Chapter 13

Listening to God

Those who deny their spiritual needs don’t want us to believe God exists. If we insist on believing that he does exist, they don’t want us to believe he’s dependable in personal relationships. If we believe there is a possibility that he is dependable, they certainly don’t want us listening to him.

Imagine God as a transmitter and yourself as a receiver. As God is transmitting and you’re attempting to listen, you’re simultaneously receiving all kinds of interference and broadcasts of the false messages we’ve been taught to believe about ourselves and God. If society’s denial can’t shut down the transmitter, it can at least make the transmission difficult to hear.

Our problem in listening to God is compounded by our being taught little by the various religious organizations about either the need to listen to God individually or about how to listen. Religious leaders have all too often preyed on our guilt or paranoia about God’s wrath and judgment, claiming they can speak to us for him, subjecting us to manipulation for their purposes rather than his.

In attempting to listen to God the following things must be remembered. First, you’re attempting to do something that you’ve been told can’t be done. Second, you’re attempting to do something that isn’t generally considered to be important. Third, you’re attempting to do something you haven’t been taught how to do. Fourth, you’re attempting to listen in the midst of great interference from the false beliefs we’ve been taught about ourselves and God. Fifth, you’re attempting to do something that society’s denial will scoff at even when you succeed. Is it any wonder we don’t think we can hear him?

On the up side, however, you’re attempting to do something that can be done, that needs to be done, and that will make you healthier once you’ve learned how to do it.

The soul is that part of each of us that is made in God’s image. The part that is eternal. It is the part that needs to love and to be loved. It’s the part of each of us that needs, in order to be healthy, to live according to God’s plan and the purpose for which we were created. God beckons each time we question our identity. He speaks to us each time we question our worth. He desires to comfort us each time we’re threatened by insecurity. He meets us in our pain and reaches out to us. Though we don’t hear a physical voice, we hear a spiritual voice. If we’re ignorant of our spiritual needs we won’t respond to the voice, not recognizing it for what it is. If we’re apathetic about our spiritual needs we won’t respond to the voice because we won’t care enough to have them met. If we’re denying our spiritual needs we’ll deny we hear the voice. Or we’ll deny it’s the voice of God. While God willfully desires to protect and to assist in the healthy growth of each of us, each of us must allow him to do that.

Some people snicker at foxhole conversions. To me, they make perfectly good sense. What better place or time to realize the ultimate inadequacy of the false beliefs? The values of wealth, power, and conformity suddenly lose their luster.

The fear and insecurity found in a foxhole under siege is simply the spiritual component within us expressing its need for nourishment. Because the false messages have lost their ability to jam the transmission, we can then hear God loud and clear.

The more we listen and follow where he leads us, the more readily we’ll hear him, the healthier we’ll become, and the more we’ll learn to love him and to trust his judgment. Not because we’re afraid of his wrath, but because we’re convinced of his wisdom.

As the wisdom of God becomes more apparent, so does the tragedy of spiritual denial. As we learn more about the wisdom of God and the tragedy of denial, we see the world and its people from a different perspective. The early Greeks had a word for that change in perspective. It translates into English as “repentance.”