The Four Ways God Speaks to You (And Why You Might Be Missing Them)
The Four Ways God Speaks to You (And Why You Might Be Missing Them)
I'll never forget that day when I was 35, laying on my bed reading the parable of the sower for the first time. As I began to understand that God's word was completely affected by the condition of my own heart, I started to cry. "Lord," I whispered, "please help my heart be good soil."
That moment changed everything—the beginning of nearly 20 years of learning how to recognize God's voice and discovering that He speaks to each of us in beautifully unique ways.
We all have different listening styles. God created us different on purpose because He wants to have a unique relationship with you that He cannot have with any other human being. He's going to communicate to you in a way that's unique to you.
We're all unique, like snowflakes—no two people are exactly alike. But like personality profiles, categorization can help us understand things more clearly. One of the teachings that I found incredibly helpful in categorizing how we hear God's voice came from Havilah Cunnington (truthtotable.com). The following four categories are based on her teachings.
The Hearers: When Thoughts Light Upon Your Mind
If you're a hearer, God typically communicates to you with words. These could be spontaneous thoughts, a Bible verse that pops into your mind, a phrase, or a term. It tends to come in the form of words, and typically not audible—though God can speak audibly, that's very rare.
The key thing to recognize if you are a hearer is those random thoughts that just light upon your mind. You weren't already processing something about that topic. It just happens to come up like, oh, that brilliant idea you just got. Well, that might be God helping you with that brilliant idea, right?
I tend to be a hearer. My husband Gregory is not—he's a knower, which we'll talk about in a minute.
The Seers: Pictures are Worth a Thousand Words
If you're a seer, God typically communicates to you with pictures, dreams, or visions. A picture could be literally somebody's face, an object, something in color or black and white, a whole vision, or a dream. It could be that you're seeing into the supernatural realm, like maybe you see angels or other spiritual beings.
A seer might not only see images but also have impressions of the big picture—you understand a vision of where something is going. You get the big ideas, the map, so to speak.
One struggle seers often face is that a picture is worth a thousand words. How do you communicate what you're getting to somebody else? Learning to share even a small piece of the puzzle is important because sometimes in stepping out and sharing that little bit, somebody else may have the next puzzle piece.
Here's something heartbreaking: so many seers are cut off as children. They use their imagination a lot, or maybe they see angels or demons. Often the adults around them don't understand that what they are seeing is from the Lord. We're supposed to enter God's Kingdom like a child, but many adults convince children that what they're seeing is just their imagination, and we actually train the gift right out of them.
If that's happened to you, I'm so sorry. The Lord is going to reawaken that gift in you if you'll let Him.
The Feelers: When Emotions Become God's Language
If you're a feeler, God speaks to you with feelings. It could be that you're feeling His feelings, like maybe there's a holy anger or joy. It could be that you're feeling somebody else's feelings—you're an empath.
When you're feeling something and it comes really strong, you have to stop and process with the Lord: "Is this me? Are these my feelings? Am I overreacting to something? Or is this You, Lord?" Learning how to tune into His feelings means He's actually communicating something to you that you need to know, or that people around you need to understand.
Feelers are probably the most misunderstood because it's very hard to communicate in words what you're feeling or sensing. But understand that this is a gift God gave you. It's His gift to you, and it's His gift to the body of Christ. Don't let other people shut you down just because you may not be able to communicate it perfectly.
The Knowers: When You Just Know
A knower just knows things. It's intuition. They just know.
My husband Gregory is a perfect example. He might tell me, "Oh, John Smith's having financial issues." And I'm like, "He is? How'd you know that? Did somebody tell you? Did God tell you?" And he's like, "I just know." Over the years, I've learned that when he does that, 90% of the time, it's God. We know that because it turns out to be true.
Now, God didn't tell Gregory that John Smith is having financial trouble because He wanted us to gossip. It might be that He wants us to help John, give to him financially, help teach him how to manage his finances better, or maybe just pray. The starting point is that we had a knowing, and because we're familiar with how God speaks through Gregory, we give it honor and place.
Don't dismiss the knowers. They know. They're usually right.
Honor Is the Key
Here's what I've learned: honor is woven throughout everything when it comes to hearing God's voice. Honor is the key that opens your heart, and it's the key that opens the floodgates for God's communication with you.
We need to honor each other, not just the Lord. Don't demand that the knowers tell you how they know. Don't demand that the feelers stop feeling or be less emotional. Don't demand that the seer have the whole picture—they might typically only get one small piece of the puzzle. And don't demand that the hearers be able to say "thus saith the Lord."
We all hear in part, we all see in part, we all know in part, and we all feel in part. We all bring different puzzle pieces to the table. We were never created to be know-it-alls or see-it-alls or hear-it-alls or feel-it-alls. We're all created to bring something to the table. God uses the whole body, and it's honor that's the key.
Remember that small nudge I mentioned about taking an umbrella on a clear day? That torrential downpour that came later proved it was Holy Spirit speaking. If there's wrestling inside you that the God of the universe wouldn't care about something so small, you don't know Him. He cares about what you care about. He's as small as He is big.
The truth is, God is speaking to you personally all the time. We just need to learn to tune in and recognize how He's doing that. And we need to honor and heed His voice—the word "heed" means to listen and to act on it.
So which listening style resonates most with you? Have you been dismissing God's voice because it doesn't come the way you expected? Or have others been dismissing your gift because they don't understand how you hear?
God wants to talk to you. He loves you. So enjoy the journey of discovering your unique listening style.
If you'd like to dive deeper into recognizing God's voice and learning to honor what He's saying, I've created a comprehensive course called "Honoring God's Voice" that goes much more in-depth into these concepts and practical application.
Blessings,
Susan Dewbrew
