Episode #375 How Do I Know It’s Really God Speaking? – God Is Already Here

Hey, friend. When we're talking about listening to God and responding to his voice, one of the most common questions that I get is, "How do I know if it's not just my own thoughts?" That's a really valid question, right? If we're talking with God, we wanna know, "Am I actually hearing you, Lord, or is this just me?"

It takes practice to recognize God's voice.

Even as you think about people that you know and love in your day-to-day human life, you can recognize the sound of their voice even in a crowded room because of the time you've spent together. Because you've had these conversations with them. You can even recognize them if they're being misrepresented. If someone's saying, "Oh, so and so said this kind of thing," or, "This came through this certain way." If you know them well, you know enough to say, "You know what? That sounds like them," or, "That doesn't." Or, "I don't think they would say it that way. I think you might wanna circle back to that conversation, 'cause I don't think that's what they meant." You know them not only by the sound of their voice, but by their character. And those are really practical ways that we can practice tuning our ears to recognize God's voice.

God is never gonna go against himself, and he's never gonna go against his written Word. His character is true and unchanging. And so you can notice what brings peace to you and clarity and love, even in times of conviction.

Your recognition of God's voice grows in relationship, and it grows for me, too. I am in no way saying that I have arrived at this. And I think it's important to validate that because as a Bible teacher who helps people hear God's voice and live in daily life with him, sometimes I don't hear him very clearly. Sometimes I ask him a question, and I wait for his response, and I don't hear it right away. Sometimes when God is talking with me, he's super clear, and I know that it's him. And other times I'm not as sure.

And I wanna talk about that here because this isn't about arriving. This isn't about us figuring God all the way out and feeling like we just have everything down pat. This is a growing relationship that we get to live from for the entirety of our lives, not even just here on earth.

And so the point of today's episode is to give us a moment to practice. I'm gonna read for us from Hebrews chapter 5 and it's talking about growing in spiritual maturity, and it says, "For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil."

The words that jump out at me in this passage are “trained” and “constant practice”. I also notice that in verse 13, it talks about being “unskilled” or “skilled” in the Word.

The time that we spend in the Word directly impacts our spiritual maturity because the Word is the clearest way that God speaks with us. And the more we get to know the Word, the more we get to know God through his Word, the more we are practicing that ongoing conversation with him, which then spills out into other areas of our lives when our Bibles are not open.

Going back to this question of “how do I know if it's not just my own thoughts?” I have a tool for you that we'll put here in the show notes. It's an assessment type of tool that walks you through core questions to discern if what you're hearing lines up with who God is and what he tells us in his Word.

And we get to take everyday moments like this as an opportunity to practice. If we draw near to God only to hear what he would have to say about the huge, big decisions, that's really stressful. We're trying to come and get to know him in a way that we haven't really practiced yet. But if we spend this time, if we engage in resources like Good God Talks, practicing conversations with God, we get more familiar with his voice and his character. And then when those difficult circumstances come up, it's easier, even in heightened circumstances and emotions, for us to recognize him. Because we've spent this time getting to know what he sounds like and how he shows up.

God isn't trying to confuse you when he communicates with you. He is consistent. His character doesn't change, and his Word produces good fruit. And so the constant invitation that we have is to practice talking with him and getting to know him and experiencing being known by him. Maybe there's a passage of scripture that he wants to highlight for you and talk with you about it. Maybe he wants to give you a word of encouragement to share with someone in a way that can feel a little bit uncomfortable, but you're practicing stepping out in faith. Maybe there's something else, a person to pray for or an action to take. I don't know what that is, but I know that God does. And so here's that question you can take to him:

God, what's a way I can practice hearing and responding to you today?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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