The Importance of Listening to God

As Christians, one of our greatest privileges and challenges is to learn how to listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit. This is why Bill Hybels has written: 

“Hearing the quiet whisper of the transcendent God is one of the most extraordinary privileges in all of life – and potentially the most transforming dynamic in the Christian life.”[i] 

Since we all know that relationships involve both talking and listening, we must understand that this holds true in our relationship with God as well.  Simply stated:

Listening to God requires both an ability to hear and also a willingness to respond in obedience to what He tells us. 

Here are a number of things that affect our ability to listen. For example:

1. Sometimes we are just too busy to listen to God.

2. Sometimes the voices of people around us sound louder than the voice of God.

3. Sometimes the noise and drama of life drowns out the voice of God. 

4. Sometimes we might think we know better than God concerning what’s best for our lives. 

5. Sometimes we may think that what we have heard from God is unreasonable.

This last point may have been what Jonah thought, for the task of going “to the great city of Nineveh” (Jonah 1:2) probably seemed overwhelming. Nineveh was a city of approximately 120,000 people (see Jonah 4:11), which is close in size to the city of Oshawa, Ontario. Can you imagine starting at one end of Oshawa and walking down the streets shouting, “Repent, for the judgment of God is coming!” 

Instead of doing what the Lord asked, Jonah got on board a ship heading to Tarshish which represented a distance of 2,500 miles from Nineveh. Nineveh is located in modern Iraq and Tarshish is in southern Spain. For Jonah, it would have been like traveling to the other side of the world in an attempt to run away from God. 

Important Question: Have you ever tried to run from God? 

Deep inside, we know such attempts to run from God are fruitless, for we may remember that Psalm 139:7 says, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?”

Sometimes we end up running from God when we are not prepared or willing to listen to Him. This probably means avoiding certain sensitive topics that we just don’t want to talk to Him about.  As Jonah tried to run from God, the Bible tells us that “the Lord provided a great fish (or whale) to swallow” (Jonah 1:17) him.

One can only imagine what this must have been like for Jonah, for none of us has ever spent “three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:17) in the stomach of a whale. And yet, many of us might have endured what I call “a whale of circumstances” that seemed overwhelming. In the midst of such difficulty, we hear Jonah’s cry for help: 

“In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help and you listened to my cry” (Jonah 2:2).

The Bible tells us that God gave Jonah a second chance!  Jonah heard the word of the Lord and obeyed (see Jonah 3:1-10).  The end result: “The Ninevites believed God” and repented (Jonah 3:6).

[i] Bill Hybels, The Power of a Whisper (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2010), pp. 16, 17.