It may well be that you've got clutter in your soul. Then bring it out, and put it out before Him, and remove the clutter. Write it down. Do something that gets it out of your head, where it buzzes around; put it down in front of the Lord, then arise and begin to praise Him, and worship Him; pray in tongues, so you feel your spirit flow. Sometimes it can take a little while to feel the flow of your spirit, hence worship meetings are great places for hearing the voice of God. I love our worship. Every time I come in here, I feel impressions of the Holy Spirit, straight away, because there's such a great atmosphere; and you can come in on what someone else has done; or what's even better, you can come and contribute, and build something, that everyone else can be blessed with. So the first one is free up your spirit. Soft music can help you. Constantly, when I'm preparing messages, I have some soft, what I call spontaneous, music flowing; because I've found if I have words, they tend to echo in my mind, and I wake up, they're just stuck in my mind; and so I found that with secular and spiritual songs, and I found if I just want to just be in a flow of hearing God, the best thing is just to have some spontaneous instrumental music going, it just really helps you. It's quite surprising. So those are some things, but free up your spirit, whatever it takes.
The second thing is: you need to focus your attention, or fix your thoughts. Most of us, our mind wanders all over. If you're going to hear the voice of God, it requires you centre, or fix, your thoughts on Him. I have noticed an interesting thing, that when I'm ministering to people, that if I fix my thoughts on trying to meet their need, I shut down in my spirit. If I fix my thoughts on myself, I shut down in my spirit; but if I actually just consciously begin to think, and meditate, that Jesus is there, I begin to see Him as a wonderful shepherd, see Him as a friend; my spirit opens up, and I can start to receive. Just learn a very simple thing: fix your thoughts. Fix your thoughts on Him; so you can use scriptures to create pictures of Him, but you've got to get rid of your external distractions, and internal distractions, and focus or fix your thoughts; and the best way is with a picture. If you're not good at a picture, try to perhaps meditate on a scripture, but focus your attention on Him. In order to see something from the Lord, you've got to look, or listen. You want to hear something, you've got to be listening, actually be attentive.
So the next thing is faith; I need to expect that God will speak. I need to expect God will give me something. I should expect God to do something. Why? Because He said: My sheep hear My voice; so there's a place of expectation, and that God will give something, that there'll be a quickening. How would it come, if God spoke to me? Well, it'll come just as a spontaneous picture, a spontaneous thought, just comes up into your thoughts, just like that - wow, where did that come from? Or a spontaneous word or an impression, just have an impression, or you may just have a feeling, an emotion. Sometimes in a meeting I'll be praying, I'll just be worshipping, and I'll feel this emotion come up. I think: oh, that's interesting. What's that emotion? What's causing that emotion? Then I begin to track what God's wanting to say; so you have to then identify what those sensations are you pick up. Of course if you're just a busy, busy person, you spend all your time on the internet, all your time chitter-chatter, all your time on the phone; and you don't develop the discipline of slowing down, and being still, and listening to your heart, you won't develop a walk with God that sustains you. You'll live out of highs and lows of experiences and meetings, rather than actually learning to yield to the voice of the Spirit.