👂Listening To God In Quiet And Unexpected ways

👂Listening To Him in Quiet and Unexpected Ways👂

Most times,  God speaks to us in ways that are gentle and unexpected. We hear Him through dreams, conversations, strong inner promptings , which I later understood to be the voice of the Holy Spirit , and sometimes through activities we never imagined could carry divine meaning.

📖 Job 33:14–15

“For God may speak in one way, or in another, yet man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night…”

My first clear encounter with hearing from God began when I was about ten years old.

The First Dream

I had a dream in the afternoon , not scary at first, but it gradually became unsettling. In the dream, I saw my mother standing beside an unidentified woman. They were both dressed in white, and there was an atmosphere of mourning around them. At that age, I didn’t know what to make of it. I didn’t pray about it or try to cancel it. I only assumed it was a nightmare , or perhaps an afternoon dream.

A week later, I jokingly asked my mother what puberty was. She avoided the conversation at first. In those days, topics like that were hardly discussed, and society attached a heavy stigma to such questions , as though knowing too much automatically made a child “bad.” After much persuasion, she eventually opened up.

While she was speaking, a strong thought kept rising within me, she has just a few days left to live. I was only a child, and I refused to believe it. I pushed the thought aside, convincing myself it was impossible.

Not long after, my mother passed away.

Looking back now, I understand that God had tried to prepare my heart, gently and quietly.

📖 Amos 3:7

“Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants.”

The Second Encounter

My second clear experience of hearing from God came years later when I visited my father’s house in a rural area. My aunt lived close by, but that weekend was filled with activities. I couldn’t spend much time with her, and I also missed attending a particular  convention tagged 'Amen' which we were meant to go to together.

I returned home on a Sunday morning cause she was at my father's house then. She left later that morning at around 10. We didn’t had time to talk much there,cause I had just come there , and she was on her way out , she looked at me and said in Yoruba, 

“Maria, odabo.” meaning

(“Goodbye.”)

The moment she said it, something rushed through me , a confusion I couldn’t explain. My aunt was already in Christ, and she often said, “When death is knocking, you either accept it or decline.” This wasn’t the first or second time she had escaped death, so I tried to brush the feeling aside.

But that night, her last word , odabo , kept ringing in my heart.

At midnight, my sibling and I were still awake, talking. Sleep refused to come. Suddenly, I said,

“What would I do if I didn’t have my aunty around?”

My sibling simply replied, “Nothing.”

Then my phone began to ring , continuously. I didn’t pick up. Deep down, I already knew. The ringing stopped and the call went through to my younger sister’s phone. I encouraged her to answer and put it on loudspeaker.

The news came , my aunt was unconscious.

I already knew.

But I refused to believe it.

📖 Ecclesiastes 3:1

“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.”

God Speaks in Many Ways

Over time, I learned that God doesn’t only speak through dramatic moments. Sometimes, He speaks through rest. There were moments when I pondered deeply on how to create a particular craft and couldn’t figure it out. I would leave it and sleep—only to find myself being taught in my dreams.

Other times, God answered me through conversations. I would be seeking answers in my heart without asking anyone, and suddenly a colleague would speak directly to the exact question , unknowingly.

📖 John 14:26

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit… will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”

A Gentle Reminder

The truth is not that God doesn’t speak.

The truth is that many times, we are not quiet or calm enough to listen.

God speaks in whispers, in dreams, in thoughts, in timing, and in people. He speaks to prepare us, guide us, comfort us, and sometimes to strengthen us for what lies ahead.

May we learn to still our hearts.

May we learn to listen.

And may we trust that when God speaks , no matter how softly, it is always out of love.

           ✍🏽 Written by Maria Jacobs

         Christian writer & faith blogger

🌿 https://mariajacobsfaith.blogspot.com