Does God Talk to you?
I have a few simple questions to those who have some sort of relationship with God. This is not setting you up for ridicule - I really want to know.
- How does God talk to you? Do you hear an audible voice? Does God speak to you by testings and trials? A feeling?
- What sorts of things does he say? Do you check what you hear against God’s word (The Bible)? Have you ever heard anything that did not pass that test?
- Does he give you direction in life? How do you disinguish God’s wisdom in direction from your own wisdom? Is there a difference?
- How do you know it is God talking to you? How do you know it is not your own subconscious? How do you know it is not something else?
Thanks in advance for your replies.
April 11th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
“How does God talk to you?” (HIS)
The written word is more than sufficient - however - I have heard a voice once (but this seems to be quite the exception from my experience). I think the word speaks/interacts with us life experience (’word in the flesh’ idea).
“What sorts of things does he say? Do you check what you hear against God’s word (The Bible)? Have you ever heard anything that did not pass that test?” (HIS)
I take the bible as God’s word as revealed by people he choose to write it - so in that sense I really don’t need too much more. I have heard other’s make some weird claim’s about God’s voice - and in that - I have my reserved doubts until asked.
“Does he give you direction in life? How do you disinguish God’s wisdom in direction from your own wisdom? Is there a difference?” (HIS)
This is all goes back to an even simpler question ‘did I learn something from those teachings I never knew before?’. I would emphatically say ‘yes’. I have gained values that if I never pick up that bible to read I would never know. A great example being ‘love your enemies’. This isn’t exactly an idea picked up from parents, community, or my country (which is currently at war with a supposed enemy). However, the idea gets even deeper. It seems to me Jesus is saying ‘I don’t have enemies’ (a change of perspective is required on my part) - I just thought I did (due to my inability to see the goodness of God to all). Is this a value they teach us as kids or even now? The bible is filled with values exactly like that - which challenge an established belief I never took far enough.
“How do you know it is God talking to you? How do you know it is not your own subconscious? How do you know it is not something else?” (HIS)
I am fairly sure it is God since it is the words of the disciples I am reading - which all claim to be representative of Jesus’ teachings. I am aware of the difference between God’s word and subconscious on a very simple level - values I hold dear which I never knew before (prior to reading, studying, and then practicing them).
A great example (for me) is when I know 2 people that don’t like one another (thet argue or are about to fight). I step up get in the middle and try to get a peaceful resolve. I have always wondered where that instinct came from - to step in the middle of danger. It wasn’t quite the ideal I held prior to learning about ‘love your enemies or blessed are the peacemakers’ in the gospels - basically I was too scared to get involved before (coming from a physically abusive family - my dad). I think I did it once to live up to the Christ-ian teachings I was learning and it worked - and neither side was the worse for wear nor hated me for it. From there that trend has always stayed the same and I do it when 2 are banging heads over something (and don’t know how to stop). I guess I am concerned also that both people don’t destroy each other too (and have bitternesses that never get buried).
April 12th, 2007 at 1:10 am
HeIsSailing sez:
“How does God talk to you? Do you hear an audible voice? Does God speak to you by testings and trials? A feeling?”
I have never heard an audible voice from God. (by audible, I mean passing through my ear). I have heard God speak to me in words, just as people do. When people speak to me, my ear hears a sound, my brain receives the sound, and then it deciphers a meaning. God sometimes speaks to me using words (my brain receives the words, then deciphers the meaning) and sometimes just with meaning. At those times, I am aware that my mind is receiving information rather than generating it. It is often completely unconnected to my thoughts or my perspectives - a “leap” too long to be justified as my own subconscious coming to decision. At other times, I feel a pressure inside myself that is separate from myself. Sometimes, I have just a feeling. This one is the hardest to distinguish. If there is any risk involved, I never base a decision on a “feeling”. But a “feeling” can be useful in confirming another form of communication. Sometimes, something that I have read or heard before seems suddenly to have meaning that I didn’t “get” before. At first, this was the way God most often talked to me. I read the Bible, or some other book (not necessarily religious) or listened to someone and a thought just resonated. Often, the same meaning was repeated in other things I read or heard around the same time.
HeIsSailing sez:
“What sorts of things does he say? Do you check what you hear against God’s word (The Bible)? Have you ever heard anything that did not pass that test? ”
Sometimes he explains things I don’t understand. Other times its similar, in a mental sense, to what happens to your physical eyes when you’ve been looking at something from one perspective and suddenly you see it from the top, or from another view. (This is the same as what happens to a lesser degree lots of times when plain old humans talk to me, or I read a good book.) Sometimes he shows me where my thinking has been wrong in something. Sometimes he warns me about my attitude, or tells me how to fix a problem I’ve been worrying about. Sometimes it’s like he pulls back a curtain - for a second so short I can’t exactly remember what it was my mind “saw” - but I feel as though I’ve seen something so breath-takingly lovely, so wide, so deep that I can’t quite take it in, something I couldn’t begin to describe but would definitely recognize if I saw it again. I have a similar feeling when I stand at the ocean and look out - as if there’s something there can I can almost remember but not quite and I want to jump in and immerse myself in the water because that will bring me closer to that deep, wild, wonderful - thing - that I know on another level and can’t quite pull into my waking mind. At times like this, I am filled with awe and longing and deep resolve.
I do check things against the Bible, especially if I have any doubt about what is my thinking and what is God’s. I have not “heard” clearly anything that did not pass the test, but there are times I have had a hard time distinguishing between my own thinking and God’s. As I become more familiar with who God is, and more experienced in determining what is a pressure from God and what is my own feeling, there is less question. Things can give you a “bad feeling” that doesn’t necessarily come from God. But whenever I’ve been willing to be shown, God has made it clear.
Sometimes I’ve read a verse in the Bible and wondered if God was trying to give me some direction or if I just wanted it so bad that I made up my own understanding of it. Now I am much less inclined to accept unclear direction, since I know that God is able to make himself very clear. It is also much less confusing for me now because I am beginning to recognize God’s voice more readily.
I had a friend in high school who told me she was a lesbian. I had a “bad feeling” about that and thought that it was God telling me to back off from our friendship. I understand now that was my own discomfort with an issue I had never faced and come to terms with. Later, God showed me that he loves lesbians, and that my sin is no less ugly to him than hers. Today, if I saw that friend, I would give her a big hug. Then, I had a feeling. Now, I have an understanding.
HeIsSailing sez:
“Does he give you direction in life? How do you disinguish God’s wisdom in direction from your own wisdom? Is there a difference?”
God gives me direction in life. His wisdom is completely different from my own wisdom. My wisdom is sometimes blinded by emotion or desire. God’s wisdom is always clear - but often beyond me. I receive the direction, but it’s only later that I understand it. Sometimes I make a plan - a plan that matches my personality, and seems good and comfortable to me, but God says “No. Put your way of doing things in your pocket and do things my way.” A few years ago I was in a very difficult situation that I could have walked out of. I desperately wanted out, but I felt that God had brought me in, and couldn’t get any peace with leaving it. From a human perspective, there would have been nothing wrong in my going, and I 100% wanted out, but I felt the pressure of a “No.” from God. I had analysed my situation and made my plan of “escape”. There were many, many ways that God led me at that time, but I’ll tell you about one. I finally reached a point where I was utterly depressed and felt hopeless. I told God that he had promised me if I followed him, he would give me the best. I told him that not only did that not feel like the best, but I couldn’t imagine - and didn’t believe - that it could ever be worthwhile. I admitted that I knew this - even if God was giving me a crappy deal, it could only get worse if I did things my way. I told God I was going to stay, but not out of faith, only out of self-preservation. Then God told me, “Good. Remember then, when I show you what will make this worthwhile, that I’m not giving you a reward for your “great faith”. Remember that what I give you is because I give it. By following me, you’re just putting yourself in a place to receive it.” I still didn’t believe him, but later, I did remember what he said. Today, I can assure you that what I have learned and seen as a result of what was likely the hardest experience of my life is a thousand times worth it!
HeIsSailing sez:
“How do you know it is God talking to you? How do you know it is not your own subconscious? How do you know it is not something else?”
The most unmistakable way that God speaks is in direct meaning to my brain. If I don’t understand something, I have learned to ask him to explain. It’s the same experience as if someone is explaining something and understanding “dawns”. I love learning, and I especially love the feeling I get when I am studying something and the lights begin to go on. But learning something and having something explained is different. When I learn something myself, I can trace the path to the final realization. There are steps involved. When it is explained to me, there’s a big gap from “not knowing” to “knowing”. Also there’s a difference between the kind of work your brain does to figure something out and the kind of work it does to process information coming in.
I remember my first few years in university. It was my first real experience far away from home my family. Because there suddenly seemed to be so many possibilities in all the perspectives and different life experiences around me, I began to look at things differently. I began to question a lot deeper than I ever had before. One of my big questions was, “why me?” I have two parents who love me and each other. I have sisters and a brother with whom my relationships are close, stable, and supportive. My grandparents have prayed for me and loved me since before birth. My family is definitely not wealthy, not even middle-class, but I there I was in university getting the education my father would have loved. All told, I had about a billion times more than, oh, maybe 80% of the world. Why? I felt guilty. One day - I remember this clearly - I was sitting on the edge of my bed when God spoke into my brain in words, “I didn’t give you these things to make you comfortable - I gave you these things to make you fruitful. What energy you don’t have to spend on your family you need to spend on other people’s families. Through you, I will bless them.” I don’t even know if I was thinking about that at the time, but I understood immediately what God was talking about. His answer was vastly different from my own thought process.
There was one year of my life that God didn’t speak to me. I couldn’t hear him at all. When I read my Bible, it had no meaning, no resonance. When I prayed, I could almost feel the words I prayed hit the ceiling and come tumbling back down. I had no sense of God’s presence. Since then, I have come to value God’s speaking, and to listen for it. It is hard to create the kind of silence in a modern life that makes it easier to distinguish God’s voice from myriad voices of other people, other pressures, my own wants. Sometimes I ask God to yell over my clamorous thoughts and let me know clearly what he wants. Sometimes he doesn’t yell, and I just have to choose priorities and make the time to listen. He doesn’t bark everytime I rattle his chain. But he tells me what I need to know, when I need to know it, often in different ways, whenever I am willing to listen. He counters my fears with reason. He comforts my heart better than my mother. He opens up my mind to consider things I normally could never consider. He tells me I’m wrong and shows me how I’m wrong. My subconscious has never done that.
The person who speaks to me matches perfectly the God revealed in the Bible. He surprises me, makes me angry, makes me laugh.
Above all, he gives me explanations of himself that are consistent and reasonable to my mind. They match what I already know, and they match what I learn. In every other area of learning, I sometimes have to “unlearn” as my understanding changes. But when God reveals himself to me, he may only reveal part, but he never goes back and revises. Consistency is, for me, the best test of what can be trusted.
I have not done this question justice. There are a million more things to explain - I just don’t know where to start.
April 12th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Here are a couple of links to essays where the authors claim, as I cannot, to have heard the voice of God:
My Conversation with God
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/march/2.44.html
The Morning I Heard God’s Voice
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/aprilweb-only/115-22.0.html
April 12th, 2007 at 11:02 am
**How does God talk to you? Do you hear an audible voice? Does God speak to you by testings and trials? A feeling?**
It varies. There have been times when I’ve been sitting somewhere, and ‘heard’ my father call my name. Only my dad was at work. Other times, it was an impression that was almost beyond words, yet I knew what the words were.
**What sorts of things does he say? Do you check what you hear against God’s word (The Bible)? Have you ever heard anything that did not pass that test?** Since I see the Bible more as man’s response to God, that’s not as important to me. I see my encounters with God measuring up to the spirit of the New Testament, in terms of God being love.
**Does he give you direction in life? How do you disinguish God’s wisdom in direction from your own wisdom? Is there a difference?
How do you know it is God talking to you? How do you know it is not your own subconscious? How do you know it is not something else? ** Direction, yes. I’ll give you an example from the last time. I’ve kind of been having a disagreement with someone I know, and want to convince her that I’m right (who doesn’t ;)) Well, while at work one day, this ‘impression’ broke through to me. It was one of those things that was ‘above words,’ yet I knew the impression was telling me it doesn’t matter who’s right or who’s wrong, things like that don’t change what Is. Human opinions and human concepts of right/wrong don’t affect that. And then the impression went away, and I was back to ‘normal.’ I believe it was God, because it was like I went outside of myself for a second. So I don’t see how it could be my own wisdom, because before that impression, I wasn’t willing to let my desire to be right go.
April 12th, 2007 at 11:40 am
as a christian for 25 years I always thought that it was god’s “voice” that was guiding me. now my personal struggle is just as you mentioned; how can I know it is god or just me? if it is god, why can my non-christian friends, even those who are atheist make on average the same type of decisions (good or bad) that I do? I guess lately I just don’t see my faith/prayer giving me much of an advantage.
just a personal struggle relating to the subject. thanks for the blog
R
April 12th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
“Conversations” with God are identical with conversations a person has with themselves. While personal reflection and meditation may be useful in evaluating a situation by looking at it in new ways – no new actual information is ever revealed. Whether a person reflects or prays, they only work with the information that they already have.
For example, someone may be considering a career change by taking a position with Acme Corporation. “Talking” with God will not reveal the vital fact that Acme is in the process of filing for bankruptcy – but an actual conversation with an actual person just might.
April 12th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Jennypo stated almost exactly what my response was gong to be to the question, Does God talk to you?
**I am aware that my mind is receiving information rather than generating it. It is often completely unconnected to my thoughts or my perspectives - a “leap” too long to be justified as my own subconscious coming to decision. At other times, I feel a pressure inside myself that is separate from myself. **
That deserves repeating also. When I am alone in prayer and I let go of my agitations I have received such information many times. The fascinating thing is that my own intuition is wrong more often than it is right. I’ve come back from praying thinking “Hey, I’ve been smacked back into place.”
Constantly studying the Word enhances this experience, which is another reason why I believe it to be the Word of God. Every week in bible study there is some new understanding that I didn’t have or understood wrongly before.
Another way God speaks to me is through other people. One example: I used to struggle with how to treat a bum who’s asked me for money. I was embarrassed once when the homeless man bought beer with my five bucks right in front of me. The cashier scolded me for that. The next time a bum asked me for money, I asked him what he needed - he said beer and food. So I said, “I can’t get you beer so I’ll get you food.” On the way out I handed him two taquitos and he thanked me. I forgot to say the usual “that’s on Jesus’ account” (instead I said “no problem”). On my way to my car, the man shouted, “Hey!” I turned around and he said “God bless you!” God was more or less saying, OK, now that’s the way to do it.
So there. God speaks to me by speaking directly to my mind, speaking through His Word, and speaking through the voices of other people.
Heather said**Since I see the Bible more as man’s response to God, that’s not as important to me. I see my encounters with God measuring up to the spirit of the New Testament, in terms of God being love.**
Man’s response to God, or God’s response to man? If the former were true, wouldn’t the Bible read as if it was from man’s point of view? Wouldn’t the powerful kings and patriarchs of the OT be portrayed in a less embarrassing light if it was written from man’s point of view? Don’t like the OT? How do you explain the ridiculous impression the disciples leave of themselves? Why do the stories of the Bible embarrass the very people who wrote them?
April 12th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
to hear gods voice as Jim and Heather claim, one still needs faith in what you can’t see or explain. In Jim’s bum story, Jim heard god, while the guy who gave him a beer after you left heard a bum say thank you. I guess that brings us back to HIS original question…how do you know for sure? For some of us, the faith to say “yea that was god and not just a bum saying thank you” frankly just doesn’t seem to be there most days.
April 12th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
**Why do the stories of the Bible embarrass the very people who wrote them? ** Because they were humble? And honest with themselves and others? Some men/women do write themselves in an embarrasing light while not guided by God, because they want others to see the learning experience. The entire point of the Bible is to show that God heals broken people — which is difficult to come across if everyone writes themselves as perfect. the writers honestly might not’ve cared how they came across: the point was to show what God was like, no matter where the person was or what the person had done.
**how do you know for sure? For some of us, the faith to say “yea that was god and not just a bum saying thank you” frankly just doesn’t seem to be there most days. ** Some days, I do know for sure, and other days, I’m where you are. I just don’t see that I would be capable of generating some of the responses I get, such as my ‘impression’ example. But there are days when I wonder if I’m preconceiving myself to see something as God’s response.
April 12th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Heather,
In retrospect, the Bible describes both man’s response to God and God’s response to man, so I guess we’re both right. I’ve also thought of it as an interactive language game with God as the moderator…
Radec
Jim’s bum story? Man, that does not sound good.
April 13th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
I have wanted to comment here since you posted, but I have been working sooo much. This truly is an issue that I feel I can discuss capably, because it is a practical one, and not so much an intellectual one. Of course, there is intellect involved. But it is more spiritual.
God has chosen to speak to us firstly through His word - the Bible. It is His communication to us. Through the Bible, we are able to learn the character of God. With this knowledge, we can distinguish between God’s “voice” and our own thoughts. Not that we can ever say that we now know the character of God. He is too vast, His character too deep for us to have “achieved knowledge” of Him. This is why the best way to learn His character is by reading about His interactions with others. When I read a biography or an autobiography of someone, I learn more about that person than if they just described themselves and stated their beliefs or value systems. “Seeing it in action” is what reveals their character. This is true of God in the Bible.
Often God gives me understanding of things that I didn’t understand. I ask Him and they become clear to me with no other outside influences. One could argue that I “discovered the knowledge I needed inside myself”, but I find that takes as much faith as believing the clarity comes from God. All of my experiences with communication from God are very easy to “explain away” and yet, I am certain they are from Him. One of my favorite times God communicated directly to me happened about 4 years ago. I was in the midst of post-partum depression. I had begun to read a book that encouraged me greatly. This book showed me the necessity of seeking God for myself; the importance of relating to Him as myself, not as a mother or wife or anything else. I was on my way to visit my aunt and uncle - an hour and a half drive. It was a rainy afternoon and my two girls were asleep in the backseat. So, prompted by the book I had been reading, I turned off the radio and talked aloud to God. At first I thought I would just try it - out loud wasn’t the norm for me, and I figured I would run out of things to say after a few minutes. But the more I prayed out loud, the more I felt I had to share. It was a good exercise (even from a psychologist’s point of view, I’m sure) to air out my frustrations and worries, and I held them up before the very Throne of Heaven. After and hour and about ten minutes I had nothing left to pray about. I had shared everything I could possibly worry about or care about with God. Most importantly, my children and their futures, the depression I was still struggling to comprehend - everything. Within seconds of realizing I had nothing left, I had prayed about everything I could possibly pray about, the sun came out and I was driving inside the arc of the most amazing rainbow I have ever seen. It was so close. I was filled with awe and deep peace that God had heard my every word and had given this “promise” that He loved me. This “sign” that God heard me was a special circumstance; I was in the middle of the most difficult thing I have ever experienced - depression. Usually, I just know that God is listening - I don’t need a sign, and I didn’t expect one that day, but He gave me that beautiful symbol as a promise that He always hears my prayers. Often God speaks so quietly and without physical evidence. He can teach me things with nothing at all - just pushing thoughts into my brain. And the more I listen to Him/for Him, the more I realize He is speaking all the time.
One of my favorite books - the one that taught me a lot about how real and practical God’s answers to prayer are - is the autobiography of Hudson Taylor (a missionary to China - He started the China Inland Mission). Hudson Taylor didn’t just believe that God could meet all of his physical needs, he tested it! He stepped out into situations where he had no “backup plan” and allowed God to show him how real He really is. I read this book as a young girl (in my early teens) and I’m sure it taught me to expect God to answer my prayers (not always, actually not usually, in the way I expect, but always answered).
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