaking to our hearts. This is a part of intimacy that God wants each of His child to practice and build in our daily lives. John gave several simple practices and examples from his own experiences. He also wrote that the main filter to examine if the voices we hear in our heart is from God or not is the Bible.

The first to build the habits to listen to God speaking to our hearts is to ask His will about simple things in our lives. Or in other words, we should start small and simple. And I have been practicing this, probably for one or two weeks. John encouraged us to ask God what part of Bible He wants us to read. The reason is of course because God can use certain passages on Bible to speak to us specifically.

So, I tried to practice this and asked God, “Lord, what do you want me to read from Bible today?” I faintly heard from my heart His voice said “1 John 5: 11-12”. So I opened the passage with a hopeful heart. I read the several verses before and after to understand the context. The funny thing was that it was not the two verses that attracted my attention. I felt that God specifically pointed verses 14 and 15.

14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

Why these verses spoke to me specifically? Well, it is because these last two years, I found that God spoke to me about certain issues in my life. He exposed the roots of the problems. He brought the roots of the problems to the surface. And He put in my heart desires to find His healing and solutions for these problems. I remember I had impression that He spoke to my heart, saying that the things I pursued what from Him. What I prayed and asked were His will. I will not be disappointed, not be embarrassed, but will see that He is answering my prayer in wonderful ways. So, these two verses are like encouragements and comfort as I start to feel that I desperately need His healing and solution for my problems.

Then, another days, I visited my favorite blog and read an article which mentioned the same verses. The article didn't talk about my problems at all but about a different topic. But, the verses still talked about the same thing to me. And another days, when I kept reading the book, after several chapters John also used the same verses. So two different ministers, who I don't think know each other, wrote different things, but repeated the same message.

Was it coincidence? I don't think so. This was not the first time. This is one way God uses to confirm His will and reassures us that we did hear it right. Now, I should wait until the answers come, the healing comes. Let's see how God is going to do that.