Teaching Kids How To Hear God's Voice Is Crucial!

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Can you teach your kids to hear God’s voice daily?

One morning when we still lived in Arizona, our son Gideon, at just four years old approached us and said, “Mom, I had a dream about Grandma and Grandpa last night. And Jesus was in the dream.” At this point, we knew that our last born was also hearing God’s voice in his life.

(If you would like to explore how dreams and visions function in the Kingdom of God we have an 11 part video series on it. Watch Here)

Gideon’s Grandma and Grandpa (Carla’s Parents) had passed away a few years earlier. My wife and I knew in that moment that God was reaching out to let Gideon know he was beginning to communicate with him uniquely. In this case through a dream.

I believe if we were all honest everyone desires to hear God speak. It is a top rated search every week! An on-going mystery is why so many of us don’t. Especially, when God has shown us over and over through history that He desires to speak to us.

The very first recorded action of God in the bible is of Him speaking. He began by saying, “Let there be light!” God is a God that speaks. And His desire is that we would walk in conversation with Him daily. When He walked in the cool of the day with Adam and Eve they must have had conversations. Wouldn’t you agree?

We have been asked what our main goals are in the mission field. For those just joining the blog, our family has been serving as full time missionaries with YWAM in Mozambique since February of 2015. Over and over we respond to this question by saying, “If we could leave the locals with one thing it would be; that they can hear from God for themselves.”

This post is a quick chat about some of the things we have done to cultivate that hearing of God’s voice with our kids.

How We Can Hear God’s Voice:

I want to keep this post light as it is about helping our kids walk with our creator God. However, there are quite a few places in scripture that you can go to learn more about all the ways God speaks. One bible verse that has encouraged our family is;

“Why do you contend against Him, saying, ‘He will answer none of man’s words”? For God speaks in one way and in two, though man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber in their beds, then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings, that He may turn man aside from his deed and conceal pride from a man; He keeps back his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword….Behold, God does all these things twice, three times with a man to bring back his soul from the pit that he may be lighted with the light of life.”

–Job 33:13-30

God speaks in so many ways that He even reaches us when our soul is at rest in the night!

When we consider the whole of the bible and all it’s books we can see God’s desire to commune with us in the book titles alone. Most of the book titles are a person’s name. Why? Because it is a story of how they heard God’s voice and followed it in their life.

Share that with your kids! Ask them something like, ‘Have you wondered why so many books in the Bible are named after a person?’ Then have a dialogue with them about it.

The majority of the first two books of the Bible, Genesis and Exodus are about God choosing to speak to His people through ordinary men and women in remarkable and creative ways.

My wife and I believe one of the greatest deceptions and disservices we can do to our family is to avoid training them to hear the God that is so obviously desiring for us to listen, hear, and respond.

How do we do that?

How can you do this with your kids?

As a family we spend time in training our senses

The first thing I would say is don’t wait until you think they are old enough! Find ways to include your children in hearing God’s voice in everyday things they are doing.

Don’t wait, start listening with your kids today.

Like we shared earlier God speaks in many ways and we need to perceive it.

The first example of how we listen for God speaking as a family

Reading the bible together. Keep this very simple, and stick with the bible! Don’t look for a lot of other books about Jesus or the bible. God’s word is alive and active. It is all you need!

If you search the scripture together trusting God will speak to all of you it won’t need a lot of commentary from other things. Remember the end goal is to hear our Creator speak, not other people. We begin this by praying and asking the Holy Spirit to help us understand the word in the way the Father desires us to individually and as a family.

There is an important detail I want to introduce here that most families don’t use unfortunately. The patterns we have picked up in the western church sometimes hinder families from maturing in the ways God desires. One of those ways is using teaching instead of discovery when discipling others. Including our kids.

I have shared a lot of other posts on this, and written a book, so no need to go into a lot of detail. Related Post HERE

For this post we will summarize the process we use as a family. We use questions not statements with our kids. What do you mean Ian? At least once a week we sit down as a family and read the bible together. We used to do this multiple times a week at dinner time or before bed etc…

Everyone in the family that can read will read a few verses until the passage we are studying is finished. At first it may only be a couple verses. Then we read it again two or three times. When we are done with that we ask the family if someone can remember and repeat what was read.

After someone repeats the story aloud we ask the family if that member left anything out. Someone else may help add something that was left out until we are satisfied with the summary.

After that we ask five basic questions to everyone;

What do you hear God telling you about himself in these verses?
What do you hear God telling/showing you about himself in relationship with humanity in these verses?
Do we find a commandment to obey in these verses?
Do we find an example we should follow in these verses?
Ask God to show you how you can obey these verses this coming week?

All of these questions may take a bit of time for each person to wait on the Lord as He whispers to them. One of the parents can pay attention to where God is working the most or which person He is prompting to share. This can lead to more discussion or other questions for the family to explore.

What not to do! Don’t lead anyone to the answers you believe about the passage. Don’t teach! Just learn from God through how He is speaking to your family members. Keep asking questions and discovering together. If you have really little ones give them some paper and crayons to be creative in that time. Sometimes, the little ones can draw what they heard in the story better than trying to explain it. The family can still hear God speak through that!

The second example of how we listen for God speaking as a family

is in prayer together. It is our experience that many christian families participate in prayer together before meals or with their kids before bed. The bed time ritual is usually a list of things we desire God to bless and asking Him to protect our sleep.

All of these are good things! What tends to be missing is the time waiting for Him to answer. Or even to ask Him questions about what we should know about our prayers. Prayer is a most incredible God given gift to have conversation with Him. Conversation is two sided! It takes two to converse.

Here are some ways we do this. Ever since our kids were young we shared with them that a conversation with God was no different than talking with us. There is asking questions and waiting for answers. There is making statements and listening to statements.

Get together as a family and have something to write on or in. Each of you take fiver to ten minutes and ask God, ‘What do you want us to know as a family right now?’ After the time is up come back together and each member share what they heard or saw or sensed from the Lord. It may be a word, a picture, a sentence, a thought, a bible verse etc… See if all the answers connect in some way.

As each member waits for an answer from the Lord encourage them to ask a second and third question about what God tells them. Don’t just see or hear one thing and leave unless you have peace to do that. Father God wants to have a conversation.

You can use these prayer times to ask God about each individual for encouragement. The beginning of each year the family can ask God what He wants them to let go of and what He wants them to look for in the coming year.

This prayer time can be used for the family to listen for direction in life decisions. Our family was blessed with incredible revelation from our then nine year old in 2017. That revelation kept us in the mission field to this day! Sometimes a child shall lead them. If we trust them to hear from God.

I actually go into that story a bit deeper in our book, ‘Making Disciples and Leading Others to Make Them’.

Why am I so certain of this? Let me ask you a question. When kids receive the Holy Spirit into their life do they get a different Holy Spirit from adults? Like a younger one? No! That sounds so silly doesn’t it? Sometimes that is how we treat the little ones though. Jesus didn’t. He had a lot of strong things to say about children.

This prayer rhythm can be practiced many times during the year in big circumstances or even simply at bed times. We can ask the Lord to bless us and then ask Him what He wants us to know before bed, and teach the kids to wait for an answer.

The third example of how we listen for God speaking as a family

In worship together. This may look different for every family depending on your music ability or theology, however it is so important! When the boys were younger we would often put paper and color pencils out on the ground.

I would pull out my guitar. Whoever else was with us would have their bible available. Then we would sing worship songs, pray what we felt prompted, or read the scripture out loud. The time would be fluid and respectful. We would honor the Holy Spirit by listening and letting him direct us to proclaim the word, or pray with compassion, or even just sit silent.

When someone felt peace to speak, or draw, or write, or sing, the group would follow along. This helped build a sense of corporate listening and unity in the Lord. We still do this weekly in the mission field as there are no churches near us. As the boys have grown older the time has become a bit different. Be flexible and enjoy the journey of listening together.

This is not an exclusive list, but some examples to get you started.

The last example I want to share of how we listen for God speaking as a family

Is in confession and forgiveness with each other. Over the years as our boys have grown and matured in their faith this has actually become easier.

Starting with the fathers I can’t stress enough how important this area of listening is.

Paul says that when we live in a prideful way with our wives even our prayers can be hindered. The listening here often begins with the Lord convicting our hearts that something in us needs correction or His grace.

In that moment it is crucial that we respond to Him and confess our wrong belief system with Him. Then we ask Him what we need to know about it. Finally we ask Him how He sees us and what He wants us to believe instead of what we have been believing.

This is followed up with a honest and humble conversation with our wife or child. We share with them what we believed that was false. Ask for forgiveness where needed, and assure them that we are walking into a new belief that God has revealed. That’s repentance. A mind change. Unless we confess our false belief with God and others we will never know we need a mind change. That deception leads to more pride and eventually a hard heart in an area.

Many times these confession and forgiveness sessions with ourselves, or our family members are triggered due to fear in some area. It may masquerade as something else but it’s almost always fear driven.

If we can gently lead each other to confess that fear then we can go to God and listen for what needs to change. Whether our child is 2-3 years old or 23 years old it is possible to listen for God’s voice together so he can set us free of fear!

A Sad example of this in my own life was a few months ago. In Africa the power goes out, a lot! For months I found myself complaining about their incompetence and how it was unacceptable in the year 2023. When I asked the Lord why I felt angry in other areas of my life he revealed to me my lack of gratitude for electricity. Most of our village neighbors never have power! My empathy returned.

I began to realize the complaining had slowly become a strong hold. I immediately brought the family to the living room and confessed my situation. I asked them to forgive my bad example and correct me in the future if they heard negativity or a non-grateful heart rear it’s head. We prayed together and thanked God for the revelation.

Do you desire to mature in your walk with God? This article might help! Go HERE

How do we know it’s God’s voice?

This is a frequent question asked by believers. The bible is clear about the ways you can confirm the voice of God in your life. Following His peace being one of the surest.

I’m going to take a bit different lane here that often gets missed or ignored.

I was a coach for years and so I can’t help but point this foundation out.

We must practice! To hear God’s voice takes practice and intention.

Practice makes permanent-not perfect

My baseball coach used to drill this phrase into us as players and man it stuck. The point being if I want to hear God’s voice I must practice intentionally listening for it daily.

Changing the pattern from stating my needs to asking Him questions is the ticket. And then waiting for an answer. What if I find myself waiting a long time with no answer? Consider changing the question or rephrasing it as you pray.

Finally, I must respond to what I hear by testing it. I remember years ago pressing into the desire to draw close to God. Every morning at 5:30am I walked to our living room and put my face on a chair-knees on the floor.

My intent was to not move until I heard from Him. A few days of repeating this ensued, and whether it was twenty minutes or an hour I eventually got up when I felt His peace all over me. His presence became tangible and life giving. But Still no voice.

Then one morning I heard him speak softly like a thought in my mind, ‘Get up and let’s take a walk.’

‘Is that you Father?’ ‘Yes Ian, let’s walk.’

I grabbed my keys and walked out the front door. ‘Where we going Father?’ ‘Just walk Ian.’

‘Left or right Father?’ ‘You pick Ian.’

Just like that it went on for days. Not every day, but many days. Then one morning He said, ‘see that bottle in the street? Pick it up and throw it away.’

‘Um, ok Father, is that really you?’

I remember walking by it and not picking it up, and then feeling no peace. An uncomfortable feeling remained so, I went back and picked it up. I walked with it all the way back to my house, and threw it away. God didn’t say anything else the rest of the walk. When I finally asked Him about it He shared something so convicting that it hasn’t left me. It has guided me over the years with my own kids, and our decisions as a family.

He reminded me that often in our life we want to hear God so much more. We desire to go so much deeper! We may even contend and plead for it with Him! Then when He directs us to do the little things that will train us in the very thing we desire to accomplish we dismiss them, as to small or petty.

Our pride deceives us to believe that we can start out completely leveled up once we begin hearing God, like an Olympian or something, without ever having to put in the reps. We have found that coming like a child is truly a key to the Kingdom when it comes to hearing God’s voice. Just like Jesus said.

It seemed so obvious, but so true. I mean even Jesus had to grow in obedience with the Father over 30 years. Jesus trained himself to hear God as a human. He emptied himself and walked through what we would need to walk through. We have to do the same! That is what we have taught our kids since they were young.

If they want to hear Him in the large things then they must practice hearing him in the daily mundane things. Like picking up a piece of trash when no one is watching.

Finally, here are some questions you can use to practice

We created a Jesus wall when we got to the mission field. The purpose was to practice hearing God, and to remember with gratitude when He speaks. Practice does make permanent, so here are a few questions to get you and the little ones started on hearing God daily:

Ask the Father to give you a picture to draw, then ask Him what it is about.
What do you want us to know about how you see us?
What do you want a family member to know about how you see them?
What is something in my life hindering me from hearing you more?
Is there something hindering you from using me more?
What beliefs do I have about myself that are hurting me?
What would you like us to know about our neighbors?

Let us hear the voice and words of Jesus to conclude

Maybe we can be encouraged by these words from the book of Matthew. Jesus makes it so clear how to enter the Kingdom of God. Not just in salvation, but in our lives daily. It is crucial to help our kids hear the voice of God. I challenge us to read this scripture and then ask God, ‘What do you want me to know about this?’

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

-Matthew 18:1-6

WHEN LOVE COMPELS

Teaching Kids How To Hear God’s Voice Is Crucial!