All these years later, I can’t imagine not hearing the Lord’s voice first thing every morning and last thing every night. I would be lost and devastated.

But for the first 40 years of my life, I didn’t hear the Lord speak to me. I grew up in the church. I was trained to read the Bible and serve. I memorized Scriptures. I’m sure that I did everything expected of me to be a good citizen of the church. I prayed like nobody else. I gave God so much advice because that was all that was ever modeled. But I did not hear God or walk with Him (and neither did any of the other churchgoers to my knowledge).

At 40 years old, a friend told me to give God five minutes and listen to Him in prayer. That’s when everything changed.

Oh wow how it changed! The God that I had learned about and had a one-sided relationship with was actually real. I couldn’t get enough of hearing Him. Every chance I got I wanted to hear His voice. Hearing Him changed me into a completely different person and maybe too quickly for those around me who didn’t similarly hear Him.

But I want you to hear this from my heart. I was so completely grieved that for the first 40 years of my life, though spent growing up in the church, nobody ever said the simple words “go give God five minutes and listen to Him”. Why? And yes, I read the Bible so I should have known that God speaks. But I trusted the church leaders to train me in the most important parts of knowing God. But they didn’t. Their unspoken words were a catalyst to assuming wrong theology.

Now, nearly 23 years after hearing God speak that first time, I walk with the Spirit of God every day. So much so, that He talked to me about this subject first thing as I was waking this morning. He reminded me of why it is so important to keep telling others about hearing His voice. I’ve written workbooks, newsletters, magazines and thousands of posts about hearing God. I’ve made teaching videos. I really have spent all these years fighting for the hearts and minds of those God has entrusted me to speak a word to.

During my conversation with God this morning, I asked God (probably with His invisible prompting) what is the right age to start teaching a child to hear God’s voice. His answer was that they should always be aware that God speaks. I questioned God about the maturity needed to recognize God’s voice against the voice of the enemy. God said to trust Him with that. I reasoned that they could hear the devil at any age why not teach them to hear God and discern His voice from the beginning. Our young children belong to God if we belong to God. They are under a protective covering while they are being raised to know God. Once they are mature, they have their own responsibility to know the heart of God and to obey Him.

Though I was raised in the church, there wasn’t much mention of God in my home growing up. I was a Sunday-go-to-church Christian. Most of the time, I went to church on the church bus without my parents or siblings. God was always calling me to Himself even when I didn’t knowingly hear Him. He drew me in. He entrusted the churches to teach me. And though they didn’t do the best job at educating me on walking with the Spirit, they planted seeds and provided community. I want so much more than that for the next generation. I hope you do too.