Hearing God

A couple of days ago, someone asked me how you know that God is speaking to you and that it's not your own desires that you are putting on God. That's a loaded question. It got me to thinking though. This is what I told her:

In Psalm 37, it says that if you "delight yourself in the Lord He will give you the desires of your heart." I think that the key to this verse is delighting yourself in Him. That way, His desires become your desires. Also, you get to know Him more. In Zephaniah 3:17, it says that "The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing." (That's my favorite verse by the way.) The deal is, He takes delight in us!!! He loves us so much that He takes delight in us and would love it if we took delight in Him.

When I began to pray, I was very young. I think that helped me a lot. I didn't ask what words to say or what to ask for. I simply talked with the Lord everyday after school. I mostly told Him my dreams. I would read His Word and ask lots of questions. Somehow along the way, I knew His voice. Somewhere along the way, I fell in love with the Lord. He already loved me more than I could ever imagine and already delighted in me. However, when I was in middle school, I began taking delight in Him. When I pray, I'm just talking with Him. It's a relationship where speaking and listening are key.

"Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him." Psalm 37:7. This is the hard part. His timing is not always our timing...His will is not always our will. Therefore, we must make sure that we are hearing God correctly. I think this comes with confirmation. If the Lord tells you that He wants you to go to Africa and someone out of the blue invites you to go to Africa, there's your answer. If His answer isn't that obvious, then walk through open doors until He closes one. Lots of my friends who are called to do Christian entertainment can tell you about waiting. They are working at Starbucks while working on their ministries as well. They are simply walking through every open door (opportunity) that comes along. They are waiting patiently (and sometimes not so patiently, because that's the way it is) for the Lord to allow them to quit Starbucks and do their ministry, calling, and everything full-time.

The other thing that you must check when you are searching God's will while making decisions in your life is if it's Biblical. For example, if you thought that the Lord wanted you to do something unethical, that's most likely your own desires that you are placing on the Lord. I would go to an outside source for this question such as your pastor or someone who is knowledgeable in the Scriptures. It's easy to read into scripture and make it mean whatever fits what you are thinking.

I do believe that the Lord speaks to us in some of the same ways, but differently as well. We are all different. Do any of you have anything to add? I'd like to hear how God speaks to you.