Hearing the Spirit

I'm trying to listen to the Spirit more, since that's the only way to get revelation. The Spirit is often described as "a still, small voice", and we're often counseled to go to a quiet place, and pray, and listen for that whisper.

Which is not always easy, convenient, or even possible.

When you share a house with other people, the ambient volume is usually somewhere between zero and cacophony.

Which made me wonder if it's possible to hear that still small voice in the midst of a tumult.

Googling didn't help much, but during a quiet moment, I was told:

"To hear the spirit, you have to be tranquil, but you don't have to have silence"

I imagine that it's like learning to pick out one voice in a crowded room. You have to focus in a particular way. For me, listening for the Spirit's voice feels like the mental equivalent of standing on tiptoe. It takes effort, and it expends energy, and I can't hold it forever.

But, I imagine if I were to practice standing on tiptoe every day, and did so for increasing periods of time, eventually I'd be able to do it for hours with very little effort.

I'd like to do that spiritually. So I suppose I need to practice that mental tiptoe position during the crash-bang-boom of my life, and eventually, my spiritual ears will be able to pull His voice through the chaos.

And as long as I focus on first being tranquil, I think it will work.

But it won't be easy, because my first reaction to noise is not usually tranquility.

Ah, well... baby steps...