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The factors affecting our inability to hear the voice of God may be two fold. Firstly, we may not have been taught how to seek God so that we can touch His presence.  Secondly, we may not know the languages through which God communicates to us. These reasons alone can hinder the relationship between an eager disciple wanting to hear His voice and being able to correctly distinguish Him from amongst the tumult of voices bombarding us daily. The aim of this chapter is to provide a foundation to these two disciplines so that the seeking Christian may discover the sound of His voice.

Seeking His Face
There is a humorous saying amongst certain Christian circles; ‘God is the only spiritual entity who does not pursue us’.  Whilst both angels and demons pursue us for one reason or another, God on the other hand waits for us to seek Him.  Therefore the first thing we must do in our efforts to hearing God is to develop a ‘seeking’ prayer life.  Let us turn to the Book of Hebrews for some important keys to observe as we do this.

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him”. (Hebrews 11:6)

There are two principles in this passage that we must obey when seeking God. The first is that we must repent of unbelief.  We are advised in this passage that if we expect God to respond to our prayers, we must first believe that He exists and that He will reward us for seeking Him.
The reason we are exhorted to have this heart attitude is because it is important to God that we present ourselves as having faith in Him.  Anything contrary to this type of thinking is unbelief.  Since God hates unbelief He will remain silent unless we first repent and believe that He is able to hear us and is willing to respond to our requests.
So then, how do we deal with our unbelief?  Our first step in dealing with unbelief is to acknowledge it as sin and to ask for God’s forgiveness.  (We should also make sure that we clear up anything else that may be a hindrance between God and us).  Our second step in dealing with unbelief is to change our way of thinking in regards to this topic.  For example, if there has not been any expectation in your heart to hear the voice of God, because you did not believe that He would speak to you, then create expectancy by deciding to accept the fact that God does speak and He will speak to you.  Listening to other people’s testimonies on this subject is a good way of creating that atmosphere of faith.  Believing God is as simple as that, repenting and deciding we believe God will speak.  If we approach the Father with this heart attitude then our faith will move Him into action.
    The second principle is that we must be earnest in our seeking of Him.  The reality is that God might not respond to our seeking straight away.  Therefore we must resolve in our hearts that we will not give up until we hear from Him.  This kind of persistence and faith was what our Lord was talking about in the gospel of Luke in one of His teachings on prayer:

Then He said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’ Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs. So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will opened. (Luke 11:5-9)

A few chapters later in this same book, Jesus teaches us of our need to be persistent in prayer through yet another parable, ‘the parable of the persistent widow’ (Luke 18:1-8).  In this story, a needy widow appeals to an unrighteous judge until he makes a judgement on her behalf.  So consistent were her appeals to the judge that he feared she would wear him down.  In the end he gave in to her requests.  If we embrace this type of commitment toward the Father in our prayer life then like the unrighteous judge in the parable and the persistent friend, He will respond to us.
    In addition to presenting a right heart attitude toward God and embracing a deeper commitment to prayer is another equally important principle that we must observe if we are going to develop a successful prayer life.  This principle has to do with getting ourselves sensitive to God so that we can hear Him speak to us.

Getting into the Spirit
Since we are seeking God who is Spirit and whose home is in the spiritual dimension, unless we somehow make a connection with that realm we will not be able to hear Him speak to us.  This is probably the most important aspect to a successful prayer life.  What we need to learn are the dynamics of getting into the Spirit.  This means nothing more than tuning ourselves into the presence of the Holy Spirit to hear what He’s got to say.  How do we do that?  Let us turn to the Scriptures for some insight,

“…[if] you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deuteronomy 4:29)

    In reading this passage, it is important to see that we are not merely being exhorted to just seek God – in the general sense of seeking Him – but are given a method by which to seek Him.  We are taught that if, by an act of our will, we could concentrate all of our focus upon the Lord He would reveal Himself to us.
    It’s not that we are given a religious process to reaching Him but rather an important key to touching the spirit world – where He lives.  It is how we tune ourselves into the Spirit.  Simply put, as we direct our whole attention (of mind, heart and emotions) toward our Lord and Father, with a concentrated intensity, we become aware of spiritual things.  It is through the intensity of such concentration that our spiritual senses open to Him.  This is how we present ourselves before God with a readiness to hear His voice.
Most of us already follow this principle during our worship services, where the more we get lost in worship, the more the presence of God seems to fill the room.  Such experiences are made possible because we are connecting to the glory of God in the heavenly realm.  If we could follow the same principles of worship during times of prayer, our hearts would gradually become aware of His presence (James 4:8).
        As with everything new, this process of touching the Spirit is easier said than done, often there are many thoughts going through our mind, making it hard to concentrate upon one thing.  We may find this especially true when in prayer, but if we can manage to discipline ourselves to this process of getting into the Spirit then we will have the promise of Deuteronomy 4:29 – we will find Him when we look for him with all our heart and soul.

Language of the Spirit
Let us now look at the second hindrance to hearing God’s voice.  So often we hear people say, ‘this is what the Lord said to me’.  Whilst these words might be a blessing to some, particularly those who have regular spiritual experiences, for those who cannot hear anything in the Spirit they are the most frustrating. They question, ‘why can’t we hear anything?’ What is the difference between them and us?  Simply this, it is likely that the people who heard His voice also knew what they were listening for.  Let us look at a Scripture verse from the book of Corinthians.

“Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning.” (1 Corinthians 14:10)

In this passage of Scripture, an acknowledgement is made to the fact that there are many languages upon the face of the earth, each with its own unique sounds and gestures.  This is also true of the spiritual world that surrounds us.  It has both unique sounds and gestures and many languages of its own.  Therefore in order for us to begin hearing the voice of God we need to learn how to identify this realm and how to identify the languages God speaks in.
Jesus gave a key to unlocking this mystery when He taught about our relationship with God.  Let us turn to the gospel of John:

“God is a Spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24)

As we read these words we see two facts about God and our relationship with Him.  Firstly, He is a Spirit, and secondly, He requires that we, His followers, worship Him through our spirit.  What we should glean from this is that God requires spiritual worship (as opposed to mere mental acknowledgement).  It is the only way we can truly touch His presence.  Since His presence dwells in the spiritual realm (and not in our mental/physical realm) He requires that we seek Him with all our heart and soul in order to touch the place where He dwells (Deuteronomy 4:29).  It is from awareness within our inner most being that we will discover the spiritual dimension.  And it is from this location that we will discover our spiritual ears and hear His voice.
Coupled with this need to locate our spiritual ears is our need to distinguish the languages of the spiritual world. Let us now draw a parallel between our earthly communications and spiritual communications.
Whilst the people of the world use sounds audible to the natural ear and body gestures to communicate to each other, the spiritual world communicates in a way that could be described as inaudible to the natural ear and invisible to the natural eye. Since we do not need to explain the dynamics of sound and body language, as most of us are familiar with them, let us step right into discovering how to recognise the inaudible/invisible sounds of the spiritual world.
Let us use a few simple everyday experiences as a means of explaining this.  Have you ever felt someone watching you, only to turn around and see someone watching you?  Or have you ever heard the phone ring and somehow you knew who was ringing?  Or have you ever found yourself (in the most bizarre way) thinking about the same person or thing as your partner or friend?  If you have, how did you discern these things?  Was it because someone told you this information?  Or was the information received through a type of silent/unseen means?  If you are comfortable enough to recognise it as being a part of the latter, then we are on our way to identifying the voice of the spiritual realm.
Now, whilst these three examples in themselves have little to do with hearing the voice of God, they are every day examples of people experiencing this inaudible/invisible realm.  Without having to explain the dynamics of these three experiences (to do so would be to write another book) what we should understand, as a foundation to hearing the voice of God, is that when we are talking about spiritual sensitivity, we are talking about being able to recognise these seemingly small and insignificant experiences.  Though they are spiritual experiences of a different nature, as we begin to seek the Lord we must pay attention to these types of sensations, for His voice may be as gentle as a simple knowing or sensing of certain information.
In order to identify our spiritual ears, we must pay attention to the specific regions within us that are sensitive to this inaudible/invisible realm.  There are two main areas within our soul/spirit where these inaudible/invisible sounds can be heard the loudest.  They are in our hearts and in our minds.  So as we begin to seek God it pays to be attentive to what we experience in our hearts and minds.
Whilst our heart responds to our inaudible/invisible environment through things it senses, our minds responds to our inaudible/invisible environment through inspired thoughts.  This is how we should expect to hear Him as we seek His face.

Now that we have explained how to identify the voice of the spiritual realm and how we should position ourselves to hearing God’s voice, let us now also briefly describe the various types of spiritual languages.  Basically there are four language types.  Firstly, a language called impressions.  These are an assortment of stirrings that come from the Holy Spirit to align us with His thinking. They are very similar to the experiences that we have just discussed.  Secondly, a sleep language made up of dreams.  Thirdly, a picture language made up of visions.  And fourthly, a more overt form of spiritual communication we call the verbal language.
Due to our Lord’s sovereignty He may choose to speak to us through any one of these forms.  And yet at the same time He doesn’t have to use any of these examples.  He is God. So without limiting God to these few truths, let us now begin to explore these language types in greater detail.