Why is it that God’s voice seems easier to hear on certain days than it does on other days?
One reason could be that relationship with God is cyclical in the sense that He will draw near, and He will draw away. There are days when He just draws away. Most of us go through seasons in which we hear from God a lot and other seasons of “divine silence,” in which it seems like He isn’t speaking. This doesn’t happen because of us — because we’re failing to do something important or because we’re doing something wrong; it is a natural fluctuation of intimacy and separation. Leviticus specifies a similar dynamic between husband and wife that is driven by biological cycle.
If we are having difficulty hearing God’s voice, it could also be an issue of peace. We have a much harder time communicating with God when we are stressed, dealing with fear or if He is speaking to us about topics that are hard for us to believe or accept.
However, if our days and emotions remain basically the same, and one day we’re hearing clearly and the next day we aren’t, it most likely has to do with anointing.
The level of anointing in a person’s life tends to oscillate from one day to the next, from one week to the next. The anointing is what helps our brains recognize that what we are hearing or seeing is important. It stimulates our spiritual senses and makes us want to pay attention to God. We feel His presence, and we get excited. In a way, the anointing provides incentive for listening and spending time with Him.
When the anointing is high and God speaks to us, we are much more likely to recognize, This is God! I need to listen to this. But when the anointing is low, we may not realize anything happened.
His whisper is easy to ignore, and it isn’t inherently going to demand our attention. God says many things in moments of low anointing to see if we’re going to notice Him even when our minds don’t immediately register that something important is happening. On days of low anointing, hearing from God takes more work. He may be saying the same number of things He said the day before, but we will often wonder if He is speaking at all because the whisper can be so hard to discern.
This is why it is good for us to desire to hear Him more than we desire to be anointed, more than we desire to see results and more than we desire to feel comfortable or like we know what we’re doing. If we pay attention to everything we think might be from Him, even if we are uncertain in the moment, it will be much harder for us to miss His voice, no matter our current level of anointing or how quietly He is speaking.
The Anointing and hearing God’s voice by Jim Driscoll, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
I have been asking why I experience seasons such as this. This article really helps and puts some clarity to it.
Thx Jim
Dustin goff
Excellent! Excellent!
Thank you for your help…very helpful~
I just went through Leviticus and did not see where specifies a similar dynamic between husband and wife that is driven by biological cycle. Unless you are speaking of not having relations when a woman is on her period. But I don’t really see how that is substantial to your posting… Please explain what you were trying to say.
Jim:
I so love your posts. I just finished your book THE MODERN SEER and it was wonderful. I will recommend it to others. You are such a blessing. Thank you for giving me understanding. I laughed and I cried as I identified with so much in this book. I have highlighted much of it. Thank you Thank you thank you. I need to subscribe to Stir the Water again. I think I was the one you were talking about when you said some woman told you she didn’t want to make it up. Help me Jesus. i bless you and so wish there was someone like you in my town i could be friends with and be mentored by. But haven’t found them yet.
God bless.
Dianne Bennett
Hello Jim,
Thanks for the insight because I had been wondering what was going on since I was not hearing God in prayer. However, while I was asleep I had some visions of animals that I have never seen before and I heard voice telling me what each one of them was. I really did not think that it was the lord, but now I will pay more attention to other ways that he speaks to us. Whether it is through dreams, visions, people, music etc. Again thanks
As I read this article I was seeing a little tottler starting to walk. For a period they crawl ( not because they think they must now practiced to one day walk, but because they want to get to a place, or get the ball or toy, etc.) Then they start moving along furniture (not all, but most of them). Then the parent start to take them by the hands walking with them (the presence of the parent is close and tangible). Then the parent moves away a little (the presence is still there but is leaving space to experiment and grow) and says, “come”. Now that our little person has been shown how, they want to get to the parent in the same manner they have just been shown (if they are ready). Another way is; the revelation is like a seed, is it going to fall on hard ground, thistled ground or prepaired soil ready to allow the seed to grow?; or like the 12 spies who tasted of the promised land (the revelation) and is now required of to either enter no matter what or to go back to the desert to prepare the hearts deeper and better. Thank you
I am sorry, I was interrupted. There was just something I wanted to add to my reply; that is that if we just “do what our hand finds to do” we will find God waiting their for us. One always find God in the doing, because, as I see it, that is aligning us with him, thinking about it and trying to figure it out, leaves us with the seed in our hands and not in the ground. God Bless
Me again. Keep thinking about this. Feel I want to verify one point, namely, the toddler walking towards the parent can be seen maybe as possessing the land. God declares in His Word that where ever our foot will
tread, that will be our possession.
wow, want a timely word. I was just saying to the Lord today..Lord why does it seem like I am not hearing you…thank you for this word.
thank you! this is helpful
Good teaching.
A super-encouraging word, Jim!
Jim as usual your comments come in time to answer the cry of my heart. I can testify to being blessed by ‘little whispers’, but I have been wondering why things are not the same as they were a while ago. Season’s of annointing answers the question and leaves me able to wait patiently for the next season of high annointing without the anguish of spirit that I have been experiencing. Thank-you.
I just got home from church and this is my first time reading your article. Everytime I’m going through something, I would pray first and then I would open the Bible and ask God to Talk to me and He would always give me a word. For a year now, my life is been upside down in every area. About two months ago, I asked God to speak to me. When I opened the Bible, i opened it on Jeremiah 18 “The Potter’s House”. since then, everytime I asked Him to talk to me, I would open the Bible where it’s talking about genealogy or at the beginning of a chapter or the concordane. Last night I prayed and asked God what is going on , why the silence? I opened the Bible again, no word. But tonight, we have a preacher from out of town and he’s message was ” At the Potter’s House”. Then I remembered the last words He gave me. I praise God for His faithfullness. when I open your mail to read that you are on the same suject, it comforts me and helps me to understand that silence doesn’t mean forgotten. I just have to pay more attention because He also speaks in other ways.
Thank you for delivering this teaching. It is very relevant to me right now, and I appreciate the wisdom that it offers.
Dear Jim: I so appreciate your willingness to share of the wisdom and insight that the Lord has given to you. So true are the words of desiring Him more than the annointing or the desire to know what we are doing or where we fit in in the body of Christ. Peace that passes all understanding must rule in our hearts, I am not there yet, but I am pressing into that place of greatest intimacy with my God no matter what is going on around me for He is all that I need and all that I have ever wanted in my life. Thank you. We must keep the main thing the main thing and our relationship with God is the main thing. Blessings!
thank you very much for that.
Wow, ya got me… im going into the members area now !
Wow I needed that! I have been dealing with this also. Thanks for the message.
I love the way you expressed that. It is truly simple…now I want my spirit disciplined to hear Him clearly, my heart ALWAYS OPEN to receive what He is telling me…and an obedient spirit to do His Will and to love Him more and more deeply! Thanks again for such a clear teaching.
You you could edit the blog name Anointing and hearing God’s voice | The Stir The Water Blog to more catching for your content you make. I loved the the writing even sononetheless.
To God be the praise and glory for giving us the privileged to hear his voice. These days the Lord is teaching me a deferent way to practice to hearing his voice. In my devotional time, I just ask God to give me a word from the bible and wait for a bit. The first chapter and verse I feel impressed about I just write it down and based on that scripture verse I start journaling the flowing thought. Since I start doing that, I start receiving words flowing throughout the day; I can hear words and the words come to pass throughout the day. I believe it is because of the Journaling the flowing word of God.
The Anointing Breaks the Yoke
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“And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing” (Isaiah 10:27).