Becoming a spiritual person must, by definition, involve learning to discern the voice of the Divine. In a noisy, raucous world, this is a particularly daunting task. But really, the world has always been louder than the voice of God. If it has ever been possible at all, then it must still be possible today.
The challenge, I think, has always been basically the same. Since God’s voice can come to us in a variety of ways—natural phenomena, other spiritual beings, other human beings, our own inner thoughts and emotions, etc.—then it is easy to misidentify him.
If you want to learn to hear the voice of God, a foundational place to begin is with the curious assumption that perhaps you have already heard him—at many times, in many places, through many means—but that you simply mistook him for something else. Even in the Scriptures when there was an actual audible voice, people still mistook it for thunder, or an angel, or whatever. In reading such accounts we are invited to identify with those who mistakenly thought that God’s voice was something else. Their lack of discernment could very well be our own lack of discernment.
A little humility goes a long way when it comes to hearing.
