How God Speaks to Us

(2024) How God Speaks to Us: Confirming His Voice Amidst Distractions and Noises

It is the heart desire of every child of God to want to recognize and identify how God speaks. Interestingly, God too wants us to hear him. He wants us to recognize His voice amid the noise and distractions we encounter daily. You have perhaps wondered how God speaks to us His children or how His voice sounds like.

I understand that you may be having a tough time recognizing how God speaks to us or you in particular. Honestly, I have been there too. I know how difficult it can seem at first. Until I learned that God uses different methods and ways to communicate with us. I was always expecting to hear a loud and clear baritone voice. Guess what? It didn’t happen except once. And it was with a ‘still small voice’. It wasn’t as loud and scary as it is often presented in movies.

God doesn’t always speak in words, He speaks through signs and wonders, He speaks through dreams, He speaks through an inner Witness in us. He speaks through The Bible. Sometimes He could even speak to you through other people.

However, this post treats extensively, How God speaks to us through an inner witness. I also included how to differentiate God’s voice from your thoughts and why God speaks to us. More so, latter on this page, I provided a simple prayer for you to pray when you really need to hear your father speak.

I so wish you can overcome the temptation to click this link Ways God speaks to us. That is a post where I explained other ways to hear from God. Take your time on this, then you may come back to read more on that.

Why God Speaks

Learning how God speaks to us is very crucial as it can strengthen our faith and give us more confidence in our walk with God. Of course, many of us pray and could pray all day with an assurance that God hears us; but hearing God is where we have challenges.

As children talk with their fathers and their fathers talk back to them, so God desires for us to communicate without any form of difficulty or ambiguity.

But why does God speak? Is He just a talker that loves to always chatter and have a nice time with people? Let’s look at a few reasons why God speaks to us.

  1. Because God is A Speaking God

The very first time we were introduced to Him in Genesis Chapter one, it was to His speaking attribute.

In Genesis chapter one, there are several “God said, and there was…”

And all through the scriptures, God was always speaking. He spoke and created the world that we see today. There are many instances where God sent His angels to do the Speaking on His behalf. There were also times He spoke directly to men and women.

Moses heard God. Abraham heard God. God spoke to David. Sometimes He spoke to warn people from doing something dangerous. Sometimes, He spoke to encourage and comfort His children. What an amazing God.

Ordinary people, prophets, priests, men and women, old and young all heard from God. So, it doesn’t matter if you are young or if you are not a pastor. God can speak to you and he can speak to anyone! He’s a talking God.

  1. Because He Loves Us

Isn’t it obvious that God loves us? Love!, Pure, undiluted Love! John 3:16a says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His Only begotten Son…”

God’s Love to us goes way beyond any affection we can feel towards anybody. His Love for us makes Him want to reach out to us and do all it takes to keep us with Him. Anyone may look at God and think He must be silly to love even the vilest sinner, but that wouldn’t stop Him from loving them anyway until they come to realize His love for them.

His Love for you makes Him desire to fellowship with you. And in fellowship is communication. When you’re in love with someone, you talk with them regularly. So also, God speaks to us because He loves us and wants to keep the relationship with us.

Do you remember that in Genesis, God would come down to talk with Adam and Eve? God talks. He talks because He loves us.

  1. Because He Wants to Keep You From Danger

Why do you need to know His Voice? So you can be able to identify and recognize His voice amid distractions and the thoughts that play in your minds.

God knows that the devil can speak to you and tempt you to do evil things. The devil can communicate deceptively to do things contrary to God’s Words. Recognizing God’s voice will help to decipher when the devil speaks and overcome temptations . The way God speaks differs from the way the devil speaks.

So when you’re in danger and you don’t know it. He can tell you to run, resist, or ‘take-cover’. One way God keeps us or protects us from danger is by talking to us.

  1. Because We Are His Sheep

The psalmist rightly said in Psalm 100:3 “Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” (KJV)

God is our Shepherd. Like sheep are guided through the Shepherd, God wants to guide us from wolves, from harm, and ensure that we always have enough to eat.

You need to know how God speaks to us to maximally take advantage of the provisions in Him.

  1. Because He believes We will listen

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”  (John 10:27)

You and I speak to people because we know they’ll listen to us. God is not different. He speaks as shepherds speak to their sheep and they obey. This is one of the reasons why God speaks.

If we are truly His sheep, we will listen to Him, no matter how long or how far we’ve strayed away. God is always positive about us. As His sheep, we have the innate ability to hear Him when He speaks, guides, and tell us which way to go.

  1. Because Living Being Speaks and He is A Living Being.

Unlike idols, God speaks. He’s not a stone, wood, metal, or non-living thing. God is a living Being and one major characteristic of living beings is the ability to communicate.

The God who is the author and finisher of our faith is a living-God Himself. He calls (by utterance) things which be not as though they were. He spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast. (Psalms 33:9).

How God Speaks through An Inner Witness

 

Perhaps you have desired angelic visits as stated in the old and New Testament. One thing is certain; God is not far from you, even though he’s not physically seen around you. He doesn’t need to travel down to the earth to communicate with you. He lives in us. So, we can know when God is speaking and how God speaks to us.

As believers, the day you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, everything about you changed. Your spirit-man became regenerated and came alive. So from that day, God could speak to you through your spirit-man.

So how does God speak to us through an inner witness?

This is how it works. God would speak to your spirit. Then your spirit would pass it into your thought. That is why it is possible to wonder if what you’re hearing is from God or your mind because it would appear like you are thinking it up. But I got your back. This section will help you to identify when you’re hearing God through your spirit and when your mind is ‘thinking’.

I love how the Living Bible renders Romans 8:16. It says, “For his Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we really are God’s children. This is to say that God would speak to you from inside- deep in your heart. This is what I mean by an inner witness.

I really need you to get this. So I would highlight below some things that would help you recognize when God is speaking to you through an inner witness.

  1. An inner witness comes like a ‘breezed’ awareness. it would come like a page was opened in your heart.
  2. You’ll know when it comes because it wasn’t what you pre-meditated. You most probably have not thought about it. It just jumped into your heart.
  3. When this inner witness comes, it usually comes with a peace you may not understand. Deep in your heart, you’ll love it, even if your mind has some issues with what it’s communicating.
  4. Also, this ‘awareness’ that comes through an inner witness lingers and stays long in your heart. Other ideas, produced by thinking, might come and go within a period, but inner witness remains.
  5. An inner witness doesn’t come with dramas and sounds. The signal will come in a way that it can be missed or ignored. It comes like an idea. It comes gently.
  6. When God speaks to you through an inner witness, the ‘idea’ will be accompanied by joy deep in your heart. I mean joy, not happiness. Joy in the sense that you may not be able to explain why you’re glad, no matter what you may be going through. This is what the Bible calls “joy unspeakable”.
  7. Sometimes, or should I say most times, you may still want to be ‘double sure’ if you’re hearing from God. Read on. The next section deals with how to confirm if God is speaking through an inner witness or your mind is thinking.

How to Know God’s Voice from Your Own

Perhaps you’ve heard someone say, “All your thoughts, are God’s desires for you, you can always believe and act on them”. Well, that is not absolutely true, although true to an extent. I’ll explain what I mean by that.

Our flesh may still try to get in the way while trying to discern what God is saying through an inner witness.

How to know God’s Voice from your own can be a little bit challenging if you already have a stand you don’t want to let go. For instance, It can be hard to know if you are the one desiring to go on that vacation or if God wants you to visit your family instead. Especially, if you desire to go on that vacation.

Sometimes, you hear some thoughts in your heart and you are left wondering if it was God you heard or just a thought in your mind. However, the good news is that How to know God’s Voice from your own can be learned. Let me show you how I have learned how to differentiate God’s voice from my own.

  • Does it align with God’s Word?

When you have thoughts or instructions you are considering acting on or wondering what God is saying about a matter; instead of acting on whatever jumps into your heart, take some moment. Align it with God’s Word. If it doesn’t align, then you need to have a rethink about going on with it. This is the reason why every child of God should study the bible regularly so you can be familiar with the intents of God.

For instance, God cannot tell you to pray against a perceived enemy, to die. That would be going against His Word. He said in Matthew 5:44 “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” (NIV).

If what you are considering to do is not consistent with the bible, you may need to discard it. That was your mind. That’s not God speaking. God wouldn’t speak against what he had already said in His word.

This is your ‘litmus test’. Take it seriously.

  • God’s Voice Depicts His Character

The way to know God’s Voice from your own is that God’s Voice bases and aligns with His written Word(The Bible) which contains His Attributes– Loving, Holy, purposeful, Gentle, Just, of good report.

If what you heard is consistent with His Character, it is possible you heard God’s voice and not yours. If it doesn’t depict his character, He certainly was not the voice you heard. His voice will always lead you in the way of love, and righteousness.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of respect, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if something is excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things.”( Phil. 4:8 NET)

If it’s a lie and not true, discard it. If it’s not worthy of respect, discard it. If it’s not just, it’s not God’s voice. If it’s not pure, it can’t come from God; because God is pure. If it’s not commendable, that means it’s obviously carnal and not from God. If it’s not praise-worthy, avoid it. Whatever goes against any of these virtues is not from God. It could be from your mind or the devil (Satan).

  • Subject Your Thoughts To God in The Place of Prayer

The place of prayer is like the place of fire. Whenever you come into prayer with a dicey situation, the fire of prayer will burn out whatever is not of God. Only what is of Him will remain.

It’s possible to have a persisting thought that isn’t God’s will for you. How do you tell if it is from God? Take time to consider what you heard, if it is the voice of your mind, it will not last in the place of prayer and meditation.

I do this a lot of the time. When I need a confirmation concerning a matter, I’ll take time to pray thinking about it while praying. After sometimes, one of the decisions will begin to gain more ideas, some of the others will begin to look less attractive until I lost interest in them while praying. Whichever one gained more ideas while praying is what I take as the voice of God. This has proven very helpful to me.

  • Evaluate The ‘Why’ Behind What You Heard

With God, everything has to do with the state of the mind. God doesn’t see as man sees. The ‘why’ behind your action is a major way to know whether God is speaking or your mind is thinking.

If your ‘why’ is to gratify your flesh, it’s probably not God speaking. This does not mean that God does not want the best for you, but God does not want you to be selfish.

  • Your Voice is Logical

Most of the time, God’s Voice isn’t what you though out. One of the ways to know if you are hearing yourself is that your voice will try to reason things out.

Walking with God requires faith but the flesh likes to walk by sight. You may not understand why God is asking you to do something. If the thought in your mind sounds very reasonable and a lot like what you would have thought up, it might be that you are hearing from you and not from God.

  • Obey by faith

“The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17).

The truth is that the surest confirmation to the will of God is to go ahead and act on what you’ve sensed in your heart. When you’re afraid of missing God’s voice, you may end up missing it.

Go ahead with what you consider as His will, following the above steps. You can be sure that if you miss it, God will not miss you. He’ll always find a way to bring you back into alignment with his purpose for your life.

You may not know at first if God is speaking to you until you walk by faith. Even if you are not sure, just do what you think He says you should do. What you are doing is training your mind to always obey God’s voice. This is important. The more you do that, the more familiar you will be with the Voice of God. I’m talking about obedience to both the little and big things He instructs or tells you; either as you study your Bible or as a nudge in your spirit.

So, start training your mind to obey the simplest thoughts that come to you that you think will glorify Jesus. And are consistent with God’s character and word. As I said, you may find out you were wrong about it eventually, but don’t stop acting out in faith. God will lead you because your heart wants to know His Voice.

Never be afraid to be wrong. Every child learns to walk by falling while he tries. You may miss it, but it’s the process required to learn ‘how not to miss it’ anymore. Obey by faith. Faith works.

  • Renew Your Mind

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12: 2)

Renewing your mind is the same as training your mind to know God’s Voice. Though, you can ask God if He is the One Speaking; but if you train your mind to always align with the word of God, practicing His word on daily basis, you will have no problem with discerning God’s voice from your own.

Without doing this, your voice will always be louder than the voice of God in your spirit. But when your mind is renewed by consistently studying the word of God, Praying without season, and obeying His written words, His voice will gain strength and authority over the voice of your mind.

One thing is sure, when you get very familiar with knowing how God speaks to us, or to you in particular, knowing when God is speaking to you would become as simple as ABC.

Prayer to Hear God’s Voice

If there’s anything that will set things right, it is making a prayer to hear God’s Voice. James 1:5 says, “If there is anyone lacking wisdom, let him ask, He shall give liberally without reproach”.

It is wisdom to want to know how God speaks to us. Hebrews 4:16 says we should approach the throne of Grace boldly and we will obtain mercy and find help in time of need.

God answers prayers. Are you ready to pray? It’s about time.

Heavenly Father, thank You for loving me. I love You Lord and I strongly desire to hear You speak to me. You have promised to give grace in the time of need. I trust in Your Word. I believe You are Listening right now and will grant my heart desire.

I want to do your will. I want to hear you speak to me clearly. Help me to know when you are talking to me. Help me to identify your voice in the midst of my distractions. Help me to recognize when you are nudging me to do something. Help me to recognize the many ways You can speak to me. I am sometimes lost and confused and don’t know how to identify Your Voice from mine. I don’t know how to be still in your presence. Help me Father.

As Your sheep, I should be able to recognize Your Voice so I can follow You wherever you lead. I have learned that you may want to get my attention through an inner Witness in my spirit. Help me to be sensitive to Your Voice alone. Drown out other voices and thoughts that don’t align with Your Word and your character.

Thank You Father Because, from today, I will begin to recognize Your Voice in a clearer and better way. Thank You Father for Your Everlasting Love. In Jesus Mighty Name I have prayed. Amen.

If you prayed this prayer with faith, rest assured that God will answer you and you will begin to know when God speaks to you. I am confident that you will no more be confused about how God speaks.

It is the joy of every father that their children can communicate with them without difficulty. God too wants you to hear when He speaks.  He does not only want you to talk to him, but he also wants to talk to you. I hope that this post on How God speaks to us has been of great help you.

Follow what you’ve learned from here and practice until hearing God’s voice becomes like hearing your friend in the same car with you.

Share with me how this post has helped you and you may also share with me what you think about how God speaks to us.

Kindly share this post, as it will help your friends and family and enable them to be led by the spirit.

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11 Comments

  1. A very timely one. Lately, I’ve been a bit confused about the many stuffs going on in my life, unable to discern God’s voice from my thoughts. With this, I think I’m now in a better light. Thanks for sharing, sir.

  2. Wow, this post is very enlightening.
    I have been struggling to hear Gods voice, after reading this I realized, God has been speaking to me in ways that I haven’t been sensitive about.

    Thanks for the prayer, I felt the impact after praying.

      1. What an amazing piece.
        I’m so blessed reading through, indeed the God whose I am and whom I serve takes great pleasure in speaking to me.

  3. Over the years, I have often tried to discern God’s voice. Initially, I thought God’s voice would be “loud”,…

    I have been struggling with certain things, but now, I know better. Reading this comprehensive post opened my eyes to many salient points which I have ignored. Just as the post ministered to my needs, the prayer propelled me towards my utmost desire.

    Thank you, and God bless you!

  4. Wow!!!
    This is wonderful… I’m so glad to have read this post, it honestly has answered my questions.
    I pray for you sir, that God’s glory will continue to radiate in every area of your life in Jesus name!!!

  5. I’m so glad to be opportuned to read this. It is really soothing and full of wisdom. The Prayers had so much flow of peace. Many thanks for this amazing piece, Sir. It has answered many of the questions in my heart.

  6. This has been of great help. It has helped me understand that God desires to speak with me even more than I do. I receive grace to be still, hear His voice, and obey by Faith.

  7. This just taught me how to differentiate my thoughts from God’s Voice—I’ve always thought His voice is like what the movies show, I’ve learned that it can be that, and still, too. I have been very confused about this.
    Thank you, Sir.

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