Hello Everyone,
When it comes to hearing God speak, there are essentially two groups of Christians:
- Those who hear God speaking to them
- Those who have no idea what the first group is talking about
Does God speak to us? Yes, He does. He speaks to us in multiple ways:
- He speaks to us when we read the scriptures. God will often point out something about our lives or give us direction when we read His Word.
- God often speaks to us through other people, whether in sermons, fellowship with other Christians, or casual conversations. God even speaks to us through conversations with unbelievers.
- God speaks to us through media: books, radio, television, YouTube, etc.
- Sometimes, God speaks to us through angels and sometimes donkeys (Numbers 22:30).
- An omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God can speak to us through anything.
God speaks to us mainly through the scriptures and, secondly, through a still small voice within us. When we dedicated our lives to Christ, we all heard that voice. It convicted us of our sins, told us to repent, and told us to accept the salvation God provided through His Son, Jesus.
This topic sparks significant controversy. Christian conservatives often oppose it entirely unless God spoke to you from the scriptures, while Charismatics tend to support it enthusiastically, sometimes without clear guidelines or qualifications. The result is widespread confusion and misinformation on the matter.
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The Problem With That Voice
The problem with ‘the voice’ is that sometimes it's God, sometimes it's the devil, and sometimes it is us – our feelings, desires, and emotions. It can be difficult to determine who is doing the talking, especially for new Christians. The scriptures tell us some things about the voice that we need to understand as a basis for hearing the voice:
Isaiah 30:21 NLT
And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
John 10:4 NKJV
It takes some time and practice, but eventually, we learn to distinguish His voice from the other voices in our head (more on that later).
Our feelings are compelling. They are so powerful that they can quench the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to us.
Learning to distinguish God's voice from the other voices in our heads is an essential skill in our walk with God. It can be acquired and refined.
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Knowing The Voice Of God
Regardless of our level of skill at knowing the voice of God, we always want to be wary of the things we think we are hearing from God. We do that by testing the things that are said, either by others or by the still small voice within:
1 John 4:1 NIV
We test the spirit (voice) in this way:
- God would never direct us to do something contrary to the Scriptures
- He would never put us in a role that was designed to cause harm to others.
- God would never put us in a situation of compromise (e.g., it's okay to have an affair because your wife doesn't love you anymore).
- Look at the fruit it produces. Does the action create unity and other blessings among Believers? (Matthew 7:15-16)
- Does the voice glorify God (1 Peter 2:12)?
- When God provides revelation, He does it through multiple sources. Other Christians will also have the revelation.
Confirmation works like this:
You feel God is calling you to switch careers. You are currently an electrician, but you think God is calling you to leave the electrical trade and become an insurance salesperson. If that is so, it should meet the criteria listed above, and you should receive multiple avenues of confirmation. Confirmations might happen something like this:
- The following Sunday, your pastor delivers a sermon and mentions how an insurance person was helpful to him during the past week.
- You’re in a coffee shop having coffee. There is a person sitting beside you. You strike up a conversation with this person and find out they are an insurance agent.
- You're walking in a shopping mall, and a table is set up recruiting people to become insurance agents.
If all three of these things happen (or things like them), it’s a pretty safe bet to say the voice you heard was the voice of God. If there is no confirmation or only one confirmation-like event, then the voice you heard was something else, no matter how strongly you feel the presence of the Lord. Also, please don’t do “stretch-confirmations” where you have to call something confirmation when it’s a stretch to do so.
After many of these interactions with your inner voice, you will become more skilled at discerning God's voice, and the process will become easier.
Foolish and Ungodly
Hearing the voice of God is ripe for fraud and manipulation. It can come in two forms:
- Our emotions manipulating us, turning “our desires” into "God's desires."
- Other people manipulating us, turning “their desires” into "God's desires."
If you believe God is guiding you in a specific direction or someone says to you, “God told me…,” then STOP, pray, and ask God to give you wisdom and discernment (James 1:5).
Go back to the tests. Perform the tests on what your inner voice or the person is saying and look for confirmations. Remember that God speaks to us primarily to address one of the four primary purposes. He does not talk to us about the best name for our cat or the proper clothes to wear to the church function.
So, if someone tells you they received a message from God about you, be careful.
Unless we have the spiritual gift of prophecy, God speaks to us primarily about our own lives. God speaks to us to:
- Guide and direct our path (Isaiah 30:21)
- Increase our faith and trust in Him (Galatians 3:5)
- Teaching and instruction (John 16:13)
- Whom to share the Gospel with (Acts 1:8)
- Instill peace and joy (Galatians 5:22-23)
- Warn or prepare us for trouble (Acts 20:23)
- Reveal or discern truth (John 16:13)
Final Thoughts
We can never trust our feelings alone, especially when making significant or life-changing decisions. Feelings are subject to change and can be based on our mood or what we ate for breakfast this morning.When God called me to pack up my things and move from North Carolina to Ohio, it started with a verse in Genesis:
Genesis 31:3 NIV
When I read the verse, the Holy Spirit hit me so hard that I fell out of my chair and onto my knees. It was very powerful, yet I needed confirmation that this was indeed what God wanted me to do.
Over the next few weeks, I began receiving these little confirmations. Then, one day, I went to a laundromat to wash rags for my business. I decided to call my sister, Dee Dee, who lives in Ohio, and tell her how the Lord was directing my path.
I told her, “Dee Dee, I think the Lord is directing me to move back to Ohio, but I’m not sure.”
As I said those words to her, CNN was on the television in the laundromat. Someone on the TV started yelling, “CANTON! CANTON! CANTON!” at the top of their lungs. To me, that was the final confirmation. I left the laundromat and began preparations for making the move.
Everything fell into place once I accepted that this was God's will for me. There was one more confirmation that happened. I sat down and made a detailed budget for how much money I needed to make the move and set up a new life in Ohio. Bear in mind that I was starting with $0. I also set a date, September 17, 2016, about six months away. On the morning of September 17, 2016, I left North Carolina for Ohio. In my pocket was the exact amount of money I had budgeted – to the penny.
With all those feelings, emotions, scriptures, and confirmations, it was still a very scary decision. It took an incredible amount of faith. The faith required to do that was a gift from God because there was no way I had that much faith.
The whole experience taught me to trust God, growing my faith exponentially. Moreover, it taught me to distinguish between the voice of God and the other voices in my head. We learn to know God's voice when we follow the voice and see the outcomes.
If we always take the easy road, the gentle path, or hide in the comfort of our homes, we won't have much experience with God's power. We won't witness His deliverance and provision as we could, and therefore, we lessen the building of our faith and trust. Additionally, if everything is status quo, there's no reason for Him to speak to us, so He doesn't.
Step out. Be bold. Be brave. Open yourself up to God working in your life. Speak to the person behind you in the line at the grocery store. Try something outside of your routine. Get into something slightly uncomfortable and watch how your relationship with God changes.
God Bless!
Mark
