Hearing voices

[Blackwater]

As I sit here, I just happened to have the TV on, and the old movie with Jean Seeberg as Joan of Arc came on. St. Joan was said to have heard voices that told her what she was to say and do, and who she was to relate her revelations to.

We now know that "hearing voices" is an element of schizophrenia. However, we of faith ALSO know that there have been many instances where humans HAVE heard the voice of God, and that these directions thus received have been critical to the outcome of things, and the progress of humanity here on earth. I for one, am in no wise deluded that God cannot speak, quite literally (how else would He really get our attention?) to we humans from His realm in Heaven. So how does one tell which is which?

For me, if to no other, I think it's the results that have to be the determinant. I've had some experience with some shizophrenics, and the results they've derived from listening to their voices is quite different from those who've simply heard the voice of God. What schizophrenics usually hear seems to be based largely or wholly in their fears or manias. What those God spoke to heard seems to have come from "nowhere," but were proven out when they complied with God's instructions.

The thoughts of schizophrenics seem to be rooted soley in concerns about self. Those who God has spoken to seem to have NO roots in thoughts for or about the self. This, I think, is a very revealing difference. Time and time again, we've been advised to not think of ourselves, but of others and of our Lord, and we're to keep the advice of our Savior, and do our best for Him and our fellow man, with little to no concern for ourselves. I think we obviously are meant to survive, so we have to be concerned to at least some degree about food, shelter and clothing, but if we are given a mission, it's up to us whether to decide to take up that "cross" and bear whatever comes of it. Just like Christ did, only He carried a MUCH heavier load than any of us mere mortals could ever bear.

So this then, for me at least, gives rise to the question of how God really communicates with us in our everyday lives. I'll take all the instruction anyone wants to give here, because all I really have is mostly just a sense that He communicates with us very subtly, possibly to test our faith and attention to Him, and possibly because it's just His manner of doing things. I know many times in my life, I've had a sense that I was to do something. Sometimes I complied, and sometimes I just scoffed it off. These senses didn't seem to come from within me, but I don't claim to understand them. I just know they were not "voices" as schizophrenics have described their experiences to me. And I know that they were not senses that I would likely have come up with on my own.

So I have a question for you all. How does God speak to YOU, in your opinion? Conscience has been one explanation through the years, but it just doesn't have the ring of complete truth to me. I guess if you believe that when God breathed the breath of life into Adam, that breath contained a tiny measure of the divine, so that he COULD communicate with us in probably several different ways. Maybe that's the root of our conscience? And maybe our conscience is our biggest and most vital link to our Creator?

What do you think, and what is your own sense of how God communicates with us as individuals?

[Pine Baron]

Blackwater,
This is a most profound and personal question. We all have experienced Gods Will in various and different ways. Have I "heard " His voice? Yes. Have I seen "signs"? Yes. Have I felt the hand of God "move" me? Absolutely.
Sometimes God gives me a "nudge", to get me back on His path. Sometimes He has to give me a "shove". Sometimes, more times than I wish to admit, He has to "whup me upside the head with a 2x4". He is ALWAYS there, whether we choose to see it or not.
All Glory is to God.

[bangerjim]

Not in "voices in my head". That could be indicative of a mental disorder.

I feel it is thru feelings of the heart and situations (both + and -) that occur in my life.

[claude]

IMHO the greatest medium of communication between God and man is the letter He wrote to us telling us how to live a successful life, when we sit down with the word, with an open mind, He is able to touch us in ways beyond what the senses can comprehend.

I am in agreement with Pine Baron, and have had to kiss the 2X4 myself, but the real communication is with the man within,our spiritual selves are able to hear God without the aid of our senses, these are what I call the nudges PB speaks of. Should I fail to heed the nudges, He will resort to means that the flesh understands, it is much more pleasant to heed the urging of the spirit than take the 2x4.

I feel many call the urging of the inner man twinges of conscience, and fail to understand that we are two creatures, a spiritual man in a flesh body, and pay way more attention to the flesh man than the spiritual.

Joh_4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Rom_8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Heb_4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

I will not say that God doesn't speak to men out loud so the flesh can hear it, but upon supposition, I would count it a very rare thing indeed.

[buckwheatpaul]

I know that He has guided me on many occasions. On July 5, 1980 He saved my life. Some of His guidance toward me has been in the sense of my training and conscience and some of His guidance has been in practicing what He has taught me through the Bible and Bible Study. Some of His guidance has been as the result of others that are walking in lockstep with the Lord......Eventually it became engraved on my heart and is on my lips about the praises that I give God......Paul

[Boaz]

I have never heard a voice from above . I have never heard a voice in my head . But I have been lead or moved by him so many times . Generally by revelations that I didn't even have in my thoughts at the times . Being made aware of a situation or circumstance with no prior consideration of it . I believe he guides us more than we think if you give him control .
When you have some quiet time to think just dwell on the circumstances of service or good work you have done or attempted . Many times looking and tracing back you will find a pattern , a plan , a chain of events that worked it's way to you . You are a cog in the wheel to accomplish that plan , It's usually very subtle . Would you expect less from our Lord ? He not only works in our lives , we are all interconnected .

[Ickisrulz]

Assuming a person was raised correctly he has a conscience that provides guidance. But, the conscience often needs refinement and correction.

The Bible is God's primary way to guide man. The Holy Spirit was sent to remind man of Jesus's words. But in order to be reminded, a man had to have learned those words. He cannot be reminded of something he never heard before. So we are back to the Bible again.

While we have our conscience, God's word and the reminder of the Holy Spirit; we have our intellect, observations and experiences to put these things together and come up with the correct answer for given situations.

I know God can speak to people in an audible voice. But in the Bible it is more rare than we often realize considering the massive time period covered. One thing to consider is how do you think the Father spoke to Jesus during his ministry on earth? I don't believe that Jesus was led by the Father's audible voice. God did speak from heaven 3 times and I personally believe that was it. Jesus' teacher was scripture.

[jmort]

If you believe the Bible, God has spoken to people, from the beginning. 99% plus of the time, we just get an inward calling or conviction, or direction or directive. I had a directive, from God I believe as it was not contrary to the Bible, over a year ago, and I followed it and was blessed greatly by my obedience to the directive. I would never follow any directive or voice that was contrary to the Bible as that is our guiding light.

[Ickisrulz]

Another interesting thing to note is that our desires are often legitimate guides. For example, we often think of being "called" into the ministry. But when Paul spoke of the qualifications for an "overseer" he used the word "aspire." Pretty much meaning if a person wants to be an overseer.

Christians are sometimes looking for God's direction when the path is open to them to choose.

[Blackwater]

Pine Barron, you're FAR from alone, brother! I think we've all spent some time in the penalty box, and felt the wrath of God when we went with our own wills instead of his. But in a way, it's kind'a a GOOD thing when we feel His wrath. I think it's quite clear that sometimes, with some people, He just gives up and ceases trying to chastise those who have no faith and have refused his offers repeatedly. So if He's still trying to guide us, we at least know He still loves us enough to care. Some, who even He seems to regard as "beyond all help," He seems to leave alone, to their own devices, and lets them kind'a punish themselves in whatever sort of way they choose. So I for one am grateful for His chastisements, just as I'm glad I always knew Dad would do if I went beyond a certain point. Mom would stripe my legs with a switch, and really got GOOD at that, but I'd try her. Dad? He always had that "I made you, I can take you out" kind of attitude that I didn't often dare to mess with. Looking back, I'm grateful for all the discipline God and my parents provided for me. Only when I became a Dad myself did I realize that old adage "This is gonna' hurt me more than it is you," really CAN be real. So many things in life depend on our perspective at the time!

And thanks for all the comments. This is a tough one, I know, which is the reason I asked it. The harder the question, the more info and opinion I like to gather on it. And I certainly can't claim any great insight into it, which is why I asked also. I DO believe God actually spoke to a few in our history, but I think he mostly "whispers" to us generally, on whom the whole world and His purposes in it do not depend, as it did to Abraham and others.

Y'all keep up the comments. Tough questions like this warrant as much as we can give it, I think.

[DerekP Houston]

I often wondered if a prophet were born in modern times would anyone actually notice? It could have happened a hundred times in NYC alone already for all we know, they are sitting in a room medicated out the wazoo.

[johnson1942]

prophets are born in modern times, it is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and apart of many full gosple churches also.

[Ickisrulz]

prophets are born in modern times, it is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and apart of many full gosple churches also.

I'll just add:

1. The five-fold ministry of the Church: Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers.

2. The Gift of Prophecy is one of the 9 gifts of the Holy Spirit to God's people.