In high school, I heard a teacher say that if you speak to God then you’re praying, but if God speaks back to you then you’re crazy. That statement came from someone claiming to be a person of faith. The lesson? For Christians and those who are not, the concept of God speaking to people, let alone speaking to you, can be a tough one to get your mind around.
Does God Still Speak Today?
There’s a belief within some circles of the Christian community that God stopped speaking personally to people with the completion of the canon of Scripture, and that belief regards any concept of hearing God’s voice apart from the written Scriptures as extra revelation, adding to the Word of God, or denial of the sufficiency of God’s written Word.
Many Christians whom I love, respect and learn from hold that position, but here’s why I believe that view doesn’t hold up when we test it against what the Bible says. The Bible–the same completed canon of Scripture referenced earlier–records God speaking personally to individual people all throughout the Old and New Testaments and there’s nothing in the Bible that says He stopped doing so.
If we’re going to hold a view that is in agreement with Scripture, we have to recognize that the Bible presents God as one who speaks to people personally not through written Scripture only. Now here’s something vital to understand: God never speaks anything personally and subjectively to any person that is contradictory to Scripture. God will never contradict His Word.
We’re not talking about hearing messages from God that are opposed to Scripture. Why would God speak something to someone personally that would contradict what He has said in His Bible? Doesn’t make sense, right?
At the same time, to say that claiming to hear from God means you believe in revelation outside of the Bible, are adding to the Bible, or that you don’t believe the Bible is sufficient also doesn’t make much sense. For someone to say they heard God speak to them something subjective but that fits within the boundaries of Scriptural guidelines sounds a lot like a biblical perspective on what it means to hear from God. (John 16:12-15)
Hearing from God is not just for “special Christians.” As a follower of Jesus, you are designed to be able to hear God’s voice.Click To TweetThroughout Scripture, we see God speaking encouragement (Acts 18:9-10), warning (Matthew 2:7-12), counsel (Matthew 1:18-24), direction/instruction (Acts 9:10-12; 22:21), correction (John 16:8), understanding of the Scriptures (Luke 24:27-32, 44-45) etc. to people.
Hearing from God is not just for “special Christians.” As a follower of Jesus, you are designed to be able to hear God’s voice. (John 10:27)
We’ll talk about the specific ways God speaks to us in 6 Ways God Speaks To Us. Before we get there, let’s address how to discern when it’s genuinely God’s voice speaking to you.
How to Know If It’s God Speaking to You
In his book Frequency: Tune In. Hear God., Pastor Robert Morris of Gateway Church suggests three biblical ways to evaluate whether we are hearing God’s voice and I completely agree. These apply to hearing God yourself or evaluating prophecies you receive from others.
1. The Bible
Remember, God will never say something to you personally or to someone else for you that disagrees with the truths and principles in His written Word. Whether you can tell off-hand from having knowledge of God’s Word hidden in your heart (Psalm 119:11) or you need to search things out in the Bible (Acts 17:11), check what you’re hearing against Scripture.
2. Peace and Confirmation
Does God’s Holy Spirit who lives in you confirm that you are hearing from God? (Romans 8:16) Do you have a sense of God’s peace or are you unsettled? Has God spoken this to you in any other way as well that would confirm to you that it is indeed His voice?
Again, you won’t need several instances of confirmation for “go pray for that person” or “don’t watch Netflix tonight and spend time in the Bible instead” or things like that, but there are times when seeking God’s confirmation in other ways is helpful to discerning God’s voice.
3. Godly counsel
Especially when you are first learning to discern God’s voice, it’s helpful to ask other godly, mature Christians who know God and know you to help you evaluate whether what you are hearing is from God.
As you grow in hearing God’s voice, you won’t need to do this with every little thing you hear God saying to you. I don’t run every phrase and impression through another Christian anymore. But say I sense God leading me to make a big decision, I’ll invite other trusted people into that process of discerning God’s voice. Do what’s right for each situation in your life and where you are in your journey of learning to hear God’s voice.
You don’t have to be afraid or overwhelmed by the idea of hearing God. He loves you, He wants to speak to you and you were made to hear His voice.
***Head to the blog post 6 Ways God Speaks To Us to learn about the specific ways God speaks to us.
Let’s Talk: Have you been hesitant about the idea of hearing God’s voice before? If so, why, and does this conversation change your perspective at all? Discuss this post in the comments below.
