It’s late, the house is finally quiet, and you’re lying in bed thinking about a decision you’ve been praying about for months. Then a thought drops into your mind. It feels clear, almost like an answer.
Right behind it comes the question you’ve probably asked a hundred times. Was that God, or was that just me?
You’re not alone. I’ve trained a lot of believers to hear God’s voice, and most of them really do want to hear Him. Some are so afraid of getting it wrong that they never move at all. Others scroll through every prophetic voice online, hoping someone else will hear God for them. Both keep you from the same thing, and that’s friendship with Jesus.
It starts with belonging
Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). Before He says a word about hearing, He calls them His sheep.
So if you belong to Jesus, you can already hear Him. Hearing God isn’t elite Christianity. It’s normal Christianity. Sheep hear the Shepherd because they’re His.
You’re probably hearing Him more than you realize. A lot of people simply dismiss what He says as “just my thoughts.” Your receiver already works. You’re learning to recognize His voice through all the noise, and that grows as you walk with Him.
God is patient while you learn
In 1 Samuel 3, Samuel is a young boy serving under Eli, and one night God calls his name. Samuel doesn’t recognize the voice, so three times he runs to Eli, thinking Eli called him. He didn’t know the Lord yet (1 Samuel 3:7). He was brand new at this.
God didn’t scold him or go looking for someone more spiritual. He just kept calling. “The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’” (1 Samuel 3:10).
God isn’t setting traps for you or hiding His will behind some puzzle. He knows exactly how to get through to you, and your growth depends on His faithfulness, not your perfection. If you’ve been anxious about missing Him, He’ll be as gentle with you as He was with Samuel.
And it was Eli, the older priest, who realized the Lord was calling and told Samuel how to answer.
Let Scripture train your ear
Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would remind you of everything He said (John 14:26). The more Scripture shapes you, the faster you’ll recognize what sounds like Jesus, because the Spirit will never contradict the Word He inspired.
I’ll be honest with you. I’ve had times when my Bible was open and I still couldn’t hear a thing, because anxiety was talking and my own desires were pushing. God hadn’t gone silent. I’d just been listening to everything else first. I’d watched five sermons and ten clips before I ever opened my own Bible. I thought all that was sharpening my ear, but it was really just crowding the room.
You don’t read to earn God’s attention, because you already have it. But the more you know the Shepherd’s character, the easier it is to recognize Him when ten other voices are fighting to be heard.
How to test what you hear
Start with Scripture. If it contradicts the Bible, it isn’t God. Then ask if it sounds like Jesus. If it feels frantic, condemning or flattering, slow down. Look for the fruit of the Spirit too, like love, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control. Be careful with peace by itself, because sometimes what we call peace is really just relief that we got the answer we wanted.
Hold it with humility. If you can’t say, “I might be wrong about this,” that’s a warning sign. “For we know in part and we prophesy in part” (1 Corinthians 13:9). Then bring it to wise counsel. God used Eli to help Samuel, so talk to a mature believer before you make a major decision alone at two in the morning.
Prophecy is a real gift, and a prophetic word can encourage you. It can’t replace your prayer life, your Bible or your own obedience. Jesus is your mediator.
And if you carry heavy guilt over every little thing, that heaviness isn’t from God. He leads you. He doesn’t drive you with guilt.
What it looked like on an island
Listening matters when I pray for the sick, too. On a small island where we’d been for months, I met a Christian man. At his house, with his wife there, I asked how we could pray for them. He said, “Pray for our family’s health and finances.”
That was a very generic prayer, and I wanted something specific. So I asked again. Same answer. I asked a third time, and God spoke to me: “His back is in pain.”
Then his wife began to say something in a language I didn’t understand, and the translation came back that his back was indeed in pain. He said the pain was a 10. He was the breadwinner, and if he didn’t work, his family didn’t eat.
We prayed a short prayer and commanded his back to be healed in the name of Jesus. When I opened my eyes, tears were rolling down his face. He said all the pain had left his back.
He never asked for prayer for his back, but God saw it. God will often target what people won’t say, can’t say or don’t know how to say. When the prayer became precise, faith rose instantly.
Your next step
This week, open your Bible, get quiet and pray what Eli taught Samuel: “Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9). Then read, and do what you see. To learn to listen like this when you pray for the sick, start the free 5-day course on praying for the sick.