Is It God Who Is Really Speaking to You?
The voice seemed so clear.
Sarah sat in her pastor’s office, tears streaming down her face. “God told me to marry him,” she said. “I opened my Bible, and there it was—‘For I know the plans I have for you.’ It seemed like confirmation.” Now, three years and a painful divorce later, she was asking the question every sincere believer must eventually confront: How do I truly know when God is speaking?
A.W. Tozer once wrote, “The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God.” This truth anchors us as we navigate the sacred—and sometimes confusing—terrain of divine communication.
The God Who Speaks
Our God is not silent. Throughout Scripture, He speaks—thundering from Sinai, whispering to Elijah, declaring through prophets, and ultimately through His Son. “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2).
His Word stands as His full and final revelation, sufficient for all matters of faith and practice. We do not await new Scripture or additional revelation—Christ is the fullness of divine communication, and the apostolic witness to Him is complete. Yet through this completed canon, God continues speaking today by His Spirit, who illuminates the written Word and applies its unchanging truth to our changing circumstances.
The Holy Spirit does not speak independently of Scripture or add to it, but rather takes what Christ revealed and declares it to us (John 16:14-15). When we open Scripture, we are not reading ancient correspondence meant for someone else; we are hearing God’s present-tense address to our souls. The Spirit who inspired the original authors convicts, instructs, comforts, and transforms us as we read those inspired words today.
He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
This is why the psalmist wrote, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105)—present tense. It is why Paul declared, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16)—ongoing profitability for every generation. And it is why Hebrews 4:12 declares the Word of God “living and active”—continuously operating with divine power.
In an age of noise and competing voices claiming divine authority, we have this anchor: God has spoken clearly, finally, and sufficiently in Christ and the Scripture that testifies to Him. His Word stands open and accessible—speaking with the same authority today as when first inscribed, because the God who breathed it out neither slumbers nor changes.
Our Sacred Challenge
Yet here lies our challenge: discerning the Father’s voice amid the noise of our own desires, cultural pressures, and well-meaning but misguided counsel. How easily “God told me” becomes a convenient license for ambitions, relationships, or decisions that may not align with God’s will at all. We baptize our preferences with spiritual language, mistaking strong feelings for divine direction. The heart, Jeremiah warns us, “is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). We are often experts at self-deception, capable of convincing ourselves that our wants are God’s commands.
This reality makes discernment both urgent and difficult. We desperately need to hear from God about our marriages, our careers, our ministries, our suffering—yet we carry within us a heart prone to distortion. We can mistake anxiety for conviction, comfort for confirmation, and resistance for spiritual attack when it may simply be wisdom’s warning.
How then do we hear the Father, Son, and Spirit speak into our specific circumstances? How do we distinguish God’s true voice from the echo chamber of our own thoughts? The answer lies not in subjective impressions alone, but in anchoring our discernment to the objective, written Word of God—allowing Scripture to judge our desires rather than allowing our desires to interpret Scripture.
Respect God’s Intent
First, we must respect God’s intent in His Word. Scripture is not a collection of Panda Express fortune-cookie promises awaiting our personal appropriation, nor a grab-bag of isolated verses we can extract from their context and apply however we wish. When Jeremiah 29:11 promises “plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope,” we must understand God was addressing specific exiles facing seventy years of captivity in Babylon—not offering a universal proof-text for your next business venture or career decision.
This doesn’t mean the passage has nothing to say to us today. God’s character as the One who plans for His people’s good remains constant. But we cannot responsibly claim specific promises made to ancient Israel in unique covenant circumstances as if they were directly addressed to us without careful interpretation.
We are to seek Scripture’s full meaning in its original vocabulary, grammatical syntax, historical context, and literary genre before claiming it as personal direction. Sound interpretation must precede faithful application.
“Before we can jump into application, we must first understand what the biblical authors intended when they wrote the text. The Bible was written in real historical contexts, so our first step is to dive into these contexts… Understanding the original setting helps us avoid reading our modern assumptions into ancient writings.”
– C. Michael Patton: A Complete Guide to Bible Interpretation.
Handle History Humbly
Second, approach tradition with appropriate humility. Church history, creeds, and confessions are valuable guides that reflect centuries of faithful theological reflection, but they are not infallible. They help us avoid reinventing the wheel and alert us to errors others have already confronted. Yet we must distinguish between the authority of Scripture and the wisdom of tradition.
Charles Spurgeon wisely observed, “There are many things which nature might desire which grace would never permit us to ask for.” Even revered voices from the past—Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Edwards—cannot carry scriptural authority. They were fallible interpreters who sometimes disagreed with one another and occasionally erred.
The Reformers championed sola Scriptura precisely because church tradition had, in places, contradicted or obscured biblical teaching. We honor the faithful witnesses who preceded us by subjecting their insights to the same standard they themselves claimed to follow: the supreme authority of God’s written Word. Tradition informs; Scripture governs.
Pursue Wise Counsel
Third, seek wisdom from God’s people. Do you believe God is calling you to vocational ministry? Wonderful. Scripture encourages you: “Fan into flame the gift of God” (2 Timothy 1:6). But before redirecting your entire life, share your conviction with mature brothers and sisters in Christ. Let them test what you believe you’ve heard against Scripture and observe whether the spiritual gifts necessary for such ministry are evident in your life.
This is not weakness or lack of faith—it is biblical wisdom. Proverbs repeatedly warns that “the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice” (Proverbs 12:15). The early church confirmed callings through the community of believers, as when the church at Antioch, led by the Holy Spirit, set apart Paul and Barnabas for missionary work (Acts 13:2-312 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.). Godly counsel protects us from self-deception, confirms genuine calling, and provides accountability. True spiritual discernment welcomes examination rather than resisting it.
“There is ordinarily a God-given fitness or giftedness for the ministry, which is shown both in a cluster of abilities that we have and in the fruit of people actually being helped spiritually by the use of those abilities — and all of that confirmed, not just by our own individual selves, but rather by the community of believers, and especially the most mature and discerning believers.”
– John Piper, How Will I Find My Ministry Calling
Conclusion: The Living Word
Hebrews 4:12 describes Scripture as “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” The power here isn’t primarily about changing what’s outside us, but penetrating what’s within us. When circumstances remain fixed, God’s Word works on the interior landscape—exposing wrong thinking, convicting unhealthy attitudes, revealing hidden motivations, and reshaping our perspective.
Expect transformation of perspective, not just circumstances. God’s Word transforms “minds, hearts, emotions, and circumstances” —but the order matters. Often, unchanging circumstances become the context in which God does His deepest work of heart transformation. The living Word changes us so thoroughly that even when external situations remain difficult, we experience them differently.
So before you declare, “God told me,” … pause. Open His Word with humility. Pray with surrender. Seek counsel with sincerity.
Then listen.
Because when God truly speaks, His voice will never contradict His Word, and His people will recognize His leading.