Can Christians hear God today? What does His voice sound like? How do we learn to listen—and how do we test what we hear?
Finding out that God is speaking to us today, and that we can hear Him today, transformed my life.
For years, hearing God felt distant to me.
I knew the Bible said:
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:”
— John 10:27 KJV
But I did not really know what to do with that.
I thought hearing God was mostly something that happened to prophets, apostles, or people in Bible stories. I had heard modern stories too, but I often viewed them with skepticism.
Then I began meeting ordinary believers who loved Jesus, loved Scripture, and were learning to recognize His voice.
That made me start asking questions.
Could I hear Him?
How does He speak?
How do I know whether something is the Lord, my own thoughts, fear, or something else?
What is prophecy?
What happens if I get something wrong?
Can we practice hearing Him?
What about dreams and visions?
And how does all of this fit with the authority of Scripture?
This series grew out of those questions.
I am still learning.
But I have become convinced of something simple:
Jesus wants a real relationship with His people, and His sheep hear His voice.
Start Here
If this subject is completely new to you, do not feel like you need to understand everything at once.
Start with Jesus.
Read the Word.
Believe what He said.
Spend time with Him.
Ask:
“Father, what’s on Your heart?”
Then wait.
Listening is not about trying to force an experience.
It is about relationship.
And throughout this entire series, one principle remains central:
The written Word of God is the standard.
A thought, impression, dream, vision, prophetic word, picture, feeling, or experience does not become Scripture.
We test what we hear.
We stay humble.
We keep learning.
And we keep looking to Jesus.
The Hearing God Series
1. Can We Hear God Today?
The starting question.
Jesus said His sheep hear His voice. This article looks at the biblical pattern of God speaking, why I once doubted that Christians could hear Him today, and what changed my mind.
If you are skeptical, curious, or simply wondering where to begin, start here.
Read next: Can We Hear God Today?
2. How to Hear God’s Voice
If hearing God is possible, how do we actually learn?
This article gives practical starting points:
Spend time with the Lord.
Ask questions.
Wait.
Pay attention.
Start small.
Practice safely.
Test what you hear against Scripture.
And remember that learning takes time.
Hearing God is not about performance.
It is relationship.
Read next: How to Hear God’s Voice
3. The Many Ways God Speaks
The Bible does not show God communicating in only one way.
He gives direct instructions.
The Holy Spirit leads and redirects.
People receive visions.
Angels bring messages.
God reveals things people could not know naturally.
He uses symbolic pictures and physical objects.
He gives prophetic warnings and foreknowledge.
This article walks through many of those biblical examples and helps expand our understanding of what “hearing God” can mean.
Read next: The Many Ways God Speaks
4. What Is Prophecy?
Prophecy has been abused, misunderstood, and sometimes avoided altogether.
But Paul wrote:
“Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.”
— 1 Corinthians 14:1 KJV
So what did he mean?
This article looks at prophecy through the New Testament purpose of:
edification, exhortation, and comfort.
It also examines Deuteronomy 13 and 18, the difference between accuracy and faithfulness to God, and why prophecy must remain humble, tested, and under Scripture.
Read next: What Is Prophecy?
5. What If I Hear God Wrong?
This is one of the biggest fears people have.
What if I miss it?
What if fear sounds like guidance?
What if an accusing thought sounds spiritual?
What if God seems silent?
How do I test what I hear?
This article looks at discernment, Scripture, testing the spirits, learning from mistakes, writing things down, wise counsel, and staying open to the Lord without becoming gullible.
It also takes seriously the instruction of 1 John 4 to test the spirits and the confession that Jesus Christ came in the flesh.
Read next: What If I Hear God Wrong?
6. Practicing Hearing God Safely
Learning usually involves practice.
But practice should never mean manipulating people, making major life decisions for them, or pretending every impression is unquestionably from God.
This article explores how to create a healthy environment where people can listen, share humbly, receive feedback, learn from mistakes, and keep love at the center.
A safe practice environment should make it normal to say:
“I may be wrong.”
And it should always make Jesus more important than the person giving the word.
Read next: Practicing Hearing God Safely
7. Stories of Hearing God
Sometimes teaching becomes clearer through stories.
This article gathers several experiences from my own journey:
A simple troubleshooting thought at work.
Practicing at trivia night.
Being led to a family at church.
Tripping over a rock that became part of an encouragement for a stranger.
A word about shoulder pain at a mall.
A prophetic ministry call with someone who did not yet follow Jesus.
And other moments when I was learning to recognize how the Lord was speaking.
These are testimonies—not a claim that I hear perfectly.
My hope is that they make you want to know Jesus more.
Read next: Stories of Hearing God
8. Dreams, Visions, and Other Ways God Speaks
Dreams became a major part of my journey.
I came to believe that all dreams come from the Lord and that every dream is worth taking back to Him for interpretation.
That does not mean I automatically understand every dream.
The dream comes from Him.
The interpretation still needs to be sought from Him.
This article looks at biblical dreams and visions, recording dreams, interpretation, scary dreams, nightmares, symbolic dreams, and the difference between receiving something and understanding what it means.
Read next: Dreams, Visions, and Other Ways God Speaks
Practical Resource: Questions to Ask God
Sometimes the simplest difficulty is not knowing what to ask.
The Questions to Ask God resource is designed to help with that.
It includes questions for:
Spending time with the Lord
Prayer and intercession
Decisions
Testing what you hear
Dreams
Marriage
Studying hearing God and prophecy
Studying prayer
Identifying what makes listening difficult
You do not need to work through the whole list.
Pick one question.
Ask God.
Then listen.
A simple place to begin is:
“Father, what’s on Your heart?”
Resource: Questions to Ask God
Selected Stories
Some of the testimony material is also strong enough to stand on its own.
As this site grows, I plan to preserve selected stories as separate posts so they do not disappear inside a larger teaching article.
Some of those include:
I Tripped Over a Rock
A simple object I almost ignored became part of a very specific encouragement for a woman who had just learned she was pregnant and had been crying out to God.
Can You Hear God at Trivia Night?
A low-risk experiment in listening to the Lord while answering trivia questions became an unexpected lesson in recognizing different ways information came to me.
“I Feel Like You’re Here Just for Me”
A church visit, a late friend, an unfamiliar hallway, prayer, and timing came together in a way that reminded me how personally God sees people.
The Parks Mall Stories
Several encounters at the mall taught me about words of knowledge, taking risks, praying for people, and pointing attention back to Jesus.
More stories may be added over time.
What This Series Is—and Is Not
This series is an invitation to seek Jesus.
It is not an invitation to chase spiritual experiences.
It is not an invitation to replace Scripture with impressions.
It is not an invitation to let other people make your decisions for you.
It is not an invitation to turn “God told me” into a tool for control.
The Bible remains the written Word of God.
We test what we hear by Scripture.
We test the spirits.
We remain willing to admit when we are wrong.
We stay accountable.
We grow.
And we remember that the goal is not simply hearing a voice.
The goal is knowing the Shepherd.
My Hope for You
When I first built my old Hearing God pages, they were mostly social media posts gathered together in one place.
I hoped someday to organize them more clearly.
This rebuilt series is the result of that process.
But organization is not really the point either.
My hope is that somewhere in these pages you become more confident that Jesus loves you, sees you, and wants you close to Him.
Maybe you have never tried to listen to the Lord.
Start.
Maybe you have been afraid because you could get something wrong.
Stay humble and keep learning.
Maybe you have heard Him for years.
Keep growing.
Maybe you have had bad experiences with people who claimed to speak for God.
Go back to Jesus and go back to Scripture.
Wherever you are starting from, I hope these pages encourage you to know Him more.
He loves you.
You are important to Him.
His sheep hear His voice.
So spend time with the Shepherd.
Listen.
Test.
Learn.
And follow Him.