Discerning God's voice has been my major spiritual focus and desire lately.
One thing I've been impressed to do is to set my thought life and personal life in order. We cannot perceive our spirits and God speaking to it when our minds are filled with clutter and our emotions and urges are allowed free reign. We have to learn rulership over the flesh through the Spirit rather than allowing our spirits to be prisoners of the flesh. In the old testament God always required holiness and divine order from the people before He would move among them in a great way.
I was at a bible study last night and we talked about a two-fold way of cultivating a deeper relationship with God: First by abiding in Christ's love - which is practically done by keeping covenant and obeying His commandments (John: 15: 10,14). This also means obeying what God is saying to you. We all have things God is speaking to us directly about, we have to submit in faith. In submitting to God you resist the enemy (James 4:7). The second way is drawing near to God - He says that if we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. I struggle with that sacrifice of time and focus to pray and seek at times but I'm realizing there is nothing more important to set aside time for than to hear His voice.
