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Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer

Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer

by Parker · 44 things on Twos

How to Recognize When God is Speaking
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As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut. ... After all, God is in heaven, and you are here on earth. So let your words be few. - Ecclesiastes 5:1
If you want to hear, you have to listen.
It all starts here: if we want to be able to sense His direction, we must slow down, quiet our hearts, and listen for the way His Spirit communicates.
Have you sincerely taken time to hear, to see, to wait, to watch—to allow for the margins that would give God an opportunity to offer you that which you claim to desire so earn-estly? Or have you already filled in every conceivable space with your own opinions, ideas, decisions, and actions— space that God might otherwise fill with His perfectly timed and pre-cisioned and personal insight?
So make time to spend with Him. He is waiting to speak to you-to anyone who truly wants to hear Him, anyone who calls out to Him. Anyone who listens.
Write down the current issues in your life that you need to discern God's will regarding. As you go through this book, use your list as a ref-erence. Scale back on what you will "do" during your devotional time so you can leave room to "be" with God. Deal authoritatively with distractions so you can concentrate on the task of listening. When something comes to mind, write it down and then set it aside. Allow for and accept "God margins" in all areas of your life. Relax instead of trying to fill in every space with your own ideas, decisions, and actions.
Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? I Corinthians 3:16
Oficial Warning: If you're not prepared to begin responding in obedience to the voice of God, please don't read any further.
The Spirit's ability to see what we cannot, and then communicate information to us based on His knowledge, provides us with insight we could never obtain through onboard instruments alone. And yes, sometimes what He asks of us puts us in a place of discomfort that at the time seems unnecessary from our vantage point, but trusting Him and responding to Himis always in our best inter-est.
He's in you. This means that listening to Him is an exercise in hearing from within—not being directed by external stimuli that divert your attention away fromHis direction.
All human beings, saved or not, are composed of three parts: body, soul, and spirit. Your body is the material part of you—the part that ages and wears out over timeyour hands and feet, skin and bones, the various organs that transfer blood and nerve signals and regulate all your physical systems. Your soul consists of your mind, will, and emotions; those elements that make you a unique individual with a distinct personality. Your ambitions, inner uniqueness, and emotional tendencies— each of these traits that others can readily recognize about you comes from your soul. Also enmeshed in this area of your makeup is your conscience. It is the moral regulator of the soul and is innate to every human being. It is what gives you a sense of right and wrong and communicates information that affects your thoughts, desires, and feelings about certain decisions, things to avoid, and activities to steer clear of. Your spirit is the true essence of who you are. More than just your visible identity or personality, your spirit is the part of you that longs for connection with a higher spiritual being. This hunger for God and greatness that's innate in every person-the human spirit —is what sets us apart from all other components of His creation. "We know that there is no real satisfaction, no real rest, except in Christ Himself. God made us with a God-shaped vac-uum, and nothing will ever fill that vacuum except God," Elisabeth Elliot has said, and many others have expressed the sentiment.
Though it can be useful as a general guide, it's far from being airtight and infallible because our conscience is initially shaped only by things we absorb from the outside-like our own life experiences, personal environ-ments, family traditions, firsthand exposures. So it's faulty at best. Though certainly helpful and accurate at points, our conscience has been seared by sin, shaped by varying sources and made susceptible to corruption by others. It is not the voice of God.
When "for some reason" you felt a sense of "rightness" or "wrongness" about hanging out with those people or taking on that opportunity, for example, there was just "something" in your gut compelling you one way or the other. That something is your con-science—steering you, directing you, and compelling you toward a particular decision.
The Holy Spirit works in tandem with our conscience.
I cannot control the voice of God or how it comes. I can only control my "ears"-my readiness to listen and quickness to respond. - Philip Yancey
Paul simply says to give your body to God —make this one basic, catchall decision-and then live in the "victory" that's already been won for you by the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57).
GiveHim your hands to do His work, your feet to walk His path, your back and shoulders to perform His ministry.
In the meantime, give Him your hands to do His work, your feet to walk His path, your back and shoulders to perform His ministry, your sexual members to enjoy His purity, your ears to hear His voice. Where you once allowed your body to partake in all kinds of sinful, rebellious activity, now you "present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God" (Romans 6:13).
And the more you do this-the more sensitive you become to the Spirit's prompting, the more successes He enables you to accomplish over your willful, demanding flesh-then the easier this all becomes, the more complete the miracle, the more direct the communication between your inside and your outside. The better you hear His voice and want to fol-low.
The more you immerse yourself in the Word, the more closely your thoughts, emotions, and decisions will align with what the Spirit is saying to you and the more your flesh will lose its power and strength.
We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28
To be clear, every need you see doesn't mean you've been personally called to be the solution. Don't be codependent enough to think that every problem is necessarily yours to fix or get involved in.
By God's grace, each miscalculation is another opportunity He transforms into your greatest teacher for hearing Him in the future.
When He gives you a personal message-and He will!— don't hold others accountable to it, as though it's some global statement that applies to all believers, as if you've now become the legalistic guardian of everyone else's conscience.
Each man and woman is responsible for following the Lord according to the way God has personally led them, bringing glory and honor to Him by their obedience to His instructions. Our job is not to judge others but to give our fellow believers the freedom to be who the Lord has led them to be, while being sure we're following God's individualleading in our own lives.
But-"remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it" (James 4:17NLT). This is where it really gets personal.
When discerning whether what you are sensing is based on fear, guilt, or intimidation, or whether its foundation is the love, care, and concern of your loving Father.
Look for the message of the Spirit. Tune in to His peace signal. See if it's there. Find out if He's dispatching assurance and confidence that's working itself up through your mind, will, and emotions, even to your physical senses. If you're really not sure what to do, that alone is probably enough to tell you not to do anything yet.
When it comes to discerning His voice, always remember ... Peace rules.
Let us aimfor harmony in the church and try to build each other up. Don't tear apart the work of God over what you eat. Remember, all foods are acceptable, but it is wrong to eat something if it makes another person stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything else if it might cause another believer to stumble. Romans 14:19- 21NLT
So before you "do anything else," as Paul said, think of how your actions will affect them, because pursuing peace and building each other up are much more important than your personal freedoms.
"You see, Son, it's important for the moth to struggle like this, or else it'll never be able to reach its full potential," I told him. "Unless it builds itself up by battling its way out of the cocoon, it'll never develop that beautiful wingspan or the leg strength to survive. If it gets out too early, without fighting through, it'll be crippled the rest of its life."
The challenge is part of the plan.
Satan's goal is to keep you in the cocoon— weak, effortless, lazy. He would not ask you to struggle out, and he certainly doesn't want you to experience the fullness of God's power. Your ego, likewise, would not ask you to do anything that might cause you embarrassment or a blow to your self-image. Fear will present an option that keeps you protected and safe instead of inviting you into the risky unknowns of God's will.
So when a thought comes to you out of left field, consider- before you dismiss it-that it might be God's thought for you. Don't just ignore it. Check inward to see if the Holy Spirit is encouraging you to pursue it despite the challenge it presents.
God will provide where He guides. It is better for you to choose the challenging road—if God is in it— than to select the route that is easier and more convenient but lacks the presence and power of God.
Remember this: (1) Your ego will present an option designed to keep your self-image intact. (2) Your fear will present the route of safety, free from the risks often required to tap into divine reserves. (3) Your Enemy will offer ease and comfort to keep you from accessing God's supernatural resources. (4) Your flesh will hope to appease itself and satisfy its own desires. Peace and challenge can coexist. You can have an internal assurance about God's directives and still encounter external challenge and diffi-culty.
Keep coming back to these questions when you're not sure how God is leading you: (1) Will it contradict the truth found in Scripture? (2) Will it cause me to indulge in sin of any kind? (3) Will it encourage me to hypocritically cover up my sin? (4) Will it give glory to God by magnifying His truth to the people involved? Strongholds block divine reception. Pinpoint any you may have, and then specifically target them for destruction with the weapons of specifically tailored Scripture.
Wait and hope for and expect the Lord; be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and enduring. Yes, wait for and hope for and expect the Lord. - Psalm 27:14AMP
Wake up expecting. Arrive expecting. Come expecting. Live expecting. Never stop ... Expecting.
For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay. Habakkuk 2:3
That's where God wants you to be-eagerly anticipating Him, moving as He moves, watching as He directs. He may lead you into challenge and difficulty. He may guide you smack-dab into a new opportunity and responsibility. Or He may open before you a season of rest, re-freshment, and celebration. But those are only the details. The beauty of it all is that you're going there with Him, sure of His provision, tuned in to His larger purposes, and expecting more all the time from the One who blesses His children "according to the riches of His grace" (Ephesians 1:7).