How to Discern the Spirit's Voice

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How to Discern the Spirit’s Voice

Prayer often feels like a very subjective artform. We wish we could hear with as much clarity from God as people like Moses or Samuel or Paul did, but we don’t. Learning to let the Spirit lead you (Gal 5:16; 18; 25) can feel far too much like a guessing game. Was that thought from the Spirit, from my flesh, from the world, or worse from the devil himself? Knowing the answer to that question is key. 

The rubric below can assist you in discerning the Spirit’s voice from all other voices. There are 5 things that must be present for you to know the prompting you receive while in prayer is from the Spirit. Hold every prompting and thought from prayer up to these five truths:

The Spirit inspired the Bible and won’t ever call us to do anything that contradicts the Bible’s teaching and truth. If the thought doesn’t agree with scripture at every point, discard it. It is not from God.

If the thought is the comfortable and easy way out, it is not usually from the Spirit since He wants to stretch us and grow us.

If there is a thought to do something that you don’t naturally want to do or to give up something you wouldn’t normally want to give up, you can be confident it isn’t coming from your own flesh or desires.

Our God often calls us to take risks to show us He’s the only One who can be trusted. If it requires God’s Spirit to empower the bravery to obey, it is likely from the Spirit.

The Spirit’s main task is to bring glory to the Son (John 16:14). He will never prompt us to do anything that will distract from the Son’s glory.

When you see all five of these elements present is something you believe the Spirit is prompting you to do, you can have a high degree of confidence that it is an accurate leading of the Spirit. If any of them are missing, approach with extreme caution. We are fallible human beings and must exercise great care in the discipline of listening and obeying. But it is worth the effort to grow in this discipline. The reward is a Spirit-filled life. I pray you discover the power of walking in step with the Spirit!