How Do You Know When God is Speaking to You?

By Allen White 

Photo courtesy of melter.

“I believe that God is directing me to __________________.” How do you handle that in a small group? Whether the group member feels led to quit his job, move to another state, or end a relationship, how do you help your group member discern the truth?

From the very beginning, God has been in relationship with people. Today, we’re not walking in the garden with God in the cool of the day or getting inspiration to write new books of the Bible, but God does speak to us. The question is how do we know that it’s actually God and not wishful thinking or indigestion? Here are some tests for what you might be hearing:

1. What does the Bible say?

When God's Timing Is Taking Too Long

by Joyce Meyer

We all want good things to happen in our lives, but too often we want it now...not later. When it doesn't happen that way, we are tempted to ask, "When, God, when?" Most of us need to grow in the area of trusting God instead of focusing on the "when" question. If you're missing joy and peace, you're not trusting God. If your mind feels worn out all the time, you're not trusting God.

The tendency to want to know about everything that's going on can be detrimental to your Christian walk. Sometimes knowing everything can be uncomfortable and can even hurt you. I spent a large part of my life being impatient, frustrated and disappointed because there were things I didn't know. God had to teach me to leave things alone and quit feeling that I needed to know everything. I finally learned to trust the One who knows all things and accept that some questions may never be answered. We prove that we trust God when we refuse to worry. 

Abiding in the Presence of the Lord

Rick Joyner

We discussed in a previous Word for the Week how discernment may operate through impressions, which is where we start to feel in ourselves what someone else is dealing with. One reason many prophetic people suffer depression is because they pick up on so much spiritually around them that they think it is their problem and fail to distinguish this as the gift working. Just because we feel depression does not mean that we have depression, but we may be feeling what someone close to us is dealing with. If we inquire of the Lord about these feelings, He will lead us to the truth about them. As we mature, we will learn to distinguish what we are picking up from others, or other situations, and what is actually in our own hearts.

That being said, many prophetic people are of the melancholy temperament that can be prone to depression. This is something no child of God should be subject to, and we can be free of it. There are reasons for depression that we do not have to be subject to. All who know and serve the Lord should resolve to not be subject to depression. Of course, depression may be the result of chemical imbalances, but if this is the case, let’s get it right. We cannot see the world or people as they are if we are looking through the eyes of depression. This is a serious hindrance to prophetic revelation that we must overcome.

Is it Wrong to Question Your Senior Pastor?

by Mark Altrogge


The pulpit does not make pastors infallible.

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the Word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. (Acts 17:10-11)

Why were the Bereans more noble than those in Thessalonica? Two reasons: 1) They received the Word with all eagerness. 2) They went back home and examined the Scriptures to see if what Paul and Silas preached lined up with the Word of God.