How to hear God speaking to you?
Mary Baker Eddy gives us guidance when she writes,
Lips must be mute and materialism silent, that man may have audience with Spirit, the divine Principle, Love, which destroys all error.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 15
To hear another speak, we need to quit talking. Not just with our mouth, but with our mind. As we put selfish desires aside, silence personal wants, stop outlining what we want to happen, be humble, become quiet, tune into the voice of Truth and listen, we hear what God has to say.
God is always speaking to us. The bigger question is, are we listening?
Thank you
Thank you so much
Thank you so much. Max
Max , I love your expressions of thanks. They are uplifting and kick off the comment section beautifully. 🙂
All I want to do is say thsnks
Max – you have been received the first time – though your computer may not be showing it, we have it four times now.! When you press “POST” you just have to wait – sometimes it takes a little while to respond, but it usually does in the end.,
Dear Max, what wonderful expressions of love and gratitude! In a recent Sentinel Watch with T. Michael Fish and Jenny Sawyer, “Getting yourself out of the way” Michael talks about giving thanks to God one hundred times a day. Thought can’t help but change for the better when we turn our focus on expressing gratitude, thanks and praise to God.
Thank you J,
I agreed that there are no limits to thanks the Creator unlimited times.
“Hundred times “ is my goal
Thank you Evan for today’s inspiration. Sometimes we forget to silence our mental hash and become still and really “know God” – letting go of past or current pestering thoughts we cannot seem to cast out of thought. I came across an article by Louise Knight Wheatley titled “The Smell of Fire” it is from the March 1920 issue of The Christian Science Journal. The author ‘s comments on “the smell of fire” when the three boys who were tossed in the fire did not have the smell of fire on them nor was their hair singed. How often do we replay some unpleasant happening in our daily life and re-run it over and over in thought. Evan’s quote from Science and Health says it all. One has to stop the chatter in thoughts in order to hear what God is telling us. We don’t need the “Smell of Fire” to linger in thought either.
Thank you, Suzie. This is such a good reminder and in line with Evan’s comment: “As we put selfish desires aside, silence personal wants, stop outlining what we want to happen, be humble, become quiet, tune into the voice of Truth and listen, we hear what God has to say.”
Thank you for posting the information on the wonderful article, “The Smell of Fire.”
A dear friend used the term “gerbil-izing,” referring to a gerbil on its exercise wheel, going round and round without getting anywhere.
Delightful visua, Barbara! How I relate to being a gerbil ….oh my !
I do believe this image will finally take hold, after all the thousands of admonitions I’ve read to not review our “ past,” which, in reality, has no truth at all.
Recently, I have been making an effort to quiet my own incessant arguments, and listen to that sublime Still, Small Voice.
1000 thanks to Evan and each of you.
Love
LOL.
“Smell of fire” : https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/1j3m6x9y3rs?s=copylink
Thank you Diane. It was like Ms. Wheatley wrote that with me in mind! LOL. Great wisdom so thanks again for sharing it with everyone!
this is perfect for my day today. thanks so much, Evan…
Very beautiful, inspiring and naturally instructive, Evan. Thanks so much. We all need to learn to be quiet and listen to God. I find that when I follow God’s messages, I never go wrong.
Max’s many “thanx” read like a poem of gratitude to me. They made me smile n laff- quite a feat in my morning. Thank you Spirit View, thank you God of Love n Laff-ter
Thank you Katherine, I loved Max’s gratitude too! Very heart warming and terrific post Evan, Thank you as always!
Thank you ❤️
thank you, thank you, thank you!
I just LOVE this site and the comments that come in.
Thank you, Evan, for establishing a firm foundation for every day!!
xo
Our church has an”Outreach Committee” and we are sending gift cards, quilts and inspirational notes to those affected by the recent fires here in the Los Angeles area. One of the articles we are including is “The Smell of Fire”. Yes, indeed. an inspiring article!
It’s sitting out in our Reading Room for all to read.
Thank you Evan for all your inspiration you are sharing with us, you are amazing!!
Have been “listening” and enjoying and absorbing all of these wonderful
thoughts you all are sharing. Thank you!! !!
Thank you Evan and all. It occurred to me to consider the difference between hearing and listening. I looked up the definitions of both hear and listen and there are many definitions of each and some of the definitions are the same. But I think most people think hear means:
To perceive sound or the impression of sound
whereas we typically think of listen to mean (this is from Webster’s 1828 dictionary):
To obey; to yield to advice; to follow admonition.
I often wake up in the middle of the night and when I do that I like to use that quiet time to pray. Last night when I was praying I heard the question “Do you really love God?” That made me think of the person that came to Jesus asking what he needed to do to inherit eternal life (Mark 10:17-22) and Jesus tells him to sell all he has and give to the poor. That guy HEARD Jesus but he didn’t LISTEN to him. That made me consider how often I hear God but not listen? I sadly had to admit that happens a lot of the time. Like when I’m praying for healing and I hear God tell me I’m loved and already free of whatever ailment seems to trouble me and I hear that but then don’t listen and continue fretting about when I’m going to be healed. I was glad to be awakened last night to the need to listen more…to not just hear what God is telling me but to really develop such a love for Got that I’m always willing to obey, follow, and trust whatever I hear God telling me.
Love this RobertH…I was also awake during the night on Tuesday and I heard the thought..’ do you really know who I Am and what I am telling you!’ This woke me up to pay more attention , and to ‘listen ‘ more…..
Great post Evan with many great comments. Also thank you Diane w a for the article Smell of Fire. I hadn’t read this before and for me it inspires much study.❣️
That is really helpful, Robert. Such a subtle difference
between listening and hearing according to the material so-called senses, but so important to understand that definition about hearing through exercising the spiritual senses and following through, as you did. It is really beginning by gaining a deeper love for God, and letting His Love fill us full and guide our lives. Thank you so much for sharing that.
“Listen” poem by Regina Smaridge, from the December 29, 1986 issue of The Christian Science Sentinel:
Listen
whispers the seashell.
Hold life to your ear.
Listen.
The art of listening
contains
the art of healing.
Listen
to those who speak to you.
Listen
to yourself, too.
(You’ll be surprised!)
Listen
to what the Word
is sending
into your listening ear.
Listen
to the promise
“… unto you that hear shall
more be given.”
And remember
that you cannot hear
unless
you
listen.
That is a lovely po st – what Regina Smrridge has written. Thank you for
sharing it with us, J. I got a lot from it’s beautiful message. Listening for
the voice of the Lord, is like hearing the sea in a seashell, if we get the
message – it is so lovely and so filled with soul, even if it speaks to us
in a different way. God/Love has been on the way to us, all our lives ..
listening is the key.
❤️
Lovely poem, J – very pertinent to this topic, and instructive. Thank you
Such a beautiful and important message! Thank you so much, Evan.
Oh My, I am so inspired . so much to think about. Thankyou Dear Evan , and Spirit View Friends, Love to all.
Thankyou Evan for today’s Spirit View, This really makes me start thinking about Listening and not talking. I’ll be putting this into practice for sure. Thankyou to all of the friends on Spirit View. Love to all.
Thank you, Evan and all contributors. Thank you RobertH for the distinction between “listen” and”hear” and J. I loved the poem. I was glad to see the article “The smell of fire’ come though. I read that as part of the Sentinel’s Bible Lens this week and it is very good.
In the CS Sentinel this week, the Bible Lens is on Substance, and there are so many quotes from other Bible Translations and experts on different parts of the Bible. I love to “Listen” to the Lens and think about the interpretations and ideas presented, though I admit there are times I hear it, but don’t listen as I would like to.. Interestingly, there is always an article that goes with the lesson linked at the end of the Bible Lens and this week the article was “The smell of Fire.”
The link to this weeks Bible Lens is here: https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/1fr6vqky2ps?s=copylink.
Wonderful, thank you very much, dear Evan for the impulse to be still and really listen to God, allknowing divine Love! So, I’ll practise and pray for it more and more to understand God’s guidance better.
Am also thankful for the abundance of inspiring comments and the links to helpful and also very inspiring articles relating to today’s eyeopening SpiritView!♡