I liked it even better this THIRD time of reading. This time, I listened to Pete reading the audiobook, and it was worth the third read.

I just felt so edified. So built up.

Here is my first review:

Pete does it again. This is my fourth (or maybe fifth) book by Pete, and he does such an excellent job at making things so simple. I really love Dallas Willard's book, Hearing God, but it is theologically and philosophically very thick whereas Pete's book is very down-to-earth (thus why it is called a "simple guide for normal people"). Maybe we can call it "Dallas for Dummies"! (Both are wonderful men of God.) He does recommend Dallas' book at the end of one of the later chapters too. https://carolhomeschool2.blogspot.com/2022/07/how-to-hear-god-by-pete-grieg.html

What makes Pete so extraordinary as a writer is his storytelling. I loved the audiobook because he imitated the accents of the people he was telling stories about, and it was so endearing and funny. He apologized for his readers putting up with his "terrible accents" at the end of his narration, and I think he had nothing to apologize for! It made this third reading so delightful.

So, here I sit. I have always believed with all my heart that I could hear the voice of God. I was not raised in the church. So, I wasn't biased to believe that you could not. (Reading Surprised by the Power of the Spirit many years ago I was struck by Jack Deere's comment that you could put a new believer in a room with a Bible and they would come out believing all the gifts are relative for today. Deere had to resign from his position from Dallas Theological Seminary because he became convinced of this himself, but they did not believe that. So he had to go.) I still wholeheartedly believe in the Bible as the authoritative Word of God, but there is too much Biblical evidence that sees God reaching out to people through dreams, visions, prophecy, direct words, etc. I don't think you can deny that.

I wrote a lot about this after this paragraph, but I don't want to offend people. So I deleted it (or will put it in my person Penzu journal). I am so thoroughly Biblical in everything. (See the Bible Book Club that I started in January 2008. Has it really been 18 years?) I have always gone off the premise that hearing God does not negate the Bible.

For that reason, I love that Pete has some tests for prophecy:

Exercising a prophetic gift: Since all believers can be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2: 4; 19: 6; Eph. 5: 18), we can (and should) all receive and exercise his gifts, including prophecy. But our first attempts at prophecy can be scary, so it’s helpful to ask yourself, “Will the thing I think I’m seeing, hearing, or sensing bring encouragement if I share it? Will it be edifying?” And most important of all, “Does it sound like Jesus?” A simple, memorable rule of thumb is therefore to apply the ABC filter:

• Affirming: Does this word fulfil the criteria of 1 Corinthians 14, by being strengthening, encouraging, comforting, edifying, and upbuilding?

• Biblical: Is this word consistent with the broad teaching and witness of Scripture (not just a specific verse taken out of context— see chapter 2)?

• Christlike: Is this word consistent with the character, mission, and message of Jesus?
Greig, Pete. How to Hear God (Kindle Locations 2220-2224). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

I get it. There are some who abuse prophecy as we are seeing in some of the prominent charismatic churches, but I like Pete's biblical and balanced approach. It is a both end situation. We can be adhering to the Word of God and still hear His gentle whisper!

I could say more, but I have friends on both extreme ends of the spectrum. I am solidly in Pete's camp on this one.

Here is my notebook of things I highlighted from my second time (or maybe my first too) through this book. (It is hard to take notes when you are listening to it:

How to Pray by Pete Greig Notebook

How to Read This Book In Five Minutes

172 The Bible says that you were created to enjoy a real, conversational relationship with God. Hearing his voice is therefore the most natural thing in the world.

180 Jesus is what God sounds like. He’s literally the “living Word of God.” Hearing his voice is not so much a skill we must master, therefore, as a master we must meet.

188 When it comes to hearing God, the Bible is the language of his heart. Nothing he says in any other way in any other context will ever override, undermine, or contradict what he has said in the Scriptures.

1. Hearing God’s Word In Jesus

339 magnificence.” Human beings are hardwired to worship. You have been meticulously made with an extraordinary ability to walk and talk with God.

340 In fact, the Bible says that your primary purpose— the reason for which you were born— is to enjoy a real, conversational relationship with an infinitely loving divinity, which is why you almost certainly hear him already, more than you realize.

640 Thus grace, for the most part, acts slowly. He works little by little.” 19

646 Hawaiian word haoles, ‘without breath,’ or those who failed to breathe life into their prayers. 20

649 I am terrible at tarrying on the other side of asking to slowly breathe life into the embers I have spread before the altar of the Lord.

675 “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” [John 5: 39– 40]).

Part 1: God’s Word: Vox Externa

Hearing God’s Word In the Bible

981 “We present you with this book, the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is wisdom, this is the royal law, these are the lively oracles of God.” 11

1006 If I understand what the Bible means but never hear what it says to me personally, I have information without revelation. But conversely, if I disregard its original context and ignore the bits I don’t like or don’t understand, I will be in grave danger of abusing God’s Word by confusing it with my own feelings, preferences, and prejudices.

1053 Some people view exegesis with suspicion, worrying that it stops us taking the Bible at face value (which it does) and that it therefore undermines the authority of Scripture (which it does not) and detracts from our ability to engage with the Bible devotionally (which it can actually enhance). In fact, reading the Bible with our heads, so that we understand it intellectually, only strengthens our ability to receive the Bible as God’s Word with our hearts. Let me give you an example.

1196 survey of forty thousand people aged between eight and eighty discovered that reading the Bible has a profound effect on both our mental health and our spiritual growth, but only if it is done at least four times a week. Once or twice a week provides a negligible benefit, and three times results in only a slight improvement. But among those who study the Bible at least four times a week, there is a dramatic inflection point, a sharp uplift in their mental and spiritual well-being. In fact, these regular Bible readers are 30 percent less likely to feel lonely, 32 percent less prone to anger issues, 60 percent less likely to report feelings of spiritual stagnation, and 228 percent more likely to be active in sharing their faith. 35

3. Hearing God’s Word In Prayer: Lectio Divina

1256 Scripture is, in some sense, the music of God, which we hear; in another sense, it is the instrument of God, which we play. —Origen of Alexandria (185– 254)

1326 we learn how to approach the Bible as a window frame as well as a picture frame, not just looking at it but also through it to the world, and the Word, beyond.

1552 “Don’t swallow it in a big lump,” Bernard of Clairvaux said of the Bible in the twelfth century. 11 Chew over each word. Savor its flavor and sample its depths.

1565 But meditation is cyclical, not linear. It’s a labyrinth in a world of ladders, more concerned with discoveries made than distance traveled.

1568 Cistercian Order.

1578 Some bunny trails take you down dark holes, but others lead out into the light.

1583 As it did for the couple on the road to Emmaus, whose conversation about God was interrupted and redirected by a stranger, the living Word will sometimes interrupt the written Word.

1586 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls. —Psalm 42: 7

1592 Don’t try to make sense of your reaction or analyze why it’s speaking to you. Just acknowledge it and ask the Lord to show you why it’s captured your attention.

1597 But an insight that exceeds the bounds of sound biblical interpretation does not need to lead to heresy, provided it reflects the word, character, and example of Jesus.

1654 How on earth are we to know the difference between God’s thoughts and our thoughts, things imagined and things imaginary? These are important questions because our imaginations are indeed both powerful and impure, but the answer is not to switch them off (even if this were possible), but rather to use them wisely and enthusiastically for God’s glory. We don’t need to be afraid of doing so, provided we apply the usual tools of discernment.

1662 life researching such things, concludes, “The devotional masters of nearly all persuasions counsel us that we can descend with the mind into the heart most easily through the imagination.” 15 Conversely, conservative Bible teacher A. W. Tozer warned starkly of the dangers of ignoring our imaginations when it comes to the Bible, saying, “The weakness of the Pharisee in days of old was his lack of imagination, or what amounted to the same thing, his refusal to let it enter the field of religion. He saw the text with its carefully guarded theological definition and he saw nothing beyond.” 16

1742 In this chapter I have talked about the essential role that Benedict of Nursia played in the development of lectio divina, but not yet about a character almost equally influential in popularity: Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. Arising in sixteenth-century Europe, the Jesuits championed a practical spirituality that sought to find God in all things. They became the great popularizers of such ancient practices for spiritual formation as the examen, the Spiritual Exercises, and, of course, lectio divina. Armed with these powerful tools, Jesuits went out and truly changed the world. It was Jesuits, for instance, who located the source of the Blue Nile, discovered quinine, invented the humble trapdoor, founded the Brazilian city of São Paulo, championed Baroque architecture, wrote the first dictionaries of North America’s native languages (enabling cross-cultural communication), gave their names to thirty-five craters on the moon, and provided education for leaders from Descartes and Voltaire to Bill Clinton and Denzel Washington. 19 The Jesuits embody the intrinsic link between spiritual formation (prayer, listening, meditating on the Scriptures, etc.) and social transformation. “Saint Ignatius was a mystic,” wrote William James, the American philosopher, “but his mysticism made him one of the most powerfully practical human engines that ever lived.” 20

1788 embracing interruption, exercising intuition, and engaging imagination— we are, in fact, training ourselves by these very means to hear God’s word in all of God’s world. We start to make secular places sacred, simply by the way we listen to them. And, of course, wherever in the world God’s word is received by faith, his kingdom has already come. In the words of the Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, “The world has little by little caught fire in my sight until, aflame all around me, it has become almost luminous from within.” 23

1819 dreams and visions will pass away, prophetic utterance speaks for a season, “the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever” (1 Pet. 1: 24– 5).

1829 There’s an old joke about a Franciscan, a Dominican, and a Jesuit who were praying, when the lights went out. The Franciscan said, “Oh, this is a wonderful opportunity to live more simply.” The Dominican launched into a sermon about the significance of darkness and light. And the Jesuit went off to change the fuse.

1836 These tools include the Spiritual Exercises— a four-week, in-depth journey of spiritual

1837 It is not only 4 weeks. Pete should correct this or clarify that it is four phases or weeks.

1865 Anima Christi (A Prayer from the Start

1932 No one should feel any pressure to use icons in prayer. But if you are visual and find it helpful to focus on something physical in a time of prayer, an icon can be helpful and is arguably more meaningful than, say, staring at a candle or a sunset or lyrics on a screen.

1942 Recommends David G. Benner, Opening to God:

4. Hearing God’s Word In Prophecy

2035 In both Old and New Testaments, prophecy is predominantly a means of declaring God’s will and powerfully communicating his heart. 4

2042 There were no chapter divisions in Paul’s original letter. He is urging us to “eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy” (1 Cor. 14: 1) precisely because we love other people and therefore want them to be strengthened, encouraged, comforted, and edified by God’s Word. And he is also telling us that spiritual gifts are useless—“ only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13: 1)— unless they are administered with love.

2061 “Does God really speak today? If so, how does he speak? And how do you know it’s him?” For three months, he says, no one anywhere could answer him.

2068 “I began to discover,” he says, with his eyes twinkling, “that in everything God has a voice.” I would go about my day talking to him, asking, “What are you saying in this situation? Where are you at work in this place? What was that encounter all about?”

2090 Kermit predicted all those years ago. In fact, I was with him the day he heard the news that his song “Raise a Hallelujah” had reached number 1 on the airplay charts. 5 And as for his award-winning anthem “No Longer Slaves,” it contains some especially poignant lines: From my mother’s womb You have chosen me Love has called my name I’ve been born again Into Your family Your blood flows through my veins I’m no longer a slave to fear I am a child of God6

2119 ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’

2142 But also because our Creator understands that we are seasonal beings, living in a seasonal world, and we don’t thrive and mature in a mode of continual harvest. 8

2216 Exercising a prophetic gift: Since all believers can be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2: 4; 19: 6; Eph. 5: 18), we can (and should) all receive and exercise his gifts, including prophecy. But our first attempts at prophecy can be scary, so it’s helpful to ask yourself, “Will the thing I think I’m seeing, hearing, or sensing bring encouragement if I share it? Will it be edifying?” And most important of all, “Does it sound like Jesus?” A simple, memorable rule of thumb is therefore to apply the ABC filter:

4. Hearing God’s Word In Prophecy

2220

· Affirming: Does this word fulfil the criteria of 1 Corinthians 14, by being strengthening, encouraging, comforting, edifying, and upbuilding?

· Biblical: Is this word consistent with the broad teaching and witness of Scripture (not just a specific verse taken out of context— see chapter 2)?

· Christlike: Is this word consistent with the character, mission, and message of Jesus?

Part 2: God’s Whisper: Vox Interna

5. Hearing God’s Whisper

2551 Success in Circuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth’s superb surprise As Lightning to the Children eased With explanation kind The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind— 1

2588 of course, is that his presence is manifest in the dullness after the drama. The Great Elemental Force shows himself gentle and makes himself personal in “a still small voice” (1 Kings 19: 12 KJV) or, as a more literal translation of the original Hebrew says, “the sound of gentle silence.”

2602 Breathe through the heat of our desire thy coolness and thy balm; Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire; Speak through the earthquake, wind and fire, O still, small voice of calm. 4

2717 There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God. —Brother Lawrence

6. Hearing God’s Whisper In Dreams and the Unconscious >

3062 Millennia before Freud and Jung and psychoanalytic theory, the Bible regarded dreams as a window to the secret motivations and hidden thoughts of the “innermost mind” (or the “unconscious,” as Freud would later describe it).

3229 As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

7. Hearing God’s Whisper In Community, Creation, and Culture

3313 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who combined being a Jesuit priest with being a scientist, paleontologist, and philosopher, put it like this: “By means of all created things, without exception, the divine assails us, penetrates us and moulds us.” 2

3497 Hearing God in the Culture There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places. —Wendell Berry

8. The Word, the Whisper, and the Way

3790 Gradually, my neural pathways get realigned by ten

3877 Sometimes he speaks dramatically, but mostly quietly with “words . . . full of the Spirit and life” (John 6: 63). The more we say yes to the things he says, the more familiar and precious his voice becomes, until, ultimately, at the end of the road, at the end of the day, at the end of our lives, we look back with a mixture of wonder and joy and say: Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked?

3882 And so we arise, put on our coats, and step out into the night.

Recommendations for Further Reading On Hearing God

3897 Dallas Willard, Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2012). (My favorite book on the subject)

3903 David G. Benner, Opening to God: Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer (my favorite book on Lectio Divina)

3927 Christine Westhoff, ReFraming the Prophetic (online Bible-study), www.reframingtheprophetic.com. (Now a book)