My favorite author is Dallas Willard, and his books on the spiritual life and God's Kingdom have made a tremendous impact on my life. His first work in this theme is "Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God". Knowing "God's will" is a huge desire in Christian circles but one that is confusing to most believers. While it is not the same as prayer, seeking a deeper relationship with God is of the same vein, and why I am interested in writing about it.
I definitely recommend anyone to read it. Like all of Dr. Willard's books, it has a bit of a scholarly tone, but that does not mean a difficult read. Willard often sets the table so to speak in lining up points to prove or disprove a point. Thus, it requires a bit of concentration, but I find that far better than just tossing a glib (even if it is true) spiritual statement without the background to understand and apply it fully.
This is not so much a review but a recap. I will go through each chapter and discuss some key points from those sections, hopefully to encourage you to read it and assist in understanding it. Any page references are off of the paperback book I currently have checked out from my church's library. My personal hardback copy is backed away in some boxes awaiting the move to our home.
The preface is just a few pages long and gives a basic introduction into the book. The key point made here is Willard's emphasis that "hearing God is but one dimension of a richly interactive relationship, and obtaining guidance is but one facet of hearing God" (pg. 10). This is important to remember that even if you perfectly understood God's direct guidance to your life that it would not perfectly equate faithfulness to Christ's call or the highest calling of your spiritual life. People may often state that just want to know "God's will for their life" but even knowing that does not fully get you where you need to be.
Chapter 1 is "A Paradox About Hearing God", and the paradox is this: we have widespread testimony and belief within the Christian church that God does "speak" and "lead" us but the Christian church is filled, probably mostly filled, with committed believers who have pervasive and painful uncertainty as to exactly how to hear and recognize God's voice.
It is this paradox which Willard is focused on unpacking. Before leaving this chapter and starting the process of understanding and deciphering this paradox, he does give 3 general problem areas people encountering in trying to hear from God. They are summarized below but he of course goes into greater detail for each in the book, starting on pg. 26.
1.Wrong priority on the forms of God's communication and ignoring the variety of means God can communicate with us.
2.Wrong motives for wanting to hear from God (e.g. seeking God's voice solely for securing their own safety and comfort).
3.Misconceptions about God's nature and intent, especially with respect to expecting hyper-level of detail and control in the "guidance".
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