Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, He has spoken to us through His Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son He created the universe. (Hebrews 1:1-2 NLT)

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The administration of a school where I once taught decided not to enforce phone rules during classes. I was curious to see how distracting this would be and had my class of seniors humor me by agreeing to put all phones on “do not disturb” for one 88-minute block class. When we turned the phones back on, more than 1,000 collective notifications had come through in a class of 37 teenagers. No wonder anxiety is at an all-time high. We’ve become so desensitized to constant noise and connection, so distracted by endless voices and videos, that confusion reigns over clarity. When that happens, the lines of truth begin to blur.

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Isn’t that just where the enemy wants us? Desensitized, distracted, and confused? Satan wants voices to become muddled and truth to become relative. 1 Kings 19:12 calls the voice of God a “still, small voice,” but still and small are overlooked when loud and boisterous take the stage (NLT). John 10:27 says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (ESV). In order to hear the voice of God, we must first know it. We can hear directly from God because of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. Christ in us means vocal recognition is possible, but how do we train ourselves to recognize when God is speaking? I think there are a few primary ways: His Word, The Holy Spirit, Prayer/Worship, and accountability with other believers.  

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Time in the Word of God teaches us to recognize how God speaks, and because it’s living and active, God uses it to speak directly to us (2 Tim. 3:16-17, Heb. 4:12, Ps. 119:105). We also have the Holy Spirit teaching us and guiding us towards truth (1 Cor. 2:13, John 16:13). This results in authentic worship flowing from our lives – worship not bound by a place or external rituals, but by an internal heart posture of spirit and truth (John 4:26). Finally, praying is how we learn to communicate with God, and a solid community of believers offers us accountability as we learn to walk out what He’s teaching us. The more we talk to God, the more we begin to hear His responses. Most often, at least in my own life, this is in the form of Bible verses coming to mind. For example, I was recently upset about some news we’d received and was voicing my thoughts to my husband. Right in the middle of what I was saying, I heard the words, “And where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth” (Job 38:4)? It was convicting and offered such peace in the midst of distressing news.  

God is always speaking, but we must learn to listen. We have to saturate ourselves in truth to recognize when the One who “guides us into all truth” speaks (John 16:13). Like my seniors and their phone notifications, we’re all more distracted than we realize. The start of summer is the perfect time to take inventory of our time and refocus our priorities. What are you putting before Jesus? Have distractions become loud enough to drown out the voice of God? What is one thing you could do today to make sure you’re actively listening for the voice of God? A few ideas include getting into nature and purposefully noticing God’s hand at work as we transition from spring to summer, memorizing a Bible verse that speaks directly to something you’re struggling with, or finding an accountability partner to help you stay aware of times God might not be #1 in your life. Name one distraction keeping you from hearing the voice of God and kick off summer by removing it to make space for listening to your Shepherd.