Christian Living
With 3 children, a distracted husband and a recent job loss, Rita has had more than a fair share of life’s troubles for her young age. The recent demise of her bosom friend and confidant, who has been a great source of support through her challenges, almost plunged her into depression.
We are thankful at ‘Talk with Grace Obomanu’-(https://web.facebook.com/graceobomanu.org/) that Rita {original name withheld}, reached out for help. Our first focus was to help Rita take control of her life and her life experiences by reconnecting back to her Creator. Helping her develop, nourish and enjoy an intimate and loving relationship with God was crucial to ensuring she regains and secures her self-confidence by being assured of God’s everlasting and never-changing love.
Rita would need to spend more time talking and listening to God and less time complaining or worrying about her present predicament.
A few weeks later Rita had questions, interesting questions; “how do you hear God?”, “how do you know what God is saying?”, “how do you know what God wants you to do at any time?”.
Now, God connects with His children in different ways and every Child of God would need to develop their spiritual ears to hear Him and understand how He speaks to them. True, we have the Word of God which constantly speaks the mind of God to us, but remember times when you just want to hear God speak to you, you pick up your Bible, open it and what you’re reading doesn’t add up? That happens! The same true, timeless Word of God seeming not to speak directly at such times.
In this very long blogpost, (sorry), we’ll explore (in no particular order) some of the ways God speaks to us and how we can know what He is saying.
- God Speaks to us by His Spirit: Many times people talk about hearing a ‘still small voice’ and they often want to associate that with God talking. Indeed, God speaks in a ‘still small voice’, He speaks in a roar, and He can speak in a thunder. Now hear this; ‘with his innate subtleness, the devil can speak in a still small voice! Selah.
So how do we know God’s ‘still small voice’?
1 Corinthians 2:11-12 tells us that because we have the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of God, we can KNOW and UNDERSTAND the thoughts of God!
“For what person knows the thoughts and motives of a man except the man’s spirit within him? So also no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the {Holy} Spirit who is from God, so that we may know and understand the {wonderful} things freely given to us by God.” Amplified Version
And we see a beautiful and sweet way of HEARING and KNOWING what God would have us do in John 10:4-5;
“……he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger but flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” NKJV
Ofcourse we can hear Jesus Christ speak to us real time, but John 10:4-5 is telling us of a sensitivity to hearing God that emanates from an existing bond or relationship. It says; …….‘MY SHEEP’. A Sheep and Shepherd relationship is developed from repeated exposures and interactions which ultimately sublimes into mutual understanding and leading up to a point where communication can take place without words.
I remember one time my children went visiting with a relation. The relations were amazed at my children’ commitment to abstaining from some TV programmes because ‘Mummy doesn’t allow us to watch this or that’ channel. So, even in my absence, and without any direct words at that time, the children knew certain TV programmes were a no-no.
Another way God speaks to us by His Spirit is when we pray in other tongues. Now, because this article is not about speaking in tongues, let’s avoid doing an exposition on that. Just to quickly point out 1 Corinthians 14:2;
“For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit.”
Obviously, there’s something about this scripture that is not very clear (at least to me), because at Pentecost, the people around understood the tongues and God has also given the gift of interpretation of tongues to some.
But our focus is in the second part of that scripture; “they utter mysteries by the Spirit”.
So when we speak in tongues, we are speaking to God, speaking the mysteries of God by His Spirit. But you know the most exciting part of speaking in tongues for me? When I get the interpretation of the mysteries I have spoken about. And they do come. You just keep at it. Listen and be sensitive. The interpretation of your tongues will flow out of your own lips. 🙂 You’ll know the mind of God and you’ll know what direction to go.
2. God Speaks to us through His Word (The Bible).
2 Timothy 3:16 tell us;
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for DOCTRINE, for REPROOF, for CORRECTION, for INSTRUCTION in righteousness.” NKJV.
And in Joshua 1:8 also tells us;
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall MEDITATE in it DAY and NIGHT, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For THEN, you will make your way PROSPEROUS and you will have GOOD SUCCESS.” NKJV
We can look at God speaking to us through His Word in two ways;
a. Generally:
Like we see in 2 Timothy 3:16 and Joshua 1:8 above, the Bible is expected to play a holistic role in building up a Believer. There’s instruction in it, there’s direction it, and we should build our whole life around the Word of God. Our Prospering and experience of Good Success is tied to it! ‘DAY and NIGHT’ as seen in Joshua 1:8 suggests that meditating on God’s Word should be a Lifestyle.
b. Specifically:
God can also give specific answers to life’s questions and troubles through His Word. And I mean you picking up your Bible, opening it and right there staring at you is the answer you’ve been looking for.
In all, as the Psalmist’s says in Psalm 119:105;
“Your word is a LAMP to my FEET and a LIGHT to my PATH” NKJV.
God’s Word guides our Steps and Directs our Course. It is the Compass we must all come to rely on as Believers in Christ Jesus. Amen.
3. God Speaks to us through People
Let me start this part by sounding a note of caution. Yes, God can speak to us through people but we must be careful what we expose our minds to and what we accept as God speaking.
I always remind myself that Jesus Christ referred to Peter as ‘Satan’ at some point. Peter didn’t physically transform into Satan, but his words and actions were not in sync with God’s Spirit. Peter was being manipulated by Satan. And was Peter a very close associate of Jesus Christ? YES!
Not too long ago, I was really ill, weak and sometimes feeling like life was just leaving my body. One of such times, a very close relative sat by me and asked; ‘Grace, what’s the worse that can really happen in this your condition? Death? Then what? Even if you die, life goes on. Death is not such a bad thing and it comes around everyone you know!’
This was definitely not God speaking. And I rejected it.
Now, the first group of People that God can speak to us through are;
a. Under-shepherds:
And this can include ‘Pastors’, ‘Prophets’, and all the titles we meet in todays’ Christianity.
A Believer who truly knows his/her God will need to believe Jeremiah 3:15;
“And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will FEED you with knowledge and Understanding.” NKJV
The shepherds God give to us are there to FEED us with KNOWLEDGE and UNDERSTANDING of God. It is this knowledge and understanding that guides our decisions and choices.
Your Under-shepherd may on rare occasions instruct you on what path to take if led by God, they can deliver a specific word from God directly to you, but ultimately, it is your prerogative to make your decisions and choices.
It is therefore no brainer then to say that to gain the RIGHT knowledge and UNDERSTANDING of the Word of God and your Identity in Christ Jesus, a Believer must be constantly exposed to and influenced by the RIGHT Under-shepherd. That’s why I sometimes don’t understand ‘Churches’ were all they do is demon chasing, devil-binding and casting, enemy-stumping, miracles, signs and shouts! No! you need to be rightly located to be rightly fed and illuminated.
Everyone born of God is a Spirit, leaves in a body and has a soul. Your spirit thrives on the word of God. You thrive on the word of God.
1 Peter 2:2 tells us;
“as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby…” NKJV.
By the way, ‘Signs and Miracles’ are supposed to be a way of life for the Believer. Signs and Wonders ‘followed’ Christ. Stop chasing them around. Chase the Word of God. Selah!
b. Through ‘any other’ person
Any other person here can include brethren, an angel, a stranger, etc. Sometimes we’re blessed and inspired by a ‘stranger, someone we’ve never met before. Sometimes in the course of a discourse, we can get confirmation of a thought God dropped in our heart and which we may have been musing over.
These are not always coincidences. God may just have directed our path.
4. God can speak to us Directly.
As a young enthusiastic Christian, I’d often find my way to Church, somewhere in Lagos, Nigeria, at odd times- times when nobody was expected for fellowship or service. I’d pray, study my Bible and walk away. I had a strong hunger to know God.
One day, I asked God that I wanted to see Him. So, I scheduled an appointment to meet with Him at a particular time and location in the Church. On the set day and time, I was seated, waiting and expectant. Waiting for God to appear…. I didn’t see Him! But I had an experience of a lifetime that I still do not understand till date..
As I waited, there was suddenly a heavy presence in the room. There was a BIG presence in the room. It was so strong it seemed my heart and head would burst. Nobody told me to RUN out of the Church. I have never asked to see God again.
But I can categorically tell you that I have many times ‘heard’ God call my name. Yes! heard Him with my physical ears. Sometimes, He calls me from my sleep and I wake up to a situation that needs my urgent attention. How did I know it was God? The same way a baby recognizes the voice of a mother/father, and the same way we recognize the voice of close relatives and associates. Exposure and Practice…..
So God can speak to us in many and different ways and He chooses which way to speak to us. No one way is inferior or superior to the other. We just need to grow in our understanding of how God speaks to us as individuals.
Most importantly, we must operate by the Spirit of God, be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit at all times, and to test every spirit as admonished in 1 John 4:1;
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” NKJV.
Thank you so much for staying with me to the end of this article.
Once again, I apologize that this has been one long blogpost.
Stay Blessed.
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