How to talk to God

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Is a convo with God one way? I pray everyday…go to adoration every Friday, Mass every weekend. I free-form pray, thanking God and glorifying His name. I never hear back from Him. What do I need to do??? I thought my thoughts were from Him, but I can change them at will, so they are coming from me, not Him. How does He communicate with us? All I get is static…I am so frustrated and confused!
 
The Holy Spirit will not over power your free will. It is like the thought you have to do something, x, and then you reject it and say no, I’ll do this instead, y. Sometimes, you will then realize that you if you would have done x, y would not have happened. The Holy Spirit was trying to gentlely guide you. The more you recongnize that God is intimately involved in every aspect of your life, the more you recognize the small still voice of the Holy Spirit. The you recognize His voice, the more you can follow His voice.

Don’t get frustrated. I think when first learning to follow the gentle guiding of the Holy Spirit, I tended to recognize the small still voice only AFTER the fact. Oh, that was God not me. He was trying to get me to do this because of this. The more I saw that, the more I was able to stop “changing my mind” and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.

When something out of the ordinary happens, when something from your routine gets put out of place, instead of grumbling and griping about it and trying to put things back the way they are “supposed” to be, slow down and look for God’s divine hand in your life. God is constantly trying to bless our lives. We only need to slow down to “hear” Him.

I hope this helps.

God Bless,

p.s.
I started a thread on the workings of the Holy Spirit in your life. Come on over and read some of the stories. Sometimes reading about the works of the Holy Spirit in someone elses life can help you to see Him working in yours. forum.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=25038 It’s title is "praises to the Holy Spirit.

Maria
 
I suggest you start from your knees… not required, but a good place to start… :cool:

oh, by the way… your not alone my friend… your not alone 👍
 
I find I hear him best/most when I pray calmly with Scripture, something like lectio divina but not necessarily in strict lockstep with that method. Nursing a text without trying to “manage” it is helpful for me.

For example, before I came into the Church, I was meditating this way on Peter’s Confession, and the thought popped into my head: “If you have Apostolic Succession, and Peter is not in your house of bishops, you are missing the centerpiece.”

Now, if that isn’t communication from above, what is?
 
So God talks to you in thoughts that pop up? I thought so too, but then I conflict that notion because I think my subconcious is making that stuff up. I’ll ‘hear’ a thought, respond to it, and then it seems as if I’m really only just talking to myself. This is where I am confused.
 
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ppcpilot:
Is a convo with God one way? I pray everyday…go to adoration every Friday, Mass every weekend. I free-form pray, thanking God and glorifying His name. I never hear back from Him. What do I need to do??? I thought my thoughts were from Him, but I can change them at will, so they are coming from me, not Him. How does He communicate with us? All I get is static…I am so frustrated and confused!
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Are you sure you are on the right frequency? 😃 You might want to read Proverbs Ch.2. We all want to hear from God. But the truth is God speaks to us through His Word. Hearing Gods voice is conditional. IF we recieve His Words and treasures His commands, He will speak to us. Many times He asks us to be QUIET and to LISTEN. That would be a good start. :confused: God Bless.
 
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ppcpilot:
So God talks to you in thoughts that pop up? I thought so too, but then I conflict that notion because I think my subconcious is making that stuff up. I’ll ‘hear’ a thought, respond to it, and then it seems as if I’m really only just talking to myself. This is where I am confused.
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I think people want to be exceptional and want God to come to them in exceptional ways: signs, locutions, stigmata. God gave us the earth, the rain, the sun and the wind, but people want to be “special” – to have something out of the ordinary whomp 'em upside the knot.

But God is often very ordinary: the divine King of the Universe entered the world as a baby who was perfectly ordinary to anybody’s perception. In the parable of Lazarus & Dives, Jesus chides in the voice of Abraham: “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.” Why is it not God when our subconscious coughs up something our egotistical self had kept submerged? How do you know that despite your lack of consciousness, God is not changing you from the inside out when you stay close to him during those hours of Adoration?

When you truly hear “Moses and the Prophets” – or as I heard Christ affirming that Peter was, indeed, the “rock” of his Church – then God IS speaking to you.
 
I don’t know that I’ve ever had a life-changing communication direct from God. He has, however, spoken to me many times through other people, and often through people I normally would not be engaging in conversation. I guess the Holy Spirit has to open omy heart to hear His word, regardless of the means He chooses to deliver it. This frequently requires prayer and meditation on my part for the message to come through. Strange how it works sometimes. :confused:
 
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mercygate:
I think people want to be exceptional and want God to come to them in exceptional ways: signs, locutions, stigmata. God gave us the earth, the rain, the sun and the wind, but people want to be “special” – to have something out of the ordinary whomp 'em upside the knot.

But God is often very ordinary .
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i agree fully
remember the OT scene where god asks elijah to wait for him and elijah searches for him in fire and thunder and earthquake but god appears to him in a gentle breeze

a few pointers may help in listening to god-
  1. practice periods of silence where you can empty your mind. it’s not a conscious act of forcing thoughts out of your head- that rarely works- but a place where there is silence and you let your thoughs slow down and reflect on any particular thing that you want to god about. very often, he will put thoughts in your head. sitting in front of the blessed sacrament is a great help!
  2. god’s answers will never be contrary to scripture. it’s a good test of thoughts if doubts arise
 
ppcpilot said:
"…What do I need to do??? I thought my thoughts were from Him, but I can change them at will, so they are coming from me, not Him. How does He communicate with us? All I get is static…I am so frustrated and confused!"
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Dear PPC,

Here are some suggestions you might want to consider in your quest:
  1. Please see the article “God’s Communication and Our Interior Awareness” at this link:
sentex.net/~jveltri/interior.htm
  1. You might then consider trying the prayer exercises linked at the end of the article:
  • “Awareness Examen”
  • “Review of Prayer”
  • “Repetition”
This material should be of help you, but you may eventually want to consider consulting a spiritual director for assistance. A good director will help you see God’s presence in your prayer, your life and the world.

I wish you peace and God’s blessings in your quest.

John
 
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mercygate:
I find I hear him best/most when I pray calmly with Scripture, something like lectio divina but not necessarily in strict lockstep with that method. Nursing a text without trying to “manage” it is helpful for me.
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Here’s a Carmelite site that explains Lectio Divina:

carmelite.com/saints/other/more_5.htm

Peace,
Jen
 
It is very difficult to talk and hear at the same time. God says be silent and listen. Thats when we hear Gods voice. 👍 God Bless
 
Try listening instead of trying to simply hear.

Perhaps it is time to stop waiting for the supernatural and start focusing on the natural ways God communicates with us. He is everywhere. I know I don;t hear words from God but I often experience the burning heart spoken about in the scriptures after the Ressurection.

If you want God to speak to you directly then open the scriptures and listen. He has spoken in a most profound fashion here once and for all. He is never changing but always new.

If we are waiting to hear a voice or see a vision then we have no concept of how God wishes to communicate with us in the everyday things. We see ourselves almost as highly favoured and deserving of a supernatural occurance.

Do you hear the words “This is my Body” at Mass or do you listen to them?? Hearing and Listening are two very different things. One is passive the other demands energy and time.
 
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Last night I reard on EWTN (On The Rock) a Nun age 41, who was what was called a “Hermit Nun” from the nation of Columbia. They are actually contemplative Nuns with about 40 in the congregation. She was asked how she prayed. Immediatly she said, “With Love”.

Later she said that she prays but God is Silent, she never hears a voice nor a whisper. She said she sometimes at a later time when reading or talking to another Nun she gets little “dribbles” of an answer. Sometimes when walking she has something flash into her mind…and maybe thats the way God talks.
 
“Be still and know that I am God.” this is the advice we are given in scripture. you need an equal time of silent listening time to balance active “talking time” in prayer. the best place is in front of the Eucharist. you may or may not “hear” concrete answers at that time, but until you establish a listening, quiet disposition you will have a very time discerning what God is trying to say to you. I love the scene in Bruce Almighty when Bruce, angry at God for the mess in his life, yells at God “Give me a sign.” a truck goes by with a “caution” sign, he passes all kinds of stop, yield, caution signs and lights but keeps driving and of course comes to grief. God keeps trying to ring his pager, but Bruce throws it in the stree, annoyed at the beeping. If we have a habit of ignoring God when His answers don’t agree with our wishes, we will have a harder time hearin Him.
 
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