We live in an instant answer culture. Google has trained us to expect answers now! However, the answers it gives are based more on algorithm than truth. AI is training us to search for answers through “dialogue” with a machine and to do so instantaneously.
Over my years as a ministry leader in churches and non-profits, the question I have been asked most often has been some variation of, “How can I hear from God?” Rightly so, Christians want to hear from God for questions about their life, especially the big ones like marriage, career, and kids.
The issue is that the instant accessibility of information today is training us to want clarity now. We want an answer from God like the one we get from AI. We don’t want to wrestle with a decision; we just want to be told what to do. And if we are honest, we would really like it to be what we already wanted anyway.
Hearing God rarely happens on the timeline of instant results. It happens in a relationship.
Scripture insists God is not silent. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27, ESV). Paul said, “All Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16a, ESV). If God speaks and Scripture is His breath, then hearing God starts with Scripture where we meet and hear a Person who loves us dearly.
“Hearing God rarely happens on the timeline of instant results. It happens in a relationship.”
I’ve heard the Bible described as a manual for life. It certainly isn’t less than that, but it is so much more. After all, who wants to read a manual? Well, okay, my grandpa, who was a genius, loved manuals. Especially those car manuals put out by Chilton back in the day. The rest of us, though, don’t spend our free time reading manuals. We avoid manuals until we must read them.
One time my wife bought a desk for our daughter. It arrived in a box so small I thought surely there was another box coming. Nope. All 1000+ pieces were in that box. I had to read the instructions. 
Reading the Bible merely as a manual reduces God to an ATM for answers. We tap for guidance, swipe for a direction, hoping for clarity. Jesus invites us to something slower and deeper: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish…” (John 15:7, ESV).
Did you catch that? Jesus said if we pay attention to His words, He will pay attention to ours. We abide first. Ask second. We seek relationship over answers.
One of the most transforming ways to approach Scripture is to approach it for what it is—God talking to us. Scripture may not have been written to us, but it certainly was written for us. God is speaking through His Scripture and reading Scripture is meeting Him. Scripture is primarily for relationship, not information.
“One of the most transforming ways to approach Scripture is to approach it for what it is—God talking to us.”
When we understand that God’s Word is written out of love for us, it changes our whole posture. Back in the pre-texting days when my wife and I were dating in college (I know I just dated myself with that statement), she would occasionally write me a letter and send it home with me for the weekend. Because I loved her and she loved me, I wanted to know what she wrote to me! I didn’t throw it in the back seat of my car and forget about it until Monday when I returned. I tore into it immediately because my desire was to know her.
Couldn’t it be the same with God? We desire to know God, and He has given us his Word where we can read with confidence that He is speaking to us, revealing Himself to us. The more we meet Him in Scripture, the more we learn who He is by how he acted in the past.
Scripture builds a trust muscle in our hearts through remembrance. David’s prayer in Psalm 22 (which Jesus quotes on the cross) begins with silence: “Why have you forsaken me?”—and turns toward remembrance: “Yet you are holy… our fathers trusted… and you delivered them.” When the moment offers no audible answer, God’s story gives us a steady foundation upon which to build confidence. We can trust in the character and faithfulness of God.
“We can trust in the character and faithfulness of God.”
God longs for us to be discerning people more than just efficient decision makers. Efficient decision making is quick, in the moment, and then you move on. Discernment, however, tests quick impressions against the whole arc of Scripture and the fruit of the Spirit. Does what I am hearing/sensing grow love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control? Or does it feed the flesh—fear, frenzy, self-justification? God’s guidance will never contradict His Word, and it will never bypass his character.
One of the last things God told Moses to tell the Israelites before he died was this:
“The message is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.” (Deuteronomy 30:14, ESV)
Most of us don’t need more hot takes; we need a lived rhythm: Scripture on our lips, Scripture in our hearts, Scripture in our steps. Read to meet Him. Meditate to hear Him. Obey to know Him. Often, clarity comes not by zooming in on the next decision, but by aligning our whole life to Jesus—so that when He sets the agenda at unexpected times, we recognize the Shepherd’s voice and follow Him.
A culture of instant answers will keep promising speed, and Jesus will keep offering Himself. If you’re hungry for guidance, start with His presence. Let His Word abide in you. If Scripture has grown stale for you, I encourage you to slow down. Read less, not more. Give God your attention before you demand his answers. He is near and He is speaking. Lean in and listen.
