Honest questions
How do I hear from God?
Mostly through Scripture, read regularly and in context. Christians also speak of the Spirit's prompting, the counsel of other believers, and circumstances, but those get checked against the Bible rather than the other way round. Expect conviction, direction and comfort more often than a voice, and be suspicious of anything that conveniently flatters you.
Scripture first, and why
The ordinary Christian answer is that God has already spoken at length, and that the main way to hear him is to read what he said. This is less dramatic than most people want and considerably more reliable. It also means the work is unglamorous: reading regularly, in context, over years, until the shape of it becomes familiar. People who describe a long history of being guided almost always turn out to have been reading for a long time. Impressions arrive far more usefully to a mind full of the text.
Prompting, and how to test it
Many Christians describe a sense of being nudged toward something: a person to call, a wrong to put right, a decision that will not settle. Scripture treats such impressions as real and as needing testing rather than as self-authenticating. The tests are practical. Does it match what God is revealed to be like? Would mature believers who know you recognise it? Does it serve someone other than you? Does it survive a week of waiting? Anything urgent, secretive and flattering should be treated with particular suspicion.
Where Christians disagree
Cessationists hold that the revelatory gifts belonged to the founding era and that God now guides through Scripture, wisdom and providence. Continuationists hold that prophecy and similar gifts continue, while insisting they are always subordinate to Scripture and always subject to testing. Both positions have serious biblical arguments and thoughtful defenders. Trinity presents both and notes what they agree on, which is more than the debate suggests: no claimed word from God ever overrides what he has already said.
Practical habits
Read a passage slowly enough to notice something. Keep a record, because guidance is far easier to recognise looking back than in the moment. Decide in daylight rather than at midnight. Ask two or three people who will disagree with you if they think you are wrong. Where Scripture is clear, that settles it and no impression is needed. Where it is silent, use ordinary wisdom without demanding a sign, and accept that most decisions are made by thinking rather than by hearing.
In the text
Where this comes from
Quoted from the World English Bible, which is public domain. Read the surrounding chapter in whatever translation you own.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
After the earthquake a fire passed; but Yahweh was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
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