How to Listen to God

This year, my goal is to grow closer to God through spiritual disciplines. The call is clear. My small group is doing a Bible study for the first time, I found a workshop on spiritual disciplines, and my preacher at church is doing a series on spiritual disciplines. One of the spiritual disciplines is the practices of silence and solitude. Silence and solitude are both excellent ways to learn how to listen to God. But they are not easy to attain for the modern day American.

Why Is it Hard to Listen to God

Americans are trained from the moment they are born to be active and to achieve. Sitting still and listening to others seems pointless and impossible. It feels like we are wasting time. As time goes on, these disciplines are less and less taught. In our culture of "quick fix" technology and easy access to information, waiting is a challenge. It is a popular school of thought that children cannot sit still. We want to be on the move, moving mountains or achieving our goals. Self-actualize is a popular term. With a cultural basis such as this, no wonder we have no room for God or His words to us. We have stopped listening.

How to Prepare to Listen to God

For the past three weeks now, I have a "date with God" solely for the purpose of listening to Him and giving Him room to speak into my life. Here are some tips for doing this:

Set a date and time you will spend with God. Make it an appointment that you won't break. Write it in your calendar or day planner. Mine is Thursday morning at 10:00 a.m.

Find a comfortable place to sit and a comfortable position to sit in. You may not want to lay down, as you could fall asleep. Choose a position similar to how you would read a book or watch a movie.

Decide how long you will spend with God. Remember this is a discipline, so you can gradually do it for longer and longer with practice. Set a timer or an alarm clock if you want to make sure you don't go longer than you anticipated.

Turn off all distractions, including cell phones and television. Even an idle computer can be a distraction as it purrs away. The noise that is left should be silence and maybe little nature.

What to Do During Your Time with God

This is your time to be with and listen to God. So what should you do? As difficult as it is, think of it as doing nothing but being with him. It helps me to picture being with/listening to a close friend or even a lover. How do we spend time with our friends or significant others? Many times, the best times, we are just with them, cuddling or holding each other close. We might hold hands or have our arms around each other. We just enjoy being with them, in the moment. We don't have to be anything or do anything or say anything special. We are just there, and they are there, too. When you are this way, you feel accepted and able to open up ready to listen and accept the other person for who they are. Picture doing the same thing with God. Imagine yourself sitting his lap or sitting next to him, letting Him hold you close. As you breathe and just allow yourself to relax and open up, your mind will be ready to accept His messages.

If you are trying to listen to God, as in trying to make something happen, it is easy to get frustrated if you don't hear anything. Trying to listen to God is actually not listening to God because you have an agenda. It is when you can relax and just be that you will most easily hear Him.

Quiet your heart. You don't have to do anything or be anything. Put aside worries and agenda. Now you are ready to really listen to God.

What To Do If You Get Distracted While Listening to God

Distractions are normal and should not be a reason to get frustrated. We are used to keeping our minds on cruise control. We don't monitor our thoughts or notice what we are nurturing. Picture your mind like a room with two doors. One door is where thoughts come in, and the other door is where thoughts go out. Our thoughts are like animals that come in the door and go out. Some animals keep tracking through those doors over and over again without impediment throughout the day. When you put the world on hold to listen to God, you are in essence shutting both doors. What does a creature of habit (your animals) do when a door that is usually open is now closed? They will bang on the door loudly and howl or make distracting noises so that you open the door again.

If you wait them out, though, they will go away eventually. No matter how loud they bang, just don't open the door.
Another tool you can use to keep your time focused is to have a phrase in mind that helps you center on God. An example could be, "God is in control." Breathe in and breathe while you are saying or thinking this. Then let your mind relax again.

There will still be thoughts in your mind that may displease you, but this will show you the things that you need to deal with or lay aside. They may be things that are coming between your relationship with God. And whether your "distracting thoughts" are about a relationship, career choices, finances, or lifestyle choices, they are showing you what is truly inside of you. This is, in essence, another way of listening to God. Try not to judge your thoughts or yourself too harshly. God doesn't want us to listen to Him so He can tell us how bad we are. He wants us to trust Him with every area of our lives.

Listening to God is rewarding and something you will learn to look forward to. My weekly coffee date with God is now a normal part of my life and a date I plan to keep.