Nothing could possibly matter more than learning to discern the authentic voice of God, but few things in life are more susceptible to delusion and deception. When life falls apart and we need God's comfort; in moments of cultural turmoil when we need God's clarity; facing formidable decisions when we need God's guidance; desiring a deeper faith when we need God to say something, anything, to turn the monologue we call prayer into a genuine conversation. Christin Thieme: Yeah, exactly. We’re following up our last episode with you where we talked about how to pray, with now how to hear God. So just a small question to start for you: Why is hearing God’s voice so natural and so hard?

One of the many problems with this view is that it disregards the fact that people can, and do, misunderstand and misapply the Bible just as much as any other means of divine communication. It also ignores the fact that the Bible itself teaches us to expect God to speak in ways outside of the Bible! Dispensationalism only really makes sense in the absence of miracles, which leads me to the third problem I had with hearing from God… 3. EXPERIENTIALGreig assumes that the reader will have heard lots of fellow-Christians say, “God told me this,” or “The Lord said that.” Well, maybe in the churches that Greig frequents. But he remains healthily sceptical about declarations of “What the Lord says” from pulpits and platforms. He notes that psychiatric wards are full of people hearing voices that they attribute to God. So too, he says, is the Christian conference circuit. And as a preacher, I’ll say it’s much more to do with how we listen than how God speaks. When we’re hungry, when we’re desperate, when we’re attuned to God’s voice, we receive with faith. I think that’s what it means to have ears to hear. Jesus is saying, “Hey, don’t just listen with your physical ears, but listen with your spiritual ears.” So he’s still pointing to the authority of Scripture, even though the greatest miracle ever has just taken place in his resurrection. On the topic of prayer, there are few writers to rival Pete Greig. Widely known as being one of the Christian world’s most visionary communicators, and having led a non-stop prayer movement for over twenty years, his books on prayer have sold in the tens of thousands. Since it first published in 2019, How to Pray has been one of Hodder’s fastest-selling books and shows no signs of slowing down while The Prayer Course has been used by millions of people around the world to enrich their relationship with God. How to Pray also featured in 2021 as a lead title for The Big Church Read, which introduced the book to hundreds more people across the country, who have since recommended the book to their friends and family in turn. So a huge number of people are waiting for the follow-up to How to Pray…

The main sections of this book are on hearing God speak in the person of Jesus, in the Bible, in prayer, in prophecy, in whispers and dreams, and (to cover all other bases) in community, creation, and culture. Examples are drawn from a wide range of sources: from St Ignatius of Loyola to the prophetic Pentecostal missionary Heidi Baker. Each chapter ends with a suggested Listening Exercise. Most people insist of hearing God’s voice on their own terms. Perhaps we need a newfound willingness to take counsel from a brother or sister, as a mark of humility and surrender. Sometimes he waits for us to humble ourselves. The Bible is the language of God’s heart, and therefore if we wish to hear what he is saying, we have to be immersed in the Scriptures.

Books & Arts

This has been a super helpful complementary resource as my church has been talking about knowing God’s voice. It really is “a simple guide for normal people.” Very easy to understand and really helped me make sense of the different categories in which God speaks to us.