Psalms 32:8 I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.
When I started writing daily devotional, I was using a blackberry bold 1 phone. It came as a gift given to me by someone. Initially, when I started using the phone, I was using it for calls, social media chats and browsing only. I didn't see it as a tool for kingdom advancement. One day, during a conversation with someone who drinks, party and is into women, he told me that I can use my phone to spread the gospel. I didn't expect such counsel from him but I was sensitive to know God spoke through him that day. Since then till now, I've been writing daily devotionals that God has used to transform lives across the globe.
The point I'm trying to make here is that God can speak to us through unexpected vessels. Sometimes, we may be praying for divine direction on certain things, we may have fasted and done all the spiritual exercises needed, yet, He didn't speak to us the way we expected. God may speak to us through a child or through someone we least expect. What matters is that we should be spiritually alert&sensitive to God's Spirit at all times so that whenever He's talking to us, we'll pick it. To hear God speak to us even if He chooses to speak to us through a mad man we need to position ourselves like John the beloved: "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet", Revelation 1:10 KJV.
John heard those mysteries in the book of revelation because he was in the Spirit. Often, we miss God because we are in the flesh and have a preconceived notion about how we want Him to speak to us. I've been there several times. There were days I expected God to speak audibly or with a bold inscription on the wall. Unfortunately, God didn't show up that way. Just like Elijah In 1 Kings19:11-13, when he sought to hear God, we were told that there was a wind, an earthquake and fire but God was not there. Finally, he heard God through the still small voice. That divine direction you've been praying for may come through your little child, house help and from people you least expect. Just stay alert and be sensitive so that you can recognize God when He's speaking.
Father, I receive the grace to be sensitive at all times in Jesus name.