How to Hear God: A Simple Guide for Normal People

by Pete Greig

Having turned toward the culture, we must recognize the fact that it is a very mixed bag indeed. The Bible warns us clearly and consistently that there is a viciously deceptive enemy at work in the world disguised as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). He is variously described as a liar, an accuser, a thief, and a prowling lion. We desperately need the gift of “distinguishing between spirits” (1 Cor. 12:10) so that we can separate God’s word in the culture from the devil’s lies. We should ask for this gift regularly and then seek to exercise it diligently each day. Reflective prayer disciplines, such as journaling, seeing your anam cara, and praying the examen will help us to differentiate between the good, the bad, and the ugly in our lives.

Our daily bread is material as well as spiritual, coming to us through the hands of ordinary people speaking to us through human conversation even more than more mystical forms of revelation. And then, when Jesus breaks the bread, we are reminded of his body so cruelly broken for us on the cross. We take his broken body into our own broken bodies, and somehow in this moment we become the body of Christ, born again and again and again: the community through which he still speaks, the walking, talking embodiment—literally—of his Word in the world.

Every time we share Communion, the word of God is spoken out again in Jesus (through his life, death, and resurrection, through the Scriptures, through his Spirit, through the church), and we receive that word into our lives.

come. (If you are awaiting the fulfilment of a promise from God, remember to wait actively and watch expectantly like Mary, even if the answer takes years. Keep listening attentively and saying yes consistently to Jesus, and your time will eventually come.)