That's true, Havoc - there's a lot of the Christian God in here, haven't heard much from Wiccans or Polytheists. I'm curious if anyone's heard the voice in whatever fashion.
I just wanted to insert a little comment or two as to how I feel it- I don't get the feeling that he's constantly talking to me every single moment of every day but is watching and waiting for the moment when I want to talk to him and actually listen. When I do that of course, he's delighted - especially when I am doing it voluntarily and not out of a guilty conscious.
Everything else, like stopping to smell the roses and the like - is just a reminder. Or some more powerful reminders for something VERY important. ;-)
I know I've had that big "If" question myself as to whether or not the voice you hear is truly God or just your own desires or fears of Satan trying to get at you. I think part of that can be answered not so much by striving to know so much more about God and how he's trying to communicate with you but trying to understand your own self a little better and what your isms are. God dwells within us, but how are you going to get to God better if your own mind can't get past the sin you committed two years ago or two days ago or running a scripture in your head that you just can't get? I also think sometimes someone can get an overdose on the Bible and scriptures isn't the only thing that's going to get you closer - sorting out all that clutter in your head before you sit down to have a chat I feel is what God's wanting from you at many different times. (and there's also other people who come along and say something that could be totally random but you get an epiphany of God from them)
My little funkiness about the voice of God...
A lame example would be, by nature I am really kind of sarcastic and sometimes it flies out of my mouth quite naturally and someone will think it was quite clever and I would be like, "Huh? What's so clever?" and they would think I was being sarcastic again.
So if I hear this little inner voice in my head being a smart aleck, I know that's not God because I don't see a lot of sarcasm in the bible and that just doesn't strike me as how he is, though maybe I am wrong since he does have a sense of humor. (umm...I just realized that sounded sarcastic and I didn't mean it. Honestly)
I don't know about the rest of you excellent people - but we all have our own voice that we can hear with our own ears -- how many of you hear that same voice in your mind? Like when you're typing, are you "speaking" the text in your mind? I do that all the time and it sounds like the voice I have when I verbalize. Likewise, when I'm in a funk - my voice alters. My mind's voice changes with it. Same thing with happy thoughts. I can sing passing well in real life - but you know what? I don't have the voice of an Opera star in my mind. heh heh. So I do think it's about learning all of your inner little gotcha's and that helps with your discernment. If I hear a soprano going off in my mind I KNOW that's not me it's probably Mozart's requiem I listened to replaying itself because some part of my brain is bored.
Sometimes, on very few priveleged and blessed occasions - I have heard God in this fashion. He sounded very authoritative but not frighteningly so - just umm...stern I guess the word is. The phrase "Hear me and obey" pretty much sums it up. LOL! I knew it was God because no matter how I could rationalize the thing I wanted to do, that voice wasn't going to buy the excuses and basically said "shut up - stop it. don't do it dummy." It's quite easy for me to talk myself into something that I think is good for me but it's not very easy to talk myself out of something when it "feels good" (like chocolate - I can justify chocolate and luckily God doesn't seem to mind since it's not an excess..heehee) But likewise, I have also heard that gentle compassionate side as well. It's just this "presence" that goes with the voice. It can be really an overwhelming feeling and quite awesome. (especially when dealing with my insomnia, it gets ROUGH sometimes and when I finally shut up enough in my mind to talk to God, He's liken to your Mom or Dad tucking you in. I prayed that he could just knock me out the second my head hit that pillow but no such luck yet ;-)
If you ever have any doubt - well there's the "test the spirit". It works in your mind as well as it would in a physical sense.
I think that's why meditation is such a useful thing to learn.
