Hearing God’s Voice: 5 Tips on How to Know God’s Voice
One of the challenges in the Christian walk is how to know you are hearing God’s voice. Some of the most popular asked questions either during a panel or when discussion has been opened up during Youth Ministry is on hearing God’s voice. I would argue they are some of the most popularly asked questions across the board during discussions in the Christian community and for good reason.
How do you know you are hearing God’s voice versus your own, something, or someone else?
How do you know your Mother’s voice or your Father’s? Best friend? Beloved teacher or preacher?
Have you ever read a social media status or text message and you know the person got hacked? How did you know? What made you question it?
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27, ESV)
When you are in relationship with God, the same thing happens. Just like when you pick up the phone and you know it’s your mom. Just like when your best friend leaves a voice mail without leaving her name but you know its her. Being able to distinguish the difference between God’s voice and Satan’s is an important part of being a Christian. Why? It’s the difference between turning left or turning right. Each one will lead you into a different direction. Here are a few ways that will help you know it’s God:
1) Learn the Word of God-
When you learn the Word of God aka the Bible, you learn His character, His commandments, what He would say, and all the things He has told His children for centuries. If you hear something that goes against the Word of God, it isn’t God. For instance, He’s not going to say, “Because Johnny is so cute and totally into you, it’s okay to have sex with him.” The Word of God says, “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body” (1 Cor. 6:18).
The voice that tells you to against the Word of God is the enemy. Learn how to read and study the Word of God so you know the correct context of scripture.
2) Learn who is a Godly trustworthy source in your life. CAUTION: Those people could change.
It’s important to ask those who you trust around you what they think about what you heard. Sometimes, they can give you perspective and scripture you may have been missing. They can expand on what was said as some people are gifted in the prophetic. Either way, make sure you test everything through the Word of God.
It’s important to test what people tell you because the enemy uses many people including family and friends to steer us away from the Lord. Test everything people tell you. Even if it sounds biblical. Get in the habit of searching the Word of God for answers.
Caution: Unfortunately, people may start out as Godly sources but end up going in a different path. Be aware that those who may have been your Godly source to begin with could end up being an ungodly one. This is why it’s important to test everyone all the time. The more you learn about the Word of God and recognize His voice more, the faster it gets to knowing which voice belongs to who.
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1)
3) Learn the different ways the Lord speaks to you-
The Lord speaks through the Word of God, through His people, dreams, sermons, in prayer, and in Godly books. Sometimes He may use one way more than the other. Dreams I find, aside from the Word of God, is a major way the Lord speaks. For instance, we see in scripture when God has used dreams to speak to His children.
As you can see in this scripture, dreams can hold warning. Dreams can also show you what’s happening in the spiritual what you may not catch in the natural. If you want to know what a dream means, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal it to you. Do not get caught in buying books about dream interpretation because many of them are not Christian or biblically sound. I have avoided them and gone straight to the source, the Lord.
4) Learn to pray and ask for confirmation on what you have heard-
Staying in prayer and asking for confirmation is so important when you think you are hearing God’s voice. Confirmation means people or sources coming into agreement with what was said. Get in the habit of praying about everything you hear and not moving, especially with important decisions, until you are confident it was true.
Afraid of still making the wrong decision? God is gracious. There were times when I’ve gotten it wrong and the Lord gave me the opportunity to change my decision or helped me to gain in peace in making it right. One of the signs of making the right decision is feeling at peace when you make it.
Confirmation could come from different sources. I have found when the Lord has a theme in my life or wants to make sure I get what He’s telling me that I will hear it from different sources and more than once. It might pop up in a Christian song, a friend telling me their testimony, a sermon, social media post, another dream, the possibilities are many when it comes to the Lord confirming what He said to you.
5) Learn what grieves the Holy Spirit-
There have been times when I’ve listened to sermons and something is spoken from the pulpit that brought extreme grief or felt like a punch in the stomach. When I hear something and it hits me this way, it’s often, if not always, a nudge from the Holy Spirit to look into something further so even if I don’t have the language, the answer, or the scripture at the moment to understand why it feels off, I make note to look into what was said. This is a way of the Lord speaking to you, He speaks through the Holy Spirit.
This is a way of the Lord speaking to you, He speaks through the Holy Spirit.
I pray these tips on hearing God’s voice can help you start to know God’s voice where you will be able to distinguish if its God, the enemy, or someone’s opinion. This is an important part in following Christ. It will help guide you in life and avoid mistakes. Happy listening!!
Baskets of Blessings,
Nina Daugherty
Jesus, family, ministry, and lots of coffee! My heart comes from being a young teen girl who didn’t know much and found Jesus in a dark time. My ministry focuses on the heart of God for this generation to make Godly decisions especially in the area of purity. A blog for all ages because God’s Word is eternal and has no age limit!
what do you think?