Learning to Hear God

T WO LISTENING EXERCISES

A R E N O VA R É R E S O U R C E F O R S P I R I T U A L R E N E WA L
Learning to Hear God
T WO LISTENING EXERCISES
Edited by Grace Pate Pouch
Designed by Melodee Dill Stephens

Cover illustration: Engraving after C. Le Brun. Wellcome Library, London.

Wellcome Images / wellcomeimages.org (V0009416 Three forearms and one hand.
Engraving after C. Le Brun). CC by 4.0.

Introduction copyright © 2023 Grace Pate Pouch

The Foreword is taken from Hearing God by Dallas Willard. Copyright © 2012
by Dallas Willard. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400,
Downers Grove, IL 60515, USA. ivpress.com

Exercise One is taken from Discovering Our Spiritual Identity by Trevor Hudson.
Copyright © 2010 by Trevor Hudson. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press,
P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515, USA. ivpress.com

Exercise Two is taken from “The Gentle Art of Renewing Your Mind,” a workshop
by Brian Morykon given June 9-10, 2023 at Renovaré’s RēGathering conference.
Copyright © 2023 by Brian Morykon. Used by permission.
 Introduction
The amazing reality that God speaks—
today,
to you and me,
personally and directly—
doesn’t mean we automatically know how to listen. Hearing God
is something we must learn. And not just learn once, but continue
learning through ongoing practice. The more time we spend listening to
God’s voice, the more familiar the Voice becomes.

Dallas Willard writes:

Many people feel confused and deficient when it comes to hearing God.
… Being close to God means communicating with him, which is almost
always a two-way street. In our ongoing friendship with God we tell him
what is on our hearts in prayer and learn to perceive what he is saying
to us. It is this second part of our conversation with God that is found
by many to be so difficult or even unapproachable. How can you be sure
God is speaking to you? The answer is that we learn by experience.1

In this booklet are two exercises to help you learn by experience to

recognize the voice of God and enjoy the “divine companionship
for which our souls are made.”2 The foreword, adapted from Dallas
Willard’s Hearing God, lays a foundation for why and how we listen to
God.3 At the end of the booklet you’ll find information about another
way to deepen your two-way conversation with the Lord in community.

Even if you aren’t sure whether God has ever spoken directly to you or
you have questions about hearing his voice, you can begin today with
the help of these exercises to take little steps toward a conversational
relationship with the Trinity. And if you are already deeply invested
in your communication with God, I hope this booklet will help you
continue to hone your attention to the Shepherd’s voice and will be a
resource that you share with your community.

Grace Pouch, Content Manager, Renovaré

1
 Foreword
Adapted from Hearing God by Dallas Willard

Hearing God? A daring idea, some would say—presumptuous and even

dangerous. But what if we are made for it?

Sometimes today it seems that our personal relationship with God is

treated as no more than a mere arrangement or understanding that
Jesus and his Father have about us. Our personal relationship then only
means that each believer has his or her own unique account in heaven,
which allows them to draw on the merits of Christ to pay their sin bills.
Or possibly it means that God’s general providence for his creation is
adequate to provide for each person.

But who does not think there should be much more to a personal
relationship than that? A mere benefactor, however powerful, kind and
thoughtful, is not the same thing as a friend. Jesus says, “I have called
you friends” (Jn 15:15) and “Look, I am with you every minute, even to
the end of the age” (Mt 28:20, paraphrase; cf. Heb 13:5-6).

O N E -T O - O N E W I T H G O D

God walks and talks in our midst as part of how the kingdom of God is
in our midst (Lk 17:21). Our relationship with God is not a consumerist
relationship; nor do Christians understand their faith to be a consumer
religion. We don’t consume the merits of Christ or the services of the
church. We are participants, not spectators. Accordingly, we seek to
interact with God in a relationship of listening and speaking. …

In the last analysis, nothing is more central to the practical life of the
Christian than confidence in God’s individual dealings with each
person. The individual care of the shepherd for his sheep, of the parent
for the child and of the lover for the beloved are all biblical images that
have passed into the consciousness of Western humanity. …

2 LEARNING TO HEAR GOD

The biblical record always presents the relationship between God and
the believer as more like a friendship or family tie than merely one
person’s arranging to take care of the needs of another. If we consider
that startling array of biblical personalities from Adam to the apostles
Paul and John, we behold the millennia-long saga of God’s invading
human personality and history on a one-to-one basis. There is nothing
general or secondhand about the divine encounters with Abraham,
Moses, Isaiah, Nehemiah, Mary, or Peter.

The saga continues up to our own day in the lives of those recognized
as leaders in the spiritual life. When we consider, coming through
the ages, St. Augustine, Teresa of Ávila, St. Francis of Assisi, Martin
Luther, George Fox, John Wesley, C. H. Spurgeon, Phoebe Palmer,
D. L. Moody, Frank Laubach, A. W. Tozer, or Henri Nouwen, we
see in each case a person who regards personal communion and
communication with God both as life-changing episodes and as daily
bread. These are people who seek to focus their minds on God, to pray
moment by moment. Untold thousands of humble Christians whose
names will never appear in print, who will never preach a sermon or
teach a class—can testify equally well to the same kinds of encounters
with God as are manifested by the great ones in the Way.

Wilhelm Herrmann, a great theologian of the late nineteenth century,

goes so far as to mark the Christian out in terms of a personal
communion with God. “We hold a man to be really a Christian when
we believe we have ample evidence that God has revealed himself to
him in Jesus Christ, and that now the man’s inner life is taking on
a new character through his communion with the God who is thus
manifest.”4 Spiritual formation into Christlikeness—true change of
character—comes from living in relationship to God.

T H E PA RA D OX

In the light of all this it is not an exaggeration to speak of a paradox in

the contemporary experience and understanding of hearing God. This
paradox seriously hinders our practical faith.
FOREWORD 3
On the one hand, we have massive testimony to and widespread faith in
God’s personal, guiding communication with us—far more than mere
providential and blindly controlling guidance. This is not only recorded
in Scripture and emblazoned upon church history, but it also lies at the
heart of our worship services and our individual relationships with God.

Receiving guidance from God actually serves as the basis of authority

for our teachers and leaders. Rarely do people profess to teach and lead
the people of God on the basis of their education, natural talents and
denominational connections alone. Authority in spiritual leadership
derives from a life in the Spirit, from the leader’s personal encounter and
ongoing relationship with God.

On the other hand, we also find a pervasive and often painful

uncertainty about how hearing God’s voice actually works today and
what its place is in the church and in the Christian’s life. Even those
who firmly believe that they have been addressed or directly spoken to
by God may be at a loss to know what is happening or what to do about
it. In the Bible, poor flustered Gideon said to the Lord, who in some
fashion stood before him, “Do something to prove that you are the one
who is speaking to me!” (Jg 6:17, paraphrase).

Even if we were to beg for a word from God, we may have so little clarity
on what it should be like and so little competence in dealing with it, that
when it comes it will only add to our confusion. I believe that this is one
reason such a word may be withheld from us by God when it would
otherwise be appropriate and helpful.

Our need for understanding is clearly very great. We are all too familiar
with the painful confusion of individuals who make huge efforts to
determine God’s will for themselves—people who are frequently very
sincere and devout. We see them make dreadful errors by following a
whim or chance event that, because of their desperation, they force to
serve as a sign from God. …

We are also all too familiar, even if only through newspaper accounts,
with the tragic domination of groups by those who lay claim to a special
4 LEARNING TO HEAR GOD
sign or word from God. Religious dictators are in unceasing supply and
show up in surprising guises and places. Often they are not effectively
resisted precisely because the other members of the group have no clear
idea, tested and proven in experience, of how such a word from God
really works. They are vulnerable to madness in the name of God.

F I R S T S T E P S T O WA R D A S O L U T I O N

As disciples of Jesus Christ, I believe we cannot abandon faith in our

ability to hear from God. To abandon this is to abandon the reality of
a personal relationship with God, and that we must not do. Our hearts
and minds, as well as the realities of the Christian tradition, stand
against it.

The paradox about hearing God’s voice must, then, be resolved and
removed by providing believers with a clear understanding and a
confident, practical orientation toward God’s way of guiding us and
communicating with us… . But before we can even begin working on this
task, there are three general problem areas that must be briefly addressed.

First, we need to understand that God’s communications come to us in

many forms. What we know about guidance and the divine-human
encounter from the Bible and the lives of those who have gone before
us shows us that. We should expect nothing else, for this variety is
appropriate to the complexity of human personality and cultural
history. And God in redeeming humanity is willing to reach out in
whatever ways are suitable to its fallen and weakened condition. We
should look carefully at these many forms to see which ones are most
suited to the kind of relationship God intends to have with his people.
If we give primacy to forms of communication that God does not
on the whole prefer in relation to his children, that will hinder our
understanding of and cooperation with his voice—perhaps even totally
frustrating his will for us.

Second, we may have the wrong motives for seeking to hear from God. We
all in some measure share in the general human anxiety about the future.

FOREWORD 5
I fear that many people seek to hear God solely as a device for obtaining
their own safety, comfort and sense of being righteous. For those
who busy themselves to know the will of God, however, it is still true
that “those who want to save their life will lose it” (Mt 16:25). My
extreme preoccupation with knowing God’s will for me may only
indicate, contrary to what is often thought, that I am overconcerned
with myself, not a Christlike interest in the well-being of others or in
the glory of God. …

Closely aligned to wanting to hear God only to know the future, some
people want to have God’s distinct instructions so they will not have to
be responsible for their actions. But responsibility and initiative are the
heart of our relationship with God. We are not robots, and he does not
work with robots.

Third, misconceiving the nature of our heavenly Father and of his intent
for us creates a truly overwhelming problem to block our understanding
of God’s communication with us as his redeemed children and friends.
From this then comes a further misunderstanding of what the church,
his redemptive community, is to be like and especially of how authority
works in the kingdom of the heavens. Indeed, all human troubles come
from thinking of God wrongly, which then means, thinking about
ourselves wrongly.

God certainly is not a jolly good fellow, nor is he our buddy. But then
neither are we intended by him to be robots wired into his instrument
panel, puppets on his string or slaves dancing at the end of the whiplash
of his command. Such ideas must not serve as the basis for our view of
hearing God. As E. Stanley Jones observed,

Obviously God must guide us in a way that will develop spontaneity

in us. The development of character, rather than direction in this,
that, and the other matter, must be the primary purpose of the
Father. He will guide us, but he won’t override us. That fact should
make us use with caution the method of sitting down with a pencil
and a blank sheet of paper to write down the instructions dictated
6 LEARNING TO HEAR GOD
 by God for the day. Suppose a parent would dictate to the child
minutely everything he is to do during the day. The child would
be stunted under that regime. The parent must guide in such a
manner, and to the degree, that autonomous character, capable of
making right decisions for itself, is produced. God does the same.5

A C O N V E R S AT I O N A L R E L AT I O N S H I P

The ideal for hearing from God is finally determined by who God is,
what kind of beings we are and what a personal relationship between
ourselves and God should be like. Our failure to hear God has its deepest
roots in a failure to understand, accept and grow into a conversational
relationship with God, the sort of relationship suited to friends who are
mature personalities in a shared enterprise, no matter how different they
may be in other respects.

It is within such a relationship that our Lord surely intends us to have,

and to recognize readily, his voice speaking in our hearts as occasion
demands. I believe that he has made ample provision for this in order to
fulfill his mission as the Good Shepherd, which is to bring us life and life
more abundantly. The abundance of life comes in following him, and
“the sheep follow him because they know his voice” (Jn 10:4).

Dallas Willard, Hearing God 6

FOREWORD 7
 Hearing God’s Words of Love… for You
Exercise One: Writing a Beloved Charter
Trevor Hudson invites us to orient ourselves to the tone, quality, and
content of God’s voice by soaking in scripture, and then to listen as the
Spirit impresses words of truth on our hearts in a personal way.

Does the truth of your belovedness reverberate through your being?

For many years, the mystery of my belovedness remained primarily an

intellectual conviction. From the pages of the Bible I would gratefully
affirm that I was beloved of God and redeemed by Jesus Christ. One of
my earliest Scripture memory verses confirmed this truth of faith: “For
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who
believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).

By contrast, my everyday behavior, my constant looking toward others

for approval, kept reminding me that this biblical truth still needed to
bridge that massive crevasse between head and heart. More than twenty
years of pastoral ministry in diverse settings has convinced me that many
people lack a deeply felt confidence of their belovedness. …

Throughout the Scriptures, there are numerous verses that underline

the fact of our belovedness. When joined together to form what I like
to call “a personal beloved charter,” they can induce us to see ourselves
through the eyes of the Holy One and to feel about ourselves the way
God feels. With hearts and minds we begin to grasp that every one of us
represents God’s unfolding creation; that the Holy One is continuously
attentive to what we are experiencing; and that there are eternal
purposes that God has for our lives. Carefully creating such a charter,

8 LEARNING TO HEAR GOD

committing it to memory through regular repetition, in the faith that
the Spirit of God is whispering these words in our hidden depths, is one
way of recovering the truth of who we are.

T R E VO R ’ S B E LOV E D C H A RT E R S A M P L E

To give you some idea of what a beloved charter could look like, here is
one I have formulated in recent years:

Trevor, you are my beloved child in whom I delight. You did not
choose Me but I chose you. You are my friend. I formed your inward
parts and knitted you together in your mother’s womb. You are
fearfully and wonderfully made, made a little lower than the
angels, and crowned with glory and honor. You have been created
in Christ Jesus for good works which I have already prepared to be
your way of life. When you pass through the waters, I will be with
you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you
walk through fire you shall not be burned and the flame shall not
consume you. You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love
you. I know all your longings; your sighing is not hidden from Me.
Nothing will ever be able to separate you from my love in Christ
Jesus, your Lord. Abide in my love.

F I R ST ST E P : A S LOW R E A D OV E R S C R I P T U R E

In preparation for writing your own Beloved Charter, slowly read over
the Scriptures on the following pages. Circle any phrases that really
jump out at you or speak to you deeply. Or, if there are other verses that
remind you of the way God sees you, write those down as well.

EXERCISE ONE: WRITING A BELOVED CHARTER 9

 S C R I P T U R E S T H AT C O N V E Y G O D ’ S L O V E F O R U S

Psalm 139:13-16
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s
womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful
are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from
you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths
of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were
written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet
there was none of them.
Ephesians 2:4-8
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he
loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together
with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him
and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in
the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in
kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved
through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.
Matthew 6:25-29
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat
or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not
life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds
of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your
heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And
which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in
all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Romans 5:6-8
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good
person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

10 LEARNING TO HEAR GOD

1 Samuel 16:7
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the
height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as
man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on
the heart.”
Titus 3:4-7
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but
according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal
of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ
our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs
according to the hope of eternal life.
Luke 12:6-7
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is
forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.
2 Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made
perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my
weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Romans 8:28
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for
good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Hebrews 4:16
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may
receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Ephesians 3:20
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or
think, according to the power at work within us.
EXERCISE ONE: WRITING A BELOVED CHARTER 11
Romans 8:1-2
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from
the law of sin and death.
Zephaniah 3:17
The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will
rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult
over you with loud singing.
2 Peter 1:3
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and
godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory
and excellence.
Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Romans 8:32
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he
not also with him graciously give us all things?
Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which
God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed
away; behold, the new has come.
Isaiah 41:10
Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will
strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous
right hand.

12 LEARNING TO HEAR GOD

Psalm 8:3-5
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and
the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful
of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made
him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory
and honor.
John 1:12
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right
to become children of God.
Isaiah 49:15-16
Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no
compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not
forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your
walls are continually before me.
Romans 8:35
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
Song of Solomon 2:4
He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.
Psalm 62:5
For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.
John 15:15
No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his
master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from
my Father I have made known to you.
Ephesians 3:17-19
...that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to
comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height
and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that
you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

EXERCISE ONE: WRITING A BELOVED CHARTER 13

 E X E RC I S E : W R I T I N G A B E LOV E D C H A RT E R

1. Reread the circled phrases and verses on the previous pages that
spoke to you about the truth of your belovedness.

2. Arrange the verses you have selected into a meaningful personal

charter that expresses the things God is saying directly to you about
your belovedness.
The very first word of your charter should be your own name, so that
the entire thing is addressed to you.
You’ll need to do some careful translation with any passages that are
not already phrased as direct address from God ... i.e., you might
translate the first portion of Jn 3:16 into: “For I so loved you that I
sent you my only beloved son.”
Don’t try to put every single meaningful idea into the charter, just
the words from God you are currently finding the most compelling.
Your whole charter will likely be 4-6 sentences.
If you find this exercise helpful, you can always revise your charter
over time as different verses attract your attention.

3. For Later …
If you are willing, set aside ten minutes each day for the next month
to be alone. Picture the risen Christ sitting alongside you, speaking
these words to you. Ask the Holy Spirit to press home the message of
your own belovedness. Notice your own inner responses (including
places you feel resistant) and share them with God.
As you become increasingly convinced of your own belovedness, ask
God to show you the belovedness of everyone else you encounter as
well. Practice mentally applying your Beloved Charter not only to
yourself, but also to each person you encounter.

14 LEARNING TO HEAR GOD

YO U R B E LOV E D C H A RT E R

EXERCISE ONE: WRITING A BELOVED CHARTER 15

16 LEARNING TO HEAR GOD
The Gentle Art of Renewing Your Mind
Exercise Two: Notice + Listen
Brian Morykon offers a gentle pathway out of negative, false,
or self-focused thinking and into alignment with God’s truth.
The practice helps us learn to recognize and elevate God’s voice so that
we can come to agree with what is true and live accordingly.

For much of my life, I tried to take every thought captive.7 In the process
I became captive to my thoughts.

That’s because my approach to negative thoughts and uncomfortable

emotions was to conquer them through direct engagement: Stop
thinking that. Stop feeling this. You should be thinking or feeling this
instead. The problem with wrestling thoughts and emotions is that they
wrestle back. Before long, you’re tangled up or pinned down.

Thankfully, there’s a better way to cooperate with God in renewing the

mind, an approach that’s more of a gentle art than a violent confrontation.

Two practices have helped me learn this gentle art of renewing the
mind: noticing my thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations, and then
listening for God’s perspective.

First, let’s talk about noticing.

A helpful metaphor—borrowed from a therapeutic framework

called ACT—is to imagine myself standing on a bridge over a set of
train tracks. Below on the tracks are train cars representing thoughts,
emotions, or bodily sensations. This picture helps separate who I am
as a child of God from the content of my thoughts and emotions.
EXERCISE TWO: NOTICE + LISTEN 17
If a thought or feeling becomes overwhelming and I get stuck in it, this
is like “falling into” one of the train cars. I lose perspective. I see life
from the thought rather than looking at the thought. For example, I
buy into the notion I am a bad father rather than noticing I am having
the thought that I am a bad father. (In psychological terms, this is called
cognitive fusion, and it causes a lot of unnecessary mental suffering and
unproductive behavior.)

So I like to imagine myself on that bridge beside Jesus, noticing my

thoughts and emotions together, letting them pass by. From this
perspective, I can “name” what I’m thinking and feeling. I then turn to
Jesus, ponder who he is and what he’s done, and ask, “What are your
thoughts?”

That leads into the next gentle practice that’s been effective for renewing
my mind: listening for what I sense the Lord saying to me in response.

Frank Laubach, literacy innovator and 20th century missionary, used

to meander out to a certain place alone and say his prayers aloud.
On occasion, he did something that may seem presumptuous, even
dangerous: he would say aloud what he sensed God was saying back.

It seems presumptuous because who are we to think we can hear

from God?

It seems dangerous because what if we hear wrong? History bears scars

large and small from people who said God told them to do something.
And I’ve experienced firsthand how mistaking an internal voice for
God’s can have terrible consequences.

Yet I’ve also “heard” the Father speak right to my heart. And it changed
me in a way nothing else could. Heard is in quotations because it wasn’t
an audible voice for me. I simply wrote down what I sensed the Father
saying to me, which often took the form of truths from Scripture that
spoke directly to my need.

18 LEARNING TO HEAR GOD

“Isn’t it more presumptuous and dangerous,” writes Dallas Willard,
“to undertake human existence without hearing God?”8

There are well-marked fencelines that make it safer to practice hearing

from the Lord:

• be rooted in Scripture,
• be patient,
• k now that God’s voice will always line up with the qualities
of love outlined in 1 Corinthians 13 (patient, kind, doesn’t keep
a record of wrongs), and,
• if in doubt, ask a well-rooted spiritual friend or mentor.

The exercise that follows combines these two practices. It is one way to
stand with Jesus on the bridge and notice your thoughts and feelings, to
get honest and be willing to face unpleasant emotions, and then to listen
to what the Lord might have to say to you in response.

Begin with a particular situation. I recommend starting with something

simple, perhaps anxiety about an upcoming event. Then ask the Holy
Spirit to help you notice what is happening inside: your thoughts,
feelings, actions, and bodily sensations. Jot these down without
judgment or analysis. Next, craft what you’ve noticed into an honest
written prayer. Finally, as you’re able, articulate what you sense God
may be saying to you in response.

Describing a practice has its limits. So in the pages that follow you’ll find
a personal example. The situation I chose to “notice and listen” about
was preparing to give a workshop on this very topic. Hopefully you’ll
catch the heart of the exercise and want to give it a try.

Sometimes we find that the still, small voice of God was speaking all
along. We just needed “ears to hear.” And that Voice—which aligns with
Scripture and pulses with love even as it convicts—not only renews the
mind; it heals the heart.

EXERCISE TWO: NOTICE + LISTEN 19

 NOTICE + LISTEN EXERCISE: BRIAN’S EXAMPLE

Situation
Preparing to lead a conference workshop that walks people through
this exercise.

Notice Without Judging or Fighting

• I feel overwhelmed.
• I feel unqualified.
• I feel scared of being found out as a fraud.
• I am procrastinating by researching music equipment.
• W
 hen I think about being in front of people, there is a sensation
of tightness in my chest.

An Honest Prayer
Lord, thank you that you see what’s going on and that you understand
my thoughts and emotions. Thank you that you’re here, present with me,
and that you don’t leave me when I feel and think things I wish I didn’t.

You know how afraid of rejection I am, and you know all the reasons
underneath that. When I feel this way, over my head and out of my league,
I want to run and hide. Jonah didn’t want to see people repent. I just don’t
want to see a look of disappointment on their faces.

But I’m here, Lord. I won’t hide from you, from others, or from what you
are inviting me to do. You have good things in store for people at this
workshop. If you want to use me to facilitate it, who am I to disagree?
The path of obedience always leads to life and peace, even if the way passes
through dark and scary places. I’d rather face hard things with you than
avoid them without you.

Help those who come to the workshop to have the courage to get in touch
with their thoughts and feelings, the grace to notice them without shame,
and the joy of hearing you speak to them.

20 LEARNING TO HEAR GOD

God’s Response
Brian, I’m proud of you. If you knew how much I loved you, your head
would forever be lifted in praise. Take a deep breath. Fix your attention on
me and what I’m doing, not on you and where you think you are failing.
I’m always at work. I’m always present. I’m for you and with you and want
more good for you and for each person at this event than you can imagine.
Stay with me. Stay with me when the shame is knocking on your door.
Stay with me when you are bored and distracted, when you are embarrassed
or afraid. I won’t abandon you. You are forever accepted. I went to great
lengths to have you close to my heart. Let me love you, and as you do I’ll love
through you.

EXERCISE TWO: NOTICE + LISTEN 21

 NOTICE + LISTEN EXERCISE: YOUR TURN

Step 1: Choose a Specific Situation

“Holy Spirit, bring something to mind for us to work through together.
I trust you know what I can handle in this time and space.”

Step 2: Ask God for Help

“Holy Spirit, reveal my thoughts, feelings, and actions related to this
situation. I’m willing to notice them with you.”
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. PSALM 139:23

22 LEARNING TO HEAR GOD

Step 3: Notice Without Judging or Fighting
Write down specific thoughts, feelings, sensations, and actions related
to the situation. Use noticing words instead of judgment words. For
example, “I thought X,” “I had tightness in my chest,” “I felt scared
of failing and being rejected,” “I avoided facing my feelings about the
situation by doing X.”

EXERCISE TWO: NOTICE + LISTEN 23

Step 4: Write an Honest Prayer
Begin by thanking Jesus for being with you and for understanding
what you are going through. Then, using what you’ve noticed, write an
honest prayer. The Psalms give us permission to hold nothing back.
Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about
anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present
your requests to God. PHILIPPIANS 4:5-6

This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same
testings we do. HEBREWS 4:15

24 LEARNING TO HEAR GOD

Step 5: Listen + Write a Response
Write what you think Jesus might say back to you in response. Don’t
get too hung up on whether you are doing it perfectly. It might help
to imagine Jesus sitting in the chair across from you. What might his
response be to what you’ve shared? An indicator that you’re on the
right track is a sense of being loved and seen. The Lord never accuses
or condemns. It is God’s kindness that leads to a new way of thinking.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. JESUS IN JOHN 10:27

EXERCISE TWO: NOTICE + LISTEN 25

Exercise One | Resources + Acknowledgments
Hudson, Trevor. Discovering Our Spiritual Identity: Practices for God’s Beloved.
Downers Grove: IVP, 2011.

Nouwen, Henri. Life of the Beloved. New York: Crossroad, 1992.

Exercise Two | Resources + Acknowledgements

Laubach, Frank C. Letters by a Modern Mystic. Purposeful Design Publications; 3rd edition, 2007.

The “Notice + Listen” exercise was heavily influenced by the work of Jonathan and Melissa
Helser and their “Honesty Tool.” Search YouTube for Jonathan’s video, “How to Journal the
Voice of the Lord.”

ACT in Real Life (actinreallife.com) is one Christian’s journey of applying Acceptance and
Commitment Therapy, and moving from fighting to noticing and focusing on values.

While not Christian, the Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life Workbook takes an approach
that is proven and helpful and can be done with God. (Hayes, Stepen C. and Spencer Smith.
Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life Workbook. New Harbinger, 2005.)

Endnotes
Introduction
1 Dallas Willard, Hearing God (Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2021), 9.
2 Ibid.
3 InterVarsity Press has kindly allowed us to print these selections.

Foreword
4 Wilhelm Hermann, The Communion of the Christian with God, 3rd ed. (London: Williams & Norgate, 1909), 14.
5 E. Stanley Jones, “For Sunday of Week 41,” in Victorious Living (Nashville: Abingdon, 1938), 281.
6 Willard, abridged from Chapter 1, 17-35.

Exercise Two
7 2 Corinthians 10:5
8 Willard, 11.

Learn to Hear God in Community

9 Willard, 239.

26 LEARNING TO HEAR GOD

Learning to Hear God Contributors

Dallas Willard (1935 – 2013) was Professor of Philosophy

at The University of Southern California and an ordained
minister who spoke at churches and Christian organizations
worldwide. He was a founding member of Renovaré. He
wrote, among others, Renovation of the Heart, Hearing God,
and Knowing Christ Today. Dallas is survived by his wife Jane,
son John, daughter and son-in-law Becky and Bill Heatley, and
granddaughter Larissa, who continue his legacy and work.

Trevor Hudson has been part of the Methodist movement for

over 40 years. He is deeply committed to the work of spiritual
formation within local congregational contexts—primarily
around Johannesburg. He also lectures at Fuller Seminary, the
Renovaré Institute, the Dallas Willard Center for Christian
Spiritual Formation, and the Jesuit Institute in South Africa.
He is the author of 22 books including Discovering Your
Spiritual Identity. Trevor is married to Debbie, and they are the
parents of two adult children, Joni and Mark.

Brian Morykon is Director of Communications and Special

Projects at Renovaré, where he uses words, design, and
technology to help connect people with Jesus and one another.
He studied Spiritual Formation and Leadership at Spring Arbor
University. Also a singer-songwriter, Brian has two albums
and has led worship at churches across the denominational
spectrum. He and his wife Joy live in Lynchburg, Virginia, and
have three children. Hear his music at morykon.com.

27
28 LEARNING TO HEAR GOD
 Learn to Hear God in Community
The two exercises in this booklet draw on the centrality of scripture
as the “permanent address” of God’s thoughts in written form. In the
Bible, we can find ourselves personally and presently addressed through
words written long ago. Scripture helps us learn to weigh what we hear
in our thoughts to discern whether it is God that we are hearing. The
people whose stories are recorded in the Bible model for us how to listen
to the Lord’s voice. Or, as Dallas Willard puts it, “We stand within a
community of the spoken to.” 9

That community continues to this day, and it is made up of people who

seek to pray moment by moment and to follow the voice of the Good
Shepherd. Renovaré has formed a way for those who share that longing
to deepen their attention to God’s voice in community with others.
Fellowship of the Burning Heart is a special kind of small group in
which silence, prayer, and liturgy create space for participants to journey
together as disciples who are learning to hear God better. Steadily, our
Burning Heart groups have launched and are multiplying. We now offer
open invitations to visit an online Burning Heart listening group to see
what it’s all about. You can find out more information by scanning the
code below, or visiting renovare.org/fbh.

29
The more time we spend listening to God’s voice, the more
familiar the Voice becomes. In this booklet are two exercises to
help you learn by experience to recognize the voice of God and
enjoy the “divine companionship for which our souls are made.”

As disciples of Jesus Christ, I believe we

cannot abandon faith in our ability to hear
from God. To abandon this is to abandon
the reality of a personal relationship
with God, and that we must not do.
DALLAS WILLARD

RENOVARÉ is a Christian nonprofit that models, resources, and advocates

fullness of life with God experienced, by grace, through the spiritual practices
of Jesus and of the historical Church. Christian in commitment, ecumenical in
breadth, and international in scope, Renovaré helps people in becoming more
like Jesus through print and online resources, gatherings and retreats, and
educational initiatives like the Renovaré Institute.

For additional copies,

visit renovare.org/hear
or scan the QR code
renovare.org