Relationship With God

How to Listen to God

Carlos Brandao

29 May 2019

You may ask yourself if it is possible to come near to God. It may surprise you, but the Lord God is totally kind and loving and is always near and keen to listen to us. If you want to communicate with him, you can do it everywhere, anytime, in the middle of a public means of transportation or anywhere you go, at any hour of the day or the night, and he will listen.

One thing you will need to know is that God is Holy, and we are not. As a child needs a bath before coming to eat at the dinner table, so we need to be clean before spending time with the Lord. Now, of course I’m not saying that you need to wash your hands before talking with God, or that during the time you are dirty because you are cleaning your house or working in the garden you can’t come near Him to share your heart. No. The dirtiness I’m talking about is the things inside us, that would block our relationship with God, like when you do something wrong to someone, and you need to ask God to forgive you, and need to go to the person and make things right again. If you have never got in touch with God before, then if you would like to have a real, deep relationship with Him, you need to come to Jesus Christ, confess your sins and ask him to forgive you, and then he will do the cleaning inside out, so you will be able to get in direct contact with Him, as a child comes freely and confidently to the arms of a beloved father.

Prayer is not only asking God to help us, or expressing a need. Prayer is relationship with God. Prayer is listening and talking. It is drinking from the well of life. There is a two-way communication. We are the ones that need to learn from him, not the contrary. Relationship is the key. Love is the master key. We exist to love. Not to force him to give us what we think we need, and at the time we desire. We just can’t manipulate him. No one or nothing has the power to stop you from communicating your message to heaven. God will always listen. Every time. You can talk with your mind, and he will listen. You can use your audible voice and he will listen.

You can even use unintelligible sounds of anguish when in extreme agony, and he will not only listen, he will understand what you are trying to express. He is totally lovely and caring. He will not despise anyone. On the contrary. He will always be ready to open his arms and comfort us. His nature is pure Love. But that doesn’t mean we will be able to convince him to do what we think needs to be done, nor that he will answer our prayers in the time we think is best. It is better to believe he knows if something will be good for us, and when is the best time to get it. Prayer is a fantastic tool to enable us to keep relationship with God. Some people say he can answer by saying “yes”, or “no” or “wait”. We need to trust him. Some people do not like to depend on anyone. Freedom here is not freedom to do what we want at the time we think is best. Freedom here means to choose to depend on God forever. To obey his commands because we love him. To love him first, and then to love others the way we love ourselves.

He is God, not us. He is the one that sent Jesus Christ, his only son, to die in our place, so we could live with him forever, and to have direct access to him from now on. He is always ready to communicate with us. The fault is never on his end. The problem is not on him. It is on us. We are the ones in need of learning. We are the ones in need of choosing life and not death. When in his presence, life flows like a river inside us. There is no need there. He is our pastor. We are his sheep. In his presence there is no want.

Throughout history, different Christians have found different ways of keeping in constant communication. Different ways of practising the presence of God. Brother Lawrence wrote about “the practice of the presence of God. Mme Guyon wrote a great deal of interesting spiritual literature, including “A Short and Easy Method of Prayer”. Her books are not difficult to find for free on the web. And you can some as well on my site. Go to Free Resources on main page, click on it, and then click on the free e-books you would like.

For many, probably for the majority of people, the best way to get in touch with God and spend time with him, is to wake up, get up from bed, and find private space, a quiet room. Go there, close the door, and stay quiet. And wait for God to speak with you. The best time for me to do that is early in the morning. This is what works for me.

For others, it can happen in the end of the day, before going to bed. Or even during the day, in the middle of the afternoon, finding a peaceful place in a park for example. It is not easy, especially in the beginning, when we are learning in this process, to quiet one’s brain, and listen to God’s gentle voice. There are so many different voices out there. The voices of the significant people you know, inside your heard, mainly the ones from your family. Your parents, your spouse, and also the close friends. But also there are those voices around that you need to get away so to stay in private conversation with God. So you need to get away from your smartphone, TV, laptop, telephone, tablets, and stuff like that. There is your own voice inside your brain, if you are a Christian, there is the Holy Spirit’s voice inside you, coming from the spirit that abides with you, as he communicates with your spirit. And there is the voice of the darkness that would try to invite you to go in the wrong direction. As you persevere, you will advance, and grow in the relationship with the Lord. He is life. He is peace.

There are different ways he communicates. Reading the Bible is one way of listening. You can read it slowly. Then a word might “come out from the page”. Stay there for a while, thinking and meditating on that word. God speaks to you using it. It can also be via a conviction inside you. Or a feeling inside us. For instance, an African friend was happy understanding that the Holy Spirit uses a feeling of a “red traffic light” when He wants to stop you from doing something, and the feeling of a “green traffic light” when He wants to confirm to you that something or some direction is OK. It can also be some holy teaching that remains strong inside our heart. Or some advice a friend gave us that comes with a strong inner power. He can also speak through visions and dreams. Or via an object or also by nature (creation) when for instance a mountain speaks about his majesty and power.

Many times he speaks inside us through thoughts in our head. It’s a matter of spending time in his presence. Loving him. Humbling waiting in his presence, by faith. Practice it. It works. It is life and peace. There is nothing compared with him. He is the way, the life, the truth.