Real Hope: The Voice of GodSample

Learn Like Samuel

When it comes to hearing God’s voice, we wish God would speak in a loud stereophonic sound. We know that God sometimes speaks like that, but more often than not, He uses a quiet spiritual voice that’s easy to miss.

I imagine that’s why Samuel found it difficult when he first heard it in the middle of the night. "Is that you Eli?" he calls. "No," answers Eli, and then Samuel hears it again. "Is that you Eli?" "No," repeats Eli, and Samuel hears it again. It wasn’t Eli’s voice, but it sounded like it could have been. There was no angelic song accompanying the call; no shofars trumpeting from heaven. It was just an ordinary voice.

Still it was hard for Samuel to recognize it—mostly because he hadn’t heard it before. But eventually he learned to distinguish God’s voice from the others. He got so good at it, that the Scriptures say none of God’s Words "fell to the ground"—all of them came to pass. Like Samuel, it gets clearer for us over time. Keep learning, keep listening, keep positioning your heart. God has a way of getting His messages through.

Written by TANIA HARRIS