All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
Hearing the Holy Spirit's voice?
Ok, the Holy Spirit is pacient. And, His voice is soft (in my opinion). But, if He wants a person to know something He will get "louder".
For ex. I remember, it may have been last Summer. My parents and I were visiting relatives on my dad's side. There was this little boy,I think he has down syndrome, he was so precious! Anyway, I thought I heard the Holy Spirit tell me to go over beside him and read on the couch.
Later on I was around the porch area. I kept getting a nudge, what seems like now was from the Holy Spirit. "Go over and see Anthony" or something like that. I didn't for awhile. I finally listened (thank God by His grace) and Anthony was by the staircase. He could have fell down those stairs...
Anyway, the Holy Spirit lets a person know when it's really serious. But, the problem is how does a person know His voice when waiting on a reply from Him? How can I know it's from Him if I'm asking something? I'm not sure how to.
Have you ever heard Him tell you something which you found out was really importent?
Views: 1641
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by a servant (Chris) on
-
feetbrezze
Time and the Word helps. But, how do you know the Voice of Holy Spirit, you just do. There is a witness in your spirit when Holy Spirit speaks. So many have made what should be simple into this huge thing. As you have shared, "I thought..., I kept getting a nudge..." You knew what you were suppose to do from the beginning. And, for whatever the reason you put it off. If, and I believe you have, heard from the Holy Spirit then you know exactly the sound of the Spirit's Voice. " How can I know it's from Him" Allow your Faith to move you, do not let fear stop what Faith is working towards.
"Have you ever heard Him tell you something which you found out was really important?" Everything is important. We may not know just how important till we get to Heaven, but it all ties together, one way or the other. Again, you already know what the Spirit sounds like, you are learning to know the difference between the enemy, and maybe just yourself. But, you know His Voice.
-
-
Also, we have 1John 1:1-2 Dear friends, don't believe all people who say that they have the Spirit. Instead, test them. See whether the spirit they have is from God, because there are many false prophets in the world. This is how you can recognize God's Spirit: Every person who declares that Jesus Christ has come as a human has the Spirit that is from God. A false spirit will not say Jesus became human and He is from God. Lord Bless you as you grow in Christ.
-
Permalink Reply by feet breath on
-
All, so it's normal to not know what His voice sounds like right away since you said I'm learning? That's a big relief! Thanks brother.
-
Permalink Reply by Mary O on
-
Hi Feet, God bless! I didn't recognize God's voice right away. He was talking to me, I didn't realize it right away. It took time. I asked God to teach me what His voice sounds like.
Love,
Mary
-
-
Hi sister, God bless! Thanks sister. It's a relief that we don't have to know right away His voice. That He is pacient and knows how to help us.
Love,
feetbreeze
-
-
It could be a soft voice like a whisper or it could be loud and firm. Some people see pictures like a movie or flashes. Also consider you have an inner man the Christ in you. This inner man has spiritual senses. You may detect something by your five senses. Once when someone was lying to me, I tasted something sour like a lemon. Or certain spirits feel heavy. Moses got a burning bush. After Saul saw a bright light and fell off his horse, Jesus spoke to him. Others just know. It's a knowing inside.
Keep your options open. It's not guaranteed how God will talk to you, but He will talk to you. God's big and He'll work with you, help you learn what His voice sounds like. If you miss His voice, don't get frustrated. Just keep trying. You will get it.
-
Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
-
Tests for the Spirit’s Teaching
How may I know whether or not my teaching has been by the Holy Spirit? The simple but sufficient answer is, By the effects produced.
First, that spiritual knowledge which the teaching of the Holy Spirit imparts is an operative knowledge. … Here, then, is a sure test: how far does the teaching you have received, the knowledge of Divine things you possess, affect your heart?
Second, that knowledge which the teaching of the Spirit imparts is a soul-humbling knowledge. … Here, then, is a sure test: how far does the teaching you have received humble you?
Third, that knowledge which the teaching of the Holy Spirit imparts is a world-despising knowledge. … Here is a sure test: does your knowledge of spiritual things cause you to hold temporal things with a light hand, and despise those baubles which others hunt so eagerly?
Fourth, the knowledge which the teaching of the Spirit imparts is a transforming knowledge. … Here, then, is a sure test: how far does my knowledge of spiritual things influence my heart, govern my will, and regulate my life? Does increasing light lead to a more tender conscience, more Christlike character and conduct? If not, it is vain, worthless, and will only add to my condemnation.
By A.W. Pink
-
Permalink Reply by Amanda on
-
It's a good article. We are only passing through this world. We listen to so many other people, and it effects the way we think. We read the Bible -- stay in the Word -- but find a lot of times that what we think it is saying is in fact in error (our error) and we have misinterpreted the Truth. Other times we don't see our error in understanding or comprehension and doubts set in and then we feel horrible, as the article says, it --"will only add to my condemnation" -- and certainly does.
You can't even speak of having doubts though for the moment when you do you begin being judged. Yet Jude 22 tells us how to treat those who doubt. God must give us the ability to believe. There are so many cults, so many lies, and yet most of them claim they have a word from God, a dream, a vision, which they "know" is real because God revealed it so clearly.
Do you think there are different levels of belief? I mean like between absoulte belief and absolute unbelief, could there be a middle ground that is acceptable to God?
When someone feels that they have been misled, they may blame God. It bothers me more when a professing Christian turns away from God than it does when I simply see one who has never been a believer. But could all of that be included in being "a work in progress"? When someone loses faith, could it just be a phase they are going through and they will come back around?
I just know that when a person fully believs that "this teaching" or "this voice" or "this vision" was from God and Holy Spirit and Jesus, then it doesn't "pan out" they can really be hurt.
-
-
Did they really lose faith or has the circumstances related to their storm clouded their vision? There is one faith, but that faith has varying degrees of maturity as Jesus on numerous occassions tells His hearers that they have "little faith." This implies two things. There are those with "no faith" and those with "greater faith." In fact Jesus twice that I am aware of without looking further states that two different individuals have great faith or at least He had not seen such great faith in all of Israel. Thus, we are on a journey and growing toward maturity is part of the path and the path will include many storms and roadblocks, but the end is sure as the end is in the hands of the Savior ... not ours. Our faith is simple, yet complex. In that I mean all faith finds is assurance through Jesus. At the same time we will have different levels of faith (trust) in various areas. We have faith for protection and provision. You may be stronger in the area of protection and I may be stronger in the area of provision. We tend to question the weakness of someone's faith in the areas where they are weak and we are stronger ... go figure.
If a person wants to survive this life well they need to be involved in positive Christian fellowship, engaged in the Word and approaching the throne of grace regularly. They also should be on mission for Jesus and not just simply looking to get by to the end.
-
-
Yes, I have noticed that -- "We tend to question the weakness of someone's faith in the areas where they are weak and we are stronger." We even become accusatory that the person is refusing to die to self, etc... Very hurtful. Dying to self is something that God is working out in us, isn't it?
We are in God's hands.
I am not sure if faith was lost or if only vision was clouded.
I know faith was shaken.
-
-
Amanda
Were you talking about what LT shared by A.W. Pink was it a article?
I know that for me I am "a work in progress." It is difficult at times, when others judge us, or even if we think they do. I do try to always remember that, I will stand before the Lord one day. He is the only One Who is qualified. He knows what happened, happens, and will take place. I cannot compare myself with anyone, only Christ. And, He Loves me for who I am. And, that helps me become more of who I can become in Him.
Lord Bless
-
-
Chris, I know I am a work in progress, too. Such a work is a work of grace, isn't it? In answer to your question, yes, I was referring to the article by Pink that LT posted.
I have a link to some of his works and I like to read the older sermons by the old saints. Here is something he says about sanctification, as we die to sin and self:
"What is sanctification? Sanctification is a work of God’s grace, whereby they whom God hath before the foundation of the world chosen to be holy, are in time, through the powerful operation of His Spirit applying the death and resurrection of Christ unto them, renewed in their whole man after the image of God; having the seeds of repentance unto life and all other saving graces put into their hearts, and those graces so stirred up, increased and strengthened, as that they more and more die unto sin and rise unto newness of life" (Westminster Catechism). The words we have emphasized have occasioned much grief and anxiety to many, for measuring themselves by them they concluded they had never been sanctified. But it should be noted it is not there said that "sin is more and more dying in them," but that they "more and more die unto sin," which is a very different thing. Christians do, as pointed out above, die more and more to sin in their affections, intentions, and efforts. Yet we fail to find any warrant in Scripture for saying "the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened."
Having sought to show what the word "mortify" does not denote in its application to the Christian’s conflict with sin and what it does signify let us in a few words point out wherein the believer may be said to be making progress in this essential work. He is progressing therein when he girds himself more diligently and resolutely to this task, refusing to allow seeming failure therein to cause him to give up in despair. He is making progress therein as he learns to make conscience of things which the world condemns not, being regulated by God’s Word rather than public opinion or leaning to his own understanding. He is making progress therein when he obtains a clear insight of spiritual corruptions, so that he is exercised not only over worldly lusts and gross evils, but over coldness of heart, unbelief, pride, impatience, self-confidence, and thus he would cleanse himself from all filthiness of "spirit" as well as "of the flesh" (2 Cor. 7:1). In short, he is growing in grace if he be maintaining a stricter and more regular watch over his heart. http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Spiritual_Growth/growth_12.htm
In explaining the word mortify, he writes:
It needs then to be carefully defined what is meant by the word "mortify." Since it does not signify "slay or extinguish indwelling sin" nor "render lifeless your lusts," what is intended? This: die unto them in your affections, your intentions, your resolutions, your efforts. We mortify sin by detesting it: "whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer" (1 John 3:15) and just so far as we really hate our corruptions have we morally slain them. The Christian evidences his hatred of sin by mourning when it has gained an advantage over him. If it be his sincere intention and honest resolution to subdue every rising of his native depravity and the commission of every sin, then in the sight of Him who accepts the will for the deed, he has "mortified" them. Whenever the believer contritely confesses his sins to God and "forsakes" them so far as any purpose to repeat them is concerned, he has "mortified" them. If he truly loathes, grieves over, and acknowledges his failures to God, then he can say, "that which I do, I allow not" (Rom. 7:15).
"The Lord seeth not as men seeth: for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart" (1 Sam. 16:7) needs to be borne in mind on this subject. "If a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her and lie with her, then the man only that lay with her shall die" (Deut. 22:25). In the verses which follow we read "there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death." Not only did she not consent hereto, but we are told "she cried, and there was none to save her." Now that has a spiritual application to us. If a believer is suddenly surprised by a temptation which is to something forbidden by God and his heart agrees not thereto, but offers a resistance, which is however unavailing, though he is not guiltless therein, yet his case is very different from that of the unregenerate who found the temptation agreeable and responded heartily thereto. Note how the Spirit has recorded of Joseph of Arimathea that though he was a member of the Sanhedrin which condemned Christ to death, yet he "had not consented to the counsel and deed of them" (Luke 23:51)!
We may think we are not making progress spiritually or growing but God is working in us always, both before and after we are born again. Romans 8:30.
Welcome to
All About GOD
The Good News
Meet Face-to-Face & Collaborate
© 2024 Created by AllAboutGOD.com.
Powered by
