Our God is a God of rule and order. He has given us rules and guidelines to help us walk in harmony with Him. God is disciplined and organized, and He expects us to live a disciplined life too. We may not be perfect, but at least make conscious effort to stay on the path God has called you to, the path of righteousness and holiness. Listed below are things that can hinder you from hearing God:
- Laziness: to maintain an effective communication link with God requires hard work. Your prayer life must be topnotch. The importance of prayer in the life of a believer cannot be over emphasized. It is the life wire of Christianity, even Jesus Christ didn’t joke with it. He spent quality time praying, rising as early as possible to go to mountains and pray alone.
Some Christians will tell you Jesus has paid the price already, so they don’t need to pray, but the Bible says “pray without ceasing”. Most of them are shying away from prayer because it requires time and dedication. You must create out time daily for prayer, aside from the ones done in church. You need your own personal prayer altar, burning continuously. This is no job for a lazy man because it will deprive you of some comfort, but I tell you it’s worth every sweat of it.
Don’t neglect your quiet time, where you study the word of God for yourself, this will safeguard you from the lies being preached now as truth. Unfortunately, many are entangled in this web of falsehood because they are too lazy to search the Bible for themselves and know the truth.
Please note that your prayer time, quiet time and covenant time all have separate times. For example, you pray at midnight for 30 minutes, you may choose to do your covenant time by 12.30am, and then sleep. Then 5am could be your quiet time. This is just an example, not a standard.
- Disobedience: as you journey along with God, He may set some personal rules just for you. Meaning, others may do it but you can’t because He has set you apart for a purpose. For instance, you may plan going for a party with friends, but He will ask you to stay back and read a Christian book or study the Bible. If you disobey and go for the party, then you have started the process of gradually disconnecting yourself from God. Can you recall what disobedience caused Adam and Eve? Stick to His instructions and you will enjoy a free flow of communication with Him.
- Skipping your covenant time: remember your covenant time? When you promised God to be always available at a particular hour to spend time with Him? Well, it’s essential we don’t miss that time or go late. Missing it once or twice is understandable but making it a habit will certainly hinder us from hearing God speak. God is a covenant keeping God, so honour yours too. During your covenant time with God, a lot of things take place which we may not even be aware until we see the manifestation in real life. While you spend time in His presence, His glory comes upon you but you can’t see this except He chooses to reveal it to you. Remember Moses? After he spent forty days with God on the mountain, and came down, the Bible records that his face shown (Exodus 34:29-35). Are you wondering why this happened? It’s because the glory of the Lord came upon Him after spending so much time there. The same is applicable today but don’t expect a shiny face, rather demons will begin to bow out of your way because you are now a carrier of His glory/presence.
- Evil communication: sometimes I wonder how true born again Christians feel comfortable sharing dirty jokes. I mean, what exactly are you going to achieve sitting in the counsel of the ungodly? What comes out of your mouth gives us an insight to who you really are. Make conscious effort to speak edifying words, avoid conversations that will pollute your spirit man. Mind what you listen to, it gradually robs off on you. We are not perfect, so occasionally we may default in this area, but constantly making a habit of it, isn’t going to help your walk with God and this will certainly affect you hearing God. 1 Corinthians 15:33 says “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners”. So please, let’s make conscious effort to filter what proceeds from our mouths.
We have come to the end of this book. I hope you were blessed. If you desire to reach the author, please send an email to maryaukpong@gmail.com.
Thank you.
Godlyseeds 