Chapter 7—How to hear God’s voice

Be still with an idea, a mental urging. Recognize and set aside others’ opinions and any of your own sense of fear, pride, willful obstinacy, and let the clear, natural, sweet voice of God, good, the very immediate truth of being, take hold and embrace. Stay with that thought until it says “yes.”

If confusion remains or ensues, or agitation comes in, or we sense a personal stubbornness, a need to do it because it at one time seemed right or in order to prove something to someone (or perhaps to ourselves), then we may need to wait patiently, confidently, for further inspiration. It will come. And we’ll be sustained in the interim. The voice of God is loving. His Word should neither rile us nor exhaust us. It should (and will) energize and encourage and at the same time settle us. In other words, it should feel natural and loving, comforting and comfortable (even if it sounds far-fetched or against all our human rationale). It feels right because God is right, and nothing He desires is impossible or implausible to Him, so it should not be to us.