Hearing: Hearing the Shift, Tuning to God’s Frequency
When life gets loud, God still speaks, vision helps you see, and hearing helps you follow.
What does it mean to hear God’s voice in a faith context
Hearing God means cultivating stillness and discerning His guidance. You filter noise, align your heart, and follow a clear next step that reflects Scripture, peace, and love.
Table of Contents
Why hearing matters now
Hearing the Shift, awareness to discernment
The Reset, neutral on purpose
Teaching and Insight
Practical, the Neutral Routine
Real Life Connections
Scripture Anchor
Practical Step for This Week
Reflection Question
Call to Action
why hearing matters now
Welcome back to the SHIFT Podcast. I am so glad you are here. If you are new, listen to the Welcome and Episode 1 first; it will give you a strong foundation for this journey. We are walking through SHIFT as an acronym, one letter at a time. In Episode 2, we explored S for Seeing, learning to look at life through spiritual lenses. Today we move to H for Hearing, tuning in to God’s frequency.
When you first drive a manual car, you watch numbers to know when to move; the speedometer becomes your guide. After a while, you begin to recognize a sound the engine makes when it is time. If you ignore it, the ride fights you. Life works the same way. What noise is drowning out the sound of God’s voice in your world
Hearing the Shift, awareness to discernment
Seeing builds awareness, hearing builds discernment. During seasons of change, the volume often rises, cultural voices, emotional weight, and strained relationships compete for attention, and God’s whisper becomes easy to miss.
Hearing God requires stillness, intentional quiet, and a refining of your inner ear. This listening is not passive; it is a practice of filtering distractions so that divine guidance rises above the noise.
Recently, my husband and I sensed the need for a sabbatical as we transitioned from our former church and prepared for a church plant. Before that final step, there was another pause. During a fast, we heard with clarity, it was time to move. At first, it felt like instruction for the moment, then as we leaned into the silence, the instruction became conviction for the journey. In rest, God clarified whether to plan, to prune, or to prepare for the next season. It all started with a pause.
The Reset, neutral on purpose
When the noise gets too loud, shift to neutral, neutral is your reset. Life tests us in big storms, anxiety, depression, mental battles, and also in daily pressures, new roles at work, parenting with patience, caring for ourselves while caring for others. It is real and heavy. You do not have to carry it alone, and you do not have to stay stuck in the noise.
If we do not pause to reset, the noise outside will drown out the clarity within. When we do pause, even for a few minutes, clarity grows, strength rises, and the next step becomes doable. It might be a hard step, even an uncomfortable step, yet you take it because you love and trust the One who is leading.
Teaching and Insight
Noise is real. Alerts, headlines, opinions, and inner narratives compete with God’s whisper. Think of your phone with too many apps open, the battery drains faster, the signal weakens, and performance lags. Clear the background to recover your signal.
Alignment precedes clarity. We do not get direction and then align; we align first, then clarity comes. It is like tuning a radio; if you are off even a little, you hear static. When you align to the right frequency, the voice comes through clear.
God’s voice is distinct. His tone carries peace, order, and conviction that invites a next step, not condemnation that shames you. If what you hear is hopeless and heavy with shame, that is not His voice.
Discernment is trained. As you learn the sound of an engine over time, your inner ear sharpens with practice. The more you sit with God, the easier it is to recognize Him.
Practical, the Neutral Routine
Two Minute Praise, speak gratitude for specific names, moments, and mercies.
Scripture First, choose one passage and read it slowly twice. Psalm 23 is a great one.
One Breath Prayer, inhale, “Jesus”, exhale, “align my heart to Your voice”.
Silence Timer, three to five minutes, sit without fixing, offer attentive presence.
One Obedient Step, write one action you sense, call, forgive, pause, or wait, then do it today.
Real Life Connections
Work, mute non-essential alerts, step out of gossip and unhealthy chatter, then gift yourself five minutes of neutral before big decisions.
Family, emotions rise quickly, reserve a daily moment for neutral so you respond with clarity rather than reaction, morning before your phone, lunch break, or evening unwind, insert a sixty-second neutral, breathe, pray, ask, what is true, what is mine to do, how can I teach and not just rescue.
Health, anxiety can spike without warning. Choose a practice that restores your signal, a short walk without your phone, worship, journaling, or quiet sitting, step outside for a three-minute reset, praise, breath prayer, or a short Scripture phrase.
Community, not every voice earns volume, curate mentors, wise friends, Scripture, and Spirit-led counsel.
Your Being, cultivate inner quiet so you become less reactive and more responsive, live from the stillness within where God’s Spirit dwells.
Scripture Anchor
1 Kings 19: 11-12 ESV
And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.
Practical Step for This Week
Instead of asking God to speak into your chaos while you are tuned to every other station, change the dial. Go neutral, align, listen, follow.
Reflection Question
What noise in your life needs to be silenced so you can hear His voice?
Call to Action
Click here to listen to Episode 3
Until next week, Stay Ready! Shift Higher!
