How to Hear God's Voice in the Scriptures

Have you ever heard God's voice?

I know what many of you will say. You have never heard it. That is where the problems begin. Part of it is our understanding of what God's voice is.

What if I told you that you have already heard Him, and you just did not know? I will prove it. Then I will show why a wrong understanding of His voice can do more damage than good.

Hands rest on an open Bible on a wooden table beside a window, lit by warm morning light.

Shocking Proof You Have Already Heard God's Voice

If you are a Christian, you have already heard God's voice. He called you. You heard Him. You responded and believed that Jesus is your Savior. You already know how to respond to His voice.

“To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
— Hebrews 4:7 (KJV)

That was not a voice from heaven calling your name. The saints in the Old Testament heard Him through the message Moses sent them. Today you heard Him through the gospel preached to you.

Jesus went further:

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:”
— John 10:27 (KJV)

You are His sheep. He states that you hear His voice. So “voice” here is not some audible sound in your ears.

You Must Hear His Voice for Yourself

The chaos in the church as the end times approach requires you to hear God for yourself. If you cannot, you open yourself to deception, manipulation, and great loss.

That does not mean God will not use pastors, preachers, or prophets. It means:

When someone tells you what the Bible means, or gives you a prophetic word, you must have something inside you that can check it.
With His Spirit in you, God will almost always speak to you personally and use others to confirm. Even if He does not speak first, He will confirm it.

His voice in your heart will protect you from others and from yourself. Jesus said it well:

“But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;”
— Matthew 10:17 (KJV)

That includes yourself.

Error can come from fake ministers teaching false and even demonic doctrines. It can also come from true ministers who are in error. One of the saddest stories in the Bible: an old prophet deceived a young prophet with a false prophecy (1 Kings 13). The young man blindly obeyed. God punished him, though the fault was the old prophet's.

You are responsible for your actions, even when people deceive you or make sincere errors.

A handwritten letter on a worn wooden desk beside a black telephone handset.

The Word, the Voice, and the Scriptures

What is the difference between the word of God, the voice of God, and the Scriptures?

Take this illustration: You ask me a question. I write you an email. Dead words on a screen, but what was in my mind is transferred. There is the content, and there is the vehicle. No presence. Same content.

Now I call you. “Hi, this is Dr. Oben.” Same message, through your ears. Something is different. There is presence. A person.

A voice does not come from a dead thing. You can read my letters after I am gone. When you hear my voice, you know I am there.

Brethren, that is the difference between God's voice and His written words. Different wrappers of the same God, same knowledge. The word may come by sight or hearing.

Now the mystery. With me: my words and their container—email or phone. God is different. The word being communicated is God Himself. His word is His self-expression. He is His word (John 1:1). When God speaks, God Himself goes out.

So when His word goes out through the Scripture, God becomes, as could be said, enclosed in written letters. They look as dead as a physics textbook. But the Holy Spirit is in those letters. The words come alive. The presence of God becomes real. They are God Himself.

A ringing phone is not a voice. A voice has a person, a sound, and meaning.

A young boy sits up on a simple bed in a dim stone room, looking toward the dark as an oil lamp burns.

The Dead Shall Hear His Voice

In the Old Testament they heard God's audible voice: Abraham (Genesis 12:1), Israel at Sinai (Exodus 19:19; Deuteronomy 4:12). Sometimes thunder, sometimes many waters (Exodus 19:16; Ezekiel 43:2; Revelation 1:15). His voice can be as clear as ours.

Little Samuel is the classic case. He did not yet know the Lord:

“Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him.”
— 1 Samuel 3:7 (KJV)

While sleeping, he heard an audible voice that sounded so much like Eli that he ran and said, “You called me.” God can still speak like that today.

Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27). I was meditating on this, and it blessed me:

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.”
— John 5:25 (KJV)

Did that happen in His day? Yes: Lazarus.

An ancient stone tomb with the circular stone rolled aside and warm dawn light on empty grave cloths.

“And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.”
— John 11:43 (KJV)

A dead man heard. Sit back and think about that. He was dead physically. But there was a difference there.

Was Jesus talking only about the physical dead? In His days they heard and came alive. In the resurrection they will hear again. In between, something takes place now.

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”
— John 5:24 (KJV)

How did you pass from death to life? You heard God's voice. That is what happened to me. That is what happened to you.

Was He saying we will all hear an audible voice, like Sinai? That every Christian will hear “Stop, move” in their ears? No. That is not what “My sheep hear my voice” means. Hebrews says it is today (Hebrews 4:7). Somebody will tell Jesus, “I have never heard You. Abraham heard You. The prophets heard You. What in the world are You talking about?”

Stop Waiting for an Audible Voice

That confusion is a misunderstanding of the word “voice”.

God can speak with a human-like voice, as audible as you speaking to me. I do not think that has passed away. I have heard it once, under stress about marriage, when He called my name, Oben. It was more than fifteen years ago. I do not hear it every day.

So I say, “Jesus, I have never heard your voice. How do You say I hear it?”

The problem is that we Pentecostals have especially restricted “voice of God” to an audible sound in the ears.

God can speak that way. Yes. But most of the time, His voice is not audible. Stop waiting to hear something in your ear before you say you have heard Him. People will tell Jesus they never heard Him; He will show them the many times they did, and they will be shocked.

His word can also be heard or seen. We think “word” means we must hear it with our ears. That is not true. God can speak, and instead of a sound, you see something. That is still His word.

In Zechariah 4 the prophet saw something, and the angel said:

“Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.”
— Zechariah 4:6 (KJV)

Instead of hearing, he saw (Zechariah 4:2). You are praying, and a tree or another image passes through your mind. Hearing and seeing are the two principal ways we receive His word.

“(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)”
— 2 Corinthians 5:7 (KJV)

“Sight” here is not only vision. It means your physical senses, seeing or hearing. The critical thing is that God's word is entering your spirit.

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
— Romans 10:17 (KJV)

Does that mean you cannot have faith until you hear with your ears? No. What do you hear? A voice. The same voice of God: audible, or His word entering your heart with His presence.

Pentecostals have called this rhema. There are questions about that word. The idea is right. You are hearing God's word for you from His presence now. Voice means a person is present now.

How do sinners hear? The dead hear, and they live through preachers, pulpits, tracts, and events. No matter the vehicle, the Spirit is bringing His word into their spirit.

So if someone says, “Jesus, I never heard your voice,” ask: Did you hear Dr. Patrick Oben talking about how to hear Me? I was the one speaking. Something was burning.

Three travelers walk away down a dusty evening road through low hills and olive trees.

On the way to Emmaus, the risen Jesus spoke to two disciples (Luke 24:13-32). Their hearts burned. They did not know why.

“And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?”
— Luke 24:32 (KJV)

They were hearing God's voice.

Some of you are reading this, and joy is springing up. You do not know why.

“Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.”
— Jeremiah 15:16 (KJV)

That is why the Scriptures make you happy. Something is entering your spirit. You are hearing the living Christ.

God Has Not Closed His Mouth

We can hear Him in the Scripture because the Scriptures are alive by the Spirit.

Last week, a Christian lady wrote on Facebook. She is a child of God, though we might disagree on doctrine. She said there are no prophets today. No one hears God's voice. Apostles have passed. The Bible is finished. Prophets, apostles, and miracles: all passed.

I do not argue doctrine; I left that long ago. Theology is one of the most useless things to argue about. Consider this example.

Before we married, my wife left the UK for Cameroon for a couple of years. I wrote her emails and texts, and she loved them. Then she moved to the US. I say, “Wifey, I am not going to talk to you. I wrote everything in the book.” My mouth is shut.

How terrible is that?

That is what people think God has done. But the written Scriptures did not close His mouth. He still speaks, and He gives us the Scriptures as a sure foundation to guide and test everything else. His voice is alive today, as it was in the Old Testament. God is not dead.

How to Hear His Voice in the Scripture

God gave the Scriptures for a purpose. You can find the person you should marry and know His destiny for your life. You may say the Bible is the same book for everybody. That is because you are not connected to the Person—the voice, the Person.

Inductive Bible study opens this door. I teach spirit and skill: observation, interpretation, application. It is easier than a degree in anthropology. One hour a day, you can learn it. Skill is not enough; the Holy Spirit makes the Scriptures alive.

God speaks in different ways: audibly and through prophets. I believe in prophets today. It will not look the same for everybody. You can hear Him every Sunday and not know it is Jesus: “You have been hearing My Son on that pulpit for five years.”

The Scripture is the surest way. Voices in your head, a pastor, a prophet: you may not know the source. A true prophet is a blessing. The fake have outnumbered the real. That does not make prophets of the devil. God gave the church a prophetic ministry (Ephesians 4:11). The chaos is a gift in immature hands.

Grow in interpretation, and nobody will deceive you. I once doubted Prophet TB Joshua. He is odd. One day I listened. No flowery language. I said, “This is the Holy Ghost.” How did I know? I am used to hearing His voice in Scripture. Even true prophets can err. Hear God in Scripture for yourself.

This is how.

Observation

What does it say? Who? What? When? How? Facts first. “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27). Who? His sheep. They hear His voice. Whose? Jesus'. Do not interpret yet.

We Pentecostals—I am one of them—skip the facts and invent meanings. No interpretation that contradicts the grammar, tenses, terms, or structure is from the Holy Ghost.

Interpretation

What does it mean? Not what it means to you. What did Jesus have in His head? What did they understand? Do not force it. That is exegesis.

Hermeneutics is interpretation plus application. Ninety-five percent of Bible arguments are about meaning. People do not argue about this:

“Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?”
— Mark 2:9 (KJV)

We can argue whether a man can forgive sins. You say, rise up and walk. That is power. Presence and power of God.

Everybody can tell you what a verse means. When it heals your body, lifts depression, brings peace, changes your finances, delivers you, that is another story.

Application

Take what God said two thousand years ago and bring it to your life. You were not that sheep in the crowd. How does it apply to you?

Then the Holy Ghost takes you into meditation. I sit. I close my eyes. Brethren, give your mind to the Word like that. Meditation is critical. Maybe next week I will talk about it.

Lord, what does this mean? If I am His sheep, I hear. A thought. A right step. The Holy Ghost says, that was Me. That is why you see the excitement.

It will cost you time, not tithes and seeds. Give Him two minutes, and listen for His voice. Learn to be there.

Some of you want to marry, and the right man is before you. You cannot tell. Wait until the Holy Ghost puts your life inside Scripture.

“Jesus, I have never heard your voice.” “Daughter, you have not recognized My voice. You have heard it.”

When I was confused about whom to marry, emotion clouded my mind. That was when I first heard Him: Open. Come to your senses. Some of you do not hear Him because of baggage, not because He is silent.

“The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.”
— Psalm 119:130 (KJV)

His word enters, and light and clarity come. This is not my husband. This is my wife. This job is not for me. You did not hear, “Patrick, don't take that job.” You heard Him.

Oh, glory to God.

Father, I pray for the confused. Someone wrote me. Deceived by prophets, pastors, teachers. They have given up on the church.

Lord, that is not what You said. You gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers (Ephesians 4:11). Open their eyes. They have heard. They have not recognized, like Samuel.

Abba Father, thank You for the Holy Spirit. The dead shall hear His voice (John 5:25). You passed from death to life. I declare everything dead in your body, mind, family, finances, that marriage, that sickness, that fear: hear His voice. What He has said in the Scripture will come alive in Jesus' name.

Hearing But Not Recognizing

A common problem is hearing God without recognizing Him.

I will stay with the non-audible voice, but Samuel's audible case teaches the same lessons (1 Samuel 3). God called him three times. He saw nothing until Eli directed him.

Eli did two things that will change your life if you catch them.

He told Samuel that what he had been hearing was God's voice. He connected the dots. That is all Samuel needed.

I am here to tell some of you the same. You have been hearing God, but you do not recognize Him. It may be the sermon your pastor has preached for months: forgive that brother, drop that sin, get into the Word, start that business. After many attempts, you still have not seen that it is God.

He told Samuel how to respond.

“Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.”
— 1 Samuel 3:9 (KJV)

Until Samuel responded, God did not take the next step.

I am here like Eli to many of you. His voice often requires you to obey—to believe and act, or to stop. Whatever the case, He is waiting for you to recognize His voice and respond.

Download the Deshen App

Here is what I want you to do.

First, download the Deshen App. It is live on Google Play. The iOS app is still in review. Apple is taking its time. iPhone users, stay tuned. We will tell you when it is out.

This is not an ordinary app. I will teach you to study God's Word not only for doctrine, but to meet God. The next update will refine the AI for inductive Bible study, add Deshen School of the Spirit courses, and bring the full study experience to deshen.app.