God still speaks to me and every once in a while I can hear Him. I know that sounds strange and odd but it’s true. There have been specific times in my life when I know that I have been having an intimate conversation with God. Now, before you call the county hospital and have the people in the white coats come and get me, allow me to explain.

I don’t have God whispering in my ear talking to me about my day or what I’m going to eat or what I’m going to wear. He doesn’t tell me what to do or how to do it. When I hear God – it’s a very different type of conversation then what I normally have with people. I’ll try to explain.

God speaks to me when my head is clear. If I’m stressed out about something or worried about something, I don’t hear God. If I’m filled to the brim with excitement and ideas, I don’t hear from God. If I’m extremely tired or worn out, I don’t hear from God. The only time I hear from God is when I’m balanced in all the areas of my life and everything seems to be normal – not falling behind or jumping ahead – just normal.

God always speaks to me in a specific timeframe. For whatever reason, God chooses to speak to me between 3:00 AM and 4:30 AM. I have no idea why, but I’m confident that it’s Him I hear. I can be fast asleep and I’ll hear His voice and I’ll instantly wake up. It’s totally weird and awesome and I can’t really describe it. 

You naysayers are probably going to want to say – well Johnny – it’s probably someone outside that you hear or a TV or something that your hearing. It’s not – When I wake up from those noises I’m instantly alert and very agitated and scared. When I wake up to God’s voice I’m instantly at rest and at peace and I’m able to have a conversation without worrying about saying the right thing.

God speaks purposefully to me. God never says much when He talks to me. It’s not a long conversation by any means. Sometimes it’s a single word and sometimes it’s a couple of questions, but it’s never anymore than that. Sometimes the word or the question is based off an issue or a concern that I may have had or something that I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around. Whatever the case, when God speaks to me – it’s never very loud or long – it’s just very intentional and purposeful.

God always requires some type of action from me. God never has a casual conversation with me, it’s always very specific and it always requires me to do, change, or start thinking in a different way. Here’s what I mean. A couple of months ago, probably about January/February I woke up to the word, “Stay.” Now that word means a lot of different things to a lot of people, but for me what it means was that I needed to be still and patient and that I couldn’t be bouncing around from one thing to another like I like to do. So I had to change my mindset of constantly moving and jumping around to be willing to just stay.

God’s not afraid to repeat himself. I don’t think it’s like a test, but I’ve found that God will repeat himself and say the same thing to me over and over again until it’s firmly engrained in my mind. I’m not sure why He does it but there are sometimes days, weeks and months where I’ll wake up to God’s voice saying the same thing over and over again until I finally fully understand what He’s saying to me.

God almost always uses a picture along with his words. Almost always, right before I wake up or I hear His voice, I see a picture in my minds eye. The words and the picture almost always match up. It works for me because I normally go back to sleep after I talk with God and when I wake up in the morning, the picture remains in my head and I’m able to remember the conversation that I had with God.

God always speaks with love to me. Even when His words convict me and force me to admit my short-comings, it’s always done with love. There is no sharpness in His words, rather it’s sort of like a piece of piano wire cutting through warm wax – it’s smooth, easy and once it’s done, it exposes an area of my life that I’ve needed to address.

So that’s how I know that God speaks to me. I don’t know if it makes sense to anyone else, and quite frankly, I’m not sure that I really care. I’m just excited that God still speaks in this day and age and that it’s not just a fairy tale. I only wish I could block out all the clutter in my day so that I could hear Him more.