How Does God Whisper to You?

Last week I wrote Whispers and Shouts as a way to introduce Whisper, a book I recently read by Mark Batterson.

This week I want to share some thoughts about 7 of the ways God speaks to us that the author shared in his book. Here are those 7 ways along with a brief description:

1. Scripture-the number one way God speaks Truth to us
2. Desires-how God has uniquely created us
3. Doors-circumstances in our lives, both open and shut doors
4. Dreams-dreams and visions God gives us but which are never just FOR us
5. People-supporters and critics, for accountability & course correction
6. Promptings-the Holy Spirit’s nudgings that may cause a restlessness in us and encourages a response
7. Pain-gets our attention like nothing else

I believe this is a healthy list of ways to hear God speak to us, although as the author states, there are many others. Often God will use more than one at a time to get a point across to us.

If we do not read Scripture daily, how do we know if what we hear around us on an ongoing basis is truth or opinion? His Word is fully true, and it’s our greatest guide to know what He’s whispering to us. All the other “whispers”, if they are from Him, will NEVER contradict Scripture.

I love how Batterson talked about how our desires, and our unique design, has purpose. If we are an artist (I am TOTALLY NOT!) and we continually choose to be a fast runner and ignore our artistic abilities, we will live frustrated. We must embrace our giftings, talents, strengths and bents in a healthy way. Otherwise we are basically telling God He made a mistake in the way He created us. Of course, some people were created artistic and fast! Then Batterson reminds us that as we grow in our walk with Christ, His will becomes our desires.

As I look back on open and shut doors in my life and ministry, I can more clearly see how God used opportunities, and my walking in them, to grow me spiritually. He opened doors to serve Him in ways I would have NEVER sought but said “yes” to when He asked. Well, I didn’t always say yes initially (truth here!).

I’ve not experienced many dreams and visions, although we see these used by God throughout the Bible. But as the authors says, visions will push us out of our comfort zones. Along with open doors, I do believe God gave me a vision for sharing what God was teaching me so that other women would be encouraged to walk in faith. This vision has given me a huge drive to be a disciple-maker of women.

God has used people in my life in a huge way. Some spoke encouragement to me as I began to lead women, seeing far more in me than I could see about serving Christ. When asked to lead a state wide conference and speak to women in a retreat setting, my response was, “Do you think I can do that?” They even helped me prepare the conferences, showing me how to put together a message. In fact, this was also my response when my pastor’s wife asked me to teach missions to preschoolers when I was about 21. Her response was similar: “I’ll show you how to prepare a lesson and teach. We will plan together.” When asked to consider a position at LifeWay, I laughed, but God used my husband to make me look at the previous 10 years of trying to figure out how to minister to women as preparation for this position. I am SO grateful for the way God has used people to “push” me to obey His whispers!

Promptings are sometimes unnoticed because we wonder if that was just our own idea, or the Holy Spirit’s! It’s usually much more obvious in hindsight, especially if we did not obediently act on that prompt! “Lord, don’t let me miss that gentle nudge in the future!”

And then there is pain. I can truly attest to the fact that the majority of my spiritual growth was in and through pain. It forces us in desperation to rely on something: ourselves, others, our anger, our hurt, OR on His strength and peace. Not once has He ever failed to walk with me in a painful season. Not once has He ever left me to figure it out on my own. My faith is always stronger through each difficult journey. And even though a new crisis raises up in me initially, “Oh, no, not again,” I only have to look to the past to know I can face the present and future struggles because of His faithfulness.

So, how does God whisper to you most often? If we don’t slow down and sit in what Batterson calls our “whispering spot”, a place where He most often speaks clearly to us, we may never hear His whispers.

God wants us to hear His whispers, but to hear, we must lean in and get quiet so He can speak, and we can hear.

Banner photo by Ben White on Unsplash