Every day, we are surrounded by voices. Some tell us what to believe. Others tell us what to fear. The question is not whether someone is speaking — the question is: which voice can you trust?

The Bible makes an astonishing claim: the God who created us is not silent.

This is Part 1 of our three-part series, Hearing the Voice of God. Today's message, "Learning to Listen," takes us into one of Scripture's most tender and instructive moments — a young boy named Samuel lying in the house of the Lord, hearing God's voice, but not yet recognizing it. His story teaches us that hearing God begins not with God speaking louder, but with us learning to listen.

David D. Ireland, Ph.D. | Lead Pastor | Christ Church

In this message, we work through three questions every believer must honestly face:

• Is God SPEAKING? — God's apparent silence is not God's absence. Samuel never sought God that night. God called first — three times, patiently and personally. The question is not whether God speaks. The question is whether you recognize it when He does. "Where might God already be at work in your life that you've mistaken as coincidence, circumstance, or simply your own thoughts?"

• Am I LISTENING? — God's voice didn't change. Samuel's posture had to change. Listening requires a teachable heart and a servant's heart. Samuel said, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening" — before he knew what God was going to say. That is the essence of biblical listening. We also unpack 5 practical guidelines for recognizing God's voice and avoiding the pitfalls of claiming to hear God.

• How Will I RESPOND? — Samuel's first prophetic assignment was his most difficult. God asked him to confront the very man who had raised and mentored him. He hid nothing. He softened nothing. He edited nothing. Responding to God requires courageous obedience and complete faithfulness — not just when it's easy, but when it costs something.

"Hearing God is not a special skill reserved for a few. It is meant to be the normal life of those who follow Him." — Dallas Willard

Key scriptures: 1 Samuel 3:1–18 | John 10:27–28