HOW TO HEAR FROM GOD 1 - GBENGA OSHOWOLE

One major key area in our Christian faith is our ability to hear distinctively the voice of God and identify it from so many surrounding voices around us. If we claim God is our father and we are his children, it then becomes imperative for us to hear him speak to us and identify is voice just as we do with our earthly father. In the past, God speak to his children, the children of Israel through the Prophets but in this present age, we all have an equal measure of grace to hear him clearly without any intermediary.” God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe ’’( Hebrews1: 1-2).

Why do I need to hear him? 
Many of the wrong and good decisions we make in life as children of light as to do with our ability to either hear God or the inability to hear him concerning certain issues. Perhaps if we had the understandings of how he speaks to us we would have made the right decisions in that marriage, in the choices of business partners, career, or locations of where we are now.

How does God Speak to us? 
Firstly, we must know that God is Spirit just as the books of 1st John 4; 24 says. Secondly, we must know that man is a spirit and as a believer, we have regenerated the spirit of God in us (Titus 3:5-6). So to be able to communicate with God or hear his voice it has to be in the realm of the spirit. Our spirit must be able to resonate with the spirit of God in us. 
 But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding (job 32:8)
It is vital for us to know that God does not speak to our body but to our spirit, it from the spirt we hear, perceive, and decode any given revelation from him.
The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly (Proverbs 20:27). 
Your spirit is the engine room of accessing any giving information from God and how you are able to hear him accurately is a function of how much you have developed your spirit man. God in the person of the Holy Spirit speaks to his children always but only a few of us pay attention to hear him and this has led to so many struggles and woes that befall us as children of light. 

How do I train my spirit to hear from God?
Some year back a friend of my came to my house on a visit and in the course of our discussion I just pause a bit and told I him that I “just heard God’s voice now”….he asked me “but it is only two of us here how come you were able to hear from God, why am I not hearing him “?. I did explain the reason to him and this brother with all seriousness worked on himself and today to the glory of God he needs no prophet or pastor to tell him what his heavenly father is telling him.
To hear Him you must know God is a spirit and he can only communicate with your spirit which is of God. Therefore to develop your spirit as a believer you must be:

I.    Be baptized in the Holy Ghost
Being baptized with Holy Ghost who is the 3rd person of the trinity is to be immersed with the spirit of God just as it was experienced by the early church in the upper room on the day of Pentecost. Baptism of the Holy Ghost is very crucial as an aspect of our Christian faith because it is at this level you are launched and initiated into the realm of power and spirit through the Holy Ghost. This experience makes the heart of our spirit sensitive to effectively hear from God. As a matter of fact, I feel every believer should have this experienced to be able to walk and work with the father.

II.    You must continually be filled with the spirit
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ (Ephesians 5:18-21).
To be filled with Holy Ghost means to have an outpouring of the power of the Spirit in us, for our spirit man to be completely encapsulated in the fullness of the power of Holy Ghost. When this happened it becomes so easy to hear from God through our spirit because our spirit man has been stirred up. To be filled with Holy Ghost means how much of the Holy Ghost we have become as a result of our intimacy with him. This is why the bible likens one filled with the Holy Ghost with one who is drunk. Baptism of the spirit is a timed event but fullness with the Holy Ghost should be always. 
To be filled with Holy Spirit helps our spirit man to develop and stirred up in order to be in the same frequency with the spirit of God which in turn gives us open access to hearing detailed instruction from him per time per season. 

III.    You can also achieve the fullness of the Holy Ghost by praying in tongues remember the bible says anyone that;” prays in tongues prays in spirit”….. (1cor 14:14). The consequence of praying in tongues is to build our spiritual muscles and tentacles to hear and discern every revelation in the realm of the spirit. 
The word of God is another essential force in building our spirit man toward hearing from God. When you give yourself to the word of God there are inner workings that are going on in your spirit man. This is why the bible says as we behold his glory we have been transformed from one level of glory to another level of glory by the spirit…. (2nd Cor 3:18). 
“So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32).

IV.    Spiritual songs, Praise, worship, dancing, and rejoicing in the presence of God with other brethren opens us into unlimited windows of heaven making our spirit man engulfed in the voices of the heavenly. However, when we sing, dance, clapping, praise, and worship the father it must be done with one’s spirit, not just the body. Before we shake our body to dance we must ensure our spirit danced first because in so doing we are building our spirit hereby giving room for the sensitivity to God’s voice.

V.    Praying and fasting: “As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them” (Acts 13:2). No doubt fasting prayers have tremendous effects on our spiritual wellbeing especially our spirit man. Show me a man of prayer and fasting, then I will show a man that sensitive to the voice of God. When we give ourselves to the ministry of prayers and engaging in fasting our spirit man becomes acclimatize to the voice of heaven and it becomes very easy to hear from God.