Hi all,
I'm struggling to understand what is meant when people say they hear God and how we know when God is talking to/answering us.
For example, let's say I have a decision to make and I take that decision to the Lord because I want to do His will. How do I know what His answer is? Let's say I ask Him whether I should take a new job offer, how do I know He has answered? How can I really be sure that the decision I make is God's decision and not my own?
Speaking only for myself, when people tell me they personally heard God tell them to make a very specific decision I, frankly, just don't believe them. That isn't to say that I don't believe that they believe God spoke to them, but it is an immensely dangerous thing to entertain the idea that God is going to personally give us life advice.
There is nothing in Scripture that would suggest that God is in the business of telling us what careers to choose, or what jobs to do, or any number of both minor and major life decisions. Instead, the Scriptures speak of the importance of the use of our own conscience and the freedom of that conscience. We have the freedom of conscience to choose what we eat, drink, and how we--in general--live our lives. God's commandment is that we love one another, Jesus has told us to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you". Paul writes that the whole of God's Law is summed up in the statement: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
We don't need God to personally tell us what to eat, or what to drink, or what movies to watch, or what sports teams to root for, or what career path we take. Instead, God invites us to do all things in the freedom of our conscience, and to the glory of God. How do we glorify God in these things? By not judging one another, by not condemning each other, by loving one another. One person wants to go to medical school, another wants to go into engineering, still another wants to cook, and still another wants to volunteer. In whatever we do, let us bring whatever gifts we have to live out our vocations in life as servants of one another, as disciples of Jesus Christ, loving others.
All that is necessary for us to live as Christians here in the world has already been given. Christ has called His Church to be His people of Word and Sacrament. So the Church proclaims and preaches God's word, we are nourished and sustained in the Sacraments. We are called to lives of faith and love.
What is God's will for you? You don't need to try and divine God's hidden will; God's will is already plainly and publicly demonstrated: God's will for you is that you trust in Christ and that you love your neighbor as yourself.
If you want to hear the Holy Spirit, don't look to inside of yourself; look outside of yourself to what is written in the Scriptures, to what God has already given us, look to and remember your baptism, look to Christ giving Himself to you in the Lord's Supper--He says it is His own body and blood,
for you. That is the Holy Spirit working, making you alive, giving you life, sustaining you, healing you, saving you.
Those who speak of the Spirit aside of God's external Word and Sacraments do not speak or act of the Spirit, but of the flesh. The carnal, natural man desires the things of the flesh and glory. The Holy Spirit does not point us to anywhere and anything other than this: Jesus Christ as given to us in Word and Sacrament.
Therefore do not place your trust in anything or anywhere else. But only in Jesus Christ who gives Himself to you in Word and Sacrament.
-CryptoLutheran