How To Develop Your Spiritual Hearing.

1) Pray in the Spirit

Praying in tongues helps you develop a sensitivity to the voice of the Holy Spirit and your own spirit. 1 Corinthians 14:14-15 NKJV – For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. 15 What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.

When you pray in tongues, your spirit man rises up, even as your mind grows quieter.

1 Corinthians 14:2 NKJV – For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit, he speaks mysteries.
Jude 20 NKJV – But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.

Praying in the Holy Spirit builds you up in your faith, drawing you closer to God and His will for you. As you do that, you will get to the place where you can hear the Lord clearly when He speaks to you through your spirit. Receiving the counsel and wisdom you need for every situation you encounter in life is easy as you learn to listen to your heart!

2) Pay attention to the Word

James 1:21-22 AMP – So get rid of all uncleanness and the rampant outgrowth of wickedness, and in a humble (gentle, modest) spirit receive and welcome the Word which implanted and rooted [in your hearts] contains the power to save.

1. First, you need to study. You can study the Word in many ways. Not only can you read it, you can also dig deeply into it with concordances, Greek/Hebrew dictionaries and other study guides. What’s more, if you have a media player, you can walk around half the day listening to teaching. It’s only one way of study, but it is a powerful one.
2. The second thing you need to do is go where the Word is being preached. When Romans 10:17 says “faith comes by hearing,” it’s talking about the preached Word. Whenever I start feeling surrounded by problems and I’m having trouble hearing from God, I drop everything and find some place where I can hear the Word preached. I’ve received more answers from God that way than I can count. Even though the preacher may not have been preaching about anything even remotely connected with the issue I was struggling with, some word of Scripture would suddenly start my thoughts in a certain direction. Then I’d realize, That’s the answer to that problem I’ve been dealing with for a while!
3. Thirdly, you need to start confessing the Word you’ve heard. Find the promise of God that covers your situation and then declare it out loud as if it had already come to pass in your life.
4. Practice using the word in every situation.

3) Stay connected to your tribe

It has been my experience throughout the years that YOUR prophetic gifting really is enriched and sharpened by being in the atmosphere of the prophetic community and being with others who are stronger in their gifting than yourself. Prophecy really ‘begins in the ear’, not in the mouth! We learn to identify the expressions that are of the Spirit by ‘hearing’ long before we actually move forward in speaking forth the word of the Lord.

A foundational truth for me has been that the Word of God is always our guide and our test for any prophetic utterances. To grow in the prophetic, one must keep saturated in the written Word of God. That is the fountain out of which the flow of the Spirit will increase.