THE VOICE ON THE PHONE was not unfamiliar. She announced she had a message for me from God. I, as well as others, had heard her claim to be a prophetess. Since that gift is not emphasized in our congregation, and because of some unusual quirks of her personality, I considered her one of God’s strange people who occasionally flow through a church family.
Without pausing to inquire if I were interested, she launched into a detailed pronouncement that my wife, Julie, and I would soon suffer a divorce. I had neglected my wife, she said, and failed to build the kind of marriage relationship God intended for pastors. The penalty would be the forfeiture of my marriage.
I knew enough not to laugh out loud or question her sanity or tell her what she could do with her message. I thanked her for calling and hung up.
Could God really be speaking through her? What if she were right? Does God still speak through prophets and prophetesses today? What would they sound like if he did? Would be ever choose someone like her?
The pages of Scripture are filled with stones of unusual people who did strange things under the guise of “Thus saith the Lord.” But there was some truth in what she said. What pastor ever spends enough time with his family? Julie and I talked often about the sacrifices of ministry—not the least of which were the sacrifices we made in our marriage. We knew that when outside pressures demanded our full attention, we could put our marriage on hold for weeks at a time, knowing the immediate pressures would not last forever. When things settled down, a few days of conscious recovery brought quick healing and restoration.
Nevertheless, few marriages are strong enough to withstand many of those times without some damage. Had we put things on hold once too often? Was God now upset and getting personally involved? Surely not. I placed a call to one of my spiritual advisers.
“Charles, I need your advice,” I said. “I’m 99 percent sure her message was not from God. But help me verify for certain so I can move on to something else. I don’t want to sit around worrying about this.”
“When God warned of doom in the Bible,” he said, “he usually provided a means for avoiding the consequences—often by repentance and/or restitution. Did the warning give any hope for reconciling the marriage and avoiding the divorce?”
“No.”
“Then the message was not from God.”
How does a person know whether he or she really heard from God?
While God speaks in many ways, he provides an internal spiritual organ known as the human spirit that, when properly cultivated, is dependable in hearing God speak. In Faith—Tried and Triumphant, 1 D. Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote about various ways God communicates, and then he described a more mystical approach:
Then God sometimes answers directly in our spirit. The prophet said, “I will watch and see what he will say in me.” God speaks to me by speaking in me. He can so lay something upon the mind that we are certain of the answer. He can impress something upon our spirits in an unmistakable manner. We find ourselves unable to get away from an impression that is on our mind or heart; we try to rid ourselves of it, but back it comes. So does God answer at times.
I believe there is nothing mystical about the Holy Spirit’s speaking to my human spirit. In fact, I believe this is the most normal and consistent means by which God communicates. Shortly after graduating from seminary, my wife, Julie, and I prayed for an opportunity to pastor in a place with many non-Christians and not many churches. Since there were more than thirty-five churches within a three-mile radius of my home church in Dallas, we sensed we were needed elsewhere. One Sunday afternoon the phone rang as I was leaving to fly to Denver to candidate at a church. The caller was from Tucson: “We have your résumé. Would you fly out and interview with our church next week?”. she asked.
We talked for several moments until I had to excuse myself. I had to catch the plane to Denver.
While talking on the phone with Doris, I felt God tell me I would become pastor of that church in Tucson. I hung up and turned to Julie: “I’m going on to Denver, but God just told me we’re going to pastor in Tucson.”
Julie smiled, “I know. While you were talking, he told me the same thing.”
A week later Julie and I were on a plane to Tucson, and we have served that church for more than twenty years with never a doubt that it was the place to which God had called us.
People sometimes ask, “How did you know for sure Tucson was where God wanted you?”
I don’t try to explain all about the human soul and spirit. I usually say, “Have you ever had the experience where deep down inside you just knew what to do—where God gives you impressions, encouragement, and advice?”. I see a light of recognition in their eyes.
Then I continue, “I call that place my ‘knower.’ Down deep in my ‘knower,’ I knew what God wanted.”
The Bible term for “knower” is the “human spirit.” I have discovered that God delights to communicate with me deep in my spirit.
I have learned to be careful when listening for the voice of God. His is not the only voice that speaks. I don’t want to be misled by my imagination, and I certainly do not care to be fooled by Satan’s temptations, accusations, or deceits. Whenever I sense what may be a word from God, I refuse to accept it until I carefully consider whether I am hearing from God, myself, or Satan. My overriding principle is simple: I don’t do anything until I am certain who is speaking.
Over the years I have developed a checklist of what I think God’s voice sounds like. The following list paints in broad strokes and is certainly not complete or foolproof. No one point is sufficient to prove the voice of God.
1. God speaks in my innermost spirit. Satan and I speak in my soul or human mind. As I mature spiritually, my increasing spiritual experience and discernment allow me to distinguish better between my soul and my spirit. My understanding is that God himself takes up residence deep in my inner spirit during conversion. There he lives and speaks. Self and Satan have access to my mind, but God alone has access to my innermost human spirit. Following the guidelines of Hebrews 4:12, I quiet my mind and allow the Word of God to divide between soul and spirit. As I listen for God to speak deep within, I try to discern whether what I hear emanates from my soul (my mind) or from my inner human spirit.
What originates from my mind, I take to be from either self or Satan. What comes from deep in my inner spirit can only be from God. I do not take this first guideline lightly or flippantly. Discerning between soul and spirit requires patience, practice, and careful cultivation.
2. God tends to speak with gentle leadings. Remember how God spoke to Elijah? He was not in the swirling wind, the violent earthquake, or the raging fire. When all was still, God spoke with a gentle whisper (1 Kings 19:11-13).
I remember being pressured by a pushy used-car salesman to buy a car I really wanted. He told me, “I have another couple who want this car, too. They are trying to arrange financing right now. They could return at any minute. If you want this car, you need to make an offer quickly.”
Not liking that kind of pressure, I turned my back and calmly walked away.
My experience is that God seldom pushes and drives and demands like an aggressive, assertive used-car salesman. The Word of God is open to reason. God seldom urges sudden action without giving us time to think through the issues. I try to differentiate between the promptings of God and my drive to fulfill my hurried agenda.
3. God’s voice produces freedom. In Matthew 11:30, Jesus says, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” I was sitting high up on Skyline Drive overlooking the city of Tucson one evening, when I felt an overwhelming burden to reach the city for Christ. I used to pray for big burdens like that—but not anymore. Our city needs to be reached for Christ, but God has called many pastors to share in the work. If I am not careful, I can feel frustrated by biting off more ministry than God intends for me to chew.
I have known pastors whose burdened attitudes for some community or group are more hindrance than help. They live so full of guilt that no one wants to be around them. Satan loves to put people into bondage; God loves to set them free.
4. God tends to speak when I am seeking him. Jeremiah reported God as saying: “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:12-13).
After the first three months, the church I was newly pastoring filled to capacity. We had space problems and no clear options. I was getting ready to preach one Sunday when the answer came. I walked to the pulpit, and on the spur of the moment I announced that God had just told me the answer to our overcrowded worship problems. He wanted us to remodel our fellowship hall into worship space. At the close of the service, the deacon who oversaw construction of both our worship chapel and fellowship hall handed me a tape measure from the back of his truck.
“Here, I’ll loan you this for a week,” he said. “Why don’t you measure and see if God is really the one behind your proposal.” He winked as he left.
So I measured the fellowship hall and discovered that it was only two feet wider and four feet longer than the chapel—hardly enough room to make remodeling worthwhile. The next Sunday I walked to the pulpit and informed the people that God had changed his mind. Everybody had a good laugh, and I learned a lesson. Both self and Satan may inject thoughts and impressions into my mind when I’m not consciously seeking God. Both tend to speak with sudden intrusions of thoughts into the mind. But God’s voice is heard when I diligently listen for it.
5. When God is speaking, there is a sense that everything is under control. God wants us in control of our faculties and decisions. God related that “the spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets” (1 Cor. 14:32). Paul warns that Satan wants to ensnare and control people when he speaks in 2 Timothy 2:24-26 of the hope that “they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.” When self and Satan speak, there is an inner sense that something is out of control.
6. God gives specific directions. In my pastoral role, people often approach me for help in discerning God’s will. Many times I sense God has already told them his intentions. I do not hesitate to ask, “God’s already told you exactly what to do, hasn’t he?”. Many times they smile and nod sheepishly. I clarify some of the specifics and do my best to ascertain that there are no hidden issues or agendas. Then I encourage them to proceed with what they have heard.
On other occasions, people feel confused when they share what they think God said. “Then don’t do anything at all,” I say. “If you are not certain, either God has not spoken or you have not heard clearly. God is not the author of confusion.” Satan and self, however, often communicate in confused, uncertain wonderings. But when God speaks, there is no doubt about what to do.
7. God convicts of specific sins. John 16:8 teaches that the Holy Spirit “will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.” My experience is that when God convicts of sin, his voice is quite specific: Yesterday at two p.m. you did this. I know exactly what I did and when I did it.
Satan and self, on the other hand, often accuse in broad generalities, leaving me with an unfocused sense of haunting guilt centered around poor choices, questioned priorities, unfinished responsibilities, or unmet expectations. It took years in the ministry before I figured this out. Now when I feel accused or have a nagging sense of unspecified guilt, I pause and consider why I feel so guilty. If there is not a definite sense of conviction about a specific sin, I know the feelings are not from God’s Spirit. They emanate from the “accuser of our brothers” (Revelation 12:10)—or from other internal, personal issues that need attention.
8. God speaks with 100 percent truth that can be tested by the Word of God. Once a young woman related to me how God had led her to plan marriage with a man who was not a Christian. When I pointed out in the Bible that God said Christians were not to be unequally yoked to unbelievers, she responded, “But I know God spoke to me and told me to marry him.” She was unimpressed when I reasoned with her that God would not say one thing in the Bible and another to her. The voice we hear inside is always open for testing and comparison with the truths of the Bible. Satan and self often traffic in lies, deceit, and half-truths.
Filtering my thoughts for truth and error is a constant exercise for me. I find it easy to lie to myself. I can preach what I consider to be a poor sermon and berate myself with thoughts like I am the worst preacher who ever preached.
Is that true? No. The truth is, maybe last Sunday was not my best, but, thankfully, I have another chance next week.
I can come home after a demoralizing elders meeting and feel isolated and alone. Nobody loves me, I think. Is this true? No. This is not God speaking. I am speaking lies to myself. Julie loves me. My mother loves me. God loves me. There are a lot of people who love me. I can forget an important surgery and know I lost points with an influential family. Soon I am telling myself, I can’t do anything right. Is this true? No. I do lots of things right.
I want no lies or half-truths in my mind. Life is hard enough to handle with the truth; it is impossible to navigate successfully when the mind is filled with lies and deceit.
9. God’s voice always leads to a deep, abiding sense of peace. I believe that “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7). When God speaks I have a deep sense of peace.
When I played basketball, the referee’s whistle stopped everything. I consider the peace of God to be like a referee with his whistle. When I am not hearing God clearly, the Holy Spirit blows his whistle to stop the game with a lack of peace and stirring unrest in my inner being. On the other hand, when I am playing well, the game proceeds smoothly and I have a deep sense of peace.
The spiritual adviser test
Of course, the above guidelines are just that—guidelines. I never act solely on the basis of what I hear in my inner spirit. I seek counsel from trusted advisers who help me verify if I am on the right track. “Many advisers make victory sure” (Prov. 11:14), wrote Solomon with good common sense. “A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses” (Deut. 19:15; Matt. 18:16) taught both Moses and Jesus, with good reason. These verses remind me never to strike out in word or in action without first testing what I think God has said with trusted spiritual advisers.
Several years after coming to Tucson, the stress and responsibility of a growing church precipitated in me a major crisis of confidence. I wondered if perhaps it was time to leave the ministry and find a new career. Weeks of prayer and seeking God left me confused; I concluded that my career in full-time ministry was over. I took my family to my parents’ home in Dallas, where I grew up, to rest and sort through the issues before making a final decision. My dad and I went golfing one afternoon and were walking down the fourteenth fairway when I got the courage to mention my struggles. He was retired and spent many days playing golf for fun and enjoyment. He said nothing until we neared our drives in the middle of the fairway. Then he turned to me and said, “Whenever I reach a point where my golf game is struggling, I don’t go buy a tennis racket and take up tennis. I get a golf lesson from the pro and work to become a better golfer.”
I knew in an instant God had spoken. I would not sell insurance. I would seek advice and hone my skills and develop the expertise needed to pastor—and survive.
It used to bother me when one of my ideas was shot down in a meeting with church leaders—especially when I felt God had spoken. But now the words “Roger, you really don’t want to do that” are no longer a threat. Instead, I often see them as the reasoned voice of wise counselors who help me understand what God is—and isn’t—saying.
I want to hear God speak. I want to recognize God’s voice and not be deceived by Satan’s voice or my own. Undoubtedly, I will make mistakes in recognizing God’s voice. However, the only thing worse than making mistakes is not listening for him in the first place. Now whenever someone calls or corners me at the door after church, and announces that they have a word from the Lord for the church or for me, I ask them how they know the message came from God. I find my checklist most helpful in carefully evaluating their response!
D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, Faith—Tried and Triumphant (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1994), 30.
Copyright © 1998 Roger Barrier
