Hidden Messages: Spirit

Hidden messages aren’t always written. Sometimes they’re spoken. 

I witnessed this truth in a recent WWII series about two young children, Marie Laure and Werner, who found their ways through very dark worlds by listening to the light of a voice coming through their radios.¹ Years later Marie, held captive in her French town, took over the radio waves to carry on the voice of light – and the hidden messages. With each illicit reading, the young woman’s voice encouraged listeners who tuned in while secretly guiding American attacks against the Germans.

So many layers of hidden messages!

The tuning-in to the radio becomes for us a great analogy for our lifelong pursuit of listening for God’s voice. If we’re on the wrong frequency or fail to tune-in, we miss what He has to say. Sometimes even when we seek to hear His voice, the words don’t come through with clarity.

And so, we set out to become better at living with the ears of our hearts attuned to the voice of God.

Assumptions

Static-causing assumptions become blockades to our attempts at hearing from God.

For example, when our boys were young, my husband interviewed for a job out of state. In my naivete, I moved through life assuming that if God opened a door for an interview, then it must be the door we were meant to step through. So when my husband was, at the same time, invited to interview for a second position in a different state, my assumptions flung me into the chaos of confusion.

In near panic, I asked daily which door we should step through – my prayers still laden with ill-begotten beliefs. Yet I strove to hear from God, begging Him for a sign to show us which job to take. Enthusiastically – or perhaps desperately – I looked everywhere for signs. I went so far as to hunt for license plates on every car in front of me at red lights, hoping one would have a tag for the state we were meant for. Oy vey.

Weeks of silence went by. I heard not a word from God despite the fact that I ruthlessly asked. And I knew no peace. Then my husband got word that neither job would be his.

Imagine my shock. LOL. 

That experience taught me, and continues to teach me, to be aware of the assumptions I carry into conversations with God. Looking back, I can see that God was silent because I’d been searching in all the wrong places. I needed only to have been looking at Him. It also taught me a better way to seek God’s guidance – with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Maybe you relate to seasons or a lifetime of asking for answers or looking for signs – and hearing nothing from God. I bet you are also familiar, then, with the temptation to believe the lie that silence is proof of God’s distance and indifference.

And nothing could be further from the truth. 

Here is the truth. God cares. About each of us. So much so that He sent us His Son to live among us and to die for us. Then He sent us the Holy Spirit to dwell in us, to guide and teach us. And He’s given us His Word that’s packed with wisdom and stories to help us navigate this life on earth. God cares.

And He speaks. 

Listening

Another reason we may not hear God’s voice is that often we simply are not listening. Busyness is one of the biggest blockades to hearing from God. Noise is another. How often can we honestly stop doing? Or turn off all the noise – even good sounds, like worship music? 

In much the same way, our own voices can become the walls that prevent God’s words from getting through. Perhaps we get still, but we never stop talking. We never give Him room to get a word in edgewise. 

If we want to hear from God, we must believe David when he says that God makes wisdom known to us in the “hidden places” (Psalm 51:6). ‘Hidden places’ are those areas of our inner selves not seen by the world – our hearts, minds, and spirits. 

And while God does, at times, shout, most days He speaks with that still, small voice.² Consider Elijah, standing at the mouth of the cave, waiting to hear a word from God. Only God didn’t speak loudly through earthquakes and fire, but in the whisper (1 Kings 19:12).

The first time I ever heard the Holy Spirit whisper to my spirit was in a season of great struggle. On a particular night, one of our sons had made another ridiculously poor choice, and I fell apart before the Lord. Sobbing, I cried out, “This wasn’t the plan!”

In the silence that followed my declaration, He whispered, “Whose plans?”

Immediately, I knew it was Him. Truth resonated throughout my being, and I realized I had been counting on my plans. I’d been putting hope in my ways. That night God not only showed me how to walk with peace through the rest of those turbulent years by trusting in His plans, but He taught me how to attune my spirit to His voice. 

Tuning In

Just as Marie Laure and Werner tuned their radios to frequency 13.10 in order to hear the professor’s words,¹ we can tune our ‘hidden places’ to perceive God’s voice. At the risk of oversimplifying, we can identify a few areas to adjust within ourselves – a fine-tuning of our inner selves:

1. Obedience – First and foremost, if we aren’t willing to acquiesce to what God asks of us, the connection we have we have with Him breaks. Like curious, eager children, we can come to our Father with pure faith and total trust.³ We can let go of doubt and choose to obey, starting with accepting the invitation to spend more time in His presence.
2. Reverence – A literal way to interpret Proverbs 1:7 is: revere God to gain the essence of spiritual understanding. Priscilla Shirer explains, “Our desire to hear from [God] must begin with reverence. Respecting God is not only the essence of wisdom, it is also the prerequisite for it.”³ 
3. Humility – Often in our efforts to avoid thinking more of ourselves than we ought, we think less of ourselves. Neither is humility. True humility thinks of others first. It lays down pride. When we want to hear from God, we must stifle pride’s attempt to force ourselves into the situation. Rather, we humbly wait on God.³ 
4. Trust – Jesus desires that we would trust Him, believing Him with the honest faith of a child. Very simply, when we fail to do exactly what God asks, we show a lack of trust. We’re meant to act on what we believe!³ So, when we seek to hear from God, we must trust Him to respond – in His time and way. We must trust Him when He speaks. And we do this by believing He is trustworthy – as are His words.
5. Dependence – The fact is we tend to rely on ourselves. As long as we think we know best, we won’t hear what God is trying to say. (Read that again). His whisper gets blocked because we already have a plan, an agenda, a motive. So, when we come to God, it’s important to confess our inadequacies, to name what we depend on besides Him, and to “calm our souls into a state of dependence.”³ 

If we’re not hearing from God, we can adjust our radio frequencies by spending time in God’s purifying presence, laying down all our disobedience, irreverence, pride, unbelief, and misplaced dependence. With the Spirit’s help, we can discover the static-causers. We can fine tune our heart’s receiver in preparation to hear whatever God has to say, remembering to wait on Him.

Hear me, though. These five areas are not steps that immediately and always open up heaven’s airwaves to our ears. But, if we will be consistent to align ourselves with the Lord – in obedience and dependence, with reverence and humility and trust – we grow in our maturity (2 Corinthians 2:6). We transform in those ‘hidden places.’ We practice readiness and receptivity. So that when the Spirit moves and God speaks, we hear.

Speaking to maturing believers, Paul declares, “God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began” has been “revealed to us by his Spirit” (vv.7,10, emphasis mine). 

We have the Spirit in us! He’s ready to search us and share with us the deep things of God (v.10). The Spirit teaches us what to say and explains spiritual realities (v.12). With the Spirit we can judge wisely – not because we are wise but because we have the mind of Christ (vv.15-16).

Hear this – for all we can do to better attune ourselves for better hearing God, it’s the Spirit in us that does all the work of receiving God’s voice for us. And once He whispers it over us, we have the choice to take it or ignore it.

Receiving Messages

The children who tuned-in to the voice of light heard the words of a wise man, but that didn’t guarantee they would receive his messages into their hearts and minds. They had a choice. Similarly, we all have a choice when it comes to actually receiving the words God shares.

Not that I always get it right, but if I had dismissed God’s provocative question, “Whose plans?” I would have missed not only the peace that came in that wild season, but I would not have matured in my ability to hear and trust His voice in the future. 

Like prayer and fasting and all the other rhythms we lean-in to in this abiding life, listening to God requires practice. The more we listen, the more we’ll hear. The more we receive His messages as truth, the more He’ll speak.⁴ 

Friends, when we desire to hear from God, there are no magical formulas or guarantees for striving, but there is effort required. Intentionally aligning our hearts and minds with those of the Father looks like getting humble before Him and laying down all the obstacles, all the doubts, the fears, and the cynicism. 

And becoming open, patiently waiting for God to whisper His words, so that when the message arrives, we can willingly receive it – and give it space to do a work in us. Hearing from God might feel like a mystery, but the way is not hidden. It is a narrow road – and the Spirit we’ve been given is ready to lead us toward spiritual awareness, attunement, and acceptance of all that God speaks.

Father God, it helps to think of You as a voice of light ready to penetrate the airwaves of our darkness. We long to hear your words of hope and help. We greatly desire to experience a deeper connection with You through your Spirit. We confess that too often we step into your presence full of assumptions and plans of our own making. Thank You for helping us be aware of all the blockades to hearing your voice, and we ask that You would continue to reveal what inadequacies we have – not so we feel shame, but so we can lay them down and trade them for your courage and grace and truth. Lord Jesus, how incredible it is to read your instructions to become like children and realize this is how we hear from the Father. Help us to keep discovering how spiritual childlikeness looks so that we can strengthen our connection with the Father. Teach us how to call upon You – how to trust that You will answer us by telling us great and hidden things that we have not known. Holy Spirit, we continue to marvel at the gift You are! Recognizing that You are here to help us discern God’s voice gives us hope to unravel the mystery of once hidden messages. We ask that You would continue to shed light on each of the obstacles in our ‘hidden places’ that keep us from attuning to God’s presence and voice. Teach us how to align our hearts, minds, and spirits with the Father’s so that we can better hear all that He has to say; help us to receive those words with trust and obedience. We want to hear from the Lord! So, it’s in His name we pray. Amen. 
(inspired by Jeremiah 29:11; James 4:8; 1 John 1:9; Romans 8:1; Matthew 18:2-5; Jeremiah 33:3; John 14:26, 16:13; Psalm 51:6, 139:23-24; Luke 11:28)

I’d love to hear how you’ve heard from God – has it been in shouts or whispers? How has the Spirit helped you tune-in to receive what God has to say? And what has it looked like to grab hold of the messages He’s passed onto you? 

Resources: I love sharing with you the books, podcasts, articles, and anything else that has inspired, encouraged, or taught me. These are humble offerings with no expectations.

• 1 – The Netflix series I watched, All the Light We Cannot See, was first a novel by the same title. Some scenes of the Nazi school where Werver attended were a bit rough, but I’m sure we need to grasp a bit of what boys like him endured. And for Werner, he managed to come away from the AWFUL with his mind still tuned to the light! Praise!!
• 2 – On the second episode of The Devoted Podcast — aptly titled “Devoted Listening” — Aimee Walker interviews Rachel Rodger, founder of the ministry, Hint and Holler, words she uses to describe how God speaks. You know, quietly like a ‘hint,’ or loudly like a ‘holler.’ So clever. And a great conversation that carries out the theme of this post!!
• 3 – Priscilla Shirer goes into much greater depth on each of these five areas of attunement in her study, He Speaks to Me^ – workbook, pages 8-25.
• 4 – I learned this principle very early on in my adult walk with Jesus, and I remember Vanessa Lerner speaking these words. She was the wife of one of our pastors, and I think hers was the very first Bible study I ever attended. Thanks, Vanessa!!
• On our Hidden Messages playlist, I included a song, originally recorded by MercyMe, that really began speaking to me about what it is to listen for God’s voice. I thought Big Daddy Weave’s version of “Word of God Speak” added a new vibe to the song I had on repeat years ago. Lyrics like “The last thing I need is to be heard but to hear what You would say. Word of God speak! Would You pour down like rain, washing my eyes to see your majesty, to be still and know that you’re in the place” still remind me to get quiet and just LISTEN! Word of God speak!
• In last week’s “Teacup Video,” I tried to draw the connection between the WWII code breakers and believers leaning into the Spirit as they read God’s Word. You can find it on my Facebook Author Page and Instagram.
• This week I send out the next edition of The Abiding Life Newsletter. You can subscribe here to get it! It’s my hope that it becomes a way for us to connect further on this faith journey we’re on.
• I’m blessed and so honored to be on the staff and a contributing writer at The Devoted Collective, a collection of women from all over the world who come together to grow in Christ, to deepen our faith, to dive into Scripture, and to love one another. It’s a member-only collective, but THIS WEEK the doors for membership are open. HOW FUN it would be to see you there — we could do so much MORE together! Just check out their website for details and to sign up. Use the comment section to ask all your questions!

Rhythms: As my newsletter’s title infers, we seek to develop an abiding life in this space — a place where we can get informed but also be transformed as we learn to abide in God’s presence throughout our days. I like to think that developing rhythms is what aids us in our desire to become more Christlike.

• Our rhythms, stillness and solitude, remain great practices to lean-in to so that we can settle our minds and steady our hearts — and hear from God. God can certainly speak over music, but sometimes we do need total silence so that tunes and words don’t distract us. I’d love to hear how your quiet times become spaces for tuning into God’s voice. What do you hear?
• Finally, as a community, let us not neglect sharing God’s amazing grace with others! Share your God-stories with people around you. Share this site. Share God’s Word. Shine His light into the world!

Featured Photo by Csongor Schmutc on Unsplash. “All the Bits and Pieces” photo by Sahand Babali on Unsplash.
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