Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks

by Priscilla Shirer

the difference between the relationship we have with the one true God and the relationship pagans have with their idols is that their gods are silent (see 1 Corinthians 12:2).

But because He loves us so much, He will allow even our errors and flaws to be good teachers for the future as we keep practicing and developing under His master instruction.

It all starts here: if we want to be able to sense His direction, we must slow down, quiet our hearts, and listen for the way His Spirit communicates.

If we’re always impatient, we leave little space for God’s direction to resonate in our already crowded schedules.

If we’re always impatient, filling in the silent margins during prayer, in our decision making, and in every other aspect of life, we leave little space for God’s powerful direction to resonate in our already crowded schedules and hearts.

Have you sincerely taken time to hear, to see, to wait, to watch—to allow for the margins that would give God an opportunity to offer you that which you claim to desire so earnestly? Or have you already filled in every conceivable space with your own opinions, ideas, decisions, and actions—space that God might otherwise fill with His perfectly timed and precisioned and personal insight? The answer to this one critical question is really where the journey of hearing God begins. Take into your heart all My words which I will speak to you and listen closely. Ezekiel 3:10

One of the most common reasons why we don’t hear from God is perhaps the most obvious: We’re not listening.

“I deliberately carve out time in my prayer life to be still and listen for God’s voice.”

Carving out time in prayer to purposefully listen for God’s voice—His voice and nothing else—retrains us so we can hear the Spirit’s whisper and gain the ability to hear Him clearly. Stopping to listen to Him enables us to become familiar with what a sense of God’s presence feels like, while enlarging our understanding of His plans for us, seeing them emerge into the light.

Until we intentionally discipline ourselves to be still and listen, we’ll miss most of what He’s saying.

Rather than telling God things I already know, I invite Him to tell me things only He knows, things He wants to share with me by His Spirit.

Holy Spirit to bring people and situations to mind that I wouldn’t normally think of. Then I pray for them and ask how I might be useful in ministering to these individuals personally, since that is quite possibly why He’s telling me about them in the first place.

Perhaps He brings to mind a particular passage of Scripture, so I turn there in my Bible and start to meditate on its principles, assuming the Spirit has led me here for a reason.

What does this verse reveal to me about Him? What spiritual principle does it teach? Am I living in a way contrary to its truth? How does it relate to my present circumstances? How should I respond to what I’m contemplating?

So whether or not you feel anything happening inside as you grapple with a decision He’s leading you to make, I guarantee you a massive renovation is under way. More is happening beneath the surface than you can imagine. And as you continue to spend time with Him—listening, watching, and obeying—these underground changes will start working their way up through your soul and into the light of day.

A favorite verse of Scripture says it best and most succinctly: “Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). This doesn’t mean that He’s necessarily giving you what you want, but rather that He is in the process of transforming your soul to desire what He wants. He is actually giving you His desires, and the more you delight yourself in Him, His Word, and His will, the more you can expect to see His desires implanted within you. We don’t have to be afraid of what God’s will might be.

Give Him your hands to do His work, your feet to walk His path, your back and shoulders to perform His ministry.

Ask God throughout the day to clearly show you how this verse applies to the situations you’re facing. Keep a record of the times He uses it to give you direction in your daily life. By the end of the week, this one verse will be so deeply etched and inscribed on your heart, you’ll be able to carry it around inside you forever. You’ll see how God uses His living Word to speak to you on a profoundly personal level and assist in transforming your soul to suit His plans.

Rather, God speaks to give application of His Word to specific circumstances in your life.

So instead of wishing that God would “do something” to reveal His will to us, we should celebrate the fact that He has already done something, something mind-blowingly dazzling, by giving us the most precious gift of all and by providing an avenue to make His voice heard and known.

Isaiah 43:18–19 (THE MESSAGE). “‘Don’t keep going over old history. Be alert; be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is!’”

What persistent, internal stirrings have I sensed? And how is He corroborating this message in other external ways?

Never think that the circumstances in your life have nothing to do with God’s will. They have everything to do with it! When you’re seeking His guidance, you should always reflect on the events the Lord is allowing to occur in your life. Persistent, internal inklings matched by external confirmation is often the way God directs believers into His will.

We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

God meets you where you are. He speaks in a way He knows you can hear Him.

Do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil. Romans 14:16

When the Holy Spirit speaks, His voice comes with power and authority.

know that God is speaking when His voice is so powerful that it comforts, heals, instructs, corrects, and gives wisdom in only a few words.

Sometimes we wish for a sign in the heavens painted in bold, primary colors that instantly tells us what to do.

It was as if God were saying to her, “What are you worrying about your reputation for? Even I didn’t do that!”

notice the moment when a passage captures your attention in an almost shocking way, drawing your thoughts immediately to a personal circumstance to which it applies. When this happens, God is most likely speaking.

Things don’t change when I talk to God; things change when God talks to me. When I talk, nothing happens; when God talks, the universe comes into existence.