Not hearing God's voice

Carl Emerson said:

Hey... some great replies - love to see the wisdom coming through on this.

Going a little deeper - I carried a wound in my spirit for years. Would this have inhibited my ability to hear God?

I finally got some healing prayer through the ministry of the Order of St. Luke after faithfully attending for about 12 months.

The deep pain I constantly carried was no more - Hallelujah !

So should we explore this possibility that folks can be wounded or have a distorted Father image?

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Such a wound might inhibit someone's relationship with God. But I would be cautious about raising it as a possibility, absent other evidence of a wound. It may lead to a young Christian thinking they are "broken" when that is not the case, and going off on a wild goose chase. (I had a similar experience when some Christians tried to tell me my PTSD was demonic and I needed deliverance; no, it wasn't, and no, I didn't, but a lot of heartache went into figuring that out).

Carl Emerson said:

OK so finally - can we agree that it is His will for us to hear Him?

And if this is so, hearing Him should be normative.

Lack of hearing Him then needs to be taken seriously as to why ???

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While it is good to hear from God, I would be very slow to decide that God isn't allowing someone to go without that for a time, for a reason. I think of the monastics who spoke of long periods of "dryness" in that regard as a spur to spiritual hunger and growth.

I would be very, very slow to decide that there is any fault or lack or problem with the person having that experience, because - in my experience - our attempts to decide what should be "normative" for others are more likely to do harm than good.

Carl Emerson said:

Yes mature believers and monastics can have a dry time to test faith but the average believer should be able to hear God - yes ???

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I don't think we get to decide what experience someone "should" have of God.

Carl Emerson said:

OK so finally - can we agree that it is His will for us to hear Him?

And if this is so, hearing Him should be normative.

Lack of hearing Him then needs to be taken seriously as to why ???

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unless you pick up your cross ( keep your women silent etc ) you will not hear God ...

Carl Emerson said:

Correct... except when the bible says "my sheep hear my voice"... if they dont... what then? Ignore it and move on????

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I think Jesus making understand something to a christian should be normal stuff, he is lord of our lives so, he may be interested in saying a few things to us? i would feel sort of a 'bastard' son sorry for the word if i just don't get some recognition from our father at least from time to time?.

Carl Emerson said:

Correct... except when the bible says "my sheep hear my voice"... if they dont... what then? Ignore it and move on????

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Not necessarily. Support that person, pray for them, be there for them, involve them in church life in ways that use their gifts, etc.

You can't "make" a particular experience of God happen. All you can do is provide opportunities and let God be God.

Now this can be a guess on my part, but being filled with the Holy spirit increases your 'chances' of hearing from God and experiencing something more regurarly from him by a lot.

This is so underrated and not taken care of, and people say this is a false teaching of pentecostals and that we get all the spirit at conversion,
you know if we get all the spirit at conversion why the apostles asked: 'Did you receive the Holy spirit when you believed'? the question is not: 'did you receive the new birth when you believed? you know what i mean? the new birth is not something people could lay hands on someone or needed to ask and wait in a place to get, the new birth is done by God when people accept and believe in Jesus and convert 'automatically'.

Carl Emerson said:

Of course - I cant remember anyone saying that one can make folk hear God's voice.

However there may be issues unresolved in the believers life that will make it hard for them to hear when God speaks.

Gifted ministry can address these issues.

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Personally, unless you have other reasons to diagnose particular issues, I think deciding that someone "must" have issues just because their prayer life isn't what one thinks it should be, is both highly presumptuous and pastorally dangerous.

Carl Emerson said:

This is weird Paidiske - who said that ???

You seem to be answering imagined arguments...

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Well, what is the point of your questions? You seem determined to decide this person has "issues." Why?

Carl Emerson said:

There is no 'person', we are discussing hearing God's voice and what can inhibit one hearing.

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I thought you were asking about the giving of pastoral advice.

If you want a theoretical discussion on what might inhibit one hearing, I'll leave you to it. But if you were asking about how to advise a new Christian, then my concern is not to burden them by seeking fault where there may be none.

As far as the OP I have never heard from God audibly, so I would say stop worrying live your life

Carl Emerson said:

If a new convert was to to say to you, that they cant hear God's voice, what advice would you give?

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Carl Emerson said:

That was not the topic of discussion - rather we were thinking about folks who had been on the road for a while - say years - and can not recall any personal communication from God of any kind.

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In that case, given your OP that I've quoted here, I think some confusion may be understandable.

In your second case, I would be more likely to spend some time exploring with them experiences that they've had that they may not have recognised as connection with God (eg. experiences of recognising giftedness, or of feeling "called" to do something, or of times of overwhelming love or joy or peace, or of growth in character over time... all of these may be evidence of our relationship with God that is not mediated through the classic "hearing from" type experience).

Carl Emerson said:

Hey... some great replies - love to see the wisdom coming through on this.

Going a little deeper - I carried a wound in my spirit for years. Would this have inhibited my ability to hear God?

I finally got some healing prayer through the ministry of the Order of St. Luke after faithfully attending for about 12 months.

The deep pain I constantly carried was no more - Hallelujah !

So should we explore this possibility that folks can be wounded or have a distorted Father image?

Click to expand...

Praise the Lord! It is wonderful, the healing God has given to you!

I know what it is like ... to carry a wound ... in my case, a deep sorrow ... and for God to heal it. It was a wonderful, supernatural thing ... one night, God took the pain away during a healing event that I was attending. So awesome. And the pain never has returned.

Our God is an awesome God.

Maybe it is ... or can be ... that one's woundedness can affect their ability to connect with God, to 'hear' Him ... I really do not know. It was not that way for me. In my life, woundedness has been a 'gift', in that it has always driven me to God, and not away from Him.

Did your healing experience make it easier for you to 'hear' God? Your post seems to imply that it did. Well, if that is what happened ... then it may work that way for others, also!


When it comes to these things, I love these verses ...

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, Who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."

~ 2 Corinthians 1:3-4