Can you hear the voice of God?

[awaken]

You just know

The "voice" of God is not actually a voice at all (at least not usually). It's more of a "knowing" deep down inside of us. Sometimes we'll sense a single word or a phrase or a picture inside of us, and it might be accompanied by a momentary "flash" of knowing what that word or phrase or picture means. It's like a camera's flashbulb lighting up momentarily, and we just know what God means because He has illuminated it to our spirit. Our "knower" will know what God means, but it's usually very faint and easy to miss. It's also very easy for our mind andyour emotions to convince you that it wasn't really God speaking to us. Our flesh is a whole lot louder than God's voice within us, but He speaks quietly because He wants us to choose to focus on Him rather than focusing on our fleshly desires and reasonings.

I can't emphasize enough how easy it's going to be for us to convince ourself that it couldn't have been God speaking to us. We'll think that it just didn't "feel" supernatural or God-like, and often it won't make any sense to our brain. For example, I heard about a lady who got the impression that God was prompting her to go outside and watch her dog going to the bathroom. It's easy to ignore promptings like this because they don't make sense to our brains, but as she watched her dog "marking his territory," God gave her some new insights concerning spiritual warfare. So when you find yourself thinking, "That can't be God," try to squelch that reasoning. It's your spirit that's hearing from God, not your brain, so don't use your brain to figure out if that was God speaking to you!

 

[The Biblicist]

You just know

The "voice" of God is not actually a voice at all (at least not usually). It's more of a "knowing" deep down inside of us. Sometimes we'll sense a single word or a phrase or a picture inside of us, and it might be accompanied by a momentary "flash" of knowing what that word or phrase or picture means. It's like a camera's flashbulb lighting up momentarily, and we just know what God means because He has illuminated it to our spirit. Our "knower" will know what God means, but it's usually very faint and easy to miss. It's also very easy for our mind andyour emotions to convince you that it wasn't really God speaking to us. Our flesh is a whole lot louder than God's voice within us, but He speaks quietly because He wants us to choose to focus on Him rather than focusing on our fleshly desires and reasonings.

I can't emphasize enough how easy it's going to be for us to convince ourself that it couldn't have been God speaking to us. We'll think that it just didn't "feel" supernatural or God-like, and often it won't make any sense to our brain. For example, I heard about a lady who got the impression that God was prompting her to go outside and watch her dog going to the bathroom. It's easy to ignore promptings like this because they don't make sense to our brains, but as she watched her dog "marking his territory," God gave her some new insights concerning spiritual warfare. So when you find yourself thinking, "That can't be God," try to squelch that reasoning. It's your spirit that's hearing from God, not your brain, so don't use your brain to figure out if that was God speaking to you!

I understand what you are trying to say. However, it is dangerous to think or believe that every faint inward impression originates from God. God never "leads" contrary to His written Word (Isa. 8:20) and much of what you teach is contrary to God's written word. Discernment between the "Spirit of truth" versus the "spirit of error" ultimately depends upon knowing the Word of God rather than impressions and feelings.

 

[awaken]

I understand what you are trying to say. However, it is dangerous to think or believe that every faint inward impression originates from God. God never "leads" contrary to His written Word (Isa. 8:20) and much of what you teach is contrary to God's written word. Discernment between the "Spirit of truth" versus the "spirit of error" ultimately depends upon knowing the Word of God rather than impressions and feelings.

I believe I posted that in at the first of the thread.."the importance of knowing God's Word."
If you would have read my post I mentioned knowing the difference in the voices that we hear!

 

[awaken]

Go with the Flow...

Perhaps you've never looked at it quite this way before, but God's power and grace tend to "flow." For example, God is described in terms of living, flowing water, and we're supposed to have streams of living water flowing from within us (John 7:38). This flow of God's grace (Romans 5:15) is meant to overflow out of our hearts (Matthew 12:34-35), and we're meant to be overflowing with hope (Romans 15:13), overflowing with comfort (2 Corinthians 1:5), overflowing with thanksgiving (2 Corinthians 4:15, 9:12, Colossians 2:7), overflowing with joy (2 Corinthians 8:2, Philippians 1:26), overflowing with love (1 Thessalonians 3:12), and so on. Healing power flowed from Jesus (Mark 5:30, Luke 6:19, 8:46), and it flowed through the apostles (Acts 5:15, 19:11-12), and it's meant to flow through us as well...but that is another thread...

If we are living "self"-centered lives instead of Christ-centered lives, then we choke off the flow of God's Spirit within us. Many Christians rarely read their Bibles and rarely spend any quality time alone in the presence of the Lord, and because of this they rarely sense the Spirit flowing within them and they rarely hear God speaking to their spirits. We are the bride of Christ, and we should all cultivate a personal, intimate love relationship with Jesus Christ because this is the only way to get and keep the flow of the Spirit in our lives.

 

[Yeshua1]

I understand what you are trying to say. However, it is dangerous to think or believe that every faint inward impression originates from God. God never "leads" contrary to His written Word (Isa. 8:20) and much of what you teach is contrary to God's written word. Discernment between the "Spirit of truth" versus the "spirit of error" ultimately depends upon knowing the Word of God rather than impressions and feelings.

the Only time that the Lord 'speaks' to me is not an audible voice, but the HS conviction/propmting to go to witness to another person...

I will be in a grocery store, gas station etc, just minding own business, and that sense of urgency to witness to someone there gets really strong, almost like a presense saying "go tell them about jesus!"

 

[awaken]

the Only time that the Lord 'speaks' to me is not an audible voice, but the HS conviction/propmting to go to witness to another person...

I will be in a grocery store, gas station etc, just minding own business, and that sense of urgency to witness to someone there gets really strong, almost like a presense saying "go tell them about jesus!"

That is what I am posting about!

 

[awaken]

The flow of the Holy Spirit in church services...

Many churches have worship leaders or music directors, and it's important for them to be sensitive to the flow of the Holy Spirit. For example, the worship leader might lead the "early service" congregation in all of the songs that he had planned to do, but in the later service he might sense that those same songs are not in the right "flow." As he remains sensitive to the Holy Spirit, he will switch gears and lead the choir or band in other songs which are more in the direction that the Spirit wants to go. For instance, if there are a lot of unsaved people at the later service then the Holy Spirit might prompt the worship leader to do songs about the blood of Jesus, the joy of salvation, etc., in order to begin ministering to the hearts of the unsaved people. At some churches the praise and worship songs last for about 45 minutes at the beginning of the service, but sometimes it might be an hour and a half before the pastor even begins his sermon, it all just depends on how the Holy Spirit is flowing in that particular service. When the pastor gets up to speak, he needs to be receptive to the Holy Spirit because the Spirit might give him a signal to quit preaching and to give an altar call for unsaved people to come forward right at that exact moment. Why? Because the Holy Spirit has been preparing the unsaved people's hearts through the music ministry and through the preaching, and He knows when they are ready to receive salvation. If the pastor is not open and receptive to the flow of the Holy Spirit during the service then that moment will pass and those people might leave the service just as lost as when they came in.

 

[awaken]

Sometimes a person in the congregation will come forward with a word of prophecy, and it's the pastor's job to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit in order to discern whether or not the message being given is truly from the Lord. Sometimes a person in the congregation will stand and deliver a message in tongues, and the pastor should listen to the Spirit within him to discern whether or not this is truly a message from God. Then someone else will stand and deliver the interpretation of the tongues, and again the pastor needs to be able to discern whether or not the message is from God. Paul said that pastors are meant to prepare God's people for works of service (Ephesians 4:11-12), and he said that when the congregation comes together, "everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church." (1 Corinthians 14:26). Every one of us has the responsibility of being sensitive to the Holy Spirit within us so that we can flow in the supernatural gifts of the Spirit in order to minister to one another and strengthen each other and heal each other and build each other up. This is why the Spirit gives different gifts to each one of us, so that we all need each other. Each one of us is an eye, a mouth, a foot, a hand, etc., and together we form one supernatural body, the body of Christ (Romans 12:4-8, 1 Corinthians 12:4-30). Unfortunately, most of us are not functioning properly in our supernatural gifts, and this cripples the effectiveness of Christ's body here on earth.

 

[DHK]

Sometimes a person in the congregation will come forward with a word of prophecy, and it's the pastor's job to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit in order to discern whether or not the message being given is truly from the Lord. Sometimes a person in the congregation will stand and deliver a message in tongues,

hmmmm,
Why do you have to bring tongues into every discussion, every thread?
Sound familiar?
If it is tongues we know it is not of God. Tongues have ceased. That spirit is not the Spirit of God.

 

[awaken]

hmmmm,
Why do you have to bring tongues into every discussion, every thread?
Sound familiar?
If it is tongues we know it is not of God. Tongues have ceased. That spirit is not the Spirit of God.

God speaks to us.. and is not limited by those that do not believe in his many ways of doing so!

 

[awaken]

If the Holy Spirit wants to do some specific things during a church service, then how can He flow during the service if everything is planned out beforehand and the pastor never deviates from the schedule? Many church services are specifically designed so that everything can be completed in one hour, but in that case the goal of finishing in an hour is now the highest priority, rather than the goal of worshiping and ministering until the Holy Spirit releases the pastor to dismiss the congregation. With a rigid schedule there's no freedom during the service for the pastor and the congregation to be responsive to the Holy Spirit so that the lost are saved, the sick are healed, and so on. Pastors need to do what they feel the Spirit is leading them to do, of course, but this is an important point to pray about because otherwise the flow of the Spirit gets choked off during the service, and wouldn't this tend to grieve the Holy Spirit? (Ephesians 4:30).

 

[Revmitchell]

It's not the purpose of this thread to examine all of the different ways in which God might speak to us, such as dreams, visions, tongues and interpretation, prophecies, and so on, but in this thread we can share practical guidance in how to discern God's usual ways in which He speaks to us.

I see at least four voices We Hear...

There are actually four types of "voices" that we hear speaking to us, and it's important to learn to distinguish each one so that we can discern the true voice of God:

The first one is...
The voice that is perhaps the most obvious is our own voice. In addition to our speaking voice, we also talk to ourselves inside our heads, and we see images and pictures inside our heads, and we have emotions and feelings and desires, and so on. Our minds tell us what we think, and our wills tell us what we want, and our emotions tell us how we feel. The Bible refers to our minds, wills, and emotions as our "flesh nature", and through discussion in this thread maybe it will give you a better understanding of the "voice" of the flesh vs. other ways God can speak to us!

For anyone interested here is where she is plagiarizing this post from:

http://www.precious-testimonies.com/Exhortations/u-z/VoiceOfGod.htm

 

[awaken]

For anyone interested here is where she is plagiarizing this post from:

http://www.precious-testimonies.com/Exhortations/u-z/VoiceOfGod.htm

When we had the hand outs it is written in them that there are no copy writes. Our teacher said we could use them any way to spread the news!

 

[Revmitchell]

When we had the hand outs it is written in them that there are no copy writes. Our teacher said we could use them any way to spread the news!

OK well you apparently have never written any research papers and do not understand what plagiarism is. You might want to study it as well before posting any more work belonging to anyone else word for word. Lack of copy right has no bearing.

 

[Revmitchell]

And it does not appear you really learned anything if you must paste it word for word. It looks like you are trying to pass his work off as your own.

 

[awaken]

And it does not appear you really learned anything if you must paste it word for word. It looks like you are trying to pass his work off as your own.

I was passing along what I was taught in my Sunday School class! It helped me and I was sharing it! Our teacher said he emailed him personally and said it was ok to share any part!


"This material is not copyrighted. Please feel free to use it in any way which will glorify the Lord Jesus Christ! "

 

[Revmitchell]

I was passing along what I was taught in my Sunday School class! It helped me and I was sharing it! Our teacher said he emailed him personally and said it was ok to share any part!


"This material is not copyrighted. Please feel free to use it in any way which will glorify the Lord Jesus Christ! "

You are not paying attention. Regardless of any copyright you need to source your posts especially when you paste word for word.

It is not about infringing on his copyright. It is about the integrity of your posts.

And if you are having to paste his work word for word it does not appear you learned anything.

 

[DHK]

When we had the hand outs it is written in them that there are no copy writes. Our teacher said we could use them any way to spread the news!

It is not about what people tell you; it is about the law. It is about what is lawful, ethical and moral.
Look at the site you plagiarized from:

We also grant full permission without any need to contact us if you desire to post any writing from our website on to your website, or another, or anywhere else via the use of Internet technology -- or link to it if you desire -- providing you state clearly that the writing originates from Precious Testimonies Evangelist Ministries. (We do this, not because we desire or expect attention drawn to this ministry, but because people who trust us with publishing their testimonies -- they expect this ministry to NOT let Satan have undo opportunity to use their testimonies for monetary gain ... projecting an impression that people are testifying to MAKE MONEY AT IT).
Regarding the above three permission grantals, all we request is that the wording and punctuation of each document is not altered in any way without express written permission from the individual author and/or originating ministry of the writing.

You are condemned by the sites own words.
They demand that you give credit back to their site. You are breaking the law if you don't. It is called the "copyright law."

 

[awaken]

It is not about what people tell you; it is about the law. It is about what is lawful, ethical and moral.
Look at the site you plagiarized from:
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You are condemned by the sites own words.
They demand that you give credit back to their site. You are breaking the law if you don't. It is called the "copyright law."

I did not copy it from that site! He had a website out and he closed it down! Our teacher only shared a few of his teachings! But he said that there were a lot on his site! My handouts are scanned onto my computer!

 

[DHK]

I did not copy it from that site! He had a website out and he closed it down! Our teacher only shared a few of his teachings! But he said that there were a lot on his site! My handouts are scanned onto my computer!

I looked at the website. It seems that your information originally came from the author of that website. Thus it really doesn't matter whether it is on your hard-drive or on the website, copied and pasted. They are not your words, and credit must be given. There is an obvious copyright law. It is his work. He obviously wants his work to be credited. To not give credit is unethical.