christians, how to hear God's voice?

I think the best way to open yourself to God's voice is to open your heart and your whole body to God's will. When we do what Jesus told us to do, we make it clear that we are willing to listen. When we do what Jesus told us to do, we turn our attention and focus toward God.

Find Jesus in people like those described below.

Look at them, and serve them.

In doing so, you will be serving Jesus.

THE GOSPEL OF SAINT MATTHEW Chapter 7 verses 21 - 23 (NAB)

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’

23 Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’

THE GOSPEL OF SAINT MATTHEW Chapter 25 verses 31 - 46 (NAB)

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne,

32 and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

33 He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

34 Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me,

36 naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’

37 Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?

38 When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?

39 When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’

40 And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

41 Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,

43 a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’

44 Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’

45 He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’

46 And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

Some people actually receive vivid personal revelation from God, but I think that is not typical. We all should listen for the Holy Spirit to guide us in all that we do, but we should not be greedy. We should not demand that God appear to us in a vision and speak to us like he spoke to some of the prophets.

God spoke to the prophets, and we can read in The Bible what God told the prophets. God even became man, and Jesus Himself told us much. I think we all should look at the words of the prophets, and the words of Jesus Christ - who is God incarnate, as recorded for us in The Bible, and we should recognize that God has spoken to us all.

I am Roman Catholic.

Peace be with you.

it appears that you're doing all the right things as a christian.

tis why even your prayers are heard and answered.

but as to not having heard from God when you want Him to ...

' i really want to hear him and know if he has anything for me to do or someone specific to help,'

i find a bit of a problem here in your thinking ... why would God reach out to you to specifically help someone ? shouldn't we offer our help to ANYONE around us who's in need ... teaching as per scripture.

could THAT be the reason God finds it is not nec. to talk to you ...

anyhow, in my experience, when i heard someone i know ... heard from the Holy Spirit,

i was envious. I, too, was a new christian like her. Anyhow, it just stopped there. Then soon, i too, heard from the Holy Spirit. But now as a matured christian, in retrospect, even when i was a buddhist, i heard a voice in my head ...

NOW i know it was the voice of God the Holy Spirit but THEN, i didn't know.

i didn't even wonder ... talk about ignorance ... this is it.

so that means, even while i was a buddhist, God the Holy Spirit spoke to me !

but you got to know that God is not the kind to sit w you over a cup of afternoon tea and chatter ...

when God talks, it is for a reason ... a NEED to communicate w you ... not otherwise.

be happy that God answers your prayers. It tells me that you're living right and He is pleased w you.

God bless you and all our brethren here and around the world.

The people that have claimingly spoken to 'God' have obviously driven them selfs insane enough to the point where they hear voices. Do yourself and the rest of the world a favor and just focus on what matters and whats going to get you further in life.

The problem appears to be how you understand the phrase "God talked to me."

It is not talking about a literal voice that just speaks to you. What is being spoken of here is communication, and communication does not always occur with actual speaking. For example, deaf individuals often speak using sign language, and in fact so do some chimps and gorillas and other apes. Some have taught their pets to follow a command given by hand signals. And many mothers will convey to their children the displeasure they feel over the child's actions with nothing more than a look.

In each of these cases, communication occurred without the actual use of a voice. It is the same basic idea with God. You will not hear a literal voice talking to you with actual words, but simply a communication of His presence and His influence. You yourself already pointed out that God has answered your prayers, so He has already "spoken" to you, not by words but by action. He has communicated with you, just not with a voice.

_________

In fact, I myself can tell how I first came to know God "speaking" to me. About twelve years ago, when I was 18 years old, I left the Jehovah's Witnesses entirely and went out on my own without faith. Although I believed in God still, He had no real effect on my life because I had essentially walked out on God and tried to make it on my own without Him.

About ten years later when I was 28 years old, I began praying again. My initial prayers were "bargaining prayers," that is those kinds of prayers like "God, if you do this for me I will quit smoking," or "God, if you do this for me I will quit drinking" kind of prayers. It was at this time that I began to have a feeling of what I would call procrastination, meaning that I had the feeling I should be doing something I wasn't doing, but I didn't know what. I thought it might be going back to school, so I began looking to enroll in college at that time. But even after getting into school, the feeling of procrastination did not go away.

In the meantime I was still doing the bargaining prayers, but whether I got what I asked for or not, I would never follow through on my promise. I began to worry that I would anger God if I kept promising and not delivering, but I knew I wasn't going to follow through on not drinking or smoking anymore, so instead I changed my prayer to "God, whatever help you are willing to give me, I will take it and just be thankful."

10 minutes later Jehovah's Witnesses showed up at my door and offered me a study. Actually, I did not make the connection that this was the help God was offering, and although I said yes to the study my goal was simply to show them I was not really interested and that hopefully that would convince them to leave me alone. But when I began the study, the feeling of procrastination went away, and instead a felt a feeling of new energy. I therefore continued the study after all, and took it all the way to baptism. At the time, I did not recognize the holy spirit working on me (which caused the feeling of procrastination to begin with and later the energy as I began the study), but later as I studied I recognized that it was holy spirit.

And that is how I realized that God had "talked" to me, not by words, but rather by showing His presence and His interest and help in my life now that I was trying. And since then, I have, with the help of holy spirit, quit smoking and drinking.

Essentially, that is the idea that people are trying to convey when they tell you that God "spoke" with them...it is that God has communicated with them, showing that He does exist and that He does care and will help you. Since you know this already, God has actually spoken to you the same way that those other people meant when they said that to you.

Reading a lot of books isn't neccessary. Good motives are all that is needed to hear from the Lord. =)

You do not hear his voice because you are not schizophrenic. Take it as a good sign that you can't hear a voice that isn't really there. No vocal chords = no voice.