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

by Priscilla Shirer

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?

You must fight to keep your mind from wandering, from letting stray thoughts dictate what you choose to dwell on. You must keep your eyes from scanning the room and noticing things you need to take care of—things you’d like to get busy accomplishing right now while you’re thinking of it!

At its core, meditation is about getting to know God, because the discipline of discerning His voice really boils down to one very simple yet poignant principle: The more you know God, the more clearly you can hear God.

Paul talks about destroying these ideas that defy the knowledge of God, not with worldly wisdom and tactics “of the flesh,” but rather with “weapons of our warfare” that are “divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses” (2 Corinthians 10:3–4). Yes, you heard him right.

Overthrow the masquerading authority of strongholds by replacing Satan’s lies with the truths of Scripture.

God has taken upon Himself the burden of responsibility for communicating with you.

all about one thing—knowing God. “This is eternal life,” Jesus once said while praying to His Father, “that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).

to live in a mode of expectation as I never had before. To look toward each day and every moment in it with the knowledge that God had invaded its space and was eager to communicate with me so that I could join Him in His efforts. To have my eyes and ears perked up and on alert, ready to hear His voice and believe that it would arrive in due time.