How to Know it’s God Speaking to You and Not Your Imagination.
Christie G
How do you differentiate the voice of God and your own voice inside your head? I have had many conversations with people over the years about seeking God for guidance and answers to big life decisions. Often, we reach a point where they admit they feel they either can’t hear from Him, or they just aren’t sure if what they heard was God. So how do you tell the difference between the voice of God and your own? To answer that question, I have one of my own for you.
How do you read scripture?
The Bible can be read in many ways. It can be read to simply know what it says or for the exciting stories it tells. It can be used as an instruction manual on how to act or handle certain situations and issues we face. It is a historical piece just as much a literary piece of work. A place to find knowledge, wisdom, and inspiration. But what if something is still missing? Many times, I have read scripture feeling like I was still missing one puzzle piece. I would search for verses on healing, protection, and provision but I didn’t have the complete peace I thought I would after reading and meditating on it.
And then it hit me. I kept seeking the answer but somehow missed seeking Him. I stopped and asked myself, “Do I even know the God I serve?” Our Heavenly Father wants a relationship with us, not a transaction. A relationship is a two-way street and while it’s good to open up to God and ask for help, I have found it’s even better to allow Him to open up to us and reveal Himself.
It’s all a perspective shift. I went back to the beginning and started in Genesis chapter 1. This time I removed myself and my needs from the equation. Instead of looking for the answers to my problems, I began to look for God’s character on every page. It started on the first line of the first page, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). I write in my notes, He is a creator. Then in chapter three, “But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9) in my notes, He seeks His children. At the end of chapter three we read how God drove out Adam and Eve from the garden to protect them. He knew that since they ate from the tree of knowledge, He did not want to risk them eating from the tree of life and live forever knowing both good and evil (Genesis 3:22-24); in my notes, God is a protector.
I could write for days about how many characteristics I have found within each page of His Word. As I kept going though, things in my life started to shift. The more I got to know Him better, my problems and issues began to take a back seat, and some even started to resolve on their own! As I got to know who God truly is, my confidence grew. After I saw that He is the provider, when we hit a financial crisis in our home, my prayers were no longer filled with fear and begging God to help us. My prayers were of me reminding myself and telling God how I knew that He is the ultimate provider, we are His children, He loves us and is a good Father; therefore, I trust that in some way He will provide for us. And guess what, He did!
In the book of Jeremiah, God tells us, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13) and in the book of Matthew, it says “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33). It’s not a secret formula we are to be searching for, it’s HIM and it’s His Kingdom we seek FIRST, before we go to our pastor, before we go to our friend, mother, or husband even. Not only does He promise that “when” we seek Him we “will” find Him, but that if we seek Him first, everything else will be taken care of according to His plans, not our own.
Back to the original question now, how do you tell the difference between His voice and our own? Once you get to know Him and all His character traits, when you pray and hear an answer ask yourself if it lines up with His character first. And this could be the hard part, ask yourself if that answer would fulfill His Kingdom or your own. That takes some humility and it may sting at first, I know it did for me at times, but since I read and saw how kind and gracious He is I knew I could talk to Him about anything.
The next time you open your Bible maybe first ask yourself if your heart is seeking God or seeking what God can do for you. Do not fret though, since He is kind and gracious and no matter what the answer is He will still walk with you through it all. He wants to speak to you, and He wants you to hear Him. But even above that He wants a thriving relationship with you. Get to know Him first. He may surprise you.