Still Small Voice

Do the deaf hear the voice of God? How does someone who has never heard the human voice, or for that matter any sound, ‘hear’ the voice of God? People who are physically deaf are no less spiritual than hearing people. They can still ‘hear’ the voice of God in spite of their physical limitation. But how does the voice of God come to a deaf person?

How a deaf person hears the voice of God is no different than describing how a person with normal hearing hears God’s voice. Pastor Betters talked about how Elijah heard the ‘still small voice’ of God when he ran from Jezebel and hid in a cave. He illustrated how sometimes God’s voice is firm and corrective like the Haitian stranger who calmed the terrified adopted Haitian child on a flight to her new home. Pastor Betters also recounted how the voice of God came to comfort and steady the martyrs of the faith when facing death for His name sake.

Do you know what the voice of God sounds like? Can you recognize and hear the still small voice of God in your life? Being able to hear the voice of God is absolutely critical in the life of a Christian. But many Christians fail to recognize and hear His voice.

God’s voice has come to me strongly on a few occasions over the years but mostly His voice comes to me in a faint whisper. But I didn’t always hear God’s voice. I had to learn to hear Him. A short time after I became a Christian, I ‘accidentally’ discovered His voice. His voice came to me while I was praying. Imagine that? God talking to me when I’m trying to pray! In fact, every time I have since prayed this certain prayer, I have heard Him answer either immediately or sometime during the same day. It was through this prayer that I began to recognize the sound of His voice and hear Him speaking to me. This is how I began to train my ear and my heart to hear Him.

The prayer that opens the channel from my heart to God’s is simply: “Dear Father, How have I sinned against you?” Immediately following this prayer I will usually hear in my spirit a few words. Sometimes a picture illustrating the sin will also flash across my mind. His voice is so gentle (Matthew 12:20) and He never condemns (Romans 8:1).

This prayer is not a magical formula. Hearing the voice of God is about relationship. Confession of sin is critical to open the communication with God and spending time reading His Word is both the tuner and volume to His voice.

Hearing God is about being ready to listen for Him as your spirit walks through every moment of each day. Are you prepared? Is His word continuously flowing through your mind? Have you confessed your sin? Impaired or healthy, this is how the spiritually deaf come to hear the voice of God.