To know the times of God we must hear the voice of God. To hear the voice of God we must spend time in the Word of God. To know if God is speaking to you, you have to learn the voice of God and the nature of God.
If you can’t figure out if God is speaking to you then you haven’t put enough Word in your heart. God will always speak to you according to and matching His word. If it doesn’t match or if it glories anyone or anything other than God…it’s not God.
Romans 8:14 (KJV) 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
God wants to speak to us. If you can’t hear God, it’s because you have chosen NOT to hear Him. those who are led by God, those who allow Him to direct their path do hear from God.
If you are praying and reading the word, seeking to know who God is, you will hear Him speak to you. If you choose to run your own life and you don’t want to do God’s will, you will not hear Him. Either way the choice to hear Him or not is yours.
How do you know it is God speaking?
I heard it said many years ago that the first voice you hear is Satan’s, the second voice is flesh, and the last voice is God’s. I am not so sure that is true, but it does make the point that there is more than one voice going on in your head. One thing is for sure if the voice is telling you something that will embarrass you or make you think people will laugh at you, that is probably God’s. Pay attention.
The scripture says Satan appears as an angel of light and his ministers as righteousness. When Satan or his imps come talking to you it will always be in a condemning or demeaning voice. Such as you are not good enough for that, you are too weak, and people will think you are stupid, who do you think you are?
When it is your flesh talking it will be saying things like, this will make you look good, this is what you really wanted, who cares what they think, but this feels good I like it, it doesn’t take all that, that is not really necessary. Flesh is not going to heaven. Flesh stays here, so flesh wants what it wants now. It never cares what the spirit wants. Flesh always focuses on feelings. Pay attention to what the thoughts are asking you to do.
God will speak to you as a thought. You will have a thought to read the Bible or spend a bit of time in prayer. You can be sure that is not the devil and in most cases it’s not your flesh talking. When the thought is “let’s see what’s on Facebook today…” that is not God.
The voice of God will always lead you close to him. Draw you to spend time with Him or to help one of His children to draw closer to Him. God will never lead you to waste time on frivolous things.
John 10:27-28 (KJV) 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.
Romans 10:17 (KJV) 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Luke 6:46 (KJV) 46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
How does being filled with the Holy Ghost help you understand God?
John explains that while Jesus walked the Earth the people around Him could hear His words but did not understand their deeper meaning of them. They heard the parables, but they were just good stories to them. They didn’t have the understanding to apply the meaning of the parables to their life. Jesus was speaking the truth in every word He said but the hearer was deaf to spiritual meaning. Ten days after Jesus ascended to sit on the throne of God, the Holy Ghost was poured out in the upper room.
The Holy Ghost within us is a teacher. The Spirit leads us to spend time with God, to learn to know Him, and to listen to His words and understand them. The Holy Ghost will point out the differences between Satan talking, your flesh talking, and God talking. The Holy Ghost within us is how God identifies us as a child of His who has listened to His Word and hears His voice.
John 16:12-15 (KJV) 12 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. 14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 15 All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
Does Satan still talk to humans?
Yes, he does and so does the angels he turned into demons. Satan started out talking to Eve to tell her “God didn’t really say that”. He uses the same tricks today. His goal is to fool us by twisting God’s word. If you don’t know the word, he can twist it on you.
There is nothing in the Bible that tells us Satan doesn’t have access to talk to God today. We know he talks to us and accuses us of stuff HE TALKED us into doing. Pay attention to who is talking to you. Know the word so Satan can’t twist it to suit his plans.
1 John 4:1-3 (KJV) 1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
Job 1:6-7 (KJV) Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. 7 And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Note that in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 Paul explains that Satan will talk to you and pretend to be God or a minister from God. He will try to trick you into believing what he says is true. However, if you match what you know of the Word and what you know of God the difference is easy to see.
Also, note these evil false ministers are usually humans talking in your ear. Take heed what you hear and how you hear. Satan will use the voices of people around you to beat you down and keep you in fear. If you fear, you can’t have faith. Faith and fear can’t exist in the same mind.
Hearing the voice of God and walking by His direction builds faith and kills fear. Listening to God builds confidence in Him and in His Word, and in yourself.
Mark 4:23-25 (KJV) 23 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. 24 And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. 25 For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.
2 Corinthians 11:13-15 (KJV) 13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
Romans 7:18-24 (KJV) 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
