Allen:  We are all equipped to hear the voice of God!   My pasture told me the other day that “Our voice is imprinted” you have a voice like nobody else.  When you talk to someone on the phone, if you know them you know there voice!  It is no different with God!  Of all the millions of people that call out to Him and pray, when I pray He knows my voice separate from all the rest.  That shows what an intimate and special relationship we have with the lord!  But just as He knows our voices we should know his.  It is like the song “The voice of truth”!  There are so many voices that we are hearing in the world today that it is easy to get distracted and not hear God’s voice of truth! 

Clay: I think we are all guilty of that Allen.  There are a lot of things that can make it easy to get distracted but when we do, our relationship and walk with God suffers!  For me that is why starting out the morning first thing with God gets my day going.  I read my devotional in the morning and then spend some time talking over the day’s activities.  I also take the time to be thankful for the things we have.  Something that really helped me was when I realized that God speaks not just through feelings but mainly through his word.  To take it a step further to completely hear what God is saying to us we must try our best to do what the word says!  We don’t truly hear what God is saying until we experience the great things that only God can provide for us! In order to do that we have to take the time to communicate with God in Prayer and read his word and then act upon it.  

Allen:  Clay is onto something here!  In order to hear God I think we have to be able to spend quality time with Him.  What I mean by that is this, how many times have we told someone that we would pray for them and set aside the time to do so but during that time we either don’t pray or when we are praying our thoughts get sidetracked, we get distracted or we simply don’t put a whole lot of thought into what we are saying to God?  If we are honest with ourselves I’m sure we are all guilty of at least one of the above, including myself!  Can you imagine the way this makes God feel?  I know all of us have been in a conversation with someone and you can tell they could care less, they look off and just nod there head while you are talking, it gets aggravating doesn’t it!  I bet that is the same way we make God feel when we come to Him distracted or half-heartedly! 

Clay:  I think one way to help with some of the distractions Allen is talking about is finding a quite place to pray.  I think we hear from Him clearer when we are in a quite place and we are spending time alone with him.  I’m not saying we can’t hear from Him in other places, we can also hear from him all day long if we keep Him in the equation!  I have times where I feel like I’m getting a steady flow from God.  I have realized that in those times I’m the one who activates that by putting Him in the forefront of my thoughts and actions throughout the day. When I do this it all goes hand in hand.  It is all of those things put together that gives us the ability to get the full affect of God in our lives. We will never get that full affect if we are that person in the conversation Allen was talking about that keeps looking off.

Allen:  I have heard people say that they were going to the mountain top to hear from the Lord.  Now I don’t think that they were actually going to climb a Mountain, they were going to a special place where they could be alone with God!  It is crucial that we get away from all the distractions of life and find that place where we are hearing peaceful thoughts. It’s like Clay talked about getting a steady flow of God all day long, understand what I’m saying here. It is not so much the geographic location as it is finding that quite place inside us.  For example you could be in a quite place but your thoughts are still on other things such as work or your family. 

Clay:  Part of having that quality relationship with God is keeping faith in Him.  Sometimes, even when we do have that intimate relationship with God, we still don’t have those feelings of just knowing God is with us. That is when we have to have faith in God.  It is the human feelings or emotions that we tend to rely on instead of putting our faith in our Father!   But in those times that we have those feelings that go along with it, that is like icing on the cake.  You just know that he is there with you!!  Even though he is with us all the time there are those times when we feel closer to Him.  It is kind of like the “Footprints in the sand”.  In order to receive any of this we have to spend quality time with God. 

Allen:  Here is a challenge that I’m working on myself!  Try to think of your time with God as an appointment!  What I mean by that is if you have an appointment with a doctor or a business meeting then that time is set aside and while you are there it is usually all business.  You are focused on what that person is telling you. If it is a doctor it probably concerns your health so you are interested in what is going on.  If it is a business meeting, more than likely you are trying to better yourself financially so again you are focused on what is taking place.  What we tend to overlook is this, our time with God is all these things and more!  He is the provider and the healer!  So why can we set aside quality time for these other things but not for God?  How is your time spent, is it Quality or Quantity?  Can you imagine what it would be like if it were BOTH!!!!!