Snatchproof

“She has a secret struggle with pornography and an unhealthy Internet chat room relationship.” That was one of the first things the Lord shared with me about another person when I was learning to hear His voice.
I was a senior at Oral Roberts University, and I was the chaplain for an entire dorm floor of girls. I had heard many preachers and chapel speakers talk about how they had heard the Lord lead, guide or speak to them. I was so hungry to know what it was like to hear God speak. There were times I had thought God had maybe spoken to me or had led me, but I wasn't sure. Was I supposed to hear an audible voice or would it be a thought in my head? I wasn’t sure.
Being a chaplain, I was charged with the spiritual lives of 20 girls. I would often walk the hall at night laying my hands on their doors to pray for them. That year I asked God to show me how to hear His voice. I would journal while praying for the girls, writing down any thought or impression I felt while praying for them.
The first time I remember hearing Him speak (though I didn't know it at the time), I was praying specifically for one of the girls on my floor. For her protection, I'll change her name and call her Lacey. I laid my hands on her door and began to pray for her. A thought came into my head:
“She has a secret struggle with pornography and an unhealthy Internet chat room relationship.” I didn't hear it audibly, it was just a thought. It wasn't judgmental in tone; it was just a fact that popped into my mind. I remember thinking, “That couldn't be God, that was my own thought. Shame on me for thinking that about her.” I prayed for her but didn't mention it to anyone, convinced that I must have made it up in my head.
Well, one day a few weeks later Lacey knocked on the door of my dorm room needing someone to talk to. She poured her broken heart out to me admitting that she had a struggle with pornography and that she had recently begun a relationship with an older man in an Internet chat room. My jaw almost hit the floor, but not from the shock of what she was admitting. It was the shock of realization that I had actually heard God's voice and that it came in the form of a thought. I also realized that He had told me that about her so that I could help her and pray for and with her. He had compassion on his daughter and he had entrusted me with private information so that I could understand her struggle and be there for her.
So, I had heard him! I had finally heard God speak. Like I said before, it wasn't audible, it was a thought. Yet it wasn't a thought that originated with me.
So, this caused other questions to surface. If God spoke the thought to my mind, how many times had He spoken to me before? Without knowing He speaks to me through thoughts, I would likely have thought His voice was my own. And I do believe in the devil and demons, so does that mean that demons could speak to me as well and make me think they were my own thoughts? These questions began to bubble up as I was just at the beginning of my journey to hearing the voice of God.
Once I knew in my heart that God really does speak to us, I wanted to hear Him more. I couldn't believe that He would speak to me, a common girl. I thought that hearing God was something only special people got to do. I thought that God had to really love you more than others to give you that gift.
Yet, because He was willing to speak to me, my self-esteem began to improve. I realized He wanted to have a deep relationship with me. The God of the Universe saw me. He heard my heart. He understood me and I felt loved by Him. He chose to trust me with deep secrets. Who cares what anyone else thought about me. The One who mattered saw and heard me and spoke to me.
When the Lord told me about Lacey, I believe it was actually what is called in scripture, a word of knowledge. First Corinthians 12:8 mentions a word of knowledge as a spiritual gift; however this is the only place in the Bible that it is mentioned. The general teaching of this gift is that it is information not known by you, given by the Holy Spirit to you for your benefit or for the benefit of another. In this case it was to help Lacey.
I believe that the word of knowledge is designed to equip the person who receives it to minister to or pray for someone else, or it is the Lord giving them knowledge to help themselves. In either case, it is new knowledge received from the Lord to help a person.
In John 10:27, Jesus says "My sheep hear my voice and they know me". This entire Bible chapter discusses how Jesus is our Shepherd and that we hear His voice. When Scripture speaks of us hearing God's voice, it speaks of it in terms of Jesus shepherding us personally. He is leading us, guiding us and keeping us out of harm's way.
So, going back to my last year at ORU, the rest of the school year I practiced hearing. I made a regular habit of praying over the girls' doors at night, listening for strong thoughts or impressions that might come from the Lord. Sometimes I'd have a one word thought like fearfulness come to me as I was praying. I'd know God was giving me knowledge of what to pray for that girl, that she must deal with fearfulness. Other times there was more to it, a much more detailed description of what to pray for. These words of knowledge came, I believe, because I was in spiritual authority over these girls (as their chaplain) and the Lord was equipping me with what I needed to battle for them in prayer. I believe He could trust me not to abuse the information, but to use it to pray. I wasn't going to go tell on anyone or use the information to gossip. It was between God and me for the purpose of more effective prayer over these girls' lives.
Learning that these words of knowledge that the Lord was giving me were coming through my thoughts, empowered me to hear the Lord for my own personal life.
Please know, learning to hear His voice takes time and is a process. Most of the time we don't doubt God, we doubt ourselves. I know I did (and still do). And, so it takes time and practice. You need to start writing down what you think God is saying. Answered journal entries will boost your confidence over time that you really are hearing Him, but we'll go into that more later.