Listening to and hearing God is an absolutely crucial part of our relationship with God, and because of that, it is a foundational part of our discipleship (or apprenticeship) in the way of Jesus. I recently shared about this and looked at a few of the ways that we hear God by drawing upon the Scriptural text of the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). About this passage of text, N.T. Wright has said, “Learn to live inside this story, and you will find it inexhaustible.” Learning to listen and hear is an invitation into a deepening friendship with Jesus. Dallas willard wrote,

“Today, as God’s trusting apprentices in the kingdom of the heavens, we live on the Emmaus road, so to speak, with an intermittently burning heart. His word pours into our heart, energizing and directing our life in a way that cannot be accounted for in natural terms. The presence of the physical world no longer has to be a barrier between me and God. My visible surroundings become, instead, God’s gift to me, where I am privileged to see the rule of heaven realized through my friendship with Jesus. He makes it so in response to my expectation. There, in some joyous measure, creation is seen moving toward ‘the glorious liberty of the children of God’ — all because my life counts for eternity as I live and walk with God.” – Dallas Willard, Hearing God

So, I invite you to listen and consider: