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Do you want to hear God’s voice more clearly?

You can.
It’s that simple.
You and I control the volume.

We have to turn down the outside noises.  
The ambient noise level in our lives is in our control more often than we think.
Sure there are lots of hours of the day when our time and environment aren’t ours to control, but there are moments and hours that are.
It’s what we choose then that can make it easier to hear God clearly.

Here’s an awful realization:  I’ve acclimated to noise.
When did noise become the default setting in my house, my life? 
Monday afternoon I caught myself grabbing for the remote before I even put down my purse.
I thought, “I’ll just listen to the news while I unload these groceries”.
That’s the kind of small choice that has big consequences.
I didn’t think about it in the moment, so I missed an opportunity to hear from God.
I drowned Him out with a bunch of blah, blah, blah pre-election day chatter.

Today I chose quiet.
And I can hear Him speaking.
In bits and pieces from last night’s mid-week Bible study and my morning reading.

• Job’s loathing of his own life because of his sufferings spoke to me about feeling deep compassion for people caught in a crucible experience.
• Peter and a few other Jewish believers shed all their old presumptions when a group of Gentiles were saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit right before their eyes.  Embracing as brothers people they’d always thought of as dogs.  And God made them all family so they could fill the known world with the good news of Jesus Christ.  Can I cast off old prejudices and be useful to God in bringing others to Jesus?
• Voting for our leaders is responsible citizenship and praying for them is good in God’s sight.
• God cares about the sparrows, but He’s numbered the very hairs of my head.  I’m loved and watched over by God.

 

How many days have I missed His input?
Forgetting what lies behind, right?  I press on toward. . .

 

We have to turn down the inside noises too.
This is harder. Stopping my own thoughts from their constant flow is like turning off Niagara Falls.
But I want to cultivate a private quiet.
Ecclesiastes says For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:  . . .a time to keep silence. . .
When is that time in my day, in my life?

 

We can turn up the volume on God.
Give Him lots of air play.
Turn up the volume by reading your Bible, or reading it more.
I began a new reading plan that has me reading a chapter in 10 different parts of the Bible each day.
Can I just say I was skeptical, but I’m a convert!
I love it 😉

http://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-reading-plan/prof-horners-reading-system.html

I also bought a read aloud App of the New Testament. 
As one reviewer noted the reader has a slight southern accent, but I like it.
It’s free, but there’s an in-App upgrade for $1.99 which I bought for the jump to any verse and sleep timer features.
I used to have a set of cassette tapes—yep, I’m that old—with Gregory Peck reading the Bible.
I’ve missed listening to the word as I walk, or sweep the garage, or unload the dishwasher.
Starting that again today!!!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/spokenword-audio-bible-new/id304085181?mt=8

 

Here’s another techified approach to hearing God’s word.
Our friend Don McClure’s messages come on a cool little 16MB USB Flash Drive.  We took this to Africa and really enjoyed listening to Matthew and Philippians while driving to the villages for ministry and conferences.  I’m sure you can find lots of other similar products from other pastor/teachers.

 http://calvaryway.com/product/selected-studies-950-messages/

 

How do you handle this noisy world we live in?
What do you do to hear from God?