7 Questions to Help You Listen for God's Voice

Ask these 7 questions in your quiet times to help you stop and listen for God’s voice to encourage, challenge, guide, comfort, & lead your heart.

I love listening to people. When I lived in Tucson, every year the pastor’s family would throw a big open house for Christmas.

Tons of people would come in and out of their house that day.

Every year, I would find a spot, usually at the kitchen table, and park myself there all day long.

Someone would come, sit, eat, we would catch up for a while, they would move on, and then the next person would come and take their seat and repeat the motions.

The best part of the day was asking questions about them.

Not just, “How about this weather?” kind of questions, but things that took the conversation to a deeper level like, “How’s your heart doing?” “What are you struggling with?” “What’s the best thing that happened to you this month?“

And when people shared those things, whether the answer was joyful or heartbreaking, it was such a beautiful way to connect with them.

Listening For The Lord’s Response

When I think about how much satisfaction and fulfillment I get from simply listening to friends, I notice how that is not the same dynamic I bring into my relationship with God.

I’m the talker there.

I sing His praises, recognize my need for Him, throw out prayer requests, and spill the depths of my heart. And all of those things are vitally important to our relationship, but they are not the only component of a healthy relationship.

A conversation is a two-way connecting of hearts. That kind of connection requires me to also stop and listen for His voice.

It seems so simple to just give Him a turn to speak, but getting my mind to slow down enough to hear Him is another story. Even when I’m not stressed, my mind just races around jumping from thought to thought and creating a lot of noise.

That makes it pretty difficult to hear his still, small voice.

“and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.” – 1 Kings 19:12 (NKJV)

Finding God’s Voice In Scripture

The first place to seek God’s voice is in the Bible.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” – John 1:1

God’s Word gives us Truth, wisdom, comfort, encouragement, direction, strength, and so much more.

Always make Scripture your “first lens” to see things through when looking for the Truth and seeking God’s voice.

Hearing God’s Voice In The Holy Spirit

“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” – John 14:26

Hearing God’s voice in the Holy Spirit will always be complementary to Scripture and never contrary to it.

Scripture mentions several ways that the Holy Spirit can communicate with us, but we’ll zero in on prayer in this particular post.

The Bible is clear that the Spirit is an active part of prayer, to the point that He can “fill in our gaps” when we don’t have the words or don’t even know exactly what we are praying for.

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” – Romans 8:26

7 Questions To Use To Seek God’s Voice

I still want there to be plenty of praise, thanksgiving, prayer requests, and sharing my heart in my prayer time with the Lord, but I don’t want it to end there.

I don’t want my relationship with God to just look like me talking at Him.

Here are a few open-ended questions I pray regularly to practice asking, seeking, and knocking, opening up those opportunities to stop, listen, and hear from Him.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” – Matthew 7:7

1. Lord, how should I order my priorities today?

It’s so easy to drift along in life on autopilot, letting our circumstances or our emotions guide our decisions. (Click here to learn more about processing your emotions with God)

It is so important to be intentional, breaking out of autopilot and intentionally choosing to seek the Lord’s guidance in our priorities, time, energy, thoughts, and words.

It’s always a good thing to stop and intentionally seek God’s voice in lining up your priorities for the day.

2. How can I reflect You well in my tasks today?

Whether you are washing dishes, rocking babies to sleep, or leading Bible studies, you have opportunities to reflect the Lord in “whatever you do,” bringing glory to Him.

You can reflect God’s compassion, patience, tenderness, Truth, endurance, and so much more in whatever kinds of tasks fill your day today.

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” – 1 Corinthians 10:31

3. What would you like to tell me right now?

I don’t know about you, but my mind can be going at a hundred miles an hour, starting the minute I wake up.

Then it’s on to a day of work, texts, Facebook, and all kinds of other distractions.

This is a general question that helps me to slow down and ask for God to speak to me.

Maybe He will bring a verse to mind or reinforce a lesson you’ve been learning. Maybe he will remind you of a prayer He recently answered or give you guidance or comfort in a situation you are going through.

4. Is there anyone You would like to lay on my heart to pray for or serve today?

I am often amazed at the Lord’s answers when I ask this question.

I have a small group of close friends that I connect with regularly so they tend to be the people on the forefront of my mind, but, when I ask this question, I will often think of someone I haven’t talked to or thought about recently.

I can’t even count how many times a seemingly random person has come to mind after asking this question and, when I reached out to check on them, they were going through a tough situation or crisis and needed extra support right in that moment.

5. How can I best use my time to serve You?

Just like asking God to help you line up your priorities, asking Him to help you lay out your schedule for the day is important, too.

Maybe you need to schedule in some rest time to be still with Him.

Maybe you can best serve Him by volunteering, calling a friend, focusing on your work, spending time with your kids, or countless other things.

God is so good at bringing clarity in the midst of overwhelm.

6. God, is there a verse you’d like to bring to the forefront of my mind today?

This is a question I ask often.

Sometimes I doubt whether it’s God or my own thoughts speaking to me, but I don’t have to doubt when it comes to Scripture.

I know Bible verses are God’s Word, so I can lean on them for Truth, guidance, and comfort.

Scripture becomes that much more powerful when God leads you to a particular verse that you need at just the right time.

I have free printable Scripture lists by topic available to help point you back to Scripture in different areas, as well.

7. How can I draw nearer to You today?

This should be the ultimate goal every single day.

How can you draw nearer to God in your work, your marriage, your singleness, your parenting, your ministry?

This question does more than just open up space for God’s response for me. It reminds me of my desire to stay connected with Him and grow closer to Him in all that I do.

It’s a question I try to ask, not just in my morning quiet time, but also throughout my days to refocus my eyes on Him.

Using Stillness To Listen for God’s Voice

And then the most important part of all is stopping to listen for His answers.

Silence is a spiritual discipline.

It’s not necessarily something that comes naturally or “just happens.” It’s something that takes practice, time, and consistency to build the skill.

Do your best not to let your mind race or jump to your to-do list or other distractions. Just listen.

Sometimes, I take a few deep breaths and close my eyes as I wait to help calm my thoughts and just focus on Him alone.

Just a few minutes of listening time not only adds a dose of peace and stillness to your life but you just never know what God has in store to tell you.

What If I Still Don’t Hear Him Answer?

God communicates in different ways, from dreams to nudgings in your conscience. He doesn’t always speak in the way we expect Him to.

I don’t have all of the answers when it comes to this question, but what I do know is what Scripture says to be true:

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” – John 10:27

You know God. You know His voice. Keep listening. 💜

7 Questions to Help You Listen for God’s Voice