It's Supernatural

Sid: We want everywhere to hear God’s voice for themselves.  And there are people I can almost hearing you saying “Yes, I want to hear Your voice for myself God” it that’s you I tell you what Richard Mull has been raised up by God.  He hears God’s voice so clearly and he’s been raised up to mentor you to specifically do everything you hear about I the Bible to hear God’s voice for yourself. Richard give us a few tips on how to hear God’s voice.

Richard: You know a lot of times it’s important when we’re first learning to do something to clear away the distractions.  I used to think I could only hear God if it was quiet and I found out that it doesn’t matter how loud it is or how many distractions there are. God’s voice…

Sid: I know people that say “I only hear God’s voice in the shower.”

Richard:  (Laughing) Yeah I was in an event in New York City and the music was so loud I couldn’t hear myself when I was talking or shouting I couldn’t hear myself and I thought “There’s no way I could hear God to do ministry right now.”  And it was like the still clear voice was so clear I was like “That is amazing He’s louder than this music is and He didn’t have to shout,” and it was surprising to me. Typically when you are new at something you want to eliminate those distractions so it’s important to find a quiet place and be able to concentrate and focus and not have any distractions.  The next thing to understand is just a little bit about what God’s voice sounds like. I always thought it would sound like thunder rolling in the background from the clouds. You’d hear James Earl Jones or Morgan Freeman’s voice [Imitating sound of thunder, then talking with a very deep voice] “Richard this is God” or something along those lines.

Sid:  (Laughing)

Richard:  So I would wait and I didn’t hear anything like that.  And then I realized that God speaks Spirit to spirit. And when the spirit speaks to us we interpret that in our mind so we’re going to process what God says in our mind.  Sometimes that could be pictures, and that would be a vision.  Sometimes that would be a song; sometimes it could be a scripture verse.  Sometimes it’s like an impression but it’s really clear and we can understand what that impression means.  And so I asked people to pay attention to what’s going on in your mind.  I used to ask to hear God and it would drive me crazy because I would see pictures.  And I thought “Why can’t I get rid of these images?  And I would have thoughts; God type thoughts but I got to get rid of all of my thoughts.  I got to get rid of these pictures so I can hear the James Earl Jones type of voice coming from Heaven?  Then I realized that the Spirit of God has been speaking to me for years.  When I would ask God to speak to me He would give me visions; but I didn’t know that’s what it was because no one had ever said.  Just like God said to Jeremiah, “Jeremiah what do you see?”  He said to Amos “What do you see?”  And they would say something really ordinary, “I see a boiling pot.”  Most of the times when I’m seeing things there just ordinary things but then God explains to me what they mean.  When I tell Him what I see and I say “What does mean?”  All of a sudden I know what it means.  His Spirit is bringing illumination.  So it’s very important I believe to write down.  And I ask people when they begin to write this down what they’re getting in their mind to not censor it.  Not yet; that’s the last step.  It’s important to test everything you hear because people can hear the voice of the enemy.  Sometimes our own imaginations; our own thoughts can be operating.  But when you’re in the writing process and when you’re in the listening process don’t censor it; write it all down. I was teaching a couple young girls that had been adopted from Russia to do this because it was interesting because they wrote down every word like I told them.  And the first thing they heard was “Don’t listen to this guy he doesn’t know what he’s talking about he’s going to hurt you get away from him.”  And I said “Thank you for writing that down; what was that.”  What was that, “Oh, that’s the demons that talk to us.”  And I said “Does the church that you go to talk about demons?” And she said “No, I’ve had demons my whole life.”  And I said “Okay, is that all you wrote down?” She goes “No.”  And I said “What else did you write down?”  She said “The next thing I wrote down was “Don’t listen to them; I am here and I’m going to heal you.”  And I said “Wow.

Sid: Hm.

Richard:  What do you think that was?  And she said “Oh, that was God.”  And I said “Have you heard Him before?”  And she was like “Yeah I hear Him but most of the time I’m hearing the demons.”  And I was like it was so profound because that’s what many people experience.  The spirit realm is more real than we realize; and when we write down what we’re getting it’s usually pretty easy to tell.  Oh, this is God; this is the enemy and this is my own thoughts.  But when we ask God to speak to us and we write down what comes to our mind most of the time what begins to happen write it down.

Sid: Is it important to write it down; can’t you just remember it?

Richard:  I can’t remember what my wife told me to get at the grocery store.

Sid: (Laughing)

Richard:  And that list is four items long and I get there and I can’t remember but one of the items.  And I get the wrong thing.  And I have a pretty good mind and a pretty good memory and I don’t know what it is. That’s why I write down every word because even when I’m doing ministry people tell me very important things.  And if I don’t write it down I’m not going to remember to get back to it because it’s going to be fuzzy the details.

Sid: How do you test whether it’s God or the devil on something you’ve written down?

Richard:  First of all it’s important to have a good understanding of scriptures because that makes it easier to test.  You know for me I didn’t know how to test it and I didn’t know to test for a long time.  But I just saw over the year of doing it it’s always right.  When I write down what I think God’s telling me for someone it’s always right; they confirm it.  And in that I just grew in confidence because when I would know something about someone I would know what they think about different things. He would tell me to say things to people that it was going to touch them.  And I would think “What?” And I would tell them what God had told me to tell them and they would start weeping and I was like Wow!  Because He knows the inmost thoughts of their heart, and when I would speak what He would give me it would bear fruit and way better than anything that I had ever done or could do with my words.

Sid: You know I was reading on you have a section called hindrance to hearing God’s voice and let me ask you about this one.  How we treat others and in particular husbands or wives and children and parents or other relationships?  Explain why that’s a hindrance.

Richard:  Well, there’s a scripture that says that God won’t hear our prayers if we miss treat our wives.  It’s funny how that ended up in my conference because one of the woman that was editing my material she had a challenging relationship with her husband.  And she threw that in there and made me a good point for it and I kept it because it’s right there in the Word of God.  That sometimes our relationship with God is hindered because of how we treat our wives or how we treat other people.  And so it’s just one of the ways that we can be hindered.  When we have bitterness in our heart it separates us from God.

Sid: And another hindrance that you talk about is the cares of this world.

Richard:  Yep and again they all come from scripture the hindrances that when we are so caught up in this world and filling our time, our attention; from the time we wake up we turn on the television we’re catching the sports news and listening to it on the radio.  It’s what we talk about at break.  You know we go to a restaurant we’re watching you know keeping track of the scores you know or whatever.  All that stuff I love but if I’m not intentional about my relationships then I don’t grow in those relationships because I’m not intentional with time with my wife that relationship falters.  If I’m not intentional with my relationship with God and not take time to listen even though He’s talking I don’t hear Him.  My wife can be 5 feet away from me; 2 feet away from me talking to me but I think she’s talking to someone else I don’t hear a word she says.  God is there and He’s talking but so many times we’re distracted and we think oh, He’s not talking to me and so we’re not listening.

Sid: Real brief, tell me what your prayer life is like.  What time do you usually start praying?  How do you pray?

Richard:  I love the fact that God wakes me up early in the morning and that it’s like hanging out with my best friend.  I ask Him what He wants to speak to me about today.  It took me a while for me to be willing to listen to God for me because I could listen to God for others because He was so loving to them.  But I had this fear like I’m going to the principal’s office like God’s going to straighten me out about something. But when I would listen to Him for me it would be like that fear “What is He going to say?”  It was like He would build me up and speak of His love.  I finally realized that wow, I was going to block; I think I know God’s love but I anticipate that He’s going to say mean things; hard things.  And I began to realize that as I listen to Him how loving He is and there’s nothing that builds me up more.

Sid: Whoops we’re out of time right now.