As beautiful as life is, it can throw us into an endless roller coaster of choices. My desire, as a Christian is to be sure that the choices I am making on a daily basis are pleasing to my father in heaven. So the question that comes up how do I know if I have made the right choices and if I have truly heard from God.
We often find ourselves
wondering, how do I know what job to take? What am I supposed to do with my life? Who am I supposed to marry? Am I making the
right decisions? The questions are endless.
The thing I have learnt
on Hearing God’s voice is that it takes
time to learn how to discern God’s voice. It’s not something that we wake
up one day having completely figured out. It is not automatic; it’s something
that is cultivated with time.
Here are some of the ways,
which God has spoken to me through the years;
1)
God
speaks to us through His word (The Bible is His word).
God will never speak to us anything outside His word His word is His Bond, so
no matter how he chooses to speak. I always have to check if that word is in
line with the scripture.
(2
Timothy 3: 16) “Every scripture is God breathed (inspired by God) and
profitable for instruction for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of
error and discipline. In obedience and for training in righteousness.”
It’s
therefore important to read the Bible for ourselves.
2)
God
through the Holy Spirit speaks to my heart. Often I feel
an impression in my heart to do something or go somewhere. It’s a knowing that I know what am supposed to do or where I should
go.
Sometimes
a thought will pass through my mind and I instantly know that can’t be me just
thinking because it’s usually bigger than my mind, and higher than my
thoughts.
A word from God will breathe on your heart;
your heart will come alive, even when it’s not something you may not necessarily understand.
For
instance, God puts in my heart to give someone something. There was a time God
asked me to give kshs .500 to a lady I hardly knew. It was extremely hard for
me to part with my hard-earned money! For a few days, I ignored it but it kept
coming back. I remember saying this is
the devil! Then a still small voice saying, “the devil will never ask you to give.” From that day, I no
longer had trouble figuring out if that’s God asking me to be a blessing to someone.
3) Dreams
and visions.
God
has predominantly used this avenue to speak to me.
The
bible is full of Examples where God spoke to men through dreams and visions. God
gave Solomon wisdom and wealth in a dream, God spoke to pharaoh about preparing
for a famine through a dream, God spoke to Joseph concerning his purpose and
future through a dream, God warned king Abimelech through a dream, He spoke to
Daniel in a series of dreams.
He
also spoke to people through visions for instance he spoke to Moses through a
vision, peter the disciple of Jesus had a vision to concerning God’s will for the
gentiles to receive the gift of salvation and Saul met Jesus through a vision.
The
word of God says Jesus is the same today, tomorrow and forever. God doesn’t
change if He spoke to them through these avenues, He is still using them today
to speak to His children.
4) Through His peace. When I need clarity
concerning something in my life and God hasn’t spoken to me through any other
avenue I always check my peace. Existence
of peace means God is directing me in the path am taking and I have His
approval. A lack of peace means the Holy Spirit is grieved by a decision I have
made or about to make. This usually means either I need to wait on the Lord for
clarity or I need to go the opposite direction. If have no peace about doing
something I just don’t do it.
(Isaiah
60:17) “I will make peace your governor and righteousness your ruler.”
5) Open
and closed doors. A situation where am trying to open a door and it just won’t
open . when this happens I have learnt its either one of these two; one is am
trying to open doors that God never intended for me to go through and because
He loves me He will bolt them shut, secondly am stepping out before God’s
timing and God is saying wait.
I
learnt this one the hard way. It took me a whole year of trying everything to
figure out God had not spoken concerning me working in a certain career field. I tried everything, I fasted ,
prayed(interceded),bound every spirit possible
and prophesied over it with the scripture, I believed God for it, It just wouldn’t burge! Finally after
a year I realized God wasn’t opening this door not because it wasn’t time or I
didn’t have faith for it but because He had never promised. My job was
somewhere else and this door was wide open.
Remember, Faith will only access what Grace has
already made available.
6)
Other
people. God will speak to us through people. God has put
people in my life who speak things over me. through one of these ways;
The gifts of the Holy Spirit; prophecy, word
of knowledge and word of wisdom. Sometimes people will
speak Gods purpose for my life. God is not limited he may pick a complete
stranger to proclaim His purpose over His children.
The purpose of the gifts is to exhort,
encourage and to comfort. It’s never to hurt, wound, or accuse.
Through Godly counsel.
This is when we submit a word we might think is from God and ask for guidance
especially when it requires that we make major life changes.
(Proverbs 11:14) “Where no wise guidance is, the
people fall, but in the multitude of counselors there’s safety.
You
don’t want to go off quitting your job and relocating to another country based
on a dream or a word that you heard then discover later you heard wrong!
Submit
your revelation to trusted counselors and you will be safe.
Through confirmation.
When God speaks to me about something major in my life, I often ask God for a
confirmation that it’s really Him and not my flesh or the devil trying to
deceive me. The word of God says to test
the Spirit. I test the spirit through confirmation. Confirmation comes
either from people or from circumstances.
(Matthew 18:19)
“Every word may be confirmed by the testimony of two or three
witnesses.”
God’s
word is not afraid to be tested and confirmed.
God will never tell you that
someone already married is for you. The testimony of them being married is
enough confirmation that it’s not God.
7)
Praying
in the Spirit. I have often heard God speak to me as
I prayed in tongues. When I pray in the spirit, it’s the Holy Spirit praying
through me. Often He will drop a word in my heart or I will just pray something
in understanding that I wouldn’t normally pray. Sometimes as am praying the
spirit a person’s image or name will come to mind and I know I need to lift
them up in prayer. Other times it’s a scripture and I would just pray it out
loud or stand on in that particular moment.
8)
Still
small voice. Sometimes God is so subtle when
speaking to us that if we are not carefully listening we just might miss Him.
Each one of us has done something then afterward said, “That was a wrong thing
to do.” He is the still small voice telling us “to stop what we are doing because it’s wrong, to not speak another
word because we will just make things worse, to call a friend up and encourage
them, to not go a certain way because there’s trouble. Which we often
choose to ignore.
With time, you realize
that it’s a little like with our best friends. When He walks in the room, you
know it. You know His voice because you have heard him repeatedly over the
years. You know when He is happy or sad. You know what He delights in. You know
how He walks because He has walked with you through life’s seasons; you know
how He works because you have watched Him over and over again. You know Him so
well that you even see Him in the dark.
Don’t fret if He speaks
and you don’t understand, He will repeat it until you get it. The most enjoyable part for me about hearing
God is that, He doesn’t get irritated when I miss it. Instead, He gently and patiently pulls me out
of the ditch and helps me get back on track.
God bless you.
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