Day 1 - Ask For A Hearing Ear

"You have not because you ask not." These words in James 4:2 tell why many of us don't receive all God wants to give us. So if we want to learn to hear from God, we should ask Him to teach us.

Some would say that we have the scripture, and the scripture is all we need if we want to hear from God. They rightly insist that if disciples really want to know God's will, we should invest the time it takes to familiarize ourselves with His word.

This sounds good, but scripture itself says God is a God who speaks, and we need to learn His voice. Consider:

"Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion..." (Hebrews 3:7-8)

"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." (John 10:27)

"The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to hear as the learned." (Isaiah 50:4)

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, and 29; Revelation 3:6, 13, and 22)

These are just a few.

Just as we could list many scriptures that tell us to search God's written word, we also find many scriptures that invite us to get to know His voice. It isn't either-or - it's both-and.

It would be a strange father indeed who never spoke to his children, contenting himself instead just to leave a book for his children to figure out. God is too good a Father to treat us like that.

But He is God, and we are human. How can we communicate? Jesus has come to help -- He is God and man, and can bridge the two. In John 15:15 He said this: -

"No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you."

In His relationship with the twelve, Jesus opened the Father's heart to them. He wants to do the same with us. Accept nothing less.

Ask God to make you into a person who easily and often hears His voice. To know His voice is a form of wisdom, and James 1:5-6 tells how to ask: expect to receive what you are asking for. Use the scriptures listed in the article you just read as you pray, or add more of your own. For more power in prayer, base your requests on God's word.