Five Clues to Know When God is Speaking to You
How do you know if you're hearing from God?! Do you ever find yourself with this question? Many times the way God orders our steps are ambiguous. I don’t know about you, but ambiguity doesn’t always work for me when I need God to tell me what to do. I need to hear from Him and I need to know that I’m hearing from Him!
Do you need God to give you some direction? Do you need to hear from God about a situation in your life? Are you just craving His voice and His presence? Here are five clues that can help you know when God is speaking to you. Read through them and put them to the test. Thankfully, I've learned that I can rest in God and wait for him to speak to me. You can, too. No matter what answers you seek, God is the One who knows what you need and when you need it.
Five Clues to Know When God is Speaking to You
Hear the Word: Every verse in the Bible is the voice of God and the message of Christ is heard through the Word. Romans 10:17 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17
God wrote everything for a purpose and his Word will never return empty-handed (Isaiah 55:11).The quantity heard or read doesn’t determine the outcome. Proverbs 16:4
One simple way is to pull out phrases that say, “He said or ”He did. “So God said to Noah…” Genesis 1:3; Genesis 6:13. Or, “And I will display my holiness through you as all the nations watch.” Ezekiel 20:41 The verses don’t have to speak specifically to my need to know God can and will help me. Isaiah wrote, “Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish...I have said what I would do, and I will do it.” Isaiah 46:10-11
The Holy Spirit: God speaks Spirit to spirit. When the Spirit is trying to capture your attention, it may be a simple stirring of something you weren’t thinking of a moment ago. Pay attention. One indicator are those moments you begin questioning thoughts and feelings that suddenly surface. If you are waiting for clarity, read scripture. God will reveal spiritual knowledge: “But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit.” I Corinthians 2:10-11
Make a habit of praying for spiritual discernment so that your spirit remains alive and sensitive to understanding wisdom from the Spirit. I Corinthians 2:14
R.A. Torrey states in The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, “The Holy Spirit is not merely an influence that illuminates our minds to comprehend the truth but a Being who Him knows the truth...a Person just as real as God the Father or Jesus Christ His Son.” (iBooks)
An epiphany: Have you ever experienced a moment when suddenly you shout, “I’ve had an epiphany?’ You’ve had some great idea that popped in your head to do something specific? When I am purposeful to look for God in these moments, I’ve discovered I recognize his voice more clearly during the day. Giving God credit and acknowledging his presence gives him the glory, not us. Glorifying God is a form of worship and worship breaks down walls that might hinder us from hearing his voice more clearly. In the Bible, the walls of Jericho collapsed when the Israelites worshipped the Lord and focused on him. Worship may be the breakthrough you need to hear God. Joshua 6
An Uneducated Guess: In the One Word Miracle post, I was working on a project when I “hit a wall.” I had no training how to break down the wall before me when the word “plugin” popped in my head. When I did an internet search to see if and how it related to my project, immediately, my search results educated me on something I’d never been taught. In a split second, God answered my prayer supernaturally and in a way that is impossible to explain in the natural. God provided spiritual knowledge and broke down the “wall” before me. Psalm 119:99 has been a favorite verse of mine that I rely on when I’m in search of knowledge: “I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.” Seek the special knowledge of God, not just the knowledge of man. “God will give you what you need when you need it.” Read Man-taught vs. God-taught
Believe God speaks: The tips above mean little if we don’t believe God speaks and that he does so with clarity. When we believe he will speak Spirit to spirit and reveal spiritual knowledge, we’ll begin to distinguish his voice from our own and others.
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Romans 10:17
“You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) And Christ lives within you...the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you.” Romans 8:9-11
“ But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. 16 For, “Who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him? But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.” I Corinthians 2:13-16
Thumbnail photo by Sylvia Yang on Unsplash
