mistakes when you’re learning something new.
There will be times when you misunderstand what God says
to you. You will miss opportunities or learn hard lessons
because you flat-out failed to hear His voice.
But failure, mistakes, hard lessons, and missed opportunities
never keep the “greats” from practicing harder, returning to
rigorous training, repeating their exercises until they get it
right, or recording their forward (and sometimes backward)
progress.
In Hearing God, Dallas Willard, after two hundred pages of
methodical and biblical teaching on how anyone can hear
God’s voice, admits there is a learning curve. He writes, “If I
am right, the obedient, listening heart, mature in the things of
God, will in such a case find the voice plain and the message
clear, as with the experiences of the friends of God recorded in
the Bible. This is a claim that must be tested by experience, and
anyone willing to meet the conditions and learn from failures as
well as successes can put it to the test.” 6
As I mentioned earlier, my husband, a wise spiritual mentor
of mine since before our marriage, suggested that I add a
disclaimer to my enthusiastic claims that I’ve heard God talk.
His advice has given me greater freedom to share my
experiences with hearing God’s voice and tempers the way it is
received by others. He’s encouraged me to say, “This is what I
think God is saying to me.”
Or “I feel as if God is saying this to me because of what I’ve
read in the Bible, etc.” He taught me that it is possible to be
wrong, but it doesn’t mean that I can never express my
thoughts or feelings that occur during my conversations with
God. I simply allow room for my humanness and God’s