Hearing God's Voice Through the Noise 👂

As I sat having my morning quiet time, enjoying the warmth of the sun and reflecting on the blessings that the Lord pours out each new day, chaos suddenly seemed to filter through the peace that I was enjoying.

The sound of birds screeching above as they said their never ending morning cries across the sky. My girls squabbling over who gets to hold the pet rat today which extended into extra complaints for the morning. The sound of cars I could hearing leaving for work. The noise seemed overwhelming to my thoughts and drowned out the quiet of my “secret place”.

It brought to mind a hearing appointment I went to with my dad the day before, and the Lord gave me a thought. Just as my dad was tested with different frequencies and background noises while having to hear and repeat words, isn't it the same for our spiritual ears?

We are flooded with noise from the world on a non-stop daily basis.

Noise can take on various forms, literal noise from kids running around the house and non stop chattering. Noise from social media and podcasts, even though they may still be serving a purpose. Noise from our own thoughts, insecurities and the non-stop lectures and advice we give ourselves through the day.

Noise from the enemy that he puts in our lives to distract us. How do we hear the voice of the One who really matters through all of the noise? Do we find time and space to retreat from the noise and simply to be still? Do we spend time training ourselves to block out the noise?

The audiologist told my dad that even though his hearing was still relatively good, she suggests hearing aids because they will prevent further deterioration of his hearing, there are certain high frequencies that he can't hear and that he struggles to hear.

By training ourselves to spend time in the quiet, time in prayer and speaking to our Heavenly Father, by spending time in His word, and flooding out the noise and replacing it with the sound and words of His voice, we can train our spiritual ears to hear Him and prevent that slow deterioration that pulls us far from Him.

She also spoke about how hearing loss can actually cause parts of your brain to start to die, because those parts are simply not being used anymore, and that research shows a link between hearing loss and dementia. I think of the brain in a spiritual sense to connect these dots, as our heart in this matter. As our spiritual ears begin to deteriorate so we start to lose parts of our heart for God.

It gets easier to just replace our quiet times and worship time with the noise of the world and everyday life. Our heart starts to grow colder and die resulting in a very dark place for the Holy Spirit to live.

Would you flourish and thrive in a place that is dark and cold, where you feel forgotten? No. We want to create a place where the Holy Spirit can thrive and live brightly within us, to give us life and words from above, to lead us and guide us and connect us straight to the Father and the Son.

How do we hear God through the noise? Simply by making time to train ourselves to block out the noise and train our ears to hear His voice above it all.

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." - Matthew 6:33

This means making time to be in His presence, read His word, praise Him and speak to Him. If his means waking up 30 minutes earlier, then that is what we need to be doing.

Jesus understood the noise that the world brings into our lives and that is exactly why he taught us, through his actions, to get up early and retreat to a quiet place of solitude - the secret place. A place where you can spend time connecting with the Father. Only in this place can we find true joy and peace through the noise and the chaos of life.

“But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” - Matthew 6:6

When we start pressing into these things and start hearing His voice, feeling His presence and experiencing His peace and joy, we don't want to go back to that time of hearing loss and a cold heart, because we are experiencing so much more than what the world has to offer! A gift that only God can give us through the storms, the noise of a dying world.

I hope that this encourages you today and gives your heart the push it needs to go and connect with a good good Father who loves us and wants to bless us with his peace and love and joy that is everlasting.

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” - James 4:8

Go to Him today, go find that place of quiet even just for a few minutes and begin to train yourself once again. He is always there waiting.

How do you train yourself to hear God’s voice?