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How can i learn to discern God's voice?

Andrew77

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Thank you.My pastor had preached on this recently,I had just been confused over what people mean when they say they heard God's voice

I don't have many stories... but I have a couple.

So I was working at this nightmare place, a factory in August, and it was 110ºF in the place. I had problems with the heat, and the manager noticed, and sent me home.

So I get home 8 PM, I have very little money, and the rent is due, and now I have no job. I just prayed, told the Lord that I was in some trouble, and I needed help. There was no voice, no magic sign, no light from above. I went to bed.

The next morning at 8 AM, the phone rang. A company I had a applied for a job at, more than 2 months prior, called and had me come in for an interview, and two days later, they hired me.

So another time, I had a dear friend of mine, her car's windshield wipers quit working. She didn't have money to take it to a mechanic, and she was working a minimum wage job.

I went to the part store, and picked up a wiper motor, and then went to where she worked, and started working on her car. It was actually raining that very day, and she had driven to work in the rain, without windshield wipers.

If you have ever driven anywhere without wipers in the rain, you know how dangerous that is.

So I started working on this car, but this was a foreign model car, and I was completely lost as to how to replace the wiper motor. I couldn't figure out how to do anything on this car, that I was completely unfamiliar with.

I worked and worked, for about an hour and 15 minutes. Finally I realized I had no idea whatsoever, how to replace the wiper motor. I was going to have to take the whole front end of the car apart, and I didn't have the time or tools to do that.

I just stood there, hunched over the front of the car, and prayed real quick, Lord... I don't know how to do this, but I don't want my loved friend driving in the rain without wipers.

So literally in that very moment that I prayed this, the screw driver in my hand, slid over hitting a wire, a few sparks flew off, and the wipers jerked forward...... I just shuddered with my eyes closed, and said "Thank you Lord".

The wipers jerked forward because the motor was good, and sparks proved the wiring and electricity was good. My screw driver shorted the wire from the motor, bypassing the connection. What had happened was the connection was so rusty, that it stopped making contact.

All I had to do was take the nut off, and remove the wire, clean it and remove the rust, put it back on, and the wipers worked perfectly. I returned the motor, and got my money back.

In both cases, I never heard any voices. No magical signs. No shining light from heaven, or singing angels. Just clear obvious, direct answers to prayer.

That's it.
 
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dqhall

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Someone who wants to be a professor must spend much time studying. Someone who wants to know God needs to be able to sort out what is fact and what is fiction. God's voice sometimes manifests itself in one's conscience. I found Bible verses to be of different qualities. I know I do not need to follow a voice that asks me to stone someone for working on the Hebrew Sabbath (Saturday) even thought Moses commanded it (Numbers 15:32-36). Even though some people call stoning people for picking up sticks on the Sabbath God's word, I do not believe them. Such a wicked voice cannot dwell in my mind. Jesus appeared to Israel as a leader. He was not like Joshua or David in as much as he told people they should be harmless as doves (Matthew 10:16). If a voice tells me not to think about having sex, I can do it as I am not married.
 
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FutureAndAHope

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Hi aiki,

Is the conscience an inner voice? Yes or no? Where does it come from... God or the devil? It according to scripture is God's way of warning us of sin, evil, and of what is right. Has your conscience never been active? Surely it would have remined you of scripture?

Men are warned by God in their conscience, that small inner voice:

Romans 2:15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another

God spoke to Paul through his conscience:

Romans :1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,

Sure the word of God is sufficient in all ways, but a discerning person, will hear from God, through His inner witness. A thing I am sure you have experienced, your conscience, but just never known it was there.
 
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Stringfellow_Hawke

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THIS ^^^
 
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Tolworth John

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Two things.
1/ God will never tell you to go against what the bible teaches.
2/ God won't tell you to do what he has already told you to do in the bible.

God will never tell you to kill someone, or to teach that Jesus is not the only way to God.

God won't send you a message telling you to worship him, that is already taught in the bible.

As Romans 12: 1+2 teaches us we need bible biased brains, so keep on studying the bible.
 
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aiki

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My first post in this thread was made to encourage the OP not to think she must be going through life expecting a divine voice to speak to her at every turn. It can become very frustrating for believers to think they must hear such a voice but never do. Many believers also have no concrete, scriptural way to distinguish the inward communications of God to them from their own inner Self-talk, or, worse, the scheming counterfeits of the devil. In light of the fact that God has revealed His will to us very clearly in Scripture, it is quite unnecessary to strain to hear Him tell us His will by some "voice" in our heads.

Our conscience is not an inner voice. It is a moral sense, the "law of God written on our hearts" which, when we contravene it, we feel ill-at-ease, convicted of wrong-doing, guilty. It can be warped and seared and cease to operate as it should (1 Ti. 4:2; Ro. 1:28-32). Certainly, our conscience is no replacement for what God reveals to us of His will in the Bible.

Men are warned by God in their conscience, that small inner voice

I've never seen the conscience described in Scripture as a "small, inner voice." Men are also warned by God in His word.

God spoke to Paul through his conscience:

Romans :1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,

What Paul meant here is that his conscience was controlled and illuminated by the Holy Spirit, not that God spoke to him via his conscience. One's conscience can become seared and inoperable, so it is not a reliable avenue through which God could communicate His will.
 
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FutureAndAHope

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My first post in this thread was made to encourage the OP not to think she must be going through life expecting a divine voice to speak to her at every turn.

I 100% agree with this. We are not to expect God to speak to us every second of the day. But your hard line that God never speaks understandably today, that he now only speaks through His word is wrong. God can and does speak understandably.
 
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salt-n-light

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Perhaps your feeling of lost is more of a lack of confidence, because of there being an expectation to how to hear Him ,and it's not matching how you are actually experiencing God. I know there are many accounts of people describing an actual voice like how God reached out to Moses and stuff, and personally, I don't know how true those are today. What it means to listen to God's voice according to the Word would be is 1. to recognize His Word and 2. to obey Him.

John 10:27-28

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

So it requires to adhere, by acknowledging and meditating and understanding God's heart. So through study and prayer you're able to recognize Him.

It also requires a response to the Word. So in response to what God's will is and what He wants you to do, you do in obedience. Through obedience your reaction affects how things play out in life. This is how you see the hand of God. He directs your path, but you first have to be walking. He also works through convictions. This is how sinners get save as well. They acknowledge the truth, and then they respond in obedience. Discernment is a matter of deciphering what is of God's will and what is not which comes through the application of the Word.

So be confident that when you are responding to the Word, you are hearkening to God's voice. those who don't respond are spiritually dead.
 
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Any

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Wow thanks for sharing this. I have just gotten saved so I am still learning. Last week I felt really weird inside, in a spiritual way. I thought "okay I've been praying and I haven't been sinning (we all sin but I'm talking about a certain struggle) and then I just got a "thought" that was like "read the Bible." I read it and it helped me grow and realize I was dealing with pride. I knew that was God. Then sometimes during prayer when I am repenting I'll ask God to show me if there's something I forgot about. I usually get a flash of something. It sounds weird but it's like a "flash of clarity" then I know exactly what sin it was. Also when you feel conviction that's Gods voice. Gods voice does not condemn. I'd suggest OP should learn the difference between conviction and condemnation. I was struggling with that for awhile.
 
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proverbs3

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i did that and i felt those things but i got tempted and i sin and sin again and again and again now i'm back at the start T_T

btw i don't know those verses until i saw it in your post today
 
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aiki

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I 100% agree with this. We are not to expect God to speak to us every second of the day. But your hard line that God never speaks understandably today, that he now only speaks through His word is wrong. God can and does speak understandably.

I don't quite follow your thinking here. If God speaks through His word and His word is open to us today, is He not, then, speaking to us today? It seems so to me...

Now, I don't think God speaks into a person's mind directly with a distinct voice. He may, though, bring a verse of Scripture to mind, or guide our thoughts in a particular direction, or give us a strong impulse to action, but, generally, someone who says to me, "God told me, x, y, z," is full of baloney, I think.

I have asked people who make such a claim to explain how they know with certainty that God has spoken to them directly within their mind. It seems vital that they should be able to do so when it is so easy to mix up God's voice with one's own inner Self-talk, and when the devil is at work trying to get us to mistake the thoughts and ideas he plants into our minds for God's. The answer I get is invariably, "I just know" which is an answer we would reject out-of-hand if it came from the lips of, say, an atheist who was arguing for why God does not exist.

Can God speak directly into someone's mind? Of course. Does He do so on the near-constant basis that so many believers claim He does? So far, I see no good reason to think so and good reason from Scripture to think not. I am not, then, taking a "hard line" so much as I am simply taking a reasonable and scriptural line that "hard line" God-speaks-to-me-directly folk don't appreciate.
 
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Christgirl67

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Thank you for your stories.I have had instances similar to that,I guess I just expected a booming voice to come out of nowhere.But thank you,I will pay more attention to recognize that God's voice comes in many forms
 
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Christgirl67

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Thank you for the advice,I think maybe I just am not paying attention enough
 
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Christgirl67

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Thank you,I will pay more attention to the little things
 
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Christgirl67

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Thank you,I will continue to pray and read my bible to become familiar with God's voice
 
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Christgirl67

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Thank you.I think I was taking it as God would speak to me in a audible and loud voice,so I was confused over how does He speak
 
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Christgirl67

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Thank you,I understand what you mean.I think I have just been looking for some big sign,when in reality God does not speak that way
 
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Andrew77

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Thank you for your stories.I have had instances similar to that,I guess I just expected a booming voice to come out of nowhere.But thank you,I will pay more attention to recognize that God's voice comes in many forms

There you go girl. Just stick with that. Don't look for what G-d hasn't sent. Look for what he has. Simple enough?
 
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Christgirl67

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Thank you for explaining,that makes sense to me.I never thought about the fact the Holy Spirit will speak to my conscience to tell me right from wrong.I was just looking for a answer to be right in my face and obvious
 
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