Hearing God's Voice: Will You Listen?

by Marilynn Chadwick

God is always speaking. The question is, "Will you listen?" It's a question I ask myself every day. Will I take the time to listen in our busy, noisy world? I have discovered that if you truly commit to listening to God, amazing things can happen.

David and I have shared over four decades of marriage and ministry (I once vowed that I'd never become a Christian, and most definitely, I would never marry a minister. Funny how things turn out, isn't it?). Along the way, we have discovered that listening to God is not just about hearing his voice. It's also about doing his will.

My life, I realized one day, was either a "so what?" or a "so that!" If listening to God took me no further than my own little world, then so what? The point of hearing his voice is so that I'll do his will. So, I told God that I would give my whole heart to listening to him. And I committed to pray, starting with my own family right at home, but with an eye for the needs of God's larger world.

What happens when you begin to take seriously the call to listen to God's voice? That's when the adventure begins! You could end up traveling to genocide torn regions in Africa as David and I did. Or you might come face to face with the needs of your neighbor next door. You just might meet people and go to places you never knew existed—starting within your own community.

Everyone's journey will look different. You can read more about my experiences in Sometimes He Whispers, Sometimes He Roars: Learning to Hear the Voice of God. The book started out as simply a memoir of my own adventures in prayer. But friends kept urging me to add some practical content to this journey—some footsteps— so others could follow along.

I firmly believe that if you will listen to God daily and watch for him at work right where you are, your ordinary days will no longer feel ordinary.