How to Listen to God with the Best Attentiveness

God is speaking. Here’s how to listen to God with the best attentiveness including an exercise in listening.


“I’m giving you the hints, but you’re not paying attention! You’re not listening to me!” my teenage son chuckled to his little sister.

They were playing hide the baby dolls at her request. She couldn’t find the last two, and he tried to give her funny clues to their whereabouts.

Finally, she looked right at him. Then he made it so obvious that her eyes brightened in response, and her little hands gleefully grabbed the pillow to find the baby doll underneath.

I’ve learned that to truly listen to someone you should look them in the eye while he is speaking. Imagine how that person would feel if you were looking him in the eye verses looking at your watch!

Giving undivided attention to someone makes them feel valued, and when you listen with such attentiveness, you prove that he is valuable. Looking at the person speaking to you shows their worth.

What better voice could we give our attention to, than our Father God?

Try This Exercise to Be Attentive

Sometimes noise is difficult to run from and almost impossible to avoid. Life today provides us with many more options for noise swirling inside our ears.

When the power goes out, the silence is startling and even somewhat eerie. The whir of the refrigerator is suddenly gone. The air flowing through the vents disappears. The hum of that background noise being omitted leaves us with less sound.

At that point, it’s easier to hear the rustle of fabric or a sigh that usually gets lost in a large room. Even the noise of the simple act of closing a door can seem to reverberate louder.

What sounds are you subconsciously blocking out so you can comprehend what these sentences are saying?

Close your eyes for a moment and listen.

What do you hear?

As I write this I hear the obvious sounds:

  • worship music playing,
  • indistinct voices in the distance
  • the soft roar of the heat blowing out of the vent

After listening more closely, I hear:

  • the baby monitor in the other room
  • myself breathing

Quite a bit of concentration or paying attention happens when we are consciously listening. That was quite an exercise!

What Does the Bible Say About Being Attentive?

Solomon understood how to be attentive and taught it to his son:

My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart. Proverbs 4:20-21 NKJV

This is such a great Bible verse on attentiveness that I studied it.

The Hebrew meaning of the word attention there is “to prick up the ears, to cause to hear.” Like an animal such as the deer pricking up his ears because his very life depends on the keen listening.

Incline means “to stretch or spread out.” If you cup your hands over your ears, you will “make them bigger,” causing the sound to be amplified.

Other Bible Verses on Listening to God or Being Attentive

God gave this command, which we can certainly apply today:

And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” Luke 9:35 NKJV

One day Jesus shared the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:3-9), and at the end he cried out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” like He did many other times.

When He explained the parable, the word hear was used in every section (Matthew 13:18-23). The word hear in the Greek means to hear, to attend to, and to consider what is or has been said.

Turn your eyes to the speaker—to Father God. Prick up your ears!

That is attentive listening to God. And friend, you will hear His voice (John 10:27).

And you know what? It’s reciprocal. Our prayers don’t disappear into thin air. Psalm 66:19 (NKJV) says, “But certainly God has heard me; He has attended to the voice of my prayer.”

See the sweet knowledge we can glean from this verse? God has “pricked up his ears.” He has heard our prayer!

I want to give more attention to His voice. What else am I missing because I haven't stopped to concentrate on it? #ThrivingInChrist #LiveYielded Share on X

The Number One Way to Hear God’s Voice

After I did the listening exercise above, and really stopped to concentrate on what I was able to hear, I started thinking about it. I was able to gather more details about the not-so-obvious sounds the second time around when I increased the level of intensity in my listening.

What if we did that with listening to the Lord?

I wonder if I take for granted the truths that God wants me to really hear. Yes, I know He loves me. Yet if I listen and I hear Him say it, and let it be the thought in my head while all others are pushed out, I receive a deeper revelation of it.

God Wants Our Undivided Attention

I want to give more attention to His voice. What else am I missing because I haven’t stopped to concentrate on it?

Sometimes when we find ourselves in a mess it’s because we haven’t stopped to give our attention to what He says in His word.

I wonder what I was thinking during the times I have plugged my ears to what He was saying. And I wonder why I didn’t run to my prayer closet and hear what He would say about any situation?

I encourage you to run from distractions that you may run right into His presence and hear His voice!

So stop. Concentrate on Him. And be attentive. Really listen. It’s the number one way to hear His voice.

What are some ways we can block out distractions? How can else can we listen to what God is saying?


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6 Comments

  1. Thanks for writing this, Kelly. It’s funny because my blog today was all about “Ignoring the noise.” I guess that is the focus for this week. Stop. Listen. Hear God’s voice. Blessings ~

    1. Yes, it seems that He is speaking the same general message because He desires His people to draw closer to Him.

  2. Beautiful lesson. Attentiveness: it’s what we all need.

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