Introduction: Why This Revelation Matters
The Revelation you’re about to receive will help you draw closer to the person of the Holy Spirit. I want to show you how to discern the difference between the voice of the Holy Spirit and your own thoughts and emotions. If you’re like me, then there have been times in your life where you wonder: is this just my emotion, is this just my thought, or is this the instruction of the Holy Spirit?
In fact, many believers get stuck in what I call religious OCD. I’m not poking fun at that syndrome — I’m actually using it as an analogy because it works just the same. You become obsessed, compulsively, with certain thoughts that come through your mind, and it could be almost tormenting, where you’re giving yourself thoughts, telling yourself to do things or not to do things, and you get stuck in this cycle of wondering: is this just me, or is this the Holy Spirit?
The flesh seeks entertainment and distraction so that it doesn’t have to face the Spirit. So make a commitment to say no to the flesh and yes to the Spirit, and don’t miss the truths of Scripture that follow.
Born Again With Spiritual Senses: The Foundation from John 3
Remember this: hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit is not a skill to be acquired — it’s a sense to be sharpened. When you were born, if you were born perfectly healthy, you were born hearing and you were born seeing. You were born with those senses.
You did not have to be taught to see, you did not have to be taught to hear — you did have to be taught to pay attention, to listen closely, to observe. You had to be taught to make use of those senses, but you couldn’t be taught how to have those senses. You were just born with them.
In the same way, when you are born again of the Spirit — it’s the new life — now you are born again with the ability to hear the Holy Spirit, you are born again with the ability to see in the Spirit. All of the spiritual senses came with it. So I’m not here to teach you how to gain spiritual hearing. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice.” If you belong to him, you can hear the Holy Spirit. So rather, what I want to help you do is discern what you are hearing.
Why Personal Descriptions of God’s Voice Aren’t Enough
It’s at this point that I have to make sure you understand: I’m not going to be giving you detailed descriptions based upon personal experience. Now, if you have personal experiences with hearing the voice of God — like, for example, I heard the audible voice of God when I was seven years old, and he spoke very firmly, there was a masculine tone to his voice, there was a peace-giving attribute to his voice — that’s the way I describe it.
But the problem is, if I’m just describing to you from my personal experience, then you might go superimposing my experience onto your own thoughts and therefore just be just as confused.
And you also see in Scripture that the voice of God is still and small — but this doesn’t mean God doesn’t ever speak firmly to us. Sometimes when he corrects us and rebukes us, it doesn’t sound so still and small — it sounds big and booming, and sometimes a little bit intimidating.
So rather than give you very specific natural descriptions, I want to show you biblical principles from Scripture that will help you discern the voice for yourself. For example, if you’re a regular listener to this ministry, you recognize my voice even if you hear it in just audio form — you don’t have to see me on the screen. We’re together often enough that you go, “Oh, that’s David.” You know my voice.
Think about the voice of your spouse or the voice of your children. If I were to ask you what your child’s voice sounds like, or what your spouse’s, friend’s, or parents’ voice sounds like, you would give me certain descriptions — maybe you’d describe your wife’s voice as soft and monotone, or your husband’s voice as strong and masculine, or your child’s voice as small and adorable.
But even if you gave me those descriptions, I wouldn’t be able to pick their voice out of a crowd of people talking. I wouldn’t be able to successfully identify their voice among many other voices based upon your descriptions alone. You could pick their voice out of a crowd, but the person you gave those descriptions to couldn’t.
In the same way, you can’t explain sight to someone born blind, you can’t explain hearing to someone born deaf, and you cannot explain the voice of God to someone who doesn’t know him. These things are of the Spirit. So detailed natural explanations — masculine, strong, smooth and still, or like many waters — are helpful when we tell stories of our experiences with God, but in terms of serving as a principled foundation everyone can build their understanding on, they don’t really serve that purpose. Unless someone has heard his voice for themselves, those descriptions alone won’t help them identify his voice. Instead, we look to Scripture to give us biblical principles.
Five Ways God’s Voice Differs From Your Own
1. God’s Voice Is Stable and Consistent — Your Voice Is Inconsistent
Now, when you and I have our thoughts and emotions flowing through us, we’re all over the place. On some days we’re up, on other days we’re down; on some days we’re focused, other days distracted.
So when you follow after your own ways, you’re double-minded, you’re unstable, constantly shifting — there’s no focus, no momentum, no stability. Conversely, when you follow the voice of the Holy Spirit, there’s a great foundation upon which you can build your spiritual life, there’s a clear direction, a path forward that’s made very plain to you.
I trust not in my ability to hear the Holy Spirit — I trust in his ability to communicate to me. God is omnipotent, so there is no reason why he cannot communicate with me, and all I have to do is listen to him.
2. God’s Voice Guides — Your Voice Pushes
I have to give you a caveat here: sometimes God does speak with urgency. There are some exceptions to this generalization. If you’re in immediate danger, for example — I was driving my car home one time, coming back late from having preached, and the Holy Spirit, like a shout within my spirit, said, “Stop your car.”
So if there’s danger, he’ll speak with urgency. If you’re in sin, there’s going to be a very weighty quality to his voice — the psalmist wrote, “Your hand weighed heavily upon me, my strength evaporated.” If you’re living in sin or compromising, the Holy Spirit will make you quite miserable in your sin. So: sin and conviction push you toward repentance, and timely actions — if the Holy Spirit needs you to do something immediately, there’ll be a sense of urgency. Keep those exceptions in mind: danger, sin and compromise, and timely actions.
Applying the general principle: God’s voice guides, your voice pushes. Psalm 23:2 — “He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams.” That’s what he does — he leads, he doesn’t force; he guides, he doesn’t push. Generally speaking, the devil pushes, the flesh pushes; the Holy Spirit guides.
Sure, he’s firm, stable, persistent — but he is not pushy, and there’s a difference. Persistence is consistency — he’ll consistently speak on something — but pushiness is a fear-based, impulsive way of speaking, and the Holy Spirit doesn’t speak impulsively.
You can tell what spirit is guiding your life by whether or not you’re always wrapped up in some tense emotion. There have been times when I’ve listened to a sermon, read a book, or joined a conversation about the things of God, and it agitated my spirit — created this tension, this angst, this urgency, this sense of paranoia. That’s not God.
Those who are led by the Spirit have a stability to them; those who are led by the Holy Spirit have a calm confidence. We see in Scripture that Jesus fled, Jesus taught, Jesus ate, Jesus wept, Jesus walked — we never saw Jesus run, because Jesus was never late. He walked in the perfect timing of God. There was a calm to him, a peace. I’m not just talking about personality — because there are people whose personalities are pretty out there, and that’s fine. I’m talking about the spirit — a confidence, a stability.
So God’s voice guides you, but the enemy and your own voice push you, push you, push you — and many believers get stuck there. Maybe you’re trapped there right now, always feeling this anxiety, this angst, this paranoia, this fear that is not of God.
3. God’s Words will Always Be Consistent With His Words — Your Words Will Often Be Inconsistent With His
His words and his actions align — always. When you look to the word, you see the baseline for hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit. He will never speak against his word — ever. And if you’re hearing an instruction that contradicts a clear teaching of Scripture, that’s either your flesh or a demon — it is not the voice of the Holy Spirit. God will not have you contradict his word to test you. God will not have you contradict his word to see if you’re obedient to his voice. God would never speak in a manner that contradicts his word.
So if you’re serious about becoming discerning when it comes to the difference between your thoughts, your emotions, and the Holy Spirit’s instructions, then you will become serious about getting into the word. You want to know his voice? Know his word. That’s where it begins.
I’ve been in church since I was born — I’m a fourth-generation Christian, third-generation preacher. I’ve seen many ministries rise like a shooting star and then fizzle. I’ve seen people remain faithful, and I’ve seen people come into the church and leave.
When people leave the safety of the word, they’re in danger. If you have to question the clear teachings of Scripture to make your opinions more palatable, if you have to bend the foundational truths to make yourself more comfortable, you’re in danger — because then it’s not God you trust, it’s yourself. This is why I tell believers all the time: you have to interpret your life experiences and even your spiritual encounters through the lens of the word, and not the other way around.
The ones who remain faithful, the ones God continues to use, the ones who keep the favor of God, are the ones who commit to the word and correct themselves according to the word. Here’s a hint: if you have to start changing foundational teachings of Scripture to accommodate your opinion — or even question them — you have to start shifting definitions. God doesn’t change words and definitions, because the Holy Spirit inspired the word. That’s what the devil does — the devil got Eve to give in to temptation by first questioning the word, and then contradicting it. The moment you begin to question the word, you are just about to cross that line into contradicting it.
Sometimes your voice will contradict the word because we’re not perfect — we are works in progress, undergoing the process of sanctification, cooperating with the Holy Spirit in becoming more like Jesus. In this process you’ll learn that some things you believe about yourself, about God, about the world, about sin, will contradict the word of God — and as you become familiar with the word, you begin to recognize, “Oh, I missed that one, that wasn’t correct, that probably should go.” But God’s voice will always align with his word — always.
4. God’s Voice Speaks From the Place of Peace — Your Thoughts and Emotions Can Speak From Fear and Anxiety
The conviction of the Holy Spirit is not a pleasant feeling, and there are examples in Scripture where God tells someone something and it doesn’t produce only a sense of peace. Think about Abraham, when God gave him that nightmare — a great darkness and a great dread fell over him as he recognized prophetically Israel going into slavery. That Revelation produced a burden.
So you’ll often hear the cliché, “You know it’s the Holy Spirit speaking when you feel nothing but peace” — that’s true in a sense, but let’s not get it mixed up. Yes, at the core of who you are, there will be peace — a stable peace in your spirit — but that doesn’t mean you won’t experience negative emotions when God speaks.
How many of us feel good when God corrects us, when God humbles us? The Bible says correction doesn’t feel good in the moment, but God corrects those whom he loves. So what happens when God speaks correction — it’s not going to feel very good. I’ve been rebuked by my spiritual fathers before, and it doesn’t feel very good. I’ve had to correct many different things in my life and ministry, and that correction is painful — your ego takes a hit, your pride takes a hit, your emotions are deflated, you feel defeated. But even in that humility, good fruit comes.
So yes, when the Holy Spirit speaks, you will have peace — but that doesn’t mean you won’t experience negative emotions in the outer shells of who you are. There are certain times the Holy Spirit has revealed to me things about men and women of God whom I love and honor, and it hurts. The Holy Spirit doesn’t reveal those things so I can broadcast it — he reveals them so I can lovingly and fervently intercede for my brothers and sisters. Sometimes he reveals things I don’t like to see, and there’s a brokenness, a burden, this godly sorrow — but deep down there’s peace.
First John 4:18 — “Such love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced this perfect love.” The presence of fear is evidence of the absence of fully receiving love — that’s where it comes from. There’s no security, no safety net. But when you are secure in God’s love, fear is completely eliminated.
So God speaks from the place of perfect peace — peace of mind, peace in your soul — but you can still experience some negative emotions. God may say, “I’ve called you, I want you to preach,” and in your spirit there’s peace, but in your emotions you may feel a little nervous — how’s this going to work, am I the right one for the job?
Think about Moses — he couldn’t believe God was calling him. Think about Isaiah 6 — he became filled with dread when God began to speak to him. But deep in the core there will always be peace. So whenever a message comes to you, ask yourself: I may be feeling some negative emotions around this, but deep down, what am I sensing — is there peace? Then in most cases, that’s the Lord.
5. God’s Voice Affirms Your Identity — Your Voice Questions It
You’re a child of God. You belong to him. The Holy Spirit dwells in you. It’s the same demonic attack against the world — getting them to question the very basic makeup of who they are — coming against the church in a different form. You may not question how you were created, but you may question where you stand with Christ, or the power of the Holy Spirit within you. That constant questioning of who you are, that constant second-guessing of the love of God toward you, that constant bewilderment — that is not the Holy Spirit.
The voice of the Holy Spirit speaks with certainty, stability, consistency, conviction, passion — that you belong to Jesus, period. You’re a child of God, a carrier of the glory; the presence dwells in you. We should respect and love people, but we don’t fear them. We should be aware of the enemy’s tactics without being paranoid about them.
If there’s a constant questioning of your identity in Christ, either you’re not living right — and you’ll know that by the word — or you’re not hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit, and you can dismiss that voice. It’s a voice of condemnation. If you’re living according to Scripture, then any such voice is condemnation, not conviction. It’s very simple; we complicate it. God’s voice affirms your identity — your voice questions it constantly.
Religious OCD: When Fear-Based Thinking Takes Over
Before moving to the next point, let me double down on the idea of “religious OCD.” There are many believers living in torment because they’re living in a performance-based, fear-based view of salvation. Now, we should all live holy — every believer should desire to be more like Jesus and rid of sinful compromise — but the Holy Spirit is working with you, not against you.
He loves you, he’s faithfully abiding, saying, “Let’s get this right.” If you live from a place of fear, you’ll constantly have this barrage of thoughts — and yes, the Holy Spirit does sometimes give strange instructions — but many find themselves living in a hellish, tormented existence they can’t be free of.
How to Discern: The Four Voices
Since I have already described the sound of the voice of the Holy Spirit versus your own voice, I want to demonstrate how to distinguish between the two. There were three originally but it is useful to throw in a fourth: self, Satan, secular, and Spirit.
- Secular — the voices of culture, people, family members, anyone speaking according to the thinking of the world.
- Satan — questions the word and constantly contradicts it.
- Self — sometimes speaks random, seemingly benign, neutral thoughts. We all have those.
- Spirit — this is the speaking of truth.
All of these voices are constantly coming at you. The key to clearly hearing God isn’t in getting God to speak to you — because God already speaks to you. Remember, you were born again with a new set of senses. Hearing in the spirit is not a skill to be acquired, it’s a sense to be sharpened. You already have the sense — the Holy Spirit is already speaking to you right now.
So the key is not in getting the Holy Spirit to speak, the key is in silencing the satanic, the secular, and self — and all that’s left is the Spirit, and you hear him loud and clear.
Four Keys to Hearing the Holy Spirit: Word, Wisdom, Whisper, Wonders
Key One: The Word (The Foundation)
Insisting upon adherence to the word, insisting on biblical accuracy, is not “religious.” The word of God is inspired by the Holy Spirit, every word. Be very careful of anyone who questions foundational teachings of the word — be careful of yourself, even, when you have to bend Scripture to fit your opinion. Doing that will end you up in confusion and torment of the mind.
The word must be the foundation. Get it out of your head that the word is religious, or that it contradicts the Holy Spirit. If you want real power, if you want to walk in the presence of the Holy Spirit in such a way that your life will mark the nations, then get in the word. The word is the foundation of our understanding of the voice of the Holy Spirit — that is the safety net.
You want a word from God? Open your Bible. If you’re serious about hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit, you’ll get serious about reading the word. We must dive into the word, receive the word, have a rich knowledge of the word — and that knowledge is set on fire by the Holy Ghost. Revelation is knowledge set on fire by the Holy Ghost.
Look at all the different people God used throughout Scripture — they had sharp intellectual minds that the Holy Ghost set on fire, an ability to reason according to the Scriptures, and the Holy Spirit gave them boldness, authority, clarity, and peace because of that adherence to the word.
The word is the foundation to knowing the voice of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit will never contradict the word. That written word is there for your guidance, and it serves as my grounding, my stability. Jesus said you build your house upon the sand — that’s like building on your own understanding, without his words. You build your house upon the rock — that’s like building on his word — so that when the storms come (he did not say if the storms come, he said when), you’ll be standing, because you built on a solid foundation.
It’s not religious to study the word — anyone who thinks that will get stuck in immature Christianity. If you’re intimidated by the word, that’s okay — so was I. I was at a place in my life where I didn’t know anything about Scripture, and I had to really dig in and discipline myself to make use of what God had put before me. That begins with simple obedience.
Key Two: Wisdom (The Structure)
Once the word is the foundation, then wisdom begins to naturally follow. Wisdom is how the Holy Spirit speaks to your spirit. The word is the Holy Spirit speaking directly to you through the word — wisdom is the Holy Spirit speaking to your spirit. As you read the word, your mind is being washed, being renewed — you’re beginning to think like God thinks, understanding his nature, understanding his ways.
How do I renew the mind? It’s the word — as you read his word, the mind is being renewed. James 1:5 — “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking him.”
So the word becomes the foundation, and as you become a person of the word, wisdom naturally results — because that word gets into your spirit, and when it does, you begin to think, reason, believe, and behave according to the Holy Spirit’s guidance, because your mind is being renewed by the word. Wisdom is this pure overflow of the directions of God, this purposeful pull on your life — you have a natural inclination and understanding of what God wants you to do in any given situation, because you become familiar with his nature. The word shows you his will; that develops wisdom in you. Wisdom shows you his ways.
Key Three: The Whisper
This is the Holy Spirit speaking to your mind — your natural mind — giving you specific instruction. Like when I was driving my car and the Holy Spirit told me, “Stop.” You can’t find that written chapter and verse anywhere in the Bible — in that moment, the Holy Spirit spoke specifically to me.
Some argue that if it’s already written in the word, the Holy Spirit doesn’t need to say it, and if it’s not written in the word, the Holy Spirit wouldn’t speak it because it’s not written. But this fails to take into account that often we need instructions for the very specific details of our lives — you’re not always going to find chapter and verse for every specific situation. The word gives you the general will of God, wisdom teaches you his ways, but sometimes you need an ultra-specific instruction — that’s when the whisper comes in.
Don’t try to hear the whisper if you are not a person of the word. John 14:26 — “The Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all that I have said to you.” The Holy Spirit reminds and he reveals — he reminds you of what has been said, but he also reveals what God is saying. This doesn’t mean what he speaks carries the same authority as Scripture; he’s speaking very specifically for particular situations in your life, and those instructions don’t have universal application for all time.
He whispers to your heart — but don’t try to live your life by the whisper alone. Some Christians think they’re spiritual because they just “go however the Spirit leads me, like the wind” — with no discipline, no foundation, no grounding, everything based off their own experience and encounters. They’re never interpreting their encounters through the word — they’re only interpreting the word through their encounters. That’s simply a lack of maturity in the faith.
We need to come to the place where the word is first, then the wisdom, then the whisper. If you’re a person of the word, walking in the Holy Spirit’s wisdom, those are your safety nets for when he begins to speak with the whisper. Many believers have this reversed.
Key Four: Wonders
Prophecy is for today, the spiritual gifts are for today, miracles are for today, deliverance, healing, dreams, visions, supernatural encounters — all for today. We can’t dismiss this, because the word tells us so.
The problem arises when you try to live your life by the wonders instead of by the word. Many believers have this reversed. The word is the foundation, wisdom is the structure, the whisper of the Holy Spirit is like the drywall and other materials added onto that, and the wonders are like the nice decorations — the furniture, the extra pieces. If you live your life only with the extra pieces, and the word is an afterthought, that ends up causing all kinds of confusion, strange doctrines, tension, bondage, isolation, and anxiety.
That’s why you start with the word. The word produces wisdom. Wisdom causes you to be mature enough to distinguish between the whisper and your own thoughts. And the whisper helps you understand and navigate the world of wonders. Start with the word, build that as your foundation — then you’ll have the wisdom, then you’ll hear the whispers, and then you’ll have the discernment necessary to receive only what are truly godly wonders.
Closing Prayer
Father, I pray in the name of Jesus that you would cause your people to desire your word. Lord, we repent of any neglect of your word — help us recommit to being people of Scripture. Holy Spirit, we surrender to the way you desire to speak — help us not to box you in to just what our experiences tell us, and help us go to higher places by living according to your word.
