I’m passionate about stirring up faith that you can hear God. My life was profoundly changed when I discovered Jesus’ love for me and entrusted my heart to Him. But once I believed I could hear His personal words to me, that profound change multiplied, and a revolution was born, as God totally invaded and conquered my heart and mind. How? By intimately revealing His heart for me, to me.

In our book Can I Really Hear God? we wrote about who God speaks to and why, based upon scriptures that bear witness to one of the key qualities that matters greatly to Him. Two of these are excerpts from Psalm 25*:

Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant.

Psalm 25:8-10

Who, then, is the man that fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him. He will spend his days in prosperity, and his descendants will inherit the land. The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.

Psalm 25:12-14

Consider what the Psalmist says about who God speaks to and why:

• He does not speak to us because we deserve it, but because He is good.

• He even speaks to sinners whenever He chooses to. Hearing ears are God’s gift to whoever cares to listen.

• He guides the humble — those who know they need help and look to the Lord for guidance.

• He speaks to those who respond to what He says, who show value for what they receive by obeying, learning, adjusting their actions and attitudes.

Yet what rises to the top of the list, and is most affirmed in Scripture, is that the Lord speaks most clearly to those who reverently fear Him. He confides in them, sharing His thoughts. He reveals the full blessings of the covenant that binds them together in Christ.

Isaiah 33:6 verifies that fear of the Lord is key to hearing Him:

He [the Lord] will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.

Clearly, God doesn’t speak only to the spiritually mature — the bishops, popes, apostles and prophets. As my favorite author A.W. Tozer liked to say, “God tells the man who cares.”

Fear of the Lord is key, but what exactly does that look like?

Isaiah 11:3 also made a prophecy or prediction about Jesus: that he would delight in the fear of the Lord.

John’s gospel emphasizes how thoroughly Jesus demonstrated His fear of the Lord. Jesus did and said so many things in the course of three and a half years, and none of the gospel writers could write it all down. Knowing that gives added significance to what each one did actually include in his account of the Lord’s life, teaching and character.

Jesus himself boasted that he did only what he saw the Father doing. He obeyed everything the Father asked of Him, and this is our best clue that he did, indeed, delight in fear of the Lord. The author of Hebrews testifies to what he calls Jesus’ reverent submission to the Lord in Hebrews 5:7. The best evidence that one lives in reverential fear of the Lord is obedience that flows from a submissive, yielded spirit. It is not a begrudging obedience, but one born out of a desire to honor, to acknowledge the power, authority and worthiness of the one being obeyed.

Such reverential fear is a key that unlocks the wisdom and knowledge that God wants to give to His people. To such a soul God can entrust His best stuff.

Yet full obedience alone is not the goal, nor is it proof that one delights in the fear of the Lord. While genuine fear of the Lord will always be recognized by outward obedience, there is an even higher expression, and a more noble result. It happens when fear goes beyond dread of punishment and respect for power and authority, into treasuring the relationship itself.

You’ve arrived at this place when your greatest fear is that you may violate your relationship with God.

When it, and He, have become truly precious to you. At this point you have to be talked out of sinning anymore, because now you cannot bear to violate your relationship, by sinning against God or others.

Think of the human relationship you most value, and put God in that place. No one has to teach you to be good to someone you love dearly. Genuine love is expressed — and guarded — by a healthy fear of offending, disappointing, or hurting them. The best fear of all is the fear that you’ll let down the one you love.

The kind of fear that Jesus delighted in surely was just like this. He loved His Father. It delighted him to never let down, never disappoint, never offend or exert his own will over against His Father’s.

This, of course, is why the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. That kind of love gives rise to the healthiest, most reverential fear of all. Without a doubt, God wants to entrust His secrets and wisdom to such a soul.

Beloved, I hope and pray that is you. Because to hear God is know Him more nearly and dearly, and knowing God IS abundant life.

But remember, even if you have not yet arrived at that place, God speaks to the hungry heart, who even dreams of going there. The Spirit’s joy is to mentor you by revealing the Lord’s thoughts to you, by teaching you wisdom in the inmost place. Who does God most likely speak to?

The one who wants to listen, learn, and know God.

*Part of this article is adapted from pages 74-75, Can I Really Hear God? by Ron Woolever & Tonia Woolever