There's a fair bit of nonsense out there about how we hear from God. Some of it is superspiritual claptrap that devalues the Scriptures (as when people say things like, "Yes, that was a very nice talk, but I don't want information, I want revelation"). Some of it is plain arrogance ("God has told me this Bible passage, which the world's great minds have been studying and discussing for 20 centuries, actually means this"). Some of it is Gnostic bunk ("Yes, I used to think like that, but then God took me into his confidence about so-and-so"). Some of it doesn't make any sense at all (like the preacher I heard who referred to "the inner audible voice of God"). And some of it is downright destructive ("God has told me the reason you're sick/divorced/infertile/unemployed is because of this thing you did wrong"). Speaking as a pastor in a charismatic church, I understand the impulse to avoid such rubbish by avoiding "hearing from God" language altogether.
But we serve a speaking God who talks to his people throughout the Bible. We are sons and daughters of a loving Father, who wants relationship with his children. We are the bride of Christ, and husbands and wives talk to each other. We aren't employed as slaves or servants but welcomed as friends, and friends talk to each other. We are the sheep of our great shepherd, and sheep know their Master's voice. We are a body in which people prophesy, speak words of wisdom and knowledge, and use other spiritual gifts to edify each other. We may get ourselves into muddle and silliness sometimes, but as Christians, we are those who hear the voice of God. The question is, of course, how? Keep reading
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