How to Connect with and Hear GOD

Notes From The Book: Running the Race, by Isabel Skúlason

The only thing we need to hear God’s voice is the Holy Spirit

We can all prophesy and should prefer that above all other gifts (see 1 Corinthians 14)

• Prophecy is sharing the Father’s heart with others

• We all have access to knowing His heart

  • It is hearing what He says and repeating it, knowing what He thinks and sharing it, seeing what He sees and describing it

• It is easy: we simply ask the Father to show us His heart for the person and trust that He wants to do it

• Why do we strive? Everything comes from God, who wants to give it to us. It doesn’t come from me!

  • We need to expect God will speak because He loves us and is a perfect Father who will speak to His children. We know that for His people He will do anything. His heart is to heal them, bless them, encourage them, and show them His heart and His love. If we ask Him for a piece of bread, He will not give us a stone (Matthew 7:9-11).

• This is very different than trying to squeeze something from the gift in us, or focusing hard to get a vision or a word for somebody. Doing this can actually cause us to draw something from the soul.

Do no think more highly of yourself than you ought to (Romans 12:3)

• This is very important to keep in mind when pursuing the prophetic

• You’re like a waitress at a restaurant serving hungry people God’s food

  • They place the order based on the degree of hunger they have. The Chef prepares the food according to the hunger of the customer!

  • All the waitress does is connect the person to the Chef

• The anointing God releases is never because of the speakers or ministers, but it is the Father’s response to the hunger of the people.

• God does not touch people because of us, but He does so in spite of us.

  • It is all about the bride and the bridegroom connecting. We are the least important part of the equation – simply a voice in the background.

• They pray for people to have hungry hearts before meetings because if people do then God will show up.

• A huge burden is removed when we realize we don’t have to make it happen and we cannot! All we have to do is have a good relationship and good connection with the One who does.

• We just need to be aware of the revelatory anointings (ways/means God uses to speak to us) that we have. We all have one or more.

God can speak to everyone in at least one way and He loves to communicate. All things were created by Him and for Him (Colossians 1:16) and all things point to Him (Romans 11:36).

• God placed the ability to hear Him within us all. It is not a gift that some have and others do not.

• The amount we hear Him depends on the depth of intimacy in our relationship with Him and on our lifestyle.

• God will even speak to animals for us to teach them what we cannot teach (example of God speaking to Wilson). How much more will He speak to us?!

Common ways God communicates with us:

Visions – can be open and closed

• Open = seen in front of you with your physical eyes

• Closed = seen with the eyes of your spirit

  • They are not taking place in your imagination, but in your spirit

  • The imagination is powerful but we want to recognize when it is in use because God creates in the spirit realm and we create in our imagination

Pictures – can be open or closed

• visions have movement and pictures are still

Dreams – not every dream is God speaking, even ones that seem spiritual

Discernment – sensing something

• A valuable and necessary anointing

• Feelings are a function of the soul but discerning or sensing is a function of the spirit and is prophetic

• We must use caution and guard our hearts as it is easy to fall into judgment because of the things we discern

• There is a difference between discerning what is in people’s hearts and lives and judging them, BUT you do have to be very careful how you act on what you discern. Guard your heart, and do not judge people because of it. Seek God in each situation and He will tell you what to do. It may be that God wants me to talk to someone and help them, or simply pray and intercede for them as He works in their lives. Be slow to react and quick to inquire of Him.

Words of knowledge – a wonderful prophetic tool, often given preceding a demonstration of signs, wonders or miracles, and often for evangelism.

• It is a revelation about something in someone’s life that only God knows and often God uses them to let people know that He knows them.

Revelation – when you know what God knows, and what He is doing. You know, but cannot quite tell how you know. You just know. If you want an increase in revelation, speak in tongues more.

Seeing into the supernatural (alongside the natural)

• Can happen with physical or spiritual eyes

• Can see in literal form or by brief detailed impressions

Promptings (nudges by the Spirit)

Sudden thoughts (drop in your mind but are not initiated by you)

Audible voice of God -

• Audibly with your own ear (less common) and/or with the ear of the spirit (more common, your inside ears). Not from your imagination or your thoughts - it is a literal voice inside you.

The Still, Small voice of God -

• This confuses people and is very challenging as it is easy to mix up with our own voice. It sounds like us talking to ourselves.

  • You will hear it however you tend to speak. Not with a different accent.

• Our spirit responds to it because God’s Word is alive and carries the presence of the Holy Spirit. It carries the beat of the Father’s heart and it resonates inside of us like a tuning fork, which does not happen when we talk to ourselves.

• Get to know God’s voice so you don’t dismiss this!

• The best way to hear it is to be filled with scripture because the Word of God is alive and will resonate with His still small voice. Reading and/or listening to the Bible is of supreme importance.

Journaling -

• Ask Him what He wants to say or a particular question and then write the answer. This is similar to prophesying without knowing what we are going to say until we open our mouth and God fills it.

• Journaling will always present a mixture of Spirit and soul, and people often struggle to tell which is which. Many times it is not God speaking, but their own soul.

• As a rule of thumb, do not accept others journals for verification unless it is someone you know well, whose walk you have witnessed, and who is accountable to you on some level. Make sure to pray and seek God about what you are reading.

Ivan’s journaling method:

• Write everything you hear/see, etc

• Pray and ask God to please confirm the things that were from Him, to start to sift out anything from your soul. Don’t talk to anyone else about it so as to get pure confirmation from God (and not their soul).

• As confirmations come in, go back and highlight

  • Ex: blue for first time and date it

  • Pink for 2nd time and date it

  • Yellow if it comes to pass and date it

  • All else remains unmarked

• At the start there may be lots unmarked but over time there should be much less

• Recognize where your emotions might be invested

  • This is the biggest factor in the soul’s involvement

  • In an area where there is a tug on our heart/emotions, our soul may be speaking.

    • Identify those portions and put ??? there

  • Pay attention to whether there is an emotional hook attached to what we hear, see, dream, or perceive

    • Ask God to confirm the thing to you through an outside source who knows nothing about it so that their emotions do not compromise them either.

Regarding revelatory anointings, it is always a good idea to wait for and ask for confirmations from the Lord. BUT, major problems can arise from seeking confirmations for what we believe God is saying (confirmation bias). People have a tendency to try to ‘make things fit’. The enemy can also give you false confirmations.

For really big things you think the Lord wants you to do but cannot afford to be incorrect about, you can ask God for impossible Gideon-like confirmations.

When you prophesy, God will speak to you the same way(s) He does when He speaks to you personally. Expect Him to.

Matthew 25 says God will give more to those who invest what they have and bring Him dividends. That is good stewardship - a powerful key to releasing more of heaven. With each portion increase, you become someone who can give that much more. God loves faithful small beginnings and will give more to those whose greatest priority is blessing others.

The Bible says that His sheep hear His voice but in reality His people do not know God’s voice because most lack the depth of personal relationship needed to know Him well and the assurance that the voice they are hearing is His.

• Increasing and growing in our ability to hear His voice has nothing to do with a gift or revelatory anointing and everything to do with relationship. The more you invest in Him the easier it will be to recognize His voice. How much do we hang out with him in our personal time, not just our spiritual time?

• We know the job descriptions and titles of the trinity, and who to go to for whatever we need, but do we know them as people? Most have a working relationship with God, not a personal one.

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