This might sound like a big question, but I’ve always wondered how people actually discern when God is speaking to them.
Some believers talk about a very clear moment or message… others describe it as a gentle prompting or a sudden clarity that lines up with Scripture. And still others say they realize it only in hindsight.
For you personally, how do you tell the difference between:
God’s voice
your own thoughts
and just everyday emotions or circumstances?
What has helped you grow in recognizing His leading or His “voice” over the years?
Dallas Willard suggests you can know God is speaking to you through the quality, spirit, and content of the message, and by building a relationship with God through experience. Key indicators include the message’s authority, peaceful tone, and alignment with Scripture, as well as the long-term experience of familiarizing yourself with God’s voice.
Yes! number 2 definitely! That’s the one I experience the most, but sometimes, it’s like being blown over by the strongest gust of wind that you can’t feel. It’s hard to articulate. But definitely number 2.
It’s like when you suddenly feel someone watching you from behind. You don’t even know why, but you just turn around—and it turns out someone really was looking for you.
It’s hard to explain, but you just know. That’s all.
Like..if it isn’t edifying, uplifting, loving, kind, full of grace and mercy..right? God won’t say things that bring us down. He’ll definitely convict us but never put thoughts of harm, violence, evil, anxiety, depression or anything like that.
I think some have answered wisely and correctly. I see it as this. God will communicate with Inmate031523, Corlove, Joanne, me, you, and everyone else, the way He needs to. Simply because He knows how He can best get our attention. Some need dreams, angels to show up, thunder to roar, and others need a whisper, a nudge, or a feeling of, “I have to do this,” even if I do not know why.
God foreknows you. He knew you before your mother and father ever even met. He created you. According to Psalm 139:16-18,
“Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I were to count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.”
God created you the way you are for a reason. He wrote in His Book that you would be this tall, have this color hair and eyes, look this way, etc. Then you were fashioned or formed exactly the way God said for a reason. Jesus even told us this.
“But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.” {Matthew 10:30}
Think about that. Try to do that yourself. Count the hairs on your head. God has. He numbered them. God is our Father. He knows His children. Therefore, He communicates with them in the best way for those He is communicating with to hear.
I don’t use that form of grammar for my own compositions about “God speaking”. According to the Bible, “God spoke the world into existence.” The world is still in existence. I don’t let psychs get in my way and violate the fourth amendment by questioning whether or not I think that what I’m scientifically observing in the results of Gods speech matches the voices in their own heads or their bizarre dramatic scripts for God’s speeches to me.