Hearing God's Voice

How to discern the voice of God is one of the most widely discussed topics for young Christians.

God gave me a big purpose for my life.  To unite the churches through music and the arts.  
This was not an easy task to even understand let alone undertake.  

So was it really from God?  How did I know?  What made me so sure?  Was it not arrogant to believe that God would call me, a new believer, to such an immense task.

Over the past year God has spoken to me many times through many different means.  

When I first heard the voice of God I did not know what it was, some kind of audible hallucination perhaps?  It was only when it kept happening that I began to believe it was really God speaking.  

Some people say God never really speaks to us.  By this I presume they mean "God", as in "God, the Father".  When I speak of God I mean God the Trinity; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Jesus says in John 5:37 "You have never heard his voice nor seen his form", so we can't argue with that.  

So therefore when we talk about hearing God's voice what we are really hearing is the Holy Spirit; the Comforter, the Counsellor.  

But there are so many spirits, how do we know that the voice we are hearing is of God?  

The only answer, especially for the new Christian, is to test it.  Not because we are doubting God, but because we need to practice the art of discernment.  In 1 John 4:1 it says, "Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God".  So in testing everything we are following God's explicit instructions.  

Everything that has been spoken to me has also been spoken to others who have given me the same message from God that has also been revealed to me through scripture.  

Many times, even prior to giving my life to Christ, I would get words, phrases, sentences in my head that just wouldn't go away.  When I told a few people from my church about this I discovered, much to my amazement, that they were verses from the bible.  Incredible since I had hardly read the bible at all.  

After receiving the instruction to "unite the churches", I did not tell a single person, believer or non-believer, as it seemed incredulous that God would speak to me about such things when I had no knowledge or understanding.  After only a matter of days I was given the same words by my friend Sophie in UK who I have known for nearly 30 years and by Pastor Hani Aziz of the Arabic Congregation at NEC, who told me that God had spoken to him about me before he had even met me.  

It still all seemed rather unreal at the time and I probably just about managed to thank them for their words of encouragement.  

Shortly after this series of unlikely conversations, God woke me up at 3am with the firm instruction to turn on the TV, implanted in my mind.  I had the TV set to TBN (Trinity Broadcast Network) and it went straight into a sermon by some famous preacher who was unknown by me at the time.  The guy was talking about unity... about uniting the church through brotherhood and friendship.  He spoke about how, although we were united through the body of Christ this was just a figure of speech and that our love of denominations had divided us so much so that Christ could not return because He would have to become an  adulterer in order to claim his bride.  This was an incredible moment when it suddenly all made sense to me.  

Now I knew that it was God I was hearing from.  He definitely meant me to do something about this.  I could not longer just sit back and pretend it wasn't happening.    

But I was still afraid to tell anyone in my church.  Afraid that I would sound crazy, or stupid.  That they would say that it wasn't God or that I had misunderstood in some way.

Then a great blessing came to Rivers in the form of Kevin and Nicole Van Ecke, a prophetic couple who ran a workshop one saturday morning in April.  During the workshop Kevin spoke about me, saying how God would use me, how I would bring many people to the church through my contacts in the arts and that the church needed more people like me.  He also spoke about my past, releasing me of my shame and giving me such a feeling of freedom to now go ahead and speak about what God had put in my heart that I spoke with our pastor Basie immediately about the plan for a Christian Arts Festival that God had given me earlier that week in a dream.  

Despite my previous worries I received full support from all the elders of our church, who never questioned whether I was really hearing from God.  I am truly blessed that God placed me amongst such wise and loving believers who have guided me faithfully as I began to walk the path that God had set out for me.

Dear Lord, Father God, who was, and is, and is to come.  Who knows every hair upon my head, who knew me before I was born, who knew the plans He had for me, to prosper me and not to harm me.  Lord, I give my life to you.  From this day forward, I am yours.  I surrender to you totally, in thought and word and deed.  Thank you for choosing me Father, thank you for entrusting me with the secret things of your Kingdom and for preparing me for your perfect love.  

I pray that I will always walk in your ways, that my words will be your words and that I will be guided by the Holy Spirit in all things. 

In Jesus' mighty name,

Amen