God is a communicator and His primary method of speaking to us is through His Word. Secondly He speaks through the Spirit in the Word. In order to hear the voice of God successfully, we need to quieten everything going on in our minds, in other words go into your closet before God, physically or spiritually. We need to take time for intimacy with the Lord to hear his voice. God’s speaking could be audible or visual. God has given us the faculty of imagination to see the future plans He has for you, not to abuse it by seeing a dark future. Every one of our physical senses is matched by a spiritual one, for instance one can see a flash picture with your inner eye and thus hear God speaking. Another way of seeing is by an open vision, which was the way in which many of the biblical prophets saw and heard from God. That is when the Holy Spirit so overcomes your faculties that you are in a trance-like state and find yourself to be in another realm. Another way of seeing is through dreams or a vision of the night and one needs to get the interpretation from God because it came through your own personal dream language. You can also see and hear God through your circumstances – this needs discernment. Another way of seeing or hearing is through association i.e. a set of circumstances, a face, a smell or a feeling of déjà vu, etc. Sometimes God speaks with an audible voice, but mostly He speaks through the still small inner voice which sounds exactly like your own voice or thought. Your own thought processes can also be inspired by God because of the oneness between you and Him. We can also hear God and be led by feelings, for instance like a strong feeling of no desire for something or intuition to avoid something. Qualities of hearing His voice are (1) that the thoughts are spontaneous, (2) they are like the voice of my own thoughts, (3) His voice is always light and gentle and easily cut off and (4) without condemnation, (5) always in the first person, (6) has higher content than my own thoughts, and results in a positive reaction from you.
