How to Recognize the Voice of Godಮಾದರಿ

Day 4 - How Do You Know It’s God?

If you’re like me, you know Christians who claim that God told them to do something, but it turned out badly! That tends to make us all nervous because we think, “How then do we know when it’s God’s voice that’s leading us?” When we get a prompting from God, we might second-guess it and think, “Is that just me? Is it the devil? Or is it really God?”

The way to be sure you’re hearing the true voice of God is to spend time learning it. How do you recognize the voice of your parent, your sweetheart, or your children? You’ve spent time with them. If you’re never around them, you wouldn’t recognize their voices. In the same way, you get familiar with God’s voice by spending time with Him, and you do that by reading and meditating on His Word because that is Him talking with you.

The Bible is not just a book like other books. It’s alive (Hebrews 4:12). That’s why you can read it over and over -- it will meet your need right where you are today. When you’re reading the Bible, you’re experiencing God’s life and familiarizing yourself with all He is and all He has for you. When you get familiar with the way He talks to you (by reading His Word), you can easily recognize a counterfeit voice.

Hears a perfect example: The US Treasury Department trains its agents to recognize counterfeit US money by having them spend a lot of time studying real money. The agents get so familiar with real money -- handling it, looking at it, smelling it, running it through tests -- that they are able to then recognize a counterfeit bill immediately.

It’s the same for you. If you become so familiar with God through His Word—by studying it, meditating on it, recognizing how He thinks, acts, and views you—then if a different voice tries to lead you, you’ll recognize it instantly as a counterfeit, or a lie.

You’ll never recognize the real-deal voice of God unless you spend time in His Word. That’s good news because you get to decide how much time you spend reading it! The more you do, the more you’ll be able to discern between His voice and a counterfeit voice.