Learning To Hear God's Voice: A Life-Altering Discovery

By Bill McIntyre

Have you ever heard someone say, “God lead me to do _____” or “God said _____ to me?” Did you wonder,
“Is he some kind of spiritual giant or is his bubble just a little off center?”

Author Bill McIntyre shares true stories of his personal journey, from a childhood plan for murder, to hiking
through jungles sharing the Gospel in remote African villages.
Bill relays testimonies and examples of God’s miraculous workings in his life to demonstrate how to hear and understand the voice of the Holy Spirit. In these pages you will discover sound Scriptural teachings on
hearing the voice of God.

This is not a book that says, “Try harder to become more sinless. Follow all the church’s religious rules.” It doesn’t say, “If you were just a better person God might talk to you, too.”

Finally, here is a book of practical advice on how to train your spirit to hear God and how to recognize His voice when He speaks. God desires to talk to you. Are you ready to learn how to listen?

“Bill’s life stories are for people like me who benefit from knowing others have faced difficulties and circumstances never taught in school and far from theoretical. You will learn much from reading Bill’s experiences and
from his practical application of God’s Word. This is a book unlike any other you have ever read.”
Ric Shields
President/Founder of DoorWays®

• Language: English
• Publisher: Total Publishing
• Release date: Feb 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9781633021556

Bill McIntyre

Bill McIntyre's life's journey has taken him through varied experiences. He has worked in secular positions ranging from truck driver to radio announcer, from advertising consultant to business owner and more. In ministry, Bill has pastored churches, served as a youth pastor, was a Youth for Christ Executive Director, and has participated in missions work in several countries. He has spoken at Christian businessmen's meetings and at retreats. He has preached in numerous churches of various denominations and has preached at evangelistic gatherings overseas. With his wife Cheryl, Bill resides in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They are the parents of two children and grandparents of four. Reaching those who have not yet heard the Gospel is a passion of Bill's and he currently serves on the board of an international missions organization. He explains ministry is not just a vocation. It is a life-style for every Christian. Ministry should naturally flow from a close relationship with Christ. A broad range of life experiences provides a backdrop for his unique perspective on walking through life hand-in-hand with the Holy Spirit. Bill McIntyre is available for speaking engagements and may be contacted by email at: [e-mail] Please put the words "Speaker Information" on the subject line to ensure your inquiry is not overlooked.

Book preview

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Chapter 1

God Created You to Be Able to Hear His Voice

You may ask, Will God really talk to me? If so, how can I recognize His voice and know it is really Him?

Imagine you have a child, and you write your beloved little creation a letter. It begins like this:

My dear child,

Because of my deep love for you, I desire that we maintain a close relationship. Therefore, I’m instructing you to talk to me about everything. If you have a problem, tell me. If you are hurting, tell me. If you need my wisdom or guidance, ask me. Because I love you so much, I will always listen but be aware, even though you talk to me, I will not talk to you.

You may, or may not discover my feelings about certain situations revealed in this written letter. Sometimes I may even intervene and do something on your behalf. However, I will never speak directly to you. All our communication will be a one-way conversation - you talking to me.

How ridiculous it would be to restrict your communication with your child in such a manner. Yet many Christians think of prayer (God’s children speaking with their father) as being a one-way conversation.

In 2018, on the TV program The View, the panel was taking their pot shots at Vice President Mike Pense, a Christian man who is not shy when talking about his walk and communication with the Lord. He talks to God and God talks to him. Joy Behar joined in the panel’s piling on by commenting, It’s one thing to talk to Jesus. It’s another thing when Jesus talks to you. She went on to say hearing voices is called mental illness.

She could not have been more wrong! Two-way communication with God should be the norm for every Christian. This is why He gave His Holy Spirit. He dwells within us and shows us what God wants us to know. When Jesus was promising the Spirit would be given, He said:

I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth...² But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you...³

The Spirit was poured out as promised on the day of Pentecost, as is recorded in Acts chapter 2. So, the Apostle Paul taught:

...the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.⁴

As you read through the New Testament, you find many references to the Holy Spirit’s leading and speaking such as:

"And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.⁵’"

When I was a new Christian, desiring God’s guidance, I tried various methods to discover what He wanted to tell me. I experimented with things like flipping a coin for yes or no. Sometimes I would say, God, if something happens this way, I’ll know You mean this.

As I gained more respect for the written Word of God, I would pull a Bible verse out of context and say it was the answer to my situation. I even tried closing my eyes, flipping the Bible open, and placing my finger on a verse. If it said, Oh foolish Galatians, I would conclude God was telling me I was being foolish.

As a young teenager, I heard a lot of teaching concerning what I should and should not do, but nothing about how to receive guidance directly from God. I heard more mature Christians say God told them something, but no one ever taught me how to hear Him. Was it a secret reserved only for older adults? Was it a taboo subject like sex? Was straining to hear dangerous? Could it even be another thing which would cause an adolescent boy to go blind?

God does desire to communicate and have fellowship with you. We read in Genesis that God would walk with Adam in the garden in the cool of the day and fellowship with him. This kind of two-way communication is what God created you to experience.

The Scriptures in Genesis tell us God spoke into existence all creation. Yet when it came to making man, He created him as a spirit in His own image. Man came alive when God breathed His very own life into him.⁶

Mankind is significantly different from other animals. Our being has three parts: spirit, soul, and body. The three parts of man’s being are spoken of in I Thessalonians 5:23:

"Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

So, what is the purpose of these three parts?

1. You live in a body.

2. You have a soul.

3. You are a spirit, in God’s image.

Each part of you has a distinctive function.

1. Your body is the seat of physical-consciousness. With your five senses, you comprehend the physical universe around you. While your body is alive, you can taste, touch, smell, see, and hear.

2. Your soul is the seat of self-consciousness; your intellect, emotions, will, memories, and personality.

3. Your spirit is the seat of God-consciousness. It is created in God’s image to commune with Him.

I Corinthians Chapter 2 makes the following observations concerning God’s communication to us:

1. God reveals things to us.

2. Man with his natural mind does not have the ability to understand what God says. It may even seem like foolishness to him.

3. Only the Spirit of God can comprehend the mind of God.

4. Because God’s Spirit indwells believers, we can have a spiritual discernment allowing us to comprehend what God wants us to know.

In the following chapters you will find a variety of examples of how God spoke to me and the miracles which occurred when I was willing to follow His leading. As a side note, I could probably fill another book with examples of mistakes I have made when I didn’t seek and wait for His guidance.

Before delving more deeply into the subject, it may be helpful to share how God has guided me to this point. One of my earliest recollections in life is of my plan to commit murder.

Chapter 2

My Plan to Kill Aunt Hazel

Iam grateful to have had the love and nurturing of a mother until I was five years old. Then she died of a kidney infection and the witch stepped in! My dad, Pop as I called him, had no desire to care for three children so he moved his sister in to handle the chore. Aunt Hazel was crazy, literally a mentally deficient woman who had no business being left in charge of children - especially those still grieving the loss of their mother.

I started wetting the bed [again] after mom’s death. Aunt Hazel’s loving solution would be to rub my face in the pee-soaked diaper. Like sticking a puppy’s nose in the puddle he had made in the house. To complete the humiliation she would pin the wet diaper around my neck like a smelly bandana, then chain me to the clothesline in the front yard. If I was going to pee like a dog, I should be chained up like one. I’ll tell the ridiculing neighborhood kids that I am just playing puppy, I reasoned. To further punish me for wetting the bed, Hazel made my older sister Reitha whip me with a switch from a tree branch. Hazel would whip Reitha until she finally gave in and whipped me.

It was a matter of months before Pop finally understood Aunt Hazel’s nurturing was not beneficial. The realization came after Hazel had beaten Reitha over the head with a BB rifle, then with her fists until Reitha’s face was bloody, bruised, and swollen. Pop finally moved Aunt Hazel out. From then on, we grew up with no supervision; in short a better situation.

I vowed if I ever saw Aunt Hazel walking up the sidewalk to our house, it would be the last steps she would ever take. I would kill her, literally. No way would I allow her to come into my life again. Being a small five-year-old child, I knew I wasn’t strong enough to do it with my bare hands. Where could I find a weapon? Since Pop was a convicted felon he was not allowed to have any guns. The best makeshift weapon I could think of was a large cast iron skillet. It was so heavy it took both hands and all my strength to lift it. The plan went like this: If I saw her walking up the sidewalk toward the front door, I would run and get the skillet. As hard as I could swing it, I’d whack her in the shins. Twice if necessary. Then when she bent over in pain, I’d hit her in the head with it. As she fell to the ground, I would continue striking her in the head blow after blow until she was dead. I never got to use the iron skillet; but I think it would have worked. I really would have killed her.

The only other time I spied Aunt Hazel was at Waldo, a shopping area just about a mile from our house. After perpetrating whatever mischief I