This article is featured in Episode #3 of the Radically Obedient podcast, along with additional content and original video footage recorded 2 years ago, during this day in which I learned to hear from God more clearly than I ever had before. Click here to watch or listen to the podcast episode: Hearing The Voice of God | Ep. 3
I was walking behind our home, in the pasture I had divided into small temporary paddocks using electric netting and polywire. Out here were some sheep, a beef steer, a young heifer, goats, chickens, and pigs—all doing their special things in various sections of these 10 beautiful acres in the Missouri Ozarks.
Two-and-a-half years ago, God had led us to move here from the panhandle of Idaho, affectionately known by the locals as North Idaho. That had been a grueling cross-country move of 2,000 miles, and our family of five was still getting over the stress of that huge life change.
We still missed our friends from back home, as well as the comfort and confidence of knowing where and how to “do life.” Anyone who has gone through a major relocation like that is very familiar with that specific challenge.
In our married life of 10 years at this point, Sarah and I had made several progressively larger moves, to progressively further-distant places. Each time, we had the blessing of still having ready access to our previous friends, church groups, shopping resources, and business contacts within a 2 hour drive.
So our full transition to a new area could happen gradually over a couple years. And in some parts of life, we didn’t need to find a new place or friend group for a particular need or resource: we just spent the day driving there and back.
But when we moved all the way from Idaho to Missouri, that transition was forced to happen all at once. And in some areas of life, we still had no clue where to find the answers to those particular problems.
Back to that cool day near the end of December, 2023, when I was out walking among the animals I worked with everyday, on the land I loved and where so many of my dreams were finally starting to come true.
The reason I was out there was not actually to visit, move, or feed the animals—chores I did nearly every day. Nor was I just out enjoying the crisp, country air.
I was out there because I desperately needed to hear from God.
I hadn’t eaten anything yet that day because Sarah and I had chosen to spend as much of that Sunday as possible fasting and praying. We were seeking God’s clear direction on yet another potential move.
But this time, it wasn’t just a move of location, where we could pick up our possessions, animals, and businesses, and drive them to another property (which we had already done several times).
This time, we were pretty sure He was moving our hearts to do something that came with a whole new level of difficulty and risk—one that scared me and was threatening to overwhelm my mind and emotions.
We thought we were hearing the Holy Spirit whispering to us to sell our homestead, most of our possessions, pretty much all of our many animals, and possibly even our livelihood…
…and move to Portugal.
I honestly had been avoiding this time alone with God for a few weeks, if not a month or more. The amount of anxiety I began to feel every time I considered the ramifications of this kind of crazy life change was palpable, even nauseating at times.
But this was something I knew wouldn’t go away by me simply ignoring it. What we were feeling was becoming pretty consistent through the many times we had prayed together recently, and was further deepened by the frequent “coincidental” confirmations that kept coming out of nowhere.
And it was especially amplified by the fact that, despite our best efforts, we had made almost zero income over the past 6 whole months. Something weird was happening, and we needed to know what it was.
As I began to pray while walking in the pasture, I was trying to get myself into the frame of mind that made me most able to hear God’s voice. Quiet from distractions, and clear of my own anxiety and personal desires. I realized that I could use something I had learned long ago to get quick answers from God on simple questions I had that needed an immediate response.
In my young twenties, I had developed the ability to hear a simple Yes/No response from the Holy Spirit when I was driving on the freeway (“motorway” for my European readers ;) and noticed a vehicle pulled over on the shoulder, apparently in distress or needing a helping hand.
In times like that, you only have a few seconds at most to assess the situation and make the decision of whether or not you’re going to pull over and offer assistance.
Especially as a follower of Christ, I was usually trying to be on the lookout for opportunities to help meet someone’s real-life need as a way of starting a conversation about God. There were times I had pulled over to help someone, just to have them respond that help was already on the way.
Some of these times, I had not made the “stop/don’t stop” decision fast enough, and ended up driving all the way to the next exit, turning around, and driving back to find them again.
And the times I didn’t stop—but felt a moment later that I should have—weighed on my mind as missed opportunities, and possibly even God-ordained appointments that I had blatantly ignored in my hurry to accomplish my day’s list of to-do items.
So in pondering this dilemma of split-second decision making, combined with what I had heard some people saying about being able to hear from God in prayer, I decided to begin experimenting with a new method.
When I’d see someone stranded on the side of the road, I would utter a quick prayer, asking the Holy Spirit whether He wanted me to stop and help them, Yes or No. And whichever of those options I felt the most peace about, I would simply go with it as my answer from God, and see how things turned out.
Over a period of a few years, I ended up with a multitude of times feeling I had heard a “No” response from God, so I just continued driving on to my destination with peace of mind, praying God would bless that person and get them on their way in His time.
But in the several occasions that I felt God had told me that “Yes” I should stop and offer help, I don’t remember a single time where things turned out to indicate that it had been a mistake.
And a handful of times, it became abundantly clear that I was literally being His hands and feet to someone truly in need, and that this was a divine encounter.
As I continued to mature and grow in my walk with Yah, I realized I could try this kind of prayer in other areas of life, besides simply trying to help fellow motorists. I began to apply it to other times where I needed His guidance or confirmation. Usually, I had a hunch about what the correct or “better” choice was. But sometimes, I had no clue.
Often I was asking a question about something where there was no command or direct guidance in Scripture that dealt directly with this decision. And many times, both options seemed to be equally morally correct, but whether one option was better than the other came to a matter of me not having enough information.
But I knew that God knew more than I did about the given scenario, so at least I was giving Him an opportunity to help me make the best choice at this fork in life’s trail.
Over my 10 years of marriage with Sarah up to this point, we had continued honing this technique and our heart’s ability to hear the still, quiet voice of our Creator.
We found it really helped having a partner we could work together with. Because we could talk it over, asking for each other’s view of whether Scripture had anything to say on the decision, bounce various ideas off each other, and then pray for God to tell us both the same thing, which would serve as a second witness.
In the times when we didn’t both feel we got the same response from God, we would pray again, asking Him to be very clear and to tell us both the same thing. We would also ask Him to guard us from hearing any other voice, like the voice of the enemy, a spirit of confusion, or even our own imagination.
In the times we still couldn’t get a clear or consistent response, we would put that issue to the side and pray about it again at a later time. Sometimes we were just too stressed, tired, distracted, or attached to our desired outcome. And upon picking it up again later, we would usually both hear the same thing from Him.
Or Yah would reveal that we had been ignoring an important factor, or pushing too hard to get our own way, or He would remind us of something He had previously told us, but we had forgotten or ignored. We needed to get that previous thing straightened out before He would help us move forward in our current decision.
Another thing I had learned in this quest to be able to hear clearly from my Heavenly Father, I heard from a pastor preaching a sermon. He mentioned that one major element of the atmosphere of Heaven is obedience.
The angelic beings around YHWH’s throne are doing many things. Some are worshipping, some are delivering messages, some are rejoicing over His mighty acts and expressing wonder over the greatness and depth of His creation. But the one thing we know all of them are doing is obeying His will and commands.
So one thing we can do to help usher in more of the Kingdom of Heaven to our experience and surroundings here on Earth is to simply obey God. By obeying Him, we create around ourselves something of a “bubble” of heavenly atmosphere like that which surrounds the throne of God in heaven.
I had found that upon quickly obeying whatever I felt I was hearing God tell me to do in that moment—even if that command or task felt small or insignificant—it would help me hear from Him more clearly. Like I was more accurately tuning in to His “frequency” similar to the way I would tune a old fashioned radio set.
This is also a micro-example of us being faithful in little so that God can allow you to be faithful in much. If God tells you to do something you deem as “small” (like the 1 talent the master gave his servant to steward and invest), and you ignore it (bury it in the ground instead of putting it to work), then God will not be inclined to entrust you with a “larger” piece of revelation or instruction—odds are, you’ll just bury that too.
So I realized that as I was walking out in the pasture and trying to hear God’s voice, I was getting small prompts that felt like they were coming from Him. I would see in my mind’s eye a picture of a certain place on our property, or a certain action I felt He was gently prompting me to perform.
These actions were simple, like “walk between those trees,” or “duck under that bramble,” or “go to the back corner of the property and see what you see.”
But these simple promptings were accompanied with the feeling in my heart that felt similar to the way I experienced God’s peace in a “Yes” or “No” response I was now used to asking for and had practiced responding to in simple, trusting obedience.
So as I walked around in the chilly afternoon air on the back of our Missouri farm, I just started going wherever I felt prompted to go, and doing whatever I felt He was prompting me to do.
And as I went, many times immediately after performing the action or arriving at the location He had prescribed, I would feel the whisper of the Holy Spirit (it felt like one of my own thoughts, but was accompanied by that now-familiar feeling of His peace, conviction, comfort, divine insight, etc.), sharing with me a special little tidbit.
A little glimpse of revelation, an acknowledgement that I had heard Him correctly, or telling me that a certain aspect of life is similar to the way a bramble took hold of my shirt as I tried ducking under a branch.
That day I discovered an aspect of hearing from God that I still use to this day: If I’m having trouble hearing from Him in one area, I ask Him if there is anything He wants me to know, or anything He wants me to do.
If I hear Him say something—even if it doesn’t seem relevant to what I’m trying to hear from Him about—I do my best to act on that information as quickly as possible. Often my heart is just needing some practice being obedient, or I need to be reminded of something God has already told me to do, but I haven’t done it yet.
This is not a form of spiritual manipulation. It’s a real aspect of having a relationship with someone. If I’m feeling distant from my wife for some reason, I should ask her about it. It could well be that I’ve missed something, or that I forgot to do or respond to something we recently talked about. She will be happy to remind me if I ask, especially if I ask in humility and demonstrate a true willingness to make things right.
Through that time of walking around and obeying whatever God told me to do, no matter how small or insignificant it seemed to be, I finally got to the point were I was able to hear from Him on a deeper level. And I was able to ask detailed questions and get much more of a response than I had previously.
In a few cases, I was trying to ask too much at once, or ask for more detail than He was willing to give me at that time. He would gently correct me or tell me I was asking too much and just needed to trust Him in that area. And that He would give me further instruction once I had completed the steps He had already instructed me to accomplish.
If I asked a question and heard nothing but silence, I would ask it differently, humbly ask if I was trying to ask too much at once, or ask a different question. By the end of that time, I had a very clear picture of what we were supposed to do. It was not in as much detail as I preferred and would have been more comfortable with, but it was detailed enough to be actionable.
Then it was my turn. I now knew what He expected me to do, and I needed to obey in faith.
If the doors He was telling me to walk through opened, I would go through them and trust Him for what I would find on the other side—and I’d be able to talk with Him more about it then.
The rest of this story is for another time, but before I conclude I want to leave you with a quick tip that you can start putting to use right away, especially if you’re eager to start practicing this skill of hearing from God:
When it comes to hearing the voice of God, imagine there’s a chef in your kitchen. And you’re expecting this chef to make you a meal. One really helpful step to having a chef make you a meal, is to give him some ingredients to work with.
Because many of us aren’t used to hearing God’s voice, or we’re not used to getting our own minds and internal monologue to be quiet enough to not distract us, it can be really difficult to start hearing God’s voice and specific directions for you.
But if we ask our questions in a certain way, it helps give God some ingredients—some words—to work with.
If after preparing your heart and mind to be still and quiet, having spent some time worshipping Him, repenting of any sin you are aware of, and reminding yourself of who you are, and Who God is, you can ask God a simple question, formatted in a way that allows Him to answer it as a simple "Yes," or "No."
If you don’t hear anything, you can ask the question, and yourself say “Yes, or No”, and see if you feel His peace, conviction, or emphasis on either the word, “Yes” or the word, “No.”
This above tip came from a podcast called The Deep End with Taylor Welch, episode number 014, titled, “How to hear the voice of God (the frequency of Holy Spirit)” You can watch or listen to the episode here:
https://youtu.be/8MjQyNXorJU?si=lsptmiGYEw-gDJRM
The account you just read was my own story of learning to hear God’s voice, but in that episode of The Deep End, Taylor’s description of how he hears God’s voice is the best I’ve heard, and it’s the first time I’ve had someone else describe in very accurate terms the feeling I get when I hear something that sounds like a thought in my head, but I know from the feeling—from the weight and peace and authority that it carries—that it’s actually coming from God, not just my own mind.
So I would highly encourage you to check that episode out.
Now it’s your turn. How do you hear from God? What ways have you found to help increase your ability to hear from Him? Or is there a specific aspect of listening for His voice that you are struggling with right now? Please share in the comments below.
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