GOD WANTS TO COMMUNICATE
God’s desire to communicate with us is evident throughout Scripture and is rooted in His nature and love for us. The God we worship is personal, expressive, and relational. He wants to interact with us, to share His thoughts and essence, and to foster intimacy. This desire for open and continual communication, which was initially tainted by sin, is nevertheless an enduring and defining feature of His relationship with us. Therefore, it is important to understand why God wants to communicate, what He seeks to convey, and what a personal and intimate relationship with Him entails.
Why God Wants to Communicate
God’s thoughts toward each of us are as countless as the grains of sand on the seashore (Psalm 139:17-18). The pervasive nature of sand, spreading and infiltrating everything, parallels God’s unceasing thoughts about us. They are so numerous that comprehending their entirety would demand eternity.
Scripture assures us that God’s thoughts have a purpose and a plan: to give us hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:1). His thoughts towards us are not aimless or random; they have a specific purpose and plan. He thinks about the good things in store for us, and just as we would want to share our thoughts with someone we care about, God wants to communicate His plans, purposes, and promises to us.
1 John 4:8 tells us that God is love, and love naturally motivates one to communicate. Relationships are built and nurtured through communication, and God, as a loving Father, desires an intimate relationship with His children. He even describes Himself as the Living Word, encouraging us not to harden our hearts but to listen to His voice (Psalm 95:7-8).
God’s desire to communicate is evident through His actions and provisions. Despite humanity’s fall from grace, God still spoke to Adam and Eve, and later to rebellious Israel through His prophets like Jeremiah. This highlights His relentless desire to communicate, even when His chosen people weren’t ready to hear His words.
It is Common for God to Communicate
Throughout biblical history, we see God expressing Himself to humans and all of creation. He communicated with both the righteous and the sinners, using spoken words, visions, and dreams. The book of Genesis alone, records over fifty instances of God communicating with individuals, and the list only grows when we consider the entire Bible. God spoke to figures such as Moses, David, Solomon, Peter, and Paul, among many others.
God spoke through various means, including spoken words, visions, and dreams. He spoke to both the young and the old, sinners and saints, demonstrating that His desire to communicate is not limited to certain individuals or circumstances. If God communicated with them, why would He exclude us from His conversation? Hearing His voice places us in the company of great biblical figures throughout history.
God Created Us to Hear His Voice
It is important to recognize that God created us to hear His voice. Proverbs 20:12 tells us that the Lord has made both the hearing ear and the seeing eye. Our ability to hear God is not contingent upon our righteousness but on His grace and His desire to communicate with His children.
However, sin can hinder our ability to hear God’s voice. Feelings of guilt, a hardened heart, bitterness, unforgiveness, and condemnation can create barriers that prevent us from opening our spiritual ears to hear Him clearly. It is essential to address these hindrances and seek reconciliation with God so that we can experience the fullness of His communication.
God’s desire for communication testifies to His enduring love for us and His commitment to our salvation. The depth and extent of His thoughts towards us, His relational nature, and His ongoing conversation with mankind throughout history affirm this truth. In understanding this, we can strive to keep our spiritual ears open, inviting God’s voice to guide our lives as we deepen our relationship with Him. Through this divine communion, we find comfort, guidance, purpose, and an unyielding testament of His unending love for us.
For more information see CI’s Prophetic Training book: Hear God’s Voice chapter 2.
Adapted from chapter 2 of Hear God’s Voice by Christian International Ministries Network
Compiled By Ruth Pearce