How to Practice Discernment in Hearing God’s Voice
So far in our discussion on hearing the voice of God, we have looked at the three “revelatory gifts” given by the Holy Spirit to the church, as well as some biblical ways in which all believers can hear Him speaking to them. However, no matter how we hear God’s voice for ourselves, we must turn our attention to the fact that learning to practice discernment is of the highest importance in this pursuit.
THE THREE VOICES IN YOUR HEAD
As simple overview of the bible seems to tell us that, for all believers, there are actually three different voices you can hear in your head at any given time. Yet all of them will sound like your own thoughts. It is important to learn what these three voices are and how to recognize them. Then we can begin to align ourselves with the voice of Holy Spirit as we live our lives.
1. The Voice of Your Mind
The most obvious voice we all hear is our own thoughts and imagination speaking to us. This is key to human existence. This is how you reason, and determine your thoughts, wants, and needs. According to some philosophers, it is this mental capacity that make you who you are, and without it, your ‘self’ wouldn’t even exist!
“Cogito ergo sum.” “I think, therefore I am.”
The problem is that our mind and thoughts were corrupted in the fall. The self-voice in our head is influenced by emotions and external stimuli, and as such cannot always be trusted to make the best decisions. Certainly, it is our mental passions that lead us into temptation and sin. However, as we follow Christ closer and more intimately, this voice will become more and more conformed to the mind of God.
2. The Voice of the Enemy
The second voice we hear all-too-often is that of the enemy. He wants to flood our head with sinful desires and discouraging, condemning thoughts. He is always speaking lies to us to see if we will accept what He is telling us as truth. “You are not good enough.” “You are all alone.” “No one loves you.” “You’ll never stop sinning in that way. Why try?”
These are the thoughts that lead many Christians to withdraw from community and live in self-loathing solitude, believing they can never be used by God in a meaningful way. In reality, though, these are not your own thoughts. They are lies that we must reject. We must learn, through faith, to believe and hold to the the things God says are true about us.
3. The Voice of God
The third voice we can all hear is the Holy Spirit speaking. While many people talk about the supernatural ways God speaks say, “God is talk to me like that,” the truth is, most of them just don’t know how to tune in to what he’s saying.
I’ve heard Kris Vallotton, one of the pastors at Bethel Church in Redding, California, compare it to a radio where God is speaking on the FM channel, but we are searching the entire AM dial wondering why we can’t tune in. In order to practice discernment, we must learn how to tune to God’s station.
The key, then, is discerning how God speaks to you! Then you can make every effort to tune in, as often as possible, to hear how He’s speaking and leading you on a daily basis. The good news is, we can learn from history how God has spoken in generations past, and have a pretty reliable idea of how He will still speak to us today (see the last post).
GROWING IN DISCERNMENT
Once we recognize that these three voices are all present in our lives, it is time to grow in discernment.
Early on in my own process of learning to hear the voice of God, I was taught to keep a “two-way” journal. (This is something I will discuss more in the next post.) One night, during this time with Him, He gave me some insight on discerning these three voices. Here is what I asked, and what He spoke:
//Lord, what do you want to teach me tonight?//
“Tonight I want to focus on your discernment of when it’s My voice you’re hearing, giving you insights into thoughts and situations, and when it is your own imagination’s voice or a deception.
//Ok, so let’s start with the basics. What is Your gift of discernment as opposed to a natural discernment?//
“Natural discernment most often plays out for self-protection or self-promotion. My discernment, on the other hand, is for Kingdom promotion. There may be elements of personal benefit as a byproduct, but that is never the primary focus.
//So then, how does that play into discerning between the three voices in my head?//
“First, you need to understand that your thoughts will come based on where you have most focused your mind. Remember, you are transformed by the renewing of your mind, so to have sanctified thoughts, focus on Me and seek My Kingdom and your thoughts will follow.
“Second, when the enemy speaks it will sound like truth, yet underneath will be the ‘permission’ to rebel and sin without consequences. He is working to build a false image of Me and who I want you to be becoming.
“Third, to know for sure if it’s Me speaking, learn to ask me the question, ‘How is the Kingdom or my personal sanctification advanced by what I’m hearing?’”
THREE STEPS TO PRACTICE DISCERNMENT IN HEARING GOD’S VOICE
Based on this wisdom from the Lord, we must begin practicing discernment, and aligning ourselves with Him.
This means we must learn to identify the devil’s deceptions. We must recognized when He is speaking to us those permissions to glorify self, at the expense of God’s word. That is exactly how He spoke to Adam and Eve! “Did God really say you can’t eat the fruit or you’ll die?…” He led them to believe their own desires were more righteous and true and they doubted God.
As we grow in maturity in Christ, we should be able to distinguish truth. In fact, the writer of Hebrews describes mature believers as “those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14).
Let’s look at three steps we must practice daily, train ourselves to discern God’s voice, and align ourselves with Him.
1. Train Our Senses.
The Bible makes it clear that we are transformed by the direction our minds go. Too often, we allow our mind to be polluted with everything coming at us on the news, the sitcoms, Facebook feeds, twitter updates, and every other tool for entertainment and information. Most of us do this without the filter of scripture in place to keep us from the downward pull!
There is only one definite way we can train our senses to know truth, and that is through God’s only infallible revelation to man: the Bible. We must read the Bible. We must study the Bible. The Bible should become the foundation of our mindset, each and every day!
If we want the voice of our own minds to lead us into righteousness, and to come into agreement with everything the Holy Spirit wants to speak, then we have to begin guarding what we put in, and it must be filtered through the teachings of scripture.
There is only one definite way we can train our senses to know truth, and that is through God’s only infallible revelation to man: the Bible. We cannot just read the Bible; study the Bible. We must make the Bible the foundation of our mindset, each and every day!
2. Reject the Devil’s Input
In Luke 4 we see the devil tempting Jesus in the wilderness. Once again, He comes challenging the Word of God. The last thing heard spoken to Jesus before this is, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” The first thing out of the devil’s mouth is, “If You are the Son of God…” followed by the temptation to sin and prove it.
Jesus, however, had grounded His own thinking in the Word of God, and used it as His weapon of choice to reject the devil’s temptations. Responding to every lie out of the devil’s mouth with scripture, Jesus successfully defeated the attacks.
The same is true of us! “Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). There is no better way to resist a demonic lie, than to be prepared with the truth of God’s Word. “You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).
So when the devil brings shame and guilt, telling you that you are not good enough: Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus”
Or when the devil tries to tell you that God doesn’t love you. You are too sinful. God is punishing you: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
The Bible teaches that the weapons we use against the devil are not fleshly weapons. Through the Word of God and our new identity in Christ, we have supernatural power to take every thought captive, and bring it into obedience to Christ (see 2 Corinthians 10:3-6). We do this by contracting every temptation of the devil with truth!
The devil can talk to us all He wants, but when we know the truth of God’s word, and practice our discernment over every thought that come in, he cannot fool us!
3. Obey the Voice of the Lord
Once you have overcome the lies of the enemy, and are seeking to keep your own mind conformed to the thoughts of Christ, the only thing left to do is listen to God and do what He says. That is the foundational principle for the life of a Christian.
We want to be hearing Him speak to us. He definitely wants to speak to us. So once we are sure it is Him we are hearing, then we act on His revelation. Relationship with Him requires obedience (see John 14:15). It must be the goal of listening to Him, to then obey whatever He tells us to do.
As we begin to act on what He says, our lives will come into alignment with His will for our lives. We will walk in power. We will see blessings and breakthrough. Our whole lives will be changed!
It is the greatest privilege of the Christian to live a life led by the Holy Spirit. We must be diligent to ensure we hear His voice clearly, and to dismiss every other distraction.
Practice discernment. Listen to God. Do what He says.
I’d love to hear from you in the comments. How have you experienced living with these three different voices in your head? What testimonies can you share of when God has spoken and the fruit of obedience?
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© Anthony Scott Ingram 2019. All Rights Reserved.
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Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”
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