When You Slow Down, You Hear God Clearer

I trust my intuition.
Period. Full stop.

I’ve found that other people often want me to trust their intuition. But it’s hard to trust someone else’s intuition—especially when they’re moving sooo fast.

And I’m not saying you can’t move quickly and still hear from God. But Scripture says, Be still and know that I am God. And when we rush, when we hustle and hurry and scramble, we don’t hear God, let along know Her. We don’t even hear ourselves. We hear fear.

Maybe not only fear—but I know that’s been true for me.

And I’m not claiming this is true for all eight billion people on the planet. But I am saying that what I know, for certain, is this:

God calls us to stillness.

Be still, and know that I am God.

Psalm 46:10

It’s in my calm voice when people are yelling.
My slow walk when people hurry me.
The sacred pause before I begin.

That’s when I don’t just hear—I listen. And I listen deeply.

Tonight, I meditated. I can’t even remember what the question was that invited me into the silence. But I remember the answer:
Listen, deeply.

No—precisely it was:
Deep listening.

It was when I closed my eyes and let the full weight of my body sink into the chair. Felt the fleece blanket resting on my lap. Heard the faint bubbles popping in my seltzer water on my right. Heard the soft flicker of the candle beside me.

At my 10 o’clock, I heard rain tapping gently on the AC unit.
At my 11 o’clock, water running through pipes in a nearby apartment.
At my 9 o’clock, birds chirping—speaking, singing, communicating with one another.

And in between it all, I heard stillness.

Not empty. Not absent.
But full. Still, but not void.

Deep listening invites us into a soundscape we miss when the music’s on, the podcast is playing, the TV is streaming.

It’s not listening to what is.
It’s listening to what isn’t.
It’s listening for what’s reaching for you.

And what you’re reaching for in return.

Deep listening reminds me that I can hear in the Spirit what others may not even notice in the physical. That my ability to hear in the physical is sharpened because I listen in the spiritual.

Yahweh.
I Am.
He who is.

I serve the God of I Am That I Am.
And I know that I am, too.

I’m not God. But God lives in me.
And because of that, I speak things that are not as though they were.

There’s another verse on the tip of my tongue—just out of reach. And that’s deep listening, too. Feeling something waiting. Ready. Longing. Stretching for me as I stretch for it.

Deep listening shows me there’s more in the space.
More in the stillness.
More freedom.

Thank You, God, that when the world moves too fast to hear You, You’ve called me to go slower.

Thank You for making me an invitation to peace.
A reminder that You are always speaking.
That our own souls can always listen.

Help us, God, move at the pace of peace.
Help us go at Your pace.

So we can be still and know You.

Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that I am.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.

And so it is. Amen.