This article gleans the teachings on having a relationship with God from Chapter Two of the book Hearing God by Dallas Willard. That chapter discusses some general guidelines on hearing from God.

Willard says the first guideline in hearing from God is to know that God intends to develop a relationship with us as two persons who freely love each other with genuine agape love. This means we should not just want to hear God speaking to us but becoming someone engaged in a mature and loving relationship with Him. To have any meaningful conversation with God, we must be in communion with Him.

Willard then states that the second general guideline for hearing God is to believe that the people in the Bible were basically like us. If God could choose to communicate with those people, we have to believe that the Lord can speak to us today. 

Finally, the third truth to keep in mind when considering receiving a word from God is that it does not necessarily mean we are righteous or what we believe He said is correct when He speaks to us. So, we must always be humble and curtail the temptation to announce, “God told me.” 

Our next article in this series will focus on the fact that God is always with us and attentive to us.