Hearing God's Voice

Who am I going to marry?
Where should I go to college?
What career should I choose?
Should I try out for the play?
Should I play baseball?
Should I go on that mission trip this summer?
Should I talk to so-and-so about that thing that bothers me?

How do you know what God wants you to do? 

How do you hear His voice? 

I want to start by saying that you CAN hear His voice. 

We are often taught to be so afraid of being "deceived" by satan or our "fleshly" desires that we are convinced that we can't hear God.  Yet, the Father is talking to us all the time; we just have to learn to recognize it.

Jesus said, "My sheep know my voice." 

There is no manual to this.  Yet, I've found that somehow, we can just "know" his voice.  As I've gotten to know him, I've slowly learned what he 'sounds' like and then I can tell the difference between the competing thoughts in my mind.  For me his voice is mostly leanings inside of me or thoughts that influence what I'm considering.  Sometimes they have been words or sentences that came to my mind or while journaling, though mostly it's more impressions.

To begin with, this is what I've learned for myself.  I'm not going to say "These are THE ways God speaks."  They're simply the ways he has spoken to me. 

Here's the first one I've noticed.

Let me give you an example.  The other night I was rocking our one year old, Celia, before putting her to sleep in her crib.  I starting singing Jesus Loves Me to her.  I sang the first verse and then the chorus, but while singing the chorus I realized that I couldn't remember the second verse.  Weirdly enough, when I finished the chorus I suddenly remembered the first part of the verse.

"Jesus loves me, He who died Heaven's gates to open wide."

During that part of the verse, I thought, "Uh, I don't know what comes after that."

But, guess what.  When I got there it suddenly came to me.

"He will wash away my sin, let this little child come in."

I find that God's leading is a lot like that for me.  He seems to fill me in just when I need it, not often before.  I've found that he often wants me to trust myself and his leading and just make decisions.  As I'm heading down the line, he sometimes steps in and redirects, refines, or simply confirms my direction.

I saw career paths in college work this way.  I saw dating relationships that worked this way.  I just

made choices that seemed good to me at the time and that seemed to share my heart to follow Jesus and he was always faithful to keep me going the direction he wanted.  Sometimes that was to stay on the track I was on.  Other times it was a complete change.  In some cases a dating relationship fizzled out.  In another, with my wife, it didn't and just kept growing.  I also headed to college thinking I was going to major in psychology.  A difficult class redirected me to education. 

There were times when I felt an unusual "God is telling me something here!" moment.  Other times I simply found my way blocked and needed to go a different direction.  Sometimes I felt those blocks were from him; other times he encouraged me to push past those blocks. 

I've learned to trust him and to trust that he is leading me all the time, whether I realize it or not.  The key for me has been to stay close to him emotionally.  When I'm in tune there, I find it so natural to stay close to his heart for my life.