Today, I am sharing on “LEARNING TO RECOGNIZE THE VOICE OF GOD BY THE WAY OF VOICES.” Another secondary way God speaks to man is by the way of voices.
In John 10:27 Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me [obey Me].”
What is a voice? A voice is a sound produced by using the vocal organs, uttered through the mouth of living creatures, especially of human beings in speaking, shouting, singing, etc.
Voices can be heard in two realms: (1) The realm of THOUGHTS; (2) The realm of the physical. The voices heard in the realm of thoughts are not audible to the physical ears. But that heard in the realm of the physical is audible [clear enough to be heard] to the physical ears.
What is a thought? A thought is an idea or suggestion placed in your mind by (1) God, or (2) the devil.
Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation [judgment] to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh [after the suggestions of the flesh], but after the Spirit [suggestions of the Holy Spirit].”
Thought is also defined as the process or activity of thinking. It is a plan produced by a mental activity. It is a process of thinking.
What does it mean to think about something? To think about something is to use your mind to consider ideas and then make decisions about that very thing in the light of God’s Word.
Thoughts are governed by (1) observations – pictures [what you see with your eyes], (2) Teachings – words you hear with your ears, and (3) Associations – words and pictures you pick up from your peers.
The voice heard in the realm of THOUGHTS is called the “Still Small Voice or the Inner Voice.” This includes (a) the voice of the Holy Spirit, (b) the voice of satanic spirits, and (c) the voice of the human spirit.
Realize that man is made up of three parts: spirit, soul and physical body (1 Thess. 5:23). Each of these three parts has a voice. Conscience is the voice of your spirit-man. Reason is the voice of your soul (mind). Feeling is the voice of the physical.
Your spirit-man can speak to you because it has a voice. This voice is called the “Still Small Voice.” It is either the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking or the voice of your spirit-man – your conscience.
What is reason? Reason is the ability of the human mind to mentally picture a situation; It is the ability of the human mind to mathematically calculate, deduce, and find relationships between things.
Every day you have in your mind thoughts from your own human reasoning, the Holy Spirit, satanic spirits or your spirit-man. This is because thoughts can be spoken into your mind by the Holy Spirit via your spirit-man. Thoughts can also be spoken into your mind by your human spirit. Thoughts can also be whispered or PROJECTED into your mind by demons.
This implies that though God speaks to man through his conscience, satanic spirits and/or the human spirits can also speak to man through the same means. It is therefore, very important for every Christian to know the difference between these voices and the “Inner Voice” of the Holy Spirit.
For example, if the “Inner Voice” tells you to communicate with the spirits of the dead, or to do anything that is contrary to the Word of God, then that’s a demon talking to you because in Deuteronomy 18:11 God said that we should not talk with the spirits of the dead. That is necromancy.
Whatever the Holy Spirit says to you through the “Inner Voice” must agree with what has been written down on the pages of the Scriptures. The Word and the Holy Spirit never disagree!
Also you need to check to see if you have joy or peace or both in your spirit-man at the time those thoughts come into your mind [your conscious mind which is in your brain] (Gal. 5:22-23; Rom. 8:16; Col. 3:15).
The “Inner Voice” is not a spiritual feeling like the “Inner Witness.” It rather refers to thoughts placed in your mind by (1) the Holy Spirit, (2) the satanic spirits or (3) your human spirit. These thoughts can come in words and/or resulting mental pictures (Isa. 30:21).
The “Inner Voice” and the “Inner Witness” often go together. For instance, you are waiting on God in prayer, and you have a thought come into your mind that God wants you to go visit a brother today to give him some financial help. At the same time you have a tremendous sense of peace or joy or both in your spirit-man. Then know that this thought is Holy Spirit telling you by the “Still Small Voice (the Inner Voice)” to do this. Remember that the “Inner Voice” is only spoken in your thoughts.
Sometimes, the Inner Voice will not be accompanied by the Inner Witness of peace or joy. If this happens to you, you should wait on God to see if this seeming “revelation” really is from Him. This is because it is very difficult to tell if an Inner Voice without the Inner Witness is from God or from demons or from your own human spirit.
This occurs in the following way: when waiting on God in prayer seeking to know His will concerning a certain burning issue, you can often have His Spirit give you an “Inner Witness,” by allowing your brain (mind) to first picture each of the alternatives that you think God may want you to do.
While you are, picturing each alternative, with your eyes closed, praising and thanking God for many many minutes, and telling Him that you’ll surely do whatever He desires. While picturing each of these alternatives, if one of them is God’s will, God may on your first day of waiting on Him in prayer or on some future day, give you the “Inner Witness” of peace and joy to tell you that this is His will for your life. The Holy Spirit speaks to us when we are praising, worshipping and thanking Him (Acts 13:2).
What is the Still Small Voice? It is the voice you perceive in your spirit-man, with every word clearly stated and remembered.
The “Still Small Voice” is also the voice of your spirit-man. The voice of your spirit-man is called your conscience. It is like the sound of a gentle whisper.
For instance, the words in Acts 8:29 could have been by this method. In Acts 8:29 the Spirit said unto Philip, “Go near, and join yourself to this chariot.”
Now we know that the “Still Small Voice” is either (1) the “Inner Voice” of the Holy Spirit, (2) the voice of your spirit-man, or (3) the voice of satanic spirits. Now see: your spirit-man speaks to you through your conscience. The Holy Spirit also speaks to you through your conscience. How do we know which one is speaking to you at any point in time?
1. The Still Small Voice of the Holy Spirit is more authoritative than when it is just your spirit-man or the satanic spirit speaking.
2. The “Still Small Voice” of the Holy Spirit is followed by an “Inner Witness” of the Holy Spirit.
For instance, while praying for a particular issue you have a voice speak into your thought telling you that God wants you to believe with certainty that your expectation is granted – your wife that has been barren will miraculously give birth to a baby boy. The voice in your thought is saying this, even though your wife is physically incapable of bearing a child. If you have tremendous peace and joy in your spirit-man at the same time as you hear these thoughts, then this is God speaking to you. Remember that God spoke like this to Abraham (Gen 22).
This peace and joy will be in your spirit-man. It will not be in your human emotions, or physical feelings.
Romans 12:1-2 reveals that if you commit yourself totally to God’s control, willing to do whatever He says, He will then reveal His perfect will to you.
1 Samuel 16:6-7 says, “When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the Lord’s anointed!” 7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t make decisions the way you do! People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at a person’s thoughts and intentions.”
In 1 Samuel 16:6-10 the man of God Samuel said, “Surely the LORD’S ANOINTED IS BEFORE HIM.”
This passage represents a dialogue between the Lord and Samuel as Jesse’s sons passed in turn before Samuel so as to allow God to indicate His choice, as He had when the tribes filed by the prophet when Saul was selected (1 Sam. 10:20, 21). They do not know Samuel’s ulterior motive. On Eliab’s appearance, Samuel falls into the same error he made once before (1 Sam. 10:24), of judging on the merit of external appearance.
Most likely prophet Samuel heard the “Still Small Voice (the Inner Voice of the Holy Spirit)” but did not get the “Inner Witness” of the Holy Spirit. He only got the Inner Witness when he saw David. That was why he anointed him king.
3. The Still Small Voice of the Holy Spirit never condemns you. For instance, when what you have done or what you are about to do is wrong it is your spirit-man that judges [condemns] you (1 Jn. 3:20-21). The Holy Spirit never condemns you. Why? Because God the Father won’t. Does God condemn? No, it is God who justifies.
Romans 8:33-34 says, “Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”
The Holy Spirit rather comforts you even when you are wrong. Jesus said that the only sin the Holy Spirit will convict the world of is the sin of rejecting Jesus (Jn. 16:7-9).
It is your own spirit-man that knows the moment you have done wrong. Even when you do wrong and your spirit-man condemns you via your conscience, the Holy Spirit is there to comfort you, and show you the way back to God (Jn. 14:16). The Holy Spirit will stand by you when no one else will.
But when you are thinking of doing something, it is the Holy Spirit that speaks to you the mind of God concerning the issue. For example, you are thinking of marrying an unbeliever, it is the Holy Spirit that immediately quotes 2 Corinthians 6:14 to you. The Holy Spirit speaks that Scripture to your spirit-man, and your spirit-man speaks it to your subconscious mind through your conscience.
Your subconscious mind then transfers that information to your conscious mind where it is decoded. And because it is the Holy Spirit speaking to your mind through the voice of your spirit-man, the “Still Small Voice” will be authoritative.
If it is your spirit-man alone speaking to your mind, the “Still Small Voice” will not speak with such authority, yet it is clear enough for you to pick up if you are quiet on the inside of you.
4. The “Still Small Voice” of the Holy Spirit always agrees with what God the Father has said in the Bible. But when it is a satanic spirit speaking, the words in your thoughts will disagree with the thoughts of God written down on the pages of the Scriptures.
Here is the major difference between the “Still Small Voice” of the human spirit and the “Inner Voice” of the Holy Spirit”: the “Inner Voice” of the Holy Spirit is more authoritative than the “Still Small Voice” of the human spirit.
Sometimes, the “Inner Voice” of the Holy Spirit seems so real it almost seems to be an audible voice; you may even look around to see who said it.
In 1 Samuel 3:1-14 the young boy Samuel heard a voice call his name, but Eli who was in the same house did not hear it. The boy Samuel heard a voice call his name, “Samuel, Samuel!” He thought that Eli was calling him. He jumped up and went to Eli to find out what he wanted. But Eli said, “No, I did not call you.” So Samuel went back to bed, and as he slept he heard again, “Samuel, Samuel.” Again he ran to Eli. And Eli said again, “No, I did not call you.” It happened the third time and it dawned on Eli that God was calling Samuel. So he said to Samuel, “The next time the Lord calls you, answer Him.” So the next time it happened, Samuel answered that voice, and the Lord spoke further to him (1 Sam 3).
Acts 13:2 says, “As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, THE HOLY GHOST SAID, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them” (KJV).
The Holy Spirit must have said this through one of the five prophets that were ministering to the Lord.
In Acts 11:12 Peter said, “Then THE HOLY SPIRIT TOLD ME to go with them, doubting nothing.”
Here the Holy Spirit must have picked up this information from God the Father or Jesus, and communicated it to the spirit-man of Peter. The spirit-man of Peter now spoke it through his conscience to the conscious mind of Peter. Since it was the Holy Spirit that spoke it, then the “Still Small Voice” was more authoritative than the normal gentle whisper if it were just his human spirit speaking.
God also speaks to man audibly through the “Outer Voice.” God can speak to you audibly:
(1) The voice can be so near as if He is speaking to you through a Headphone. This is what I call the Headphone Voice. Here the voice and the words seem to stand in your ear, but only for you. No one else is hearing it. This is like what happens when you are listening to a cassette through a headphone;
(2) The voice can be from a distance of at least one meter away. This was probably the case in Acts 9:3-7.
In Deuteronomy 5:22-27 the Lord spoke these words WITH A LOUD VOICE to all of you from the heart of the fire, surrounded by clouds and deep darkness. This was all He said at that time, and He wrote His words on two stone tablets and gave them to me. 23But when you heard the voice from the darkness, while the mountain was blazing with fire, all your tribal leaders came to me. 24They said, ‘the Lord our God has shown us His glory and greatness, and we have heard His voice from the heart of the fire. Today we have seen God speaking to humans, and yet we live! 25But now, why should we die? If the Lord our God speaks to us again, we will certainly die and be consumed by this awesome fire. 26Can any living thing hear the voice of the living God from the heart of the fire and yet survive? 27You go and listen to what the Lord our God says. Then come and tell us everything He tells you, and we will listen and obey.’
In 1 Samuel 7:10, the Lord spoke with a mighty voice of thunder from heaven, and the Philistines were thrown into such confusion that the Israelites defeated them.
In Exodus 3, God spoke audibly to Moses from a burning bush.
In the realm of the physical God speaks to man through (a) The Headphone Voice, or (b) an audible voice from at least one meter away. In the realm of the physical satanic spirits also speak to man.
I have heard a witchcraft spirit speak. One night, at about midnight, a witch was calling the name of a little child. The mother of this child, who was not Born Again at the time, went and asked the house help whether she heard anything. The house help said, “Yes.” She heard the voice calling the little boy in the house. After getting a counsel from a Born Again believer the next day, this witch repeated the visit and the call the following night. As soon as the witch started calling this child again, the mother of this child shouted, “The Blood of Jesus.” At the mention of the Blood of Jesus, this satanic voice was silenced because we overcome Satan by the Blood of Jesus (Rev. 12:11).
I have also heard some other satanic spirits speak through the voice of their victims. In one deliverance session, a demonic spirit spoke through the victim saying, “Leave her alone. She is mine.” Another one said that her victim would never serve God. Another one said that his name is Karakatakata.
You can easily recognize them because what they are saying will certainly be contrary to the Word of God. You can recognize the spirit of criticism when he speaks. You can recognize the spirit of blasphemy when he speaks. You can also recognize the spirit of anti-Christ when he speaks. You can recognize the spirit of provocation when he speaks. He speaks harsh words to stir your anger.
Proverbs 15:1, 4 says, “A gentle answer turns away wrath [strong anger, often with a desire for revenge], but harsh words stir up anger. 4 Gentle words bring life and health; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.”
Beloved, understand that God wants to lead you Himself by His Spirit through the “Inner Guidance” – “Inner Witness” and “Inner Voice.” I therefore, challenge you to give Him a chance to lead you as such and you’ll discover that you will avoid many mistakes in life and no one can ever deceive you again with prophecies that are not from God.
Watch out for the next edition of Good News from the Pulpit!
- Your friend: I. I. MADUBUNYI (Senior Pastor) 21.07.2021
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