Hearing God: Do You Know Who’s Talking?

I have two kids and a dog.  I know it is only three names, but I still get them messed up.  Adam, my oldest, doesn’t seem to care.  The dog doesn’t know any better…at least I don’t think so.  But it really seems to bother Isaac.  When I accidently call him Adam or Oliver (yes, Oliver is the dog), he’ll often say something like, “How could you call me the wrong name?  You only have two sons…how can you get us mixed up?”

Good questions…I wonder if God ever asks the same thing?  There is only ONE of Him…but we often mistake Satan’s, other people or our own ideas for God’s ideas.  How can we tell who’s talking?  In chapter 8 of “Hearing God”, Willard suggests that there are typically three ways God speaks to us in His “still small voice”.  These include circumstances, impressions of the Holy Spirit and passages from the Bible.

I loved this quote from his book…you’ll probably want to read it 2-3 times to really let it sink in: “The circumstances of our daily life are to us an infallible indication of God’s will, when they concur with the inward promptings of the Spirit and with the Word of God.  So long as they are stationary, wait.  When you must act, they will open, and a way will be made through oceans and rivers, wastes and rocks”. 

I have tried to explain this same thing a little differently.  For me, the experiences of life, prayer, thoughts, passages of Scripture and conversations with others all combine to form what I can only describe as a “cloud” or “fog”.  It is a hazy, unclear picture of what He is trying to tell me.  I know He is trying to tell me something, but I can’t necessarily make sense of it.  The haze may linger for days, weeks or even months…but it is persistent and unmistakable…God is trying to tell me something.  But then one day the cloud and fog blows away and the picture is as clear as can be.  His direction to me is unmistakable.  From that point on, if I am faithful to take a step in His direction, He is faithful to remove obstacles, clear paths and make the next step clear.  These are the most amazing, humbling experiences of my life!

But how do I know that what the fog reveals is His picture.  How do I know it isn’t mine, or Satan’s or someone else’s?  We are still left with the question of how we distinguish the voice of God, especially the “impressions” we get, from the others that compete with it.  How do we recognize the voice as His?   Three ways:

1. The weight or impact an impression makes on us.  Here is a great test: The voice of our own subconscious argues with us, tries to convince us; but the inner voice of God does not argue, does not try to convince us.  It just speaks, and it is self-authenticating.  It has the feel of the voice of God within it.
2. The spirit an impression makes on us.  God’s voice will have a spirit of peacefulness and confidence, of joy, of sweet reasonableness and of goodwill.
3. The content of the impression itself.  The content of God’s voice will always conform to and be consistent with the truths about God’s nature and kingdom that are made clear in the Bible.  Always.  Always.  Amen to that!

Let me add to this whole discussion a suggestion that all of this becomes more clear the longer you walk with God, the more you are in His Word and the more you allow Him to transform your heart.  If it all seems like a mystery to you, I would encourage you to find someone to help guide you along your walk.  Find someone who has has already walked the path you are on, knows the way, and is willing to show it to you.

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