Closer to Christ – How Does God Speak Back

 Closer to Christ

How Does God Speak Back

In these lessons, we are learning how to be closer to Christ. We’re learning that He is wonderfully active in our daily lives, wanting to spend personal time with us, and wants us to be able to speak comfortably with Him.

In Lesson 1, we learned What to Say to God

• God, you are amazing!
• God, thank you!
• God, I’m sorry!
• God, help me out!
• God, help others!

Then in Lesson 2, we learned How to Say It

• With Passion
• With Honesty
• With Faith
• With Respect

In Lesson 3, we learned How to Feel God’s Closeness

• By Getting into the Throne Room
• By Believing in His Desire to be Close to You
• By Experiencing His Closeness in Quiet Moments

These three lessons cover how to speak to God and feel closer to Him in prayer. In this lesson, we will learn How Does God Speak Back;

• By Spiritual Eyes (Seeing with Our Heart)
• By Spiritual Ears (Hearing with Our Heart)
• By Heart or Feelings (Feeling God’s Peace)
• By Words of Others
• By The Bible

Why it is Hard to Hear God’s Voice

You cannot have a true relationship with God until you are aware that communication is a two-way conversation. God wants to interact with you.

What kind of relationship could you have with your best friend if you never listen to him or her? If all you want to do is talk but not listen?

Watch, be aware and be sensitive to these following ways your Heavenly Father is trying to speak to you.

Spiritual Eyes (Seeing with Our Heart)

Jesus had a problem with the people He was wanting to be with. See if you can see what that problem was in the following verse;

(Matthew 13: 15), For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.

• What was wrong with their ability to SEE?
• What was wrong with their ability to HEAR?
• What was wrong with their HEART?

Does our heart have anything to do with seeing and hearing the way the Lord is trying to communicate and draw closer to us? 

Check One;

• Yes 
• No

You will be absolutely amazed how much stronger and more real your daily walk will be with Jesus and how much closer you will sense His presence in your life as you see and hear the way God is trying to communicate with you through these spiritual eyes and ears.

Let us first look at seeing with our heart

(Matthew 10:29), Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.

How many times while in your moment of need, you have seen a sparrow and suddenly, like a still small voice, you sense an inner reminder of your Heavenly Father’s care for you and then a peace comes over you that assures you that the Lord will meet those needs according to His love, His timing, and His will for you? You are not just seeing those sparrows in a physical sense, but in addition, you are seeing with your heart God’s love and care for you.   

God wants you to see Him this way. Jesus often encouraged the people to see not just by their physical eyes, but see with their hearts. When they saw many of the miracles, signs and wonders Jesus did, they did not see them with their hearts in so much that Jesus Himself was amazed at their blindness of heart;

(Mark 6:6), And He marveled because of their unbelief. 

When we go outside on a stary night and look up to the heavens, do we we just see stars or do we sense God trying to communicate with us and draw us closer to Him in full assurance? 

(Psalm 19:1-2), The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge.

When we look upon the multitudes all around us, have we become so deaf to our Lord trying to communicate with us, or do we hear Him say to us;

(John 4:35) Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!

When someone at home or work, who does not know the Lord Jesus, upsets you, do you get angry or do you see their spiritual need to be saved? Jesus rebuked His disciples for wanting vengeance instead of seeing the people’s need for salvation: 

(Luke 9:51-56) And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?” But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them

When you go to your church gatherings, do you just see people, or do you see the miracle and blessing it is for other people having the desire to come to worship God, sing about Jesus and learn His Word? Do you see how privileged you are to be with such people when there are so few in this day and age that want to love and praise the Lord with other believers? Does your heart rejoice? Do you see behind their polite smiling faces the hurt they are going through and the need of a comforting word or even a hug? Do you see the emotional, financial, or spiritual need they have and how your Heavenly Father has placed you there to meet that need? Does your heart break because you can see how Satan is sifting them like wheat?  

We can go on and on giving examples but we want you this day to draw closer to Jesus by looking at the things all around you in a way where God is trying to give you wisdom, direction, instruction and noticing the needs of others.

Once again, you will be amazed at how much closer you will sense being with Jesus when you see things more clearly with your heart, through spiritual eyes.

Spiritual Ears (Hearing with Our Heart)

As with seeing, so it was with the people’s hearing that Jesus had a problem with as we saw in (Matthew 13:15). Let us look at a couple more verses;

(Matthew 11:15), He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

(Matthew 13:9), He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

(Matthew 13:43), He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

We draw closer to Christ and hear Him more clearly when we listen with our heart.

Again, when we go outside on a stary night and look up to the heavens, do we hear anything?!  We should!!!

(Psalm 19:1-4), The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun,

We should hear God trying to remind us that it was Him who created all this and because He is the Creator, we can safely put our trust in Him. We hear creations “voice” declaring that God is INDEED REAL, because all this is IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT HIM! We have such a daily, worldly attack that tries to draw us away from God by convincing us that He does not exist, but all we have to do is look up at that stary night and hear our hearts agree and cry out these same words as David did in (Psalm 14:1); The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.

Many times, God communicates to us in a “still small voice” that is not audible with our natural ears but rather we hear His loving guidance, instruction and even warning within our hearts. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you were going to make a decision in one direction but you just sensed that this was not right and then found out you made the right choice by listening to that “still small voice” within your head and heart? There are so many testimonies in God’s Word and personal testimonies of God communicating back to us in such a way.  

So often Jesus was speaking loud and clear to the people, but they could not “hear” Him because they were not listening to Him with their heart. Try to be more sensitive when you sense a “still small voice” in your situation, praying to the Father and asking if that is Him trying to communicate to you, to draw closer to you.  Please be careful with this because many have thought it was the Lord placing those thoughts or words in their minds but it turned out not to be the case. 

The following ways are a help to sense that it is indeed from the Lord;

• It will NEVER go against God’s Word, the Bible.
• It will always bring glory to God.
• It will always magnify the Lord Jesus Christ.
• It will never be a stumbling block to others.
• Always ask the Lord for Him to “open or close the doors”. 
• And then, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.   In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

You are at the store, and you see a person drop a $20 bill on the floor without them knowing it. They keep walking down the aisle not realizing they just lost that money. You need new shoes and have been trying hard to save the money to buy them. You are tempted to pick up the $20.00 bill quickly and hide it in your pocket. But suddenly, you remember your pastor’s words that he spoke in Bible study, declaring that God’s Word teaches, “Thou shalt not steal.” It almost sounds like your pastor is right there in your heart and mind saying those words and you hear them very clearly. This gives you the strength to fight the temptation. And so, you quickly pick up the money and run to the person to let them know they dropped this.

We think this is how many of prophets in the Old Testament sometimes heard the voice of the Lord. The Bible gives no indication that God spoke out loud to most of them. Yet they were very clear on His words.

Have you ever found yourself reading God’s Word and suddenly, even though you have read that verse or portion of God’s Word many times, at that moment you learn something from it immediately that comforts, encourages, corrects, or guides you like never before? The Lord communicates with us this way as we read in;

(John 14:26) But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

Please understand with your heart how important it is to draw closer to Christ be seeing through spiritual eyes and hearing through spiritual ears and may our Lord be found saying the following concerning you; 

(Matthew 13:16), But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear;

Heart or Feelings

This is a little different from Spiritual Ears. Sometimes we just get a peaceful feeling in our hearts. We know that God has heard.  We know He is working on it. Maybe we do not need to do anything but wait for Him. Like David, when he asked for God’s help when King Saul and his army were trying to kill him.  David did not report seeing or hearing any answer in his heart when he asked God to protect him as we read in (Psalms 3).   But he said; 

• (Psalm 3:5-6), I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me all around.

Feelings of peace, hope, joy, comfort, love – the peace that passes all understanding that the Apostle Paul wrote about – those come when God lets the Holy Spirit fill your heart in answer to prayer, without you even saying or doing anything. 

(Philippians 4:7), and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

The Words of Others

In Acts chapter 10, the Lord spoke directly to a devout man Called Cornelius. Even though the Lord could have told Cornelius Himself, He chose Peter to finish telling Cornelius what he needed to hear;

(Acts 10:1-6), Now send men to Joppa, and send for Simon whose surname is Peter. He is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea. He will tell you what you must do.

Sometimes God will speak through parents, friends, pastors, coaches. You end your prayer hearing nothing, seen nothing, feeling nothing in your heart. A day or two later, the perfect advice may come from someone else. You’ll be surprised to hear the person giving a great answer to that very thing you have been praying about. One word of caution here though, if you think God might be using someone else to bring you an answer to your prayer, make sure that it does not go against anything God’s Word says, and before accepting or believing that it is from God, make sure you go to your Heavenly Father and let Him know that you believe that He sent that person to help you. Ask God to help you know for sure that this person and their words are what He really wants you to hear.

The Bible

God often speaks through the Bible. You can always call a parent or youth minister to help you find verses that relate to the subject that you are praying about. A very important book that you should try to get is called a Strong’s Concordance of the Bible. This will help you to find all the verses you are looking for. Try to get at least seven or more verses. This will help you see more clearly what God says about this particular subject you are praying about.  

Jesus taught the people to go to the Scriptures to find the answers they are looking for.

(John 5:39), You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.

(Matthew 22:29), Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.

Reading, studying, memorizing God’s Word, and applying it to our lives is God’s way of communicating to us and drawing closer to us. And so, the more you engage in all this, the more wonderful your awareness and the reality of God’s presence will be to you!  Yes, God does speak to us in all these wonderful ways.

We would like to close with this verse;

(John 10:27-28), My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.