If all salvation is based in relationship with God, then salvation requires a conversation in which both parties speak and both parties listen. This article is written to help us learn how to hear the voice of God.
My relationship with God began as a romance when I was five-years-old and grew in substance and reality over the next 60 years. My mother taught me that “Jesus loves me” and this I instinctively believed to be true, so I loved Him back. Along the way that romance took some twists and turns down some religious trails, meandered over a few moral highways, and wandered up and down some ethical roads before it began to hone in on the path in 1971 when I finally entered into a declared and committed relationship with Jesus as my sovereign Lord and my Savior.
I seemed to have always been aware of God and always wanted (in principle) to do the right things. I was raised in a good Christian home and went to good Christian schools. We were Catholics and we always sought to find and please God (at least, in principle).
There are intentional (as it turns out) and useful comparisons between my relationship with God and my relationship with my wife, Nancy. I knew instinctively that there was a wife and marriage in my future, just as I suspected and hoped there was God and Heaven, but it was not real to me. It was just a concept I believed in, like God is to many unbelievers and church-goers.
I was aware of Nancy for several years before we became romantically involved. We were first acquaintances and then became friends. Our friendship soon became romance, and then our romance became relationship. We have been married and madly in love for over 40 years(except for her occasional unjustified irritation with me ?).
In a similar manner, my romance with God became a reality when it became a relationship. Turns out that He has been madly in love with me from all eternity (even with my occasional unjustified irritation with Him ?). I have grown to be in love with Him since 1971 when I finally popped the question, “Will You be my Lord and my Savior?”
God and I progressed from being casual friends to becoming intimate friends, and it suits us both very well. I find that the more Nancy and I are together slogging our way through the challenges and joys of life, the more alike we become in our thinking, our values and our actions. It is the same with me and my God. I am becoming like Him, and it has proven to be my salvation.
All salvation is based in relationship and all relationship is based in trust. The Bible tells us that Abraham believed, trusted and had faith in God. That faith or trust both caused AND proceeded from their relationship.
James 2:22-23 You see that faith was working with his (Abraham’s) works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. NASB
The Latin word for faith (fideo) is also the root word for trust and belief. James here says that Abraham’s faith (trust in God) influenced and directed his works which in turn perfected his faith (trust). Over these 40 plus years, I have grown in my trust of Nancy, my wife. That affects my behavior. Acting on that trust, I do things one way versus that which I would do if I did not trust her. My trust in her grows because what she does reinforces the belief that she is trustworthy. Our mutual trust makes us rightly related and enhances our friendship.
So it is with God. As I trust Him and He is faithful to me, our relationship grows in trust and we become better and better friends. It is infectious, even self-perpetuating. Abraham instinctively understood this. James says that Abraham’s trust affected his actions. He left home, wealth, and the protection of his tribe to follow a voice that He trusted.
Despite all the warnings of his family and friends, Abraham followed the voice of God for 100+ years to an ever-increasing level of trust and relationship with God. Abraham believed God. He went where God directed. He did what God asked of him even when he did not understand it. He chose friendship with God over riches.
He went into battle against all odds because God had assured him of victory. He was prepared to sacrifice Isaac, his son, because he believed that God would raise him up again (Heb 11:17-19). As he did these things over the years, their friendship grew and Abraham became more and more like God in every way. And he became more and more confident in God’s voice.
As the years have gone by, my ability to “hear” the voice of my wife has grown. Originally it was just a voice in a room full of voices with no special call on my ears. Then I began to pay attention to her, to focus on her. I met her in a book store on campus and she was very shy. I made her blush with my teasing and my ego knew no bounds. I had the power to change the color of her face, and I liked that. Her responsiveness captured my heart. We all like to be responded to and so does God.
When I began to like Nancy, I began to recognize her voice even in crowded rooms. It caught my ear because I became attuned to it. Eventually, it was the only voice I wanted to hear because I was in love.
As love deepened, we talked for hours upon hours sharing ourselves in fellowship. Everything about her interested me. I cared what she thought on the smallest of subjects. Then I could hear her when she just looked at me. I knew what she was thinking. I could hear her voice when she was not with me. I could hear it in my heart and in my mind. I began to know what she would have said if she had been present.
Her voice became my daily companion. Usually she needs only to look at me, and I know what her look is communicating to me (for better or for worse ?). When I was in Africa and she was in America, I could still hear her in my mind, and talking with her on the phone healed things inside of me. I am attuned, warmed, blessed, guided, corrected and made whole by her voice. I am convinced I could hear her voice if she were in Heaven and I was still on earth.
That is the way is has become with God and me also. (That is how it is meant to be with God and all of us.) I began to be aware of His voice when I was little as my conscience informed me and as my mother taught me about Him. It was in the dos and don’ts and in the stories told me by my elders.
As time went on I found His voice both comforting and uncomfortable. When I would do the wrong thing, I could hear Him in my conscience. When I did something good, I could hear Him in my heart. When I was trying to figure out the difference, I could hear Him in my mind.
Along the way I had begun to hear the voice of God in others; e.g., aunts, uncles, teachers, priests, etc. After I entered into a personal, committed, intimate relationship with God through Jesus in 1971, His voice became much more important to me. So I began to study His word. I studied the Bible intentionally and incessantly to learn to hear His voice better.
I went to classes and seminars to be trained on how to hear God’s voice better. My conscience, my heart and my mind became much more attuned to the voice of God and much better equipped to understand it. Sometimes I like what I hear, sometime I do not, but His voice is as precious to me as is Nancy’s. (Sometimes it seems that they are one and the same ?).
Because I can hear His voice, we can have a conversation, a dialogue. He talks to me and I hear Him. I talk to Him and He hears me. That is a conversation. C.S. Lewis said that relationship with God is a conversation. Too many of us just have monologues with God. We talk to God but He does not seem to respond. He often feels the same way. He talks to us and we do not respond.
Remember how rewarding it is to get a response out of someone? (Remember my blushing girl in the bookstore.) Remember how frustrated your spouse gets if he/she is trying to talk with you and you are not paying attention? God is seeking a conversation with us at all times. It is, in fact, the mechanism of our relationship with Him. We need to learn how to converse with God; i.e., to have a dialogue.
Technically anyone can swim. They just do not always “know” they can. Once they have faith in their ability to swim, they usually do. How well they swim depends on how much they work at it. Talking with God is just as inherently natural to us. Little children talk to God with easy confidence. That is why Jesus said we must become like little children.
Learning a foreign language is easy for some people and hard for others, but it is easy for little children. It is easy if we speak it daily as we learn it. Parents talk to their children in a language (or two) and their children just pick it up. It is a matter of focus and need. (The Korean guy next door has a dog that can understand Korean and English. He is smarter than I am ?.)
The language between us and God is not foreign. It is our most natural language. It only suffers from inattention and lack of use. Immigrants always grieve when their children or grandchildren can no longer speak their language. Their offspring have become so enculturated by the world around them that they have over-accommodated its language, its values and behaviors. Through lack of focus and/or interest, they have forgotten the language they heard in the womb.
That is what has happened to us with God. We have become so enculturated by the world around us that we have over-accommodated its language, its values and its behaviors. Many of us can no longer speak the language we heard in the womb.
When the world breaks down and we lose our bearings, we have some choices. One is to go home and talk it over with our father or someone else who is older and wiser. If we listen to Him, He will unwind our knot of confusion and loss. He will bring us perspective; i.e., an older perspective newly given.
So it is with God. If we go home to the Father and share with Him what is lost and confused in us, He can remind us that “in the world we will have tribulation, but we should be of good cheer, because He has overcome the world (Jn 16:33).” He can remind us that “His burden is easy and His yoke is light (Mt 11:30).”
He can remind us to “fret not over the evildoers, and be not envious toward wrongdoers, for they will wither quickly like the grass, and fade like the green herb (Ps 37:1-2).” He will tell us to “trust in the LORD, and do good; to dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness (Ps 37:3).” He will give us “that peace that surpasses all comprehension (Php 4:7).” He will, that is, if can hear His voice.
The Bible tells us “The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the LORD is majestic. The voice of the Lord thunders and shakes the wilderness (Ps 29).” It created all of us out of nothingness and called Lazarus forth from the grave. It can be like that sometimes. We have all probably known moments when the voice of God broke through like white hot lightning into our consciousness and revealed something to us. But that is not how it usually is.
Elijah was frustrated and feeling that no one understood his frustration. He was hiding in a cave fleeing from the wrath of the Sidonian witch, Jezebel, who was trying to have him killed. He called out to God in a blinding lightning storm. The thunder roared and the earth quaked. But the voice of God that day was not in the lightning. The voice of God that day was not in the thunder. Nor was it in the earthquake. The voice of God that day came in the still, small voice in his mind.
My son, Ben was in trouble, bad trouble. At 15 he was an addict and an alcoholic and he was in trouble with the police. He was facing court dates for two different arrests and had not much in the way of hope. It was the kind of trouble that made him cry out to God for the first time in many years. God reveals Himself to those who seek Him, so after many weeks of being on his knees weeping and hopeless, Ben was visited by God with revelation. He, too, “popped the question;” i.e. “God can you help me?” He gave his life to Christ, asked Jesus to be his Lord and his Savior, and God said “Yes, Ben, I will help you” Hope and peace flooded into him and he was very happy for the first time in many years.
Ben came to tell me about it, saying that “God had spoken to him,” but I was skeptical. I had been living with an addict and a liar for 3.5 years and I had learned to not trust him. But something about his demeanor gave me hope, so I questioned him. “How did God speak to you?” His reply I will never forget, because I knew it was genuine. Ben said, “He made His thoughts known to my mind.”
I do not think I would have believed any other answer, but this answer I understood. That is how the voice of God usually comes to us. He makes His thoughts known to our mind. And our hearts bear witness that this is the voice of God. We know it by revelation.
Most of us do not hear the audible voice of God, although it can occasionally happen, I am told. Usually the voice of God comes into our mind, our heart or our conscience. It can break through our reverie or burst into the midst of our usual noise, but God usually reveals Himself to those who seek Him.
It comes in the remembrance of a former lesson or a scripture previously studied. It comes as an anecdote or a line from a song. It pops up and captures our imagination. It is just what we needed to hear and we understand, at least eventually, that it was the voice of God. The voice of God will always be in agreement with the scripture. God does not contradict Himself. It will be a peaceful voice even if it is confronting us.
James 3:17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. NASB
The voice of God will be a loving voice even if it is correcting us. We will know it is right. We won’t have to ask anyone what they think. Like Wesley said about his conversion experience at Aldersgate, we will feel ourselves “strangely warmed,” or convicted or inspired. It will come as revelation and it will be welcomed, even if it not what we wanted to hear. It will probably be a word we have heard before but this time we can hear it willingly, and respond. Ultimately, it will be the most natural thing in the world. God is spiritual, not spooky.
Conversation is a function of willingness and opportunity. Sometimes we can be willing but have no opportunity. Sometimes we can have opportunity but be unwilling. Have you ever been doing something you consider important and someone comes up wanting to talk? It could be a co-worker, a boss, a friend, an acquaintance, a policeman, a guy on a plane or a wife or a child. There is an opportunity, but we are unwilling to stop, refocus and engage. What we are doing, we think, is more important than conversation right now. Perhaps what we are doing is important, but often we are just being self-centered.
At other times, we very much want to converse with someone, but we cannot find them. Their phone is turned off or they are not at home, or they are asleep or just too busy to stop, refocus and engage with us.
Good conversation requires both willingness and opportunity. The thing about God is that He is always ready and available and more than willing to converse. It is us who are either unwilling or unavailable. When we are willing and available, conversation with God is easy to be had. We just need to develop the art of listening and hearing; i.e., discerning the voice of God.
First Corinthians 12 tells us that one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the ability to discern or distinguish spirits; i.e., to be able to tell if the spirit we are encountering is a good spirit or an evil spirit, the voice of God or the voice of His enemy or maybe just the voice of our own fleshly nature.
It is a part of our inheritance in Jesus that the Holy Spirit will empower us to do all that Jesus did and more (Jn 14:12). Just as surely as Jesus died for our sins, He sent His Holy Spirit to help us in life to find our way to God. The voice of God can reach us even before we are born again.
Afterwards, it is supposed to be much easier. If we want to hear the voice of God better, we should ask the Holy Spirit to help us. That is His job, after all. Jesus told His disciples (twice) that He was sending another helper, the Holy Spirit, to help them be close to God in His (Jesus’) absence since He was going to the Father. He told them (and I paraphrase), “The Holy Spirit when He comes will “convict you of sin” and “teach you of Me.”
John 16:7-8 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8 “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin… NASB
John 14:25-26 “These things I have spoken to you, while abiding with you. 26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. NASB
The role of the Holy Spirit is, among other things, to facilitate communication between God and man. People whose doctrine and teaching cause them to under-emphasize the Holy Spirit, tend to have a harder time hearing the voice of God. Call on the Holy Spirit. He is waiting to help you.
One reason some people fail to hear the voice of God is that they are too reliant on their minds and not dependent enough on revelation. The Bible tells us that the carnal mind (the mind set on the flesh; i.e., earthly things) cannot understand the things of the Spirit.
1 Cor 2:14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. NASB
John Eldridge says (and I agree) that “the particular foolishness of the church in the past century was “Reason, above all else.” Karl Barth (1886-1968) called it the “omni-competence of Reason.” The result has been: a faith stripped of the supernatural, a Christianity of tips and techniques, and the common sense life, which as Oswald Chambers warned, “can be the enemy of the spiritual life in God.”
We use our brain to find God. That is one of the reasons God gave us a brain; i.e., so we can reason our way through life. But God speaks to our hearts (minds), not to our brains. So, when we receive a thought in our mind, we must examine it (with our brain) to see if it is from God or not. Paul told the Corinthians to take every thought captive and examine it to see if it is from God.
2 Cor 10:5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, NASB
If “a thought” (idea, notion, plan) is from God, our hearts, trained in relationship with God, will recognize it. Or said another way, it will be revealed to us. We will know that we know that we know. If however, we do not have a developed relationship with God, we will have a “devil of a time” figuring it out (pun intended).
Negotiation between the brain and our “heart” or mind or intellect has been how learning has been done since the beginning of time. Scientists have many ideas and speculate about many potential answers to the questions they study. When the right answer appears, they recognize it through revelation, historically called “the Aha Phenomenon”. They used their brains to seek the answer, but recognized it in what is metaphorically called their “hearts” or their “minds,” the center of all revelation in humans.
Before about the 1850s, almost all scientists, artists and philosophers credited God with their discoveries. George Washington Carver said that God showed him over 200 uses for the peanut. Michelangelo said that God showed him Moses imprisoned inside the granite block. He merely cut away what was trapping him. More recently man has begun to take credit for himself for his “discoveries.”
Once we realize that everything we have come to know or understand has come to us by the voice of God, we will find it easier to hear Him in the central issues of life. Truth is, we have been hearing the voice of God all of our lives (in our conscience), often without recognizing it.
Learning to recognize the voice of God is an exercise involving trial and error (as is all learning, really). With practice, we develop facility and confidence (as with swimming as mentioned earlier). There are, as always, rules for testing the voices in our minds. In time, we become skilled at applying those rules. For instance, as mentioned above, does the voice agree with the scripture? Is it consistent with the nature of God? If we know God well, it is easier to figure this out.
When I was learning as a young Christian to hear and recognize the voice of God, I read a little book by Bob Mumford called, “Take Another Look at Guidance.” It was written to advise immature Christians who, lacking good guidance were running off in all directions, sometimes with harmful results. The main metaphor of the book involved a sea lane, a channel into a New England harbor that was particularly narrow and treacherous.
After numerous wrecks on the rocks around this narrow channel, the people built three light houses carefully positioned to guide a sailor to safety. When all three light houses lined up in his sight as one light, the ship was safely in the channel. If the captain began to see two or three lights, he was drifting dangerously out of the channel. Nancy and I saw several of these three-light-house channels on our recent cruise to New England.
Bob said that spiritual guidance is often like this example, and there are three spiritual “lighthouses” we can use to test the accuracy of our spiritual guidance. These three are the scripture, the Spirit and the circumstances. All three of these will line up as one (be in agreement with one another)if the voice in our heart is from God.
The scripture teaches us what God thinks, believes, commands, and advises. If our “voice” is telling us something that is contrary to the scripture, it is not the voice of God. For instance, suppose I told you I was led by God to open a chain of adult book stores. The margins are good and business is brisk. You would know immediately (and so should I) that this would be in violation of the scripture.
What if I thought God was telling me to write a harsh, reviling article about some public figure or the president? If I did not know that the Bible forbids reviling under any and all circumstances, I might think of this as a virtue. There are people on the radio making a good living doing this very thing and they often pass themselves off as arbiters of Christianity, but they are not.
What if I thought that God wanted me to preach that if we just had the right kind of faith, we would not have difficulty or would gain us any and all material possessions that we desire? Many preachers are preaching this today “tickling the ears” of their congregation and getting rich. However, my knowledge of the scripture tells me that this is not biblical and, therefore, not the voice of God. I guess we need to know our Bible.
But what if the voice is telling me to move to Cleveland or change jobs, neither of which are even addressed in the scripture? Having passed the scriptural lighthouse (or at least having not flunked it), we now need to check out the other lighthouses (spiritual counsel and circumstances)to see if they line up. The Spirit of God is the source of all wisdom, and is found in many places. It is reflected in the scriptures, but it is also found in our own hearts if we have let Him into our lives and nurtured Him there. The Spirit of God is found in other Christians as well. Sometimes we must test the voice with the help of the Spirit through the counsel others.
For instance, is God also telling my wife that we are to move to Cleveland? She has the Spirit in her also and a vested interest in the decision. Nancy and I NEVER make a big decision (and many smaller ones)unless we are in agreement. We depend on God’s Holy Spirit to speak the same thing to both of us and will not act until He does.
Over the years we have been led to give money to God’s work. Nancy will say, “God seems to be telling me that we should give some money to the Samaritan fund at church.” More often than not, God has been saying the same thing to me. If not I will ask the Lord to speak to me about Nancy’s leading. If we both hear this word (and we do not act until we do), ninety-nine times out of one hundred, God gives us the EXACT same amount, and we do not give until He does.
Nor would we move to Cleveland if God did not tell us both the same thing. In addition to my wife, I have a number of other Christian friends whom I can seek for counsel and guidance. There are men and women who know me well and with whom I regularly seek the Lord. I have a Godly pastor who prays for me and is used by God to speak His words to me. I have been known to ask my children what they think God is saying. (That is why it is so necessary to teach them to hear God early.) Sometimes wisdom comes out of the mouths of babes.
Assuming the first two lighthouses are lined up as one, I still need to see what is going on with the third light house, the circumstances. When Nancy and I lived in Dallas many years ago, we felt like God was going to relocate us. An opportunity arose to move to Denver and support a new ministry getting off the ground there. It seemed like the right word for us and there were no real checks in the Spirit. Our friends at church had no confirmation for us, but no objections either. I think they also sensed that we were supposed to relocate.
So we went to Denver and stayed a week with the Pastor who was starting up the work. He welcomed us to come if it was God’s will for us and agreed to pray with us. I went to the main library (remember libraries?) and found the book that recorded every company that had offices in Denver, their CEO’s name and their address. Then I launched an inspiring cover letter to go with my stellar resume (?) and waited for the offers to come pouring in.
I did, in fact, get three very good offers – all in Dallas. Seeing that my home address was in Dallas, that my credentials were indeed favorable, and since they had legitimate openings in the Dallas area, they interviewed me in Dallas and job offers were made. The circumstances did not support the idea of moving to Denver. Several months later, my company got bought out and I was promoted to the home office in San Antonio, Texas. That move changed our lives dramatically and shaped us into who we are today.
In summary, we are all called to hear the voice of God in our lives. It is biblical, it is spiritual, and it is natural. God has been speaking to humans since the dawn of time even when they did not know it. Our ability to hear and understand God is learned through expectation, intention and focus. Through studied trial and error we get good at it as with any other developed skill. Hearing the voice of God allows for a conversation with God which in turn allows us to become increasingly like Him through relationship.
We are saved in that conversation and we can become sanctified in it. We will spend eternity involved in that conversation and we should not wait until we die. We heard God in our consciences long before we knew Him as our Lord and our Savior. Becoming filled with the Holy Spirit at rebirth only enhanced our ability to hear the voice of God clearly.
God has been inviting us into that conversation and its corresponding relational growth since we were conceived. The only thing preventing us from growing in it is intention, attention and desire. It is there for us whenever we want it and we have great need for the relationship it engenders in us so that we may become saved and sanctified.
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Hearing the Voice of God, Part 2
My grandson asked me this follow up question after reading my blog “Hearing the Voice of God.” It was a good question, and I thought that my answer to him might prove helpful to others, so I thought I would share it with you. His question was, “How do we know which thoughts in our mind are God’s and which are ours?”
Thoughts are like voices. They have distinct markers that allow me, for example, to tell if I was just spoken to from another room by my mother or my sister. Both voices are female, but they have different sounds that allow our brain to recognize them.
When my grandsons were younger and I would call their home, I sometimes thought I was talking to my daughter but it turned out that I was talking to one of my prepubescent grandsons. Before their voices changed, they sounded very similar to the voice of their mother on the phone, at least for just the first couple of seconds.
It was embarrassing to my grandsons to think that their voices sounded like a girl. They would say, “Papa, it’s me, Caleb!” As they talked a little more, I began to recognize the subtleties. Once their voices changed, I no longer confused them with their mother other on the phone, but sometimes I would confuse them with each. I would say, “How are you doing, Caleb?” The answer was, “Papa, it’s me, John!”
This confusion happened for several reasons. First, I was not paying attention. I just picked up the phone and started talking. I was not expecting to hear the one who answered. I just assumed it would be my daughter on the phone, so I heard the person I expected. Then as I spent more time on the phone with my grandsons over time and as their voices became more familiar to me, I began to develop more sensitive ears. The keys are focus and familiarity.
If I expect I am only going to hear only me in my mind whenever I think, I will assume my thoughts are all mine. But if I realize that God and the Devil can also put thoughts in my mind, I will understand that I need to stop and figure who is talking in my head. That requires focus.
Paul tells us that we need to take every thought captive until we figure out who it is coming from. The Devil uses our minds as a battlefield on which he attempts to destroy us.
2 Cor 10:3-5 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, NASB
Paul says the Devil raises up speculations in our minds. The Devil says, “Your daddy does not love you.” He thinks you are stupid! Your daddy is mean!” These are all speculations, untruths, poisonous thoughts designed to get you to believe lies.
The Devil spins towering (lofty) webs of deceit in our minds. There is a war going on in our heads and we need to be smart enough to realize that. “You should steal that,” he says. “No one will ever know. You will be happier if you have that. Honesty is for suckers!”
At another time the Devil says in your head, “You should cheat on your test. Everyone is doing it. If you do not cheat, you will fall behind the others. Don’t be stupid. It’s really almost expected!” Lies, lies, lies! That is the Devil’s conversation.
John 8:44 ” He (the Devil) was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies. NASB
John 10:10 “The thief (Satan) comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly. NASB
So we see that we need to pay attention to who is speaking in our heads. I always think of this scripture (in 2 Cor 10:5 above) as like having a sentry posted to challenge anyone who tries to enter the camp. A thought walks up. We should say, “Halt! Who goes there? Identify yourself!”
We then examine that thought to see if it is friend or enemy. If that thought is from God, we let it pass. If it from Satan, we arrest it or we shoot it dead on the spot. After all, Paul says, this is war! If we just let every thought go through our head unchallenged, it is like someone took out the sentry. Or maybe our sentry has just fallen asleep. Very dangerous!
God speaks to us in our minds as well. The voice of God is often called our conscience. Even little children have a conscience after a while. Did you ever see a little kid hide after he had done something he should not have done? Or maybe he goes into another room to load his pants because he does not want to get caught. (What! He thinks no one is going to notice? ?)
We develop a conscience at a very early age. That is God speaking in our heads. When we reason with our conscience, we are having a conversation with God. God says to us, “You probably should not do that.” You say, “Yeah, but I really want to. I think it will be good for me.” God says, “Remember the last time you did that and it blew up in your face? Remember that it disappointed your mother or it caused your sister to cry?” You think, “Oh yeah, I forgot about that. That really sucked! I guess I will not do that again.” You just had a conversation with God.
Maybe you have lost your school book. You ask, “God where did I put that? I really need to find it.” God says, “Think! Where did you see it last?” You think, “I was reading it at the game last night. Oh yeah, I know! I left it in the van.” You just had a conversation with God. An answer to prayer can be a conversation with God.
Maybe you are doing your math homework and it is going really well. You think, “I really like math better than writing essays. I am better at it. It is easier for me.” God says, “When you grow up, you may want to get a job that involves more math and less writing.” You think, “What kind of job is that?” God says, “Engineers use a lot of math and so do math teachers. Actuaries use a ton of math. Maybe you could become one of those. Why don’t you look into it?” You just had a conversation with God.
Maybe you are alone in your room and you are unhappy. You had an argument with your mother and you are grounded. You think, “I hate my mother. She only wants to ruin my life!” God says, “Do you remember what Papa told you about how much your mother loves you? You answer, “Well, yeah, but she can be so tough sometimes!” God says, “Remember Papa showed you in the Bible that parents discipline their children because they love them.
Remember Papa explained to you that if you do not discipline a child, they go wild and get into all kinds of bigger trouble later?” You think, “Yeah, I remember. It’s just that I am so mad I want to hate her and to think the worst of her!” God says, “Well, it’s up to you, but remember Papa showed you that the Bible says you are supposed to take every thought captive and test it to see if it is from Me?” You think, “Yeah, he did show me that.
I guess I am going to have to make a choice here about that. It is just SO hard when I am pissed off!” God says, “Yeah, I know, but what good will happen if you make the wrong choice? Doesn’t it always make things worse when you make the wrong choice? Doesn’t it always make things better when you make the right choice? And besides, isn’t Papa always right ??” You just had a conversation with God.
So now that you know that there are at least three voices going on in your mind and now that you have learned to focus on those three voices, how do you get better at recognizing which voice is which? The answer is familiarity. You have to spend more time with people to become more familiar with them and their voice.
We study God’s word and learn about God’s nature. After a while we realize that God would never say some things to us. He would not say, “Why don’t you steal that?” or “Why don’t you smack your brother up ‘side his head?” But God would say things like, “You need to forgive your dad, even if he was wrong to blow up. He is only human like you.”
God would say, “If you fess up, you will get punished, but you will feel better about yourself afterwards. If you do not fess up, you might get away with it, but you will feel guilty about it forever.” God will say things like, “You need to honor your father and your mother even when they are human and make mistakes. You can disagree and you may sometimes even be right, but you must not dishonor them by your words or your attitude.”
Through Bible study, through sermons at church, through talks with good people and through our experiences in life, we are gradually able to distinguish the voice of God from the voice of the Devil and from even our own voice in our head. You will be able to tell which thoughts in your mind are yours, which are God’s and which are the Devil’s when you give it some focus and gain some familiarity.
I hope this helps. Papa*