How (Not) to Hear God
God isn't the only one trying to guide you, and the sooner you realize that, the better.
Phone scams are getting more sophisticated.
You get a call from a number you don’t recognize. Someone pretending to be your grandson says, “Grandpa, I’m in trouble. Don’t tell mom or dad. Can you send me some money to help me out?” It’s often quick, desperate-sounding, and it doesn’t leave you much time to think about what’s happening. Sometimes, the scammer has even used AI to copy the sound of that person’s voice.
It’s happened to people I know.
Unless you’re aware of that possibility, it’s an easy scam to fall for, and, all of the sudden, you’re sending thousands of dollars to help out a loved one in a desperate situation. The “scam likely” warning doesn’t catch every scam.
The same is true with hearing God.
There’s a Scammer, who has developed sophisticated strategies over thousands of years of practice to lead you in all the wrong directions. And, if you’re not aware of how he can turn something like the H.E.A.R. Framework into the Anti-H.E.A.R. Framework, it’s only a matter of time before you get scammed.
God Isn’t the Only One Trying to Guide You
If you ever read through the Bible, you’ll discover that, less than a few pages into the Bible, God isn’t the only one who is trying to guide you.
In Genesis 3, shortly after God gave instructions to Adam and Eve about what to do and what not to do, there’s a “serpent” who adds in some guidance of his own. He’s “cunning,” as the Bible says, but he has nothing original to say.
Satan loves to hijack God’s voice and use it for his own purposes.
One of the ways he does this is by simply making you second guess how God might be speaking to you. He says, “Did God really say…” Then, once a little bit of doubt is planted, he’s free to offer his own alternative guidance to you. If Satan can’t get you to doubt that God still speaks, he’ll get you to doubt what God spoke to you.
In the case of these first humans, it’s about whether or not to eat from a particular tree. God has told them not to eat from it, but Satan says they’ll be just fine. Satan is well aware of the options that feel most attractive to you—even if they ultimately aren't good for you. It can’t be that bad, he wants you to think, if it looks so good. Sometimes, all it takes is a little nudge in the heart.
Satan wasn’t done in the garden, though.
Whenever God speaks throughout the Bible, Satan often speaks, too—editing, adding to, twisting, or rewriting God’s guidance. And, people like you are left with a choice: Whose voice will I listen to?
When Satan Tried to Scam Jesus
Even Jesus, the one who knew God’s voice better than anyone, had to deal with Satan’s voice when he spent forty days in the wilderness.
Jesus had just heard God speak clearly over him at his own baptism, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Then, in the wilderness, he has multiple experiences of Satan speaking to him and trying to guide him.
Satan tries to get him to prove what God spoke over his life: “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread” (Matthew 4:3). He counters it with what he’s already read in the Bible.
Then, at another point, Satan even quotes the Bible in an effort to guide Jesus. It’s like he’s saying, “It seems like you read the Bible. Here’s a verse that I think might be relevant to this situation.” Even Satan studies the Bible. He’s just reading it in all the wrong ways.
Later, in light of his own personal experience with him, Jesus will describe Satan this way: “When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). He’s a scammer, and every single one of Satan’s tactics is rooted in lies.
But, as Jesus says about his followers, “They will never follow a stranger; instead they will run away from him, because they don’t know the voice of strangers” (John 10:5). Learning to distinguish God’s voice from Satan’s begins with the awareness that God isn’t the only one trying to guide you.
There’s a game that children play where one is blindfolded and another is assigned the task of giving them instructions about how to move through a series of obstacles. It’s difficult on its own, but what makes it more complicated is that there’s multiple teams with people also shouting instructions at the same time. You have to be aware of the fact that there are other voices out there and listen closely for the voice of your own teammate.
The moment God begins guiding you is the moment that Satan tries to drown it out with his own alternative guidance.
The Anti-H.E.A.R. Framework
We’re about to start exploring the H.E.A.R. Framework, which is a tool intended to help you discern how God might be guiding you in a particular decision, but Satan can easily turn it into the “Anti-H.E.A.R. Framework” if you’re not paying attention.
It usually starts with failing to pray for indifference, which means you’re holding too tightly to one of the options for how God might guide you. Then, instead of helping you hear God’s voice, the H.E.A.R. Framework just becomes something Satan can use to misdirect you like this:
HEART. Instead of listening for God’s nudge in your heart, you only focus on what your own heart is feeling and explain away any alternatives.
EXPERIENCES. You only see the “signs” that you want to see—the ones that confirm what you’re already feeling.
ADVICE. You only listen to advice from friends who are “supportive” of what you already want to do and ignore the wisdom of people who think you might be missing something.
READING. You only read and highlight the verses in the Bible that confirm what you want while skipping past any other verses that might lead you in a different direction.
Before long, like Adam and Eve in the garden, you’re reaching out for the very option that God was trying to lead you away from.
I’ve been there, and I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I’ve made.
We’ll explore more about how you can get the H.E.A.R. Framework wrong but, for now, it’s enough to simply realize that you can get it wrong. If you’re aware of the possibility that Satan is also trying to guide you, you’re less susceptible to letting him use a tool like the H.E.A.R. Framework against you.
Here’s the question for you: Have you ever got God’s voice wrong?
In the next email, I’ll share some best practices for using the H.E.A.R. Framework in the decisions that matters most.
This is email 18 out of 40 in Hear From God in 40 Emails (Or Less). Start with the first email.