Train Your Spirit to Hear God: 5 Habits That Will Sharpen Your Spirit
Have you ever prayed and felt like God wasn't listening? You asked HIM for direction. You waited. You listened and nothing. Just silence.
And you started wondering, "Does God even speak to people anymore? Or is that just something that happened in Bible times?"
Here is the truth. Most Christians never discover. God is speaking to you right now. every single day. The problem is not that God stopped talking. The problem is you're listening with the wrong part of yourself. Most Christians are waiting for an audible voice, a burning bush, a vision, something dramatic. But that is not how God primarily speaks. He does not speak to your ears. He speaks to your spirit.
Romans 8:16 says, "The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God."
Did you catch that? The Spirit bears witness with our spirit. Not with our mind, not with our emotions, with our spirit. That means there is a spirit-to-spirit communication happening between God and you right now. But if you've never been taught how to recognize it, you'll miss it completely. God speaks to your spirit, not to your senses. And this is the breakthrough most Christians need.
They're trying to hear God with their mind or feel God with their emotions.
But God is communicating with the hidden man, the recreated spirit inside you.
Your spirit hears HIM perfectly, but your mind is too loud to notice.
So today, I'm going to give you five practical habits. Five things you can start doing today that will train you to hear God's voice clearly, consistently, daily. Not just when you're in crisis, but as a normal part of your walk with God because God is always speaking. You just need to learn how to listen.
1. ¶Habit number one, spend time in the Word to become acquainted with His voice. Here is the first habit, and it's the foundation for everything else. You cannot recognize God's voice in your spirit if you do not know what His voice sounds like. And the primary way you learn God's voice is through his Word. Turn to John 10:27.
Jesus Christ said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. My sheep hear my voice." How?
Cuz they've spent time with the shepherd. They know what he sounds like, how he thinks, what he values.
Think about it this way. If someone you love calls you on the phone, you recognize their voice immediately, don't you? You do not need them to say, "Hi, this is your mother." Or, "Hey, it's your best friend." You just know why. Because you've spent time with them. You've heard them speak thousands of times. You know their tone, their personality, their way of expressing things.
The same principle applies to God. The more time you spend in His Word, the more familiar you become with how he speaks, what he says, what he prioritizes.
And when a thought drops into your spirit during the day, you'lI know whether it's from HIM or not, because you've learned to recognize His voice.
Here's what most Christians do not understand. The Word of God is not just information you're reading. It is God speaking to you. Hebrews 4:12 says, "For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword." Quick means living. The Word is alive when you open your Bible and read.
And God is speaking to your spirit in that moment. And the more you read, the more your spirit becomes tuned to His voice, like tuning a radio to the right frequency.
Your spirit is fed by the Word. When you neglect the Word, your spirit becomes weak and dull, insensitive to God's voice. But when you spend time in the Word daily, your spirit becomes sharp, alert, sensitive to even the slightest whisper from God.
So, here's the practical habit. Every single day, not just on Sundays, not just when you feel like it, every day, spend time reading the Word. And do not just read it to check a box or to finish a chapter. Read it with the expectation that God is speaking to you. Ask yourself as you read, "What is God saying to me through this?" because he is not just speaking to people 2,000 years ago and he is speaking to you right now.
And as you develop this habit, something powerful will happen. You'll start recognizing when God drops a thought into your spirit during the day because it will sound familiar. It will match what you've been hearing in the Word. You'll think that sounds like something God would say because I just read it yesterday. That is how you become acquainted with His voice. That is the first habit.
2. ¶Habit number two, learn to recognize the inward witness. Now, let me show you the second habit. And this is the primary way God leads His children. It's called the inward witness. Turn back to Romans 8:16. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit. The word witness here means to testify, to give evidence, to confirm. The Holy Spirit is bearing witness, giving testimony to your human spirit, and your spirit receives it.
But here's what you need to understand. This is not a voice you hear with your natural ears.
It is not a feeling you have in your emotions. It is a knowing. It is a deep inner conviction that you can't explain with your mind, but you know it in your spirit.
Let me give you an example. Have you ever been about to do something and you just had this sense of don't do that? You couldn't explain why. There was no logical reason, but something inside you said no. That's the inward witness.
Or maybe you were facing a decision between two options and one of them just felt right in your spirit . Even though your mind had all kinds of doubts and questions, that's the inward witness.
It is like a green light or a red light inside you. Your spirit either has peace about something or it doesn't.
And that peace or lack of peace is God speaking to your spirit.
The hidden man of the heart is where God communicates with you. But most Christians ignore this because they're waiting for something more dramatic.
They want God to write it in the sky or send an angel or give them a prophetic word from someone. But God's primary mode of communication is the inward witness, a quiet, steady knowing in your spirit. And it's not loud. It's not forceful. It doesn't demand attention. It's gentle. And if you're not paying attention, you'll miss it completely.
Colossians 3:15 says, "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts."
The word rule there means to umpire like a referee in a game. When you're making a decision, the peace of God in your spirit is the umpire.
If there's peace, that's a green light. Move forward. If there's no peace, that's a red light. Don't move. Even if everything looks right on the outside, even if all the circumstances line up perfectly, even if everyone around you is saying you should do this, if you do not have peace in your spirit, do not do it. Something is off. God is saying "no", through the lack of peace.
On the flip side, your mind might be saying, " This doesn't make sense. This seems risky. This looks impossible." But if your spirit has a strong witness of peace, if there is a deep knowing inside you that says this is right, move forward. God is in it. Do not let your mind talk you out of what your spirit already knows. Here is the practical habit. Start paying attention to your spirit throughout the day. When you're making decisions, big or small, pause and ask yourself, "Do I have peace about this?" Not does this make sense to my mind? Not do I feel excited about this? But does my spirit have peace? Because your spirit knows things your mind has not figured out yet.
Your mind might be saying this is a great opportunity. We need, you'd be crazy not to take it. But if your spirit does not have peace, don't do it. Trust the witness in your spirit over the logic in your head.
See, and here is what you'll discover. The more you pay attention to the inward witness, the more sensitive you become to it. It is like tuning a radio. At first, the signal might be faint, hard to detect, but the more you tune in, the clearer it becomes.
You'll start noticing it in smaller decisions, everyday situations.
Should I say this or stay quiet?
Should I go here or stay home?
Should I take this call or let it go to voicemail?
Your spirit will give you a witness.
Peace or no peace. And when you follow it, you'll be amazed at how God uses those small moments of obedience to protect you, guide you, position you for His purposes.
But here's the key. The inward witness is quiet. It's not loud. It does not scream at you. It's a still small knowing.
So you have to quiet your mind and your emotions long enough to sense what's happening in your spirit. That leads us to the next habit.
3. ¶Habit number three, quiet your mind so your spirit can be heard.
Here's the third habit. Your mind is loud. Your emotions are loud. And if you do not learn to quiet them, you'll never hear what your spirit is saying. Think about it. Your mind is constantly racing with thoughts, analyzing, planning, worrying, replaying conversations from yesterday, thinking about what you need to do tomorrow. Your emotions are constantly reacting to circumstances, feeling anxious one moment, excited the next, frustrated, overwhelmed, discouraged, and all of that noise drowns out the quiet voice of your spirit.
Your spirit knows things your mind hasn't figured out yet. But if your mind never stops talking, if your emotions are always reacting, you'll never hear what your spirit is trying to tell you.
And it is like trying to hear someone whisper in a room full of people shouting, you have to quiet the room first. You have to turn down the volume on the noise so you can hear the signal.
This is why so many Christians struggle to hear God. They're asking God to speak, but their mind won't stop long enough to listen.
They're praying, but while they're praying, their mind is making a grocery list, planning tomorrow's schedule, worrying about a problem at work, thinking about what someone said to them last week. There is no space for God to speak into. There is no room for the inward witness to be recognized.
Psalm 46:10 says, "Be still and know that l am God."
Be still. Stop the mental chatter. Stop the emotional reactions. Get quiet. And in that stillness, you'll start to sense what's happening in your spirit. You'll start to notice the peace or the unease.
You'll start to recognize when God is speaking.
Here's the practical habit.
Set aside time every day, even if it's just 10 or 15 minutes, to be stilI before God.
Not just to pray, not just to read, but to listen.
Turn off your phone, shut the door, sit in silence, and just be aware of your spirit.
Do not try to hear something.
Do not force it.
Don't manufacture a feeling or a thought.
Just quiet your mind and pay attention to what's happening inside you. At first, your mind will wander.
Random thoughts will flood in. I need to send that email. I forgot to call that person. What am I going to make for dinner? Did I lock the door? That's normal. That's your mind doing what it's been trained to do for years.
Do not get frustrated with yourself when that happens. Gently bring your focus back to your spirit. Do not fight the thoughts. Just redirect.
Ask yourself, "What is my spirit sensing right now?" You might sense peace. You might sense unease. You might sense a knowing about something you've been praying about. You might sense nothing at all. And that's okay, too. Do not dismiss it. Pay attention to it. And here's what you'll discover over time.
The more you practice this, the easier it becomes to recognize when your spirit is receiving from God because You've trained yourself to distinguish the noise in your head and the knowing in your spirit. You've learned to tune out the distractions and tune in to God.
And eventually, you won't just do this during your quiet time. You'll be able to sense your spirit throughout the day in the middle of a conversation, often while you're driving, while you're while you're making decisions at work, while you're shopping, while you're talking to your kids.
You'll develop what it is called spirit consciousness, an awareness of your spirit and what God is saying to it.
You'll become sensitive to the inward witness even in the busyiness of life.
Here is another key. When you quiet your mind, you're not trying to make your mind go away. You're not trying to stop thinking completely.
You're just giving your spirit the space to be heard. Your mind is a servant, not a master.
It is a tool God gave you, but it is not supposed to dominate your life. Your mind is not supposed to drown out your spirit. Your spirit is supposed to lead and your mind is supposed to follow.
But for most Christians, it is reversed. Their mind is leading and their spirit is being ignored completely. Their mind makes all the decisions.
Their emotions drive all the actions and their spirit, the part of them that's connected to God is being drowned out by the noise. When you practice this habit of quieting your mind, you're putting things back in the right order.
Spirit first, mind second. And when that happens, you'll start hearing God clearly because your spirit has always been hearing HIM. You just couldn't hear your spirit over the noise in your head.
So, quiet the noise and listen to what your spirit already knows. That is the third habit, and it changes everything. It's the difference between living from your head and living from your spirit.
4. ¶Habit number four, distinguish between your thoughts and your spirit's voice. Now, here's the fourth habit, and this is where most Christians get confused. They can't tell the difference between their own thoughts and God speaking to their spirit. So they either assume every thought is from God or they dismiss everything as just their own mind.
Neither is correct. So let me give you some keys to help you distinguish between the two.
• First, your own thoughts usually come from your head. They're analytical, logical based on what you already know. But when your spirit is receiving from God, it comes from deep within. It is not in your head.
It is in your innermost being, called the hidden man of the heart. You can actually feel the difference if you pay attention.
Head thoughts feel like they're coming from up here. Skull. And spirit thoughts feel like they're coming from down here, deep in your core, in your belly, in the center of your being.
• Second, your own thoughts are usually loud and urgent. You need to do this now. you have to figure this out. Well, you can't wait. You, what if you miss the opportunity? What, what if this doesn't work out? What? There's a pressure behind it. There's a push. There's a sense of panic.
But the voice of your spirit is quiet and steady. It does not rush you. Voice of your spirit does not pressure you. It does not create anxiety. It's a calm, steady, knowing that remains, even when circumstances are chaotic. Even when everything around you is falling apart.
If God has spoken to your spirit, there's a peace that doesn't make sense to your mind.
• Third, your own thoughts are often driven by fear or worry. What if this doesn't work? What if I fail?
Well, what if people think I'm crazy?
What if I lose money? What if I make a mistake? What if I embarrass myself? Fear is always asking, "What if?" But when God speaks to your spirit, there's peace.
Even if God is leading you into something challenging or uncertain, even if he's asking you to step out in faith, there's an underlying peace that surpasses understanding. Philippians 4:7 calls it the peace of God, which passes all understanding.
It does not make sense to your mind, but your spirit is at rest.
Here's the practical habit. When a thought comes to you, pause and ask yourself, where is this coming from? Is it coming from my head, my emotions, or my spirit?
If it is anxious and rushed, it is probably your mind.
If it is fearful and uncertain, it's probably your emotions.
But if it's calm or peaceful and deep, it's likely your spirit receiving from God.
And here's another test. Does this thought line up with the Word? Remember habit number one. You become acquainted with God's voice through the Word. So if a thought contradicts the Word of God or it's not from God, period,
God will never tell you to do something that goes against His written Word. Never. But if the thought aligns with the Word and you have peace in your spirit about it, that's double confirmation that God is speaking. The Word confirms the witness. The witness confirms the Word.
Now, sometimes God will speak to your spirit and and your mind won't understand it yet. That's okay. That's actually normal. Your spirit receives revelation before your mind comprehends it. Think about it.
Your spirit is connected directly to God. God speaks to your spirit first and then your spirit communicates it to your mind. So there's often a delay. So do not dismiss something just because you can't figure it out mentally.
If you have a strong Witness in your spirit and it lines up with the Word, trust it.
Even if your mind is saying that this does not make sense yet, God will give your mind understanding later. But he speaks to your spirit first. Your spirit is the receiver. Your mind is the processor. Do not let your processor reject what your receiver has already picked up.
And here's one more key. The more you act on what your spirit tells you, the better you'll get at distinguishing between your thoughts and God's voice. It's like learning to recognize someone's handwriting. The more you see it, the easier it becomes to identify. or the more you follow the witness in your spirit and see God confirm it through circumstances and outcomes, the more confident you become in recognizing His voice, you'll start to notice patterns.
That's how God speaks to me. That's what his voice feels like in my spirit. And over time, you won't second guessess yourself anymore. You'll know when God is speaking because you've learned to recognize the sound of His voice in your spirit. You'll be able to say, "That's God." Or, "That's just my own thinking."
And you'll know the difference. Which brings us to the final habit.
5. Habit number five, act on the witness in your spirit even when your mind doesn't understand.
Here's the fifth and final habit. You have to act on what your spirit is telling you even when your mind does not understand yet.
This is where most Christians get stuck. They receive a witness in their spirit.
They know God is leading them, but they wait for their mind to catch up. They wait for all the answers. They wait for everything to make perfect sense. They wait for all the details to line up.
They wait for all the circumstances to be perfect and while they're waiting the opportunity passes or they talk themselves out of it or fear creeps in and paralyzes them or other people convince them it's a bad idea.
Do not try to figure everything out with your head. Your spirit knows.
If you're waiting for everything to make sense before you obey, you'll never move forward in faith.
Faith does not wait for understanding.
Faith acts on the witness and understanding comes later. Faith says, "I don't understand how, but I know that God is leading me, so I'm moving."
And look at Abraham in Hebrews 11:8. By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whether he went.
Did Abraham know where he was going? No.
Did he have all the details? No.
Did his mind have a road map? No.
Did he understand how God was going to fulfill the promise? No.
Did he know when it would happen? No.
But his spirit had a witness that God was calling him. And he acted on it. He packed up. He left. He moved.
That is how you have to operate when you have a strong witness in your spirit and it lines up with the Word, act.
Don't wait for all the answers.
Don't wait for your mind to be 100% comfortable.
Don't wait for all the circumstances to be perfect.
Don't wait for everyone to agree with you.
Move. Take the step. Obey the witness.
Here's the practical habit. When you sense God leading you through the inward witness, take a step. It does not have to be a big step. Just take the next step.
If God is telling you to start something, start today. Not next week. Not next month. Not when you feel ready. Today.
If he's telling you to stop something, stop now. Not gradually. Not eventually. Now.
If he's telling you to reach out to someone, pick up the phone today. Or if he's telling you to forgive someone, forgive them today.
If he's telling you to give, give now.
If he's telling you to go, go. Don't overthink it. Don't overanalyze. Don't wait for the perfect time. Obey the witness in your spirit. And here's what you'll discover. The more you act on the inward witness, the stronger it becomes. It's like a muscle. The more you use it, the more developed it gets, the more sensitive you become to it, the more clearly you hear it. But if you ignore it, if you dismiss it, if you always wait for your mind to understand first, the witness gets weaker. You become dull to it. You stop hearing it clearly. It becomes faint.
But when you obey it, when you act on it, it gets louder, clearer, stronger.
God will start speaking to you more often, more clearly because he knows you'll obey what he says. So here's my challenge to you starting today.
Develop these five habits.
¶Habit number one, spend time in the Word daily to become acquainted with God's voice.
¶Habit number two, learn to recognize the inward witness, that peace or unease in your spirit.
¶Habit number three, quiet your mind every day so you can hear your spirit.
¶Habit number four, distinguish between your thoughts and your spirit's voice.
¶Habit number five, act on the witness in your spirit, even when your mind doesn't understand yet.
These five habits will transform your relationship with God. You'll stop wondering if he's speaking and start knowing.
You'll stop guessing and start moving with confidence.
You'll stop living in confusion and start walking in clarity.
You'll stop being passive and start being obedient.
Now, here's what I want you to do. Or mean, if this message helped you understand how to hear God's voice, if you're committed to developing these five habits, I want you to say the words over your life right now and speak 🗣️, I will develop the habit of hearing God's voice. Don't just think it, say it, speak it, out loud. Because when you speak out publicly, you're making a declaration.
You're saying, "I'm done guessing. I'm done missing God's voice. I'm going to develop the habit of hearing HIM speak to my spirit.
So go ahead, declare it right now. I will develop the habit of hearing God's voice.
And if this teaching changed the way you approach hearing God, give God thanks because we're going to keep unlocking the truths from the Bible that will transform your walk with your Father God.
Father God is speaking to you right now, not audibly, but Spirit-to-spirit. And your spirit knows things your mind doesn't. It's receiving from God constantly. You just have to learn to recognize it, to trust it, and to act on it.
And when you develop these five habits, you'll never wonder if Father God is speaking again because you'lI know. You'll hear His voice clearly, consistently, daily, not because he started speaking louder, but because you learned to listen with the right part of yourself.
You're a spirit being. You have a soul and you live in a body, but the real you is your spirit. And Father God speaks to your spirit. So stop listening with your head and start listening with your heart. The hidden man of the heart is where God communicates. And when you tune in to that frequency, you'll hear HIM every single day. Not as a rare occurrence, but as a daily reality. That is what these five habits will do for you.
They'll make hearing God's voice as natural as breathing. So develop them, practice them, live them, and watch your relationship with Father God transform. Amen.
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