From Alan Smith’s Blog

People are sometimes concerned that the inner voice they hear will be their own rather than God’s. I’m sure this is not only a common fear but a common occurrence. I’ve known lots of people who have “heard God” and run right off into a ditch.

For many, the solution to this problem involves increased effort to distinguish between their own inward voice and the voice of God. I’m not sure this is the best approach. I think it may be less than effective because it aims at learning a skill rather than changing the heart.

My observation is that in the vast majority of instances where a person’s inward voice is mistaken for God’s, there is a common factor. That person views prayer as an tool to get God to surrender to their will, rather than as an opportunity to surrender their will to his. When this unhealthy perspective is present, error is inevitable. When my will is the center of my prayer, my will is what I will hear. It’s simply a matter of hitting what you’re aiming at. The answer is not to try to hear with more clarity, but rather to surrender more completely.

From Alan Smith’s Blog

I was recently in China with a group of young leaders. Bob Hamp and I were teaching them about God’s Kingdom and how to walk in Freedom. We had given them an exercise designed to help them begin to learn how to hear God’s voice. The exercise involved simply asking God a question and waiting quietly for God to answer. The question was “God, what do you see when you look at me?”

After the exercise, we asked them to raise their hands if they felt they had heard God respond to their question. There were very few hands. This is very normal. The idea of hearing God speak is new to a lot of people and their initial difficulty wasn’t surprising or concerning. We simply began to explore their experience. After some discussion the reason for their difficulty became very clear. They were all very afraid of what God would say.

“God, what do you see when you look at me?”

They were all afraid of God’s answer. He will point out my failure. He will point out my sin. He will point out the areas where I need to work more and try harder.

No wonder they struggled to hear God. They were praying to a graceless dictator instead of a benevolent father. When our view of God is without grace and without revelation of his goodness and mercy, we will always struggle in our interaction with him. This is because the god being addressed doesn’t exist. There is only one God. He is good, gracious, merciful, loving, and benevolent. When we approach a harsh, unloving dictator, we are approaching a nothing, a no one. We are approaching a god who does not even exist. It’s hard to hear from that kind of god.

From Alan Smith’s Blog

Acts 10:10 is part of the story where Peter received the vision that directed him to bring the gospel to the gentiles. It says that Peter “…fell into a trance.”

The Greek word used means to remove something (anything really) from it’s normal state. It can also be translated “amazement” or “astonishment”. In this context, it appears that “trance” is a good translation and is consistent with the broader use of the word.

I don’t know about you, but as a somewhat typical westerner, this raises all kinds of questions. Was it necessary for Peter’s mind to move from its normal state in order to receive this revelation? Was it common for Peter to go into a trance? Was there anything about his approach to prayer that would open him to this experience? Is the fact that he was hungry significant?

The problem is that the text says he “fell” (went into) a “trance” (the displacement of the mind from its normal state). In a sense, it seems he was passive in this process. The trance “happened” to him. He wasn’t looking for it. And yet I wonder if there were factors other than God’s sovereign hand? I don’t really know the answers to those questions.

Here is what is starting to become clear though. My mental state is connected to the revelation I walk in. I don’t know how to fall into a trance, and perhaps cannot simply exercise my will to do so. And I don’t know that such a mental state would guarantee revelation anyway. But I do have more control over what goes on between my ears than I sometimes let on.

What if I took more time to just be quiet? What if I learned to quiet the busyness and noise that so consistently fills my internal world? What if I learned to allow life circumstances to fade and external things to diminish in order to intentionally become captivated, astonished, and amazed, by the presence and glory of God? What if the internal reality of his eternal reality became my inward focus? What if I learned to spend significant amounts of time beholding him in this way?

I don’t know if that would be a trance or not, but I think I would hear God more.