Can we actually hear a call from God?

Wouldn't it be great if you could actually hear God’s voice? Wouldn't it be exciting if God used my individual name and had a special purpose to reveal to me personally, to make my life significant? Like Samuel, who in the depths of the night heard Yahweh calling his name so insistently, with such clarity, that he presumed the voice must be Eli the priest's (1 Sam 3). That was the beginning of a call from God which then coloured Samuel's whole life. If like him I could actually hear a call from God, then surely I would know exactly what to do with my life?

Why is hearing a call from God so important?

Of course, throughout the bible there are are clear examples of men and women who experienced a call from God and were then led on to achieve great things: Noah, Moses, Isaiah, Jesus, Peter, Andrew, Lydia, Paul, Barnabas. Indeed you might say that it was only because of their call from God that their deeds became significant and memorable. Imagine Noah building his ark without the prompt from God – I don't think he would have persevered on such a crazy path. Or Jesus, without those words from heaven ‘You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased’ - would He have been able to keep moving faithfully towards the cross? (Mark 1:11; Mark 8:31) The awareness of being called by God is essential.

The key question: What is my call from God?

For  Christians, it is good to recognise that all our attempts to live a good life are in fact a response to God's initiative. The apostle Paul sees this calling as the motivation for a life worth living; to the Thessalonian Christians he writes: ‘We constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith’ (2 Thess 1:11). There is no more important question in life than asking: what is God calling me to do? Find out the answer to that question and you are on the right path.

Listen for a call from God everywhere …

You will have guessed by now that I am excited by the notion that we can experience a personal call from God. Each time I have moved jobs or my family have moved to live in a different country it has been in direct response to a call from God, through a phone-call, a dream, a prophetic picture – on one occasion (I would say) God even wrote it down! Now that is, of course, all a matter of personal discernment. But experience tells me that if you believe God calls and you expect him to be interested in the intimate personal details of each Christian's life, then you are far more likely to actually hear God’s voice.

And you're probably more likely to respond – which in the end is what matters, isn't it?