How to Hear God: An In-Depth Bible Study

Have you ever asked, “How can I hear God’s voice? How can I know what God is saying to me so I can make the right decision? Which way am I supposed to go, Lord?”

Knowing God’s will for your life and hearing God’s voice will always have elements of faith, so we will rarely get words painted in the sky leading us with unmistakable clarity. True peace doesn’t come through getting all the answers when you think you need them. True peace comes through being in God’s presence. When we trust God no matter what, that’s the ultimate expression of faith.

However, while we may not always get the answers we are looking for at the exact moment we want them, Scripture is clear that God is speaking and he wants us to hear his voice (John 10:27). And when you know how to listen for the answers, hearing God’s voice becomes much easier.

So here are three ways on how to hear God.

Point 1: Hear God Through Studying and Applying His Word

I imagine a thud on the other side of the screen when you just read point 1 on how to hear God. Reading the Bible seems so conservative and modest that it might feel like a cop-out for me to offer it as advice on how to hear God’s voice. When people talk about hearing God’s voice, knowing God’s will, and choosing the “right path” that God wants them to take, they are typically looking for something a bit sexier and audible compared to reading the Bible.

But studying the Bible must always be the first piece of advice when it comes to hearing God’s voice and knowing his will because the Bible gives us the guardrails as we travel forward on the road of life (Psalm 19:11). Doctrines may seem dogmatic, but they are foundational for our personal interactions and conversations with God (Psalm 145:18).

Perhaps so many people find the Bible boring because they don’t really believe God speaks through it personally to them (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The Bible is exciting to read when you realize God uses it to send you personal messages that directly apply to your circumstances and questions.

To be clear, the Bible is full of absolute truth (Psalm 119:89), so I’m not saying each of us gets a unique truth from God through the Bible. Rather, when we are listening closely to the Holy Spirit’s leading as we meditate over the Scriptures, he will give us personal application points, helping us to apply God’s absolute truth to our very unique lives and questions (Psalm 119:105).

Point 1a: If Hearing God’s Voice Is Not Guided By the Bible, You Will Always Doubt What You Hear

One of the problems I’ve noticed when it comes to hearing God’s voice is not knowing whether we are making his voice up in our heads or not. How can you trust you are actually hearing God? Perhaps you just want something so bad you are creating a false voice in your head and just doing what you want rather than what God is actually telling you to do.

The first way we can decipher God’s personal leading in our lives is to test it against his general truths outlined in Scripture. If you ever “hear God” saying he hates you, or that he wants you to commit an act specifically forbidden in Scripture, or that he is revealing a “new truth” that contradicts what is clearly outlined in the Bible, you are definitely not hearing God. What God says to you personally will never contradict what he has said to everyone through his written, infallible word. For example:

• If you are wondering if God is leading you to date or marry a certain person but that person is not a Christian and you are, you can be confident God is not leading you down that road because to be unequally yoked is expressly forbidden in the Bible (2 Corinthians 6:14).
• If you are wondering whether or not God wants you to financially support your local church, you can be sure that he is leading you this way because supporting those leaders practically who are benefiting you spiritually is commanded in the Bible (Galatians 6:6).
• If you are feeling led to go on a missions trip but you are not sure whether or not God is saying yes or no, you can at least know through studying God’s word that he is in support of evangelism (Matthew 28:19). You may still need to pray about if you should go or not, but you have at least taken the first step in finding the answers you seek.

When it comes to hearing God’s voice, however, studying the Bible is not enough. We need to read the Scriptures first with the intent of discovering the original message and meaning of the author (Acts 17:11); but the Bible is living and active (Hebrews 4:12), which means that although it is filled with unchanging, absolute truth, the Holy Spirit uses Scripture to instruct us on personal decisions and issues unique to our individual circumstances.

For more on this, you can read this article: How Does God Speak Through Our Circumstances?

Point 1b: Hearing God’s Voice Through Reading the Bible Is Not Done Through Bible-Roulette

You usually won’t hear God’s voice through reading the Bible by finding literal words and sentences that directly inform you on your question, “Yes, you should marry your boyfriend Joe because you randomly flipped to Matthew 1:18 and it talks about Mary being betrothed to Joseph. Clearly God must be sending you that message!” This is not what I’m talking about.

If there is a direct command or passage about the personal question you have, the Lord will direct you to that passage. However, more often than not, our questions are not directly mentioned in the Bible because they are more personal. Thus, the Holy Spirit will teach you a precept, principle, or pattern in the Bible and then help you apply that insight to your individual circumstance (John 16:13, Romans 8:26). When you hear and then apply God’s word you can be sure you are hearing his voice and obeying his leading.

Thus, what we are not saying is that hearing God’s voice through the Bible is done the same way as shaking a magical eight ball. While playing “Bible roulette” – which is when you randomly flip the Bible open and take the first thing you read as God’s voice to you – would be easier in some people’s opinion, it would not be beneficial.

God gave us a mind so that we can use it to decipher his word and wisely apply it to our lives through the help of the Holy Spirit (Romans 12:2, Hebrews 5:14).

Point 1c: Hear God’s Voice Through the Bible By Using It to Follow Jesus in Your Life

God ultimately has given us his word not as a book of rules and instructions we need to learn; rather, it is ultimately a book about a person we need to know.

You could certainly do worse than living your life strictly by biblical principles without God’s intimate leading. But what is available to us through Jesus Christ is far greater than that. Because of what Jesus has done, we can boldly come into the presence of God, casting all our anxieties on him and receiving personal direction and peace in return (1 Peter 5:7). Hebrews 4:15 states, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

So when it comes to hearing God’s voice through reading the Bible, I’m not saying you replace the intimate leading of the Holy Spirit with the physical pages of Scripture. It’s not Father, Son, and Holy Bible. The Holy Spirit certainly speaks to our hearts personally. But whenever the Holy Spirit personally speaks to us, his words will always align with the Bible.

And when you study what the Holy Spirit has inspired in Scripture, you see that he always exalts Jesus for the glory of the Father (John 16:14, 1 John 4:1-3). The Holy Spirit wrote the Bible through the hands and personality of men (2 Peter 1:21), so it makes logical sense that what he spoke then will be consistent with what he is speaking to us now in our personal lives since God is never changing.

Therefore, to really hear the voice of God through the Scriptures, you need to obey what the Scriptures teach us about following Jesus. When you are doing the will of God by following the word of God, you can be sure you are following Jesus, for that is what he is always doing (John 5:19, 6:38, 14:31, Luke 2:49).

Point 2: Hear God Through the Holy Spirit in Your Heart

Hearing God’s voice always starts with the Bible. If you want to know the will of God, it always starts with knowing the word of God.  The voice of God can be heard every time you submit to the Holy Spirit illuminating the Scriptures to your heart and mind.

However, there are sometimes “morally neutral choices” that get set before us that are also important. In situations like there where there is not an immoral or moral option, it can be difficult to find a Bible verse to help guide you. It’s in these situations where I believe you especially need the Holy Spirit to give you specific directions through speaking in your heart to you.

To be clear, however, when we are seeking to hear the personal direction of the Holy Spirit in our hearts about morally neutral decisions, the Scriptures must still be our first means of hearing God. Even of the Bible has nothing to explicitly say about your question, you will gain confidence that you are hearing God’s voice accurately when you know the types of things God will never say because they would be unbiblical.

Additionally, there are usually biblical principles God will use to help guide us even if the specific topic or question we have is not directly mentioned in the Bible. Dating, for example, is not in the Bible. But there are plenty of verses that will help you pursue marriage through dating in a biblical way.

Point 2a: The Two Common Errors that Come Up in Regards to Hearing God’s Personal Leading in Your Life

When it comes to hearing the personal leading of God in your life, I believe there are basically two simple errors that often occur.

The first error would be total dismissal of hearing God’s voice personally and replacing it with sole reliance on biblical principles. Of course relying on biblical wisdom is always right, but to replace the Holy Spirit with the Bible is a huge mistake. If you never slow down to listen to God’s personal words to you, you are missing out.

The second error is to ignore the Bible and wisdom and equate faith with no planning, no wisdom, and total moment-to-moment reliance on the Holy Spirit’s voice for every decision, from when to brush your teeth to who you should marry.

What you personally feel God is saying to you in your heart has zero authority compared to Scripture. To give equal authority to what you feel God is saying as to what God has already said in the Bible is foolishness. We can mishear God. We can insert our opinions. We can be wrong. God’s word is perfect, unchanging, and will always be the guide on absolute truth.

In fact, sometimes an over dependence on needing to hear God’s voice about every little decision is actually rooted in a lack of faith rather than an abundance of faith (read the article, “Can You Pray Too Much?” for more about this). When you know God is sovereign and in control, this gives you peace to live your normal life without stressing about insignificant choices.

All that to say, it can be difficult to know what topics God wants to personally lead you on. Certainly he has given us a brain and as we go through the day we will literally make thousands of morally neutral decisions we don’t need Bible verses to support and that we don’t need “words from God” to accomplish.

As humans, sin occurs when we use a good thing in a bad way. I believe we can even use “prayer” incorrectly by trying to turn God into a rubrics cube type of God where we need to follow a perfect combination of decisions to unlock his blessings. This is not what I’m talking about when referring to hearing the voice of God and trying to know what God’s will is for you. So while I don’t believe you need to “hear God” about what socks to wear in the morning or how much creamer you should put in your coffee, I do believe the Holy Spirit wants to guide you through life in intimate, specific ways.

Faith can be expressed through trusting in God and not stressing the small stuff. But faith can also be expressed by slowing down enough to pray and ask God for directions on what to do. You will need to read your Bible and walk with God to know which expression of faith each situation calls for. The main point here is that as Christians, we should be expressing both forms of faith. We should trust God enough to where we are not anxious about little choices that don’t matter that much. And we should trust God enough to pray about everything he is placing on our hearts to pray about (Philippians 4:6-7).

Point 2b: To Hear God’s Personal Leading to You, You Must First Believe This Is a Biblical Practice

You will find it difficult to really believe God is speaking to you if you don’t first believe this is a biblical practice. You must be biblically convinced that God does speak personal words to his people for you to hear these words and trust that they are not just your own.

If you are not biblically convinced God speaks this way, don’t do it since anything not done by faith is sin (Romans 14:23). It is crucial to first go to the word of God to confirm that this category of hearing God is biblical to begin with. While we don’t have the time here to do that right now, I encourage you to study this for yourself. I truly believe Jesus’ sheep hear his voice (John 10:27) in deeply personal ways not only because the Bible points to this but also because I have experienced it firsthand far too often for it to be coincidental nonsense. As Paul experienced in Acts 20:22-23:

And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.  I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.”

This Bible passage gives us a great balance to emulate. We will not always be able to know the answer to every question we have. Most of the time we will not know the specifics of our future. But we do know that the Holy Spirit is speaking words of warning and counsel to us. And even though we will not always hear God’s voice perfectly because we are flawed, we can still be compelled by his Spirit to follow the directions he has given us.

Paul didn’t know what would happen; he just knew what he had to do. Likewise, we should focus more on what God has shown us rather than worrying about what he has not yet revealed.

Perhaps the most biblical language for hearing God personally would fall under “discernment.” Hebrews 5:13-14 explains:

. . . for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”

When we know God’s word deeply, the Holy Spirit will give us more and more insight on how to apply God’s word to the varying circumstances and decisions we will have in life. Discernment is needed to choose between good and evil. Most often God will make our decisions clear by making the path of righteousness obvious compared to the path of wickedness. When holiness and sin are the two options, it is easy to hear the Holy Spirit’s leading and discernment.

However, when there is a morally neutral choice before you, I still believe God often is leading us to choose one way versus the other. Perhaps sometimes he will say something like, “It doesn’t matter. Either choice is fine. Do what you want. Just do it for my glory.” And perhaps other times he will say, “Don’t do that. Do this instead for my glory.” The most important thing is that we take the time to ask God the questions we have.

If you can’t decipher what God is saying, don’t waste your day by stressing over small choices. The bigness of each choice should dictate the level of effort you put into hearing God’s voice about it. If you don’t feel led by God one way or the other, do what you feel will most glorify him. Do what is most biblical. Do what is wisest. And do what brings you the most enjoyment.

But don’t miss out on the intimate leading of the Holy Spirit by assuming he has nothing to say to you personally. Prayer is meant to be a conversation and a conversation includes talking and listening.

Those who hear God are those who consistently still their hearts to listen.

Point 2c: To Hear God’s Voice Accurately, You Must Be Humble Enough to Know You Can Make Mistakes When Hearing God’s Voice Because Humans Are Imperfect

I believe the Holy Spirit places “impressions” or “directions” or “discernment” on our hearts. He “gives us a word” and “leads us.” It can be difficult to use the right words to describe this process because oftentimes we attach different meanings to these types of words and phrases about personally hearing God’s voice.

For example, I like the word “signs.” I believe God sends us signs. But when I use that word, I’m not talking about supernatural signs, like a vision or an audible voice from God. I’m also not talking about random events that you must attach a specific interpretation to for it to mean anything. For example, people may see a heart shaped cloud and take that to mean they will get married within the next 12 months. I’m not talking about this type of sign.

When I use the word sign, I’m simply referring to “evidence for what God wants you to do. So if God gives you a Bible verse that helps you know how to not sin in a relationship, this is a “sign” God has told you what to or not do in regards to this relationship. If God closes a door to a job you were praying about, this is a “sign” this is not the job he wants for you. Anything that helps you know the will of God for your life can be referred to as a “sign” from God. That’s how I use this word.

My point is, when the Holy Spirit personally directs us, people describe this process differently. It usually depends on what theological background you are coming from. I prefer to stay away from language like “God told me” or “God said to me” because this feels too close to the language of the false prophets God had rebuked because they were claiming to hear from God when in actuality they had not (Jeremiah 23:16). The personal “words” or “leading” of the Holy Spirit are not authoritative like the Bible.

So while I do believe Scripture supports the general principle of the Holy Spirit personally leading us in our lives, I believe it is wise to always remember we can certainly mistake about what God is actually saying to us. We are not infallible and therefore I believe it is wiser to say things like “I feel like God is saying to me” or “I felt like in that moment God had told me” or “I know I could be wrong, but I really feel led by the Lord to” as these phrases give room for God to move and for you as a human to make mistakes on hearing God.

Point 2d: Hear the Voice of God By “Trying On” Each Option

With semantics behind us, I do believe the Holy Spirit gives us intuition and direction on which way we should go in life.

One of the most helpful and practical pieces of advice I’ve learned on “how to hear the voice of God” was from John Eldredge in his book, Walking with God. I would not recommend going to John Eldredge for baseline theology, but I believe there is much to learn from his relationship with Jesus and his understanding of human identity.

In the book he talks about how to hear God and get direction when you have real choices to make, “Should you go this way or that way?” He suggests you sit before the Lord in prayer and “try on” each option. To “try on” the options in a given situation means to sit before the Lord with one option and then do that again with the other option, listening to his leading as you do so. Usually you can sense which way God is leading you when you try out each option in prayerful contemplation.

So let’s say you are trying to hear if God is giving you a “No” or a “Yes” on a certain decision you need to make. You have already tested both options against the Scriptures and you know neither choice would violate God’s written word. So in prayer you try both options out as you sit before the Lord, listening for his leading and being sensitive to what direction he’s leading your tender, responsive, new heart (Ezekiel 36:26, NLT).

First you sit before the Lord with the “no” and you try to get a sense for what God might be saying. And then you sit before the Lord with the “yes” and again you quiet your heart so you can hear God’s leading.

When I have practiced this tactic, I can usually get a sense which option God is leading me to take.

Point 2e: How to Be More Confident You Are Actually Hearing God’s Voice and Not Your Own

It is crucial you are genuinely ready to obey any answer God gives you. If you know you are not willing to accept a “No,” you will not be able to fully trust that God is giving you a “Yes.” You will constantly worry you are simply making his voice up to get the answer you want because you know you want that answer so bad. But if you are ready to do what he says even if you don’t like it, this adds to the confidence you are actually hearing God rather than your own preferences.

Again, of course there is huge room for mistakes when talking about “how to hear God.” Of course we must continue to rely on the clarity of the Scripture. Hearing God through the impressions the Holy Spirit is putting on your heart is highly subjective and has great room for error. It is very easy to trick yourself into hearing what you want from God. So again, never make a decision without first prayerfully considering what God has already communicated in his written word.

But let’s be honest, millions of morally neutral choices will come at us throughout life. Do we really think God has nothing to say about these choices? Why would God tell us in his word to pray about everything if God doesn’t care about the things we are praying about (Philippians 4:6-7, Ephesians 6:18)? Surely God speaks to us personally through the intimate presence of his Holy Spirit.

Point 3: Hear God’s Voice Through the Circumstances of Your Life

When you want God to speak to you about something that is happening in your life right now, your present circumstances will provide you with a treasure chest of information about his will for you.

When it comes to projecting where God wants you to be in the future, your present circumstances are not as helpful. And if you have a question about God’s feelings towards you or about what God is like, your external circumstances will be worthless as material blessings do not confirm or negate God’s approval or disapproval of our choices (Matthew 5:45, John 9:1-3, Luke 16:19-31). His word tells us how he feels about us and about what he is like. But whenever you have a question about the present, you can gain a lot of information by observing your present reality.

This idea sounds so obvious it almost feels not worth mentioning. But stating the obvious about God speaking through our circumstances is necessary because we live in a day and age where people believe truth is relative and absolute truth is despised. We have to be careful we do not get sucked into the guru nonsense of our era.

In other words, your reality is not what you believe it to be. Your truth and my truth can’t both be right if they are different. You can’t speak things into existence. God really is in control and the things that are happening are a under his authority (Psalm 115:3, Ephesians 1:11). Thus, what happens in reality is giving us information about what God is doing. For example:

• If you are hearing God say “date Laura” but Laura has rejected your last ten invitations and told you she will call the police next time you call her, you are not hearing God correctly.
• If you hear God say, “Quit your job because that book you wrote is about to be a bestseller in one week” but you’ve been trying pitch it to publishers for years and no one has even seemed remotely interested; and since it takes around a year after a book is signed for it to then actually go to print, God is probably not telling you to quit your job.
• If you are wondering if God wants you to work at a certain company but they just notified you that they hired someone else, you can be sure God does not want you working there right now.
• If you are wondering if you should buy that house but then someone else buys it, you don’t have to sit around wondering if you should still put an offer in. God has spoken.

All of these examples are limited to the present. Maybe Laura will change her mind one day. Maybe the book deal will come. Maybe that company will return to your resume for a different position. And maybe the house will come back on the market in a year or two. But right now, in each of those situations, God has spoken because God speaks through our circumstances.

Point 3a: If It Doesn’t Happen, God Didn’t Say It Would Happen

In the Bible, God warns his people not to put up with false prophets. But how are the people to know what prophets are true and which are false? In Deuteronomy 18:21-22 God gave the people some very practical counsel on how to decipher between true prophecy and false words from God:

You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?’ If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.”

God makes it really simple for the people: If reality matches the prophesy, the prophesy was in alignment with his will. If the prophesy doesn’t happen, that prophet did not here God’s voice.

So if you want to hear the voice of God, sometimes all you need to do is look around. He is speaking through the events in our lives all the time.

Point 3b: Recognize the Limits of Hearing God’s Voice Through Your Circumstances

To be balanced, only looking at the circumstances of your life is not sufficient when trying to follow God because many of our questions have to do with the future. As we all know, our present can change in a moment.

And as we mentioned earlier, you can’t interpret “good” circumstances with “God loves me” and bad circumstances with “God hates me.” Your subjective feelings about God’s love towards you should be guided by the objective facts God has revealed in Scripture about his heart towards you. When we fail to do this, we can trick ourselves into thinking God is pleased with our sinfulness and displeased with our service. Why? Because without the Bible we can interpret out lives however we want (2 Timothy 4:2-4). And since we are flawed, without the perfect word of God guiding us, we will certainly interpret things wrong.

For example, just because you are sick does not mean God no longer loves you. Your difficult circumstances are not God voicing his lack of love for you. The Bible says God shows his love by glorifying himself through our lives, and sometimes that means God shows his love not by sparring us of sickness or other trials but by glorifying himself through our lives as we walk with him through those trials (John 11:1-6).

So we must be cautious when using our circumstances to hear the voice of God. Again, it is best to use this method of hearing God’s voice when our questions are regarding the present. If you are asking, “Should I move to Texas to be with my girlfriend?” but then your girlfriend breaks up with you, God has probably spoken a “No” on that question through these circumstances. But if your girlfriend is encouraging you to come, she’s been nothing but faithful, the relationship has the biblical ingredients for marriage, and you sense the Lord saying “yes” to you in your heart when you pray about moving, then God probably is telling you to move.

In summary, to really hear the voice of God accurately, we must pay attention to all three of the ways in which God speaks: through his word, through his Spirit in your heart, and through the circumstances in your life.