Hungry for God; Starving for Time
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How to Know God's Speaking to You.
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Showing posts with label
How to Know God's Speaking to You.
Show all posts
Have you ever heard God speak?
If you’re a Christian, you have the ability to hear God speak every day, because the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, lives inside you. Ephesians 1:13-14 describes this:
“Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession . . .”
The Holy Spirit speaks to us in different ways, but today I’d like to focus on two, found in John 16:8:
“When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness . . .”
First, the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. This is how he calls us to himself for salvation and how he enables us live godly lives after salvation. To be saved, we must first become aware of our sinfulness and our need for a Savior.
Oswald Chambers described it this way:
"Conviction of sin is one of the rarest things that ever strikes a man. It is the threshold of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict of sin, and when the Holy Spirit rouses the conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not his relationship with men that bothers him, but his relationship with God."
To be a child of God, we must first realize the depth of our sinfulness and how our sin separates us from God. Once we understand this, we can confess (agree with God about our sin), repent ( want to change), and accept God’s offer of forgiveness and cleansing through Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross on our behalf.
Romans 10:9 puts it this way:
“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Once we are saved, the Holy Spirit’s job changes. Now, he convicts us of sins that hinder our relationship with God and each other.
The Holy Spirit is not our conscience, although sometimes he uses our conscience. When the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, he applies the truth of God’s Word to our present situation or behavior. If our thoughts or actions don’t agree with Scripture, he alerts us. We feel a check in our spirit, or a sense that what we’re doing isn’t right. It’s a warning designed to steer us away from dangerous or ungodly thoughts or actions.
The second way the Holy Spirit speaks to us is to convict us of righteousness. Unlike the first example, where he points out behaviors that are harmful, when he convicts us of righteousness, he nudges us toward good and helpful behavior, behavior that is part of his will for us.
Ephesians 2:10 reminds us of our purpose:
“For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Sometimes the Holy Spirit will bring someone to mind. Perhaps we need to pray for them or reconnect. Other times the Holy Spirit will plant a thought in our minds. Send Jackie a card. She’s been discouraged since her sister died. Or Sarah just had a baby. I bet she could use a meal and an offer to babysit.
Sometimes we wonder if what we’re sensing is really coming from the Holy Spirit. The most dependable litmus test is to compare what we think we’re hearing to Scripture. The Holy Spirit will never tell us to do anything that contradicts the principles in God’s Word.
When we sense the Holy Spirit instructing us, it’s important to obey. James 4:17 warns us,
“Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.” A favorite Bible teacher of mine often said, “To delay is to disobey.”
The more we grow in Christ, the better we’ll become at discerning the voice of the Holy Spirit. A sure sign God is speaking to us is that the words we’re “hearing” in our hearts come directly from the Bible. This is why it’s so important to learn and memorize Scripture—so the Holy Spirit has a wealth of material to draw from.
I’m often humbled and comforted that the God of the universe has not only invited us to have a relationship with him, but desires to talk with us every day. Many times, that conversation begins with a whisper from the Holy Spirit in our hearts. I love this promise of Jesus:
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come” (John 16:13).
The Holy Spirit’s job is to convict us of sin so we can become more like Jesus. He also convicts us of righteousness so we can be his ambassadors in the world today. What a comfort. What a privilege.
Now it’s your turn. How have you sensed the Holy Spirit speaking to your heart? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts. If you’re reading by email, click HERE to visit Hungry for God online, scroll to the bottom of the post, and leave a comment there.
And if you'd like to learn more about how to know God's speaking to you, CLICK HERE to read my viral blog post, "How to Know It's God Speaking to You." More than 104,000 readers have read this post so far.
If you’re a Christian, you have the ability to hear God speak every day, because the Holy Spirit lives inside you. Click to Tweet.
Does God still speak to people? If so, how can we know it's Him speaking?
The concept of hearing messages from God sounds like a topic for an alternate reality television show, but in truth, it’s a very biblical concept.
From the beginning of creation God has spoken to his people. In the early days, before the canon of Scripture, he spoke to believers in several ways: through his audible spoken word (Gen. 6:13), through angelic messengers (Dan. Luke 1:11), through a Christophany—a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ (Gen. 18:22), and through the prophets (Jer. 1:7).
Today he speaks primarily through his messengers (pastors, teachers, and fellow believers), his Word, and the Holy Spirit’s voice in our hearts.
But the question remains:
How do we know we’re hearing God’s voice rather than our own or someone else’s?
Here are some guidelines:
1. What we hear must agree with Scripture. In other words, God never tells us to do something contrary to his Word. This means the abortion clinic bomber who testified that “God told me to blow up this place” may have been hearing voices, but they weren’t the Lord’s.
This is why we must read the Bible daily and become familiar with its truths. It becomes the plumb line for all other input.
2. God usually repeats an important message. He knows we’re sometimes spiritually dense, so he gives us more than one opportunity to get it. You may read something that applies to your life in your morning quiet time, read it again during a devotional reading, and hear a preacher or teacher mention it in a sermon or lesson. God’s willingness to repeat himself is blessed confirmation if we think we’re hearing from God but aren’t quite sure.
This is why it’s important to journal during our Bible reading and prayer time and take notes during teaching and preaching times. Sometimes the pattern of God’s messages to us becomes clearer when we write them down.
3. An idea may come to us while we're praying. If it’s something simple, like Send Sally a note of encouragement; she’s been struggling since Dan lost his job, and isn’t contrary to Scripture, I usually act upon it immediately. It’s probably the Holy Spirit prompting me. If it involves a greater commitment, I test the thought by waiting to see if God reinforces it in other ways.
For years the Lord had prompted me to write inspiring articles for homeschooling moms. Friends encouraged me to compile them into a book. When another friend invited me to attend a writers conference, the idea began to take shape. I sought confirmation by speaking to an acquisitions editor at the conference, and he invited me to submit a proposal. When I shared the idea with a Christian businessman, and he offered to help, I knew the idea had been from the Lord.
4. If an idea is from the Lord, the desire usually grows stronger with time. I confess—I get some crazy ideas sometimes. Crazy or not, I write down the idea and begin to pray about it. As the days pass, I’ll often find my enthusiasm and desire waning. Other times the desire grows, develops, and blossoms into a full-fledged calling. God confirms it in other ways and reinforces it with appropriate Scripture.
5. It usually requires an element of risk and faith. God seldom calls us to do something completely off the normal path of our lives. Instead his call is usually the next step, albeit sometimes a BIG step, on the path we’re already on.
For years our family’s been involved with missions. We’ve financially supported missionaries, prayed and provided resources for them, and hosted them in our homes. When my husband and I began to experience a desire to take a short-term missions trip with our family, we sensed it was from the Lord.
We began to pray about it, and the desire grew stronger. We already knew a mission trip was scriptural, so when one of our missionary friends mentioned how they’d love to have a family work with them in Mexico, we knew the Lord was calling us to go.
Although it seems a bit mysterious, God loves to speak to his children. To hear him, we must learn to recognize his voice. This ability comes with patience and practice. Missionary Frank Laubach accurately expresses how every conversation with God involves learning to listen:
“The trouble with nearly everybody who prays is that he says, ‘Amen,’ and runs away before God has a chance to reply. Listening to God is far more important than giving him our ideas.”
May God bless you as you learn to listen to his voice.
How about you? How does the Lord usually speak to you? And how do you know it's him speaking? Leave a comment below. I'd love to hear your thoughts. If you're reading by email, click HERE and scroll to the bottom of the post, then click on Comment to leave your thoughts.
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