His sheep know his voice. John 10:4 tells us that; yet many of us struggle to discern God's voice in the midst of daily life. Samuel Williamson, founding director of Beliefs of the Heart, has written a helpful guide to hearing God's voice everywhere.Hearing God in Conversation: How to Recognize His Voice Everywhere helps us cultivate our curiosity and attention to the ways in which God speaks to us.


Williamson begins with a story of hearing God's voice when he was just a 9780825444241ten-year-old, newly minted atheist. When God didn't strike down his girlfriend Diane for cussing, Williamson lost his faith. So he started his own experiment with profanity and living like God wasn't there. God simply said, "Sam, I'm real, and you don't understand" (24). Williamson was brought back to faith. While this experience is unique to him, Williamson believes we all have a capacity to hear God's voice. He relates the various ways people hear God. In his second chapter Williamson argues that the point of God speaking is less about directions from on high (though He is still God) and more about conversation. God wants to connect and commune with us. Williamson uses the analogy of learning sailing from his dad and the casual conversations that would spring up organically as a result (35-36).

But Williamson is also an evangelical. He gives pride of place to the Bible. Williamson wants us to read our Bibles, but not as a maintenance manual or a rule book but as an opportunity to encounter the living God. We read to commune with the living God. So he offers scriptural meditation (focusing on the one book where God clearly spoke) as a way to train ourselves to hear God's voice, "The best way to become familar with God's voice is to meditate on his Word, just as the best way to spot a counterfeit is to spend lots of time with the real thing" (61).

Along the way Williamson has lots of practical advice for listening prayer: how to recognize God, how to hear God's voice for others, hearing God's voice in the silence, and detours of life, the place of emotions, etc. Williamson opens up about his own journey of God. He shares childhood stories of learning to hear God's voice, awkward words that God gave him for others (or about others), and his process of discerning God's call to leave a stable career with a software company to pursue full time ministry. He suggests brainstorming with God (journaling) and listening to 'God's questions' in the Bible as ways to press into a deeper relationship with God.

What distinguishes Williamson's book from some treatments of listening prayer is how down-to-earth he is. He shares stories and anecdotes with good humor (occasionally this is a bit distracting). Two appendixes address the arguments against listening prayer by some conservative evangelicals and those 'questionable and excessive practices.' There are other good books on this theme (notably, Joyce Huggett's Listening to God and Brad Jersak's Can You Hear Me?, Dallas Willard's Hearing God). Williamson own influences in writing include Oswald Chambers, C.S. Lewis, Dallas Willard and Tim Keller (22). He makes a strong and helpful contribution to the topic of hearing God. The best thing I can say about a book on prayer is that it makes me want to pray. This book certainly makes want to do that.

Five stars. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Note: I received this book from Kregel Publications in exchange for my honest review ( )

Author Samuel C Williamson offers his own experiences and those of others to ground his book, Hearing God In Conversation, in the real and the everyday of human life. We won’t all hear voices, he says. We won’t all see visions of glory. But we can all learn to listen better and to hear the message of God, spoken, whispered, resonating in circumstance, nudging our thoughts and actions, bringing wisely inspiring memories to mind just when we need them, and gently guiding. We don’t need to be “spiritual giants” to do this. But we do need to believe God really cares.

The author starts with the art of communication—of conversation—with a God who can truly speak all our languages (body language, love language, everything). Highlighted tidbits offer immediate takeaways, breaking up the page and drawing the reader in. Short sections keep the text flowing smoothly and inject their message as quickly and clearly to casual reader as to careful annotator. Meanwhile familiar metaphors are shown wanting—the Bible as “owners’ manual” for example—when they speak of a God who really wants to know us.

Paraphrase, prayer and meditation are offered as guides. Scripture, tradition and famous speakers of the past join the conversation. Care and concern for spiritual truth keeps the reader grounded, protecting against spiritual excess while promoting invaluable practice in listening and praying. Readers will learn to recognize the biases that hold them back, drop pretensions, and cultivate holy curiosity, all in conversation with a God who loves to answer. As the author points out, we don't need to hide anything from God; we need emotion as well as knowledge—it’s the way we’re made. We need the past as well as the present if we’re to move to the future. Then, one day, the everyday might seem so much more when it’s shared with the creator.

Hearing God In Conversation is a very practical book, enjoyably written, easy to read, Biblically honest, and spiritually uplifting. I really enjoyed it.

Disclosure: A group at church is learning from this book, but I couldn’t join in, so I bought a copy for myself. ( )