Did you know that God is always speaking? If you didn’t know that, you’re probably not hearing Him speak to you very well. It’s one of the reasons you’re facing some of the challenges in life.
But if you could hear God clearly, it would not only get you out of problems, but it would help grow spiritually through them and you won’t have to repeat them. I don’t know how anyone becomes an overcomer without hearing God’s voice. It is an absolute essential!
And yet, most Christians are content to go through life not even knowing that God is speaking to them, let alone how. There is more than one way God can speak to you. However, you might not know the basics of how to hear His voice. There are specific ways that God communicates; and if you would learn them, you will be able to discern whether what you’re hearing is God, if it’s the devil, or if it’s just your own heart and desires. I want to share with you four basic ways that God speaks. If your life just seems like it’s totally out of whack—whether it be in your body, your finances, your emotions, or in your marriage—I can guarantee you, it’s because you have been making decisions independent of hearing God.
You’re just one word from God away from seeing that whole situation turned around. But you need to learn the basics. It will increase your confidence in your relationship with God, and you will have a totally different life!
Your Conscience
The most fundamental way that you can hear from God and be led by Him is with your conscience bearing witness with the Holy Spirit. It is an intuitive knowledge in your heart of right and wrong. When God made Adam and Eve, He didn’t create them with a conscience. But when they disobeyed Him by eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they realized they were naked and started experiencing fear over their sin (Gen. 3:7–10).
That was the conscience becoming active, and every human being after them would also have a conscience. In the book of Romans, Paul wrote about the people who don’t even know the Lord: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another. Romans 2:15 4
Your conscience will either accuse you or excuse you, and it functions automatically. This wasn’t part of God’s original plan, but after sin entered in, the conscience became a necessary way of discerning His voice.
Nevertheless, the conscience is not infallible. Our conscience is influenced by what we believe. Wrong thinking can pervert our conscience so it condemns us over things that are not wrong, just as right thinking can actually strengthen the assurance coming from our conscience.
1 John 3:18–19 says you have to assure your heart before God. That means you can get to the place where your conscience actually gives you confidence:
1 John 3:20–21 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
If you can learn to assure your heart, then your conscience will give you confidence. The apostle Paul said two different times that he strived constantly to have a conscience without offense (Acts 23:1 and 24:16).
That doesn’t mean he was sinless or that he ignored his conscience. It just means he practiced, as a lifestyle, to keep his conscience clear. He put effort into it. This is part of how you assure your heart.
CONDEMNATION VS. CONVICTION
You are going to fall short. You’re going to do something that you know is wrong, or you’re not going to do something that you know you should have done. What do you do with your conscience then? The Bible says that the blood of Christ will purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Heb. 9:14). When you commit sin, whether by commission or omission, you don’t need to sit there and wallow in misery. You need to be quick to stand on the blood of Jesus to receive forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1:9). No one is perfect, so you need to learn to be strong in the grace that is in the Lord Jesus (2 Tim. 2:1). Satan is the accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10). He’ll try to use your conscience to condemn you, but you overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of your testimony (Rev. 12:11). If you strive to keep a good conscience, you will stop him from having an opportunity against you and stop his condemnation. This is a major part of learning to discern God’s voice. If you can learn to assure your heart, then your conscience will give you confidence.
Conviction is from the Lord, whereas condemnation is from the devil (John 16:7–11). God will use conviction to prick your conscience when you rebel against Him. He will not just affirm everything in your life. But conviction will never come to hurt you or to cause fear. God will only use it to draw you back to Himself. This is a normal function of the conscience.
Do the Good You Know to Do
While the conscience is not a totally reliable guide for hearing the voice of the Lord, it would be to your own detriment to just ignore or violate it. Every time you did, you would be putting a layer of insensitivity between you and God and making it that much harder to hear from Him. Eventually, you could get to the place where you actually sear your conscience (1 Tim. 4:2).
If you get a cut that needs stitches but are unable to get it treated, you can take a hot iron to the wound to cauterize it. The nerve endings would be killed so you wouldn’t have any feeling there. This is what 1 Timothy 4:2 is speaking of happening to your conscience—one of the foundational way God speaks to you.
If you sever your conscience from functioning, you could be given over to a reprobate mind (Rom. 1:28). That is a person who has totally destroyed any sense of right and wrong within them.
This describes what the conscience does. Once that happens and God stops drawing them, there is no return. They can’t be saved. You need to get to where you do what you know is right in your heart. If you want to hear the voice of God, it all starts here. You can’t skip over this. Make a decision that you are not going to live a life of intentionally doing wrong.
James 4:17 says, Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Yes, God loves you whether you sin or whether you don’t. He’s not mad at you. But you are not going to hear His voice very well if you go against what you know in your heart. If you aren’t listening to your conscience and you’re into willful sin, why should God show you anything else? It says in Luke 12:48b, “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required.” If God were to speak to you in ways beyond the conscience, that’d just make you more accountable. Out of His love for you, He won’t do that. You have to first be responsible with what you’ve been given before God speaks to you in other ways (Luke 16:10). Choose today not to ignore or violate your conscience!
HIS WORD
The next way God speaks to you is through His Word. You can hear things beyond the Word of God, but nothing will ever contradict or supersede it.
This is the plumbline by which you measure everything you say God is speaking to you. That’s why you need to: Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15
If something doesn’t match up with the Word of God, don’t receive it. How do you discern whether what you think you are hearing from God is actually His voice?
Hebrews 4:12, says, For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. When you think God may be speaking to you, the Word of God will discern whether it’s really from Him or not.
TRANSFORMED AND RECEIVED
Romans 12:1- I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
“What does it mean to be a living sacrifice? What does it mean to be transformed by the renewing of my mind?” As the Lord reveals what this means and we obey it then we will know the good, the acceptable, and the perfect will of God.
Before we experience the presence of the Lord, and the glory of God we can become a religious Pharisee, under the deception that we have to live holy for God to love us, accept us, and move in our life. Living holier than anyone we know and have become self-righteous. But when God shows up and we see His glory and holiness, all of our righteousness looks like filthy rags (Is. 64:6).
We may think God is going to kill us and confess everything we have ever done but we will begin to experience a supernatural flow of God’s love and be caught up into the presence of God that lasts four hours, months, or even years. Feeling his awesome power causes us to share what God has reveal to us. This is how we began to prove God’s perfect will for our life.
It all starts through reading and meditating on the Word of God. This is how God still speaks to us today. I’m sure you would like to have God speak to you. But would you spend eighteen months just reading the Word, even if you’re sleepy? It’s not a formula, but very few people are that hungry. Then they wonder why they don’t hear God. You’ve got to have a commitment to the Word of God.
GOD’S WORD IS PERFECT
There are a lot of Christians who don’t even believe that the Bible is infallible. They believe that it contains His Word but that it can’t be trusted completely. However, outside of Jesus coming and then leaving the Holy Spirit for us, the Bible is the most important way for you to hear the voice of God.
Psalm 19:7 says, The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
The Bible is not just good, and it’s doesn’t just contain the Word of God. It is perfect, and it is the Word of God. It will teach you everything you need to know. As a matter of fact, the Greek word used for the phrase inspiration of God in the following passage literally means the Word is God-breathed:
2 Timothy 3:16–17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
The apostle Peter, in an effort to show that the Word of God wasn’t just man’s opinion, wrote,
2 Peter 1:17–18 For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.
On the Mountain of Transfiguration, Peter had seen the glory of God come and overshadow him. He even heard the audible voice of God. And yet, he said, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy” (2 Pet. 1:19a). What can be more sure than hearing God’s voice or seeing a visible manifestation of His glory? He went on to write, Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Peter 1:20–21 The word moved, means that the writers of the Bible were moved along by the Holy Spirit. What they wrote was born by the Spirit. The words of Scripture aren’t the opinions of fallible man. No, they’re inspired. This is one of the ways God has chosen to communicate to us. It is critical to believe this if we’re going to hear His voice. Speaking about the Israelites who had come out of the land of Egypt and were promised a land flowing with milk and honey, Hebrews 4:2 says, The word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. I want to encourage you to have faith that God will speak to you through His Word. Then it will benefit and help you. Meditate on the Word It takes more than just reading the Word to hear from God. You have to meditate in it daily. This is a prerequisite for you to be prosperous and to have good success:
Joshua 1:8 -This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
This is powerful! If you aren’t experiencing either good or success, it’s because you’ve departed from meditating on the precepts of the Word of God. This is how God speaks to you.
Why in the world would God speak to you any other way if you don’t honor what He said in His Word? People have died to give us the Bible, and most of us ignore it at best. At worst, we don’t even believe it. If we do believe it, we don’t spend much time in it. And if that’s the case, we don’t have to look any farther than this as to why God isn’t speaking to us.
To say it another way, if we aren’t letting the Word of God influence our thinking, then we’re letting this world’s system influence our thinking. We have a choice whether to be conformed to this world or to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Let God be true and every man a liar (Rom. 3:4). His Word has to be absolute truth and the final authority in our lives.
In 2 Samuel 24 God was angry at Israel and moved David to number them. In 1Chronicles21 It says Satan moved David to number them. This is not a contradiction.
The Lord used Satan to move David to number them. If you study the Word you will see that Satan is God’s puppet. God allows Satan to do certain things. Job 1: 12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. I kings 22: 22 The Lord said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the Lord said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.’ 23 Therefore look! The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has declared disaster against you.”
GOD’S WORD IS A SEED
Over in 1 Peter 1:23, the Word is referred to as a seed. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. You have to take this seed and plant it in the soil of your heart (Mark 4:3–32). And if you do that, the seed becomes activated and begins to produce. You’ve got everything in Christ that you’ll ever need, but the seed has to be sown. Then it needs to be watered and cultivated. If you’ll cooperate with this process, the Word will be life unto you and health to all of your flesh (Prov. 4:20–22).
You may agree with what I’ve said, but you may not be living it right now. You’ve let other things choke the Word of God: the cares of this life, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust other things (Mark 4:19). You’ve got to get to a place that you not only say you believe it, but you do it. Faith without works is dead (James 2:20).
I guarantee that if you will meditate in the Word day and night, you will make your way prosperous, and you will have good success. This applies to hearing God’s voice in every area of your life. I believe that God is leading you to make a commitment to the Word of God right now. Make it a priority in your life that you’ll not go another day without letting it dominate and impact you. God will speak to you!
YOUR SPIRIT
When you are born again, you are one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17). This is a reality in the spiritual realm. Most Christians are not conscious of what’s true in the spirit. They identify more with who they are according to the flesh than who they are in Christ.
But who you are in the spirit is the real you. You don’t have to live by this physical, natural realm, looking for God to speak to you through your circumstances or by some kind of outward sign. There’s a better way.
You can walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7) and let God speak to you Spirit to spirit! Instead of God’s voice coming from the outside in, through an external sign, or in third person, it’ll be from the inside out, in first person. You’ll just know what God is saying in your spirit.
Now, you might be asking, “How do I know if what I’m hearing is not just my mind or my flesh?”
The Word of God discerns between soul and spirit and the thoughts and intents of the heart (Heb. 4:12). With the Word of God, you can know whether what you’re hearing is the flesh part of you or whether it is the born-again part of you. That’s why, it is so important that you know the Word. You’re at a deficit in being able to discern His voice if you don’t.
Satan will use that disadvantage against you, and you’ll be deceived. Now, it is possible to put so much emphasis on the Bible that you don’t follow the Spirit. But you can be out of balance either way.
What if you were on the beaches of Normandy in World War II. All around me were land mines. “Which would you rather have: a map that told you where every mine was or a voice behind you telling you where to step?”
It is better to have the voice and be led by the Spirit than by the Bible. But neither one of them are enough on their own. How would you know whether you’re hearing the voice correctly or that the voice can be trusted? Then, how do you know that you’re reading the map right?
However, if you put the voice together with the map, one can confirm the other. It takes the Word and the Spirit! You’ve got to have both.
PEACE LIKE AN UMPIRE
In your spirit, you know all things (1 John 2:20). Most people say, “Well, that’s not true. I can’t even find my glasses, and they’re on top of my head!” With your mind, you don’t know all things, but in your spirit, you do know all things.
I’m pretty sure you have had a decision to make and you made the logical choice, but it didn’t feel right. When things didn’t work out, you said, “I knew I shouldn’t have done that.” That was your born-again spirit being led by God. Your spirit knew exactly what to do, but you followed your head instead of being led by peace.
Colossians 3:15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts.
The word for rule means that peace is to be like an umpire in your heart. It’s supposed to make the call whether something is of God or not. It won’t be based on your circumstances. It’ll be an inner knowing. But you will have to seek God in order to discern it.
With your mind, you don’t know all things, but in your spirit, you do know all things.
Isaiah 26:3 says that the Lord will “keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on [Him]: because he trusteth in [Him].”
If you don’t have peace in any direction, it’s because your mind is not stayed on God. You’re stayed on the problem. If you’re sitting there watching that which in not of God on television, the carnal mind is enmity against God (Rom. 8:7). You aren’t going to have peace.
Nevertheless, having a peace about something does not mean you’ll be void of problems. It won’t be based on your circumstances. There is a peace that passes understanding (Phil. 4:7).
Of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22–23), I believe it is at first the easiest to discern. Once you partake of the fruit of the Spirit, you can learn to walk in it continually. This is what I would encourage you to do if you’re new to hearing the voice of the Lord and you’re struggling to discern peace: You either need to have a mentor to give you counsel and wisdom, or if you don’t have a mentor, you can really slowly head in the direction that you feel the most peace. That peace will either increase, or if you’re moving in the wrong direction, there will be a lack of peace.
The spirit within you will not bear witness with a wrong decision. I can tell you that the times when I’ve really messed up, it’s been because I didn’t let peace rule in my heart. I just did what was the wisest thing to do, or I caved to the pressure of circumstances. But anytime I’ve followed the peace of God in my heart, it has never failed me.
In your heart, you may have a holy dissatisfaction about your life right now. It’s God taking away peace. He’s making you uncomfortable because He’s trying to get you out of the nest so you can do something different. He doesn’t want you to be satisfied where you are. You need to follow the peace of God and start making some changes.
WHEN GOD IS YOUR DELIGHT
Another way God speaks through your spirit is through your own desires. There is a prerequisite to this, but it’s true. In Psalm 37:4, it says, delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
This is not saying that God is just going to give you anything you want. But if you are truly delighting in God, if you will put Him first place, then He will put His desires in your heart. In fact, He will change your desires. They will become His desires. I’m sure you have experienced this before.
When you were born again, you no longer wanted to be a drunk, a doper, an adulterer, or whatever you were. God had changed your heart. The same principle still applies today: When you start delighting yourself in the Lord, He will bring to pass the desires of your heart. If you’re delighting in God, you can actually reach a place where He puts His desires in your heart. Then whatever you do will be His will! Now, you may struggle at first with what I’m about to say but because my spirit is in union with God and I delight in Him, I do whatever I want to do. I go where I want to go. People ask me, “Would you please pray about this?” and I say, “Well, I don’t have to pray about this. I just do what I want to do.”
When you put the Spirit with the map of God’s Word and they harmonize, I take that as being God. I start moving in that direction, and it comes to pass.
The Lord told me to quit limiting Him by my small thinking, through Psalm 78:41. He used Scripture to speak to me. But I don’t want to do anything just for myself. I am not building a legacy for me. My vision is to know God and to be in relationship with Him. That’s really the only thing I care about.
I’m not out to get God to fulfill my vision. I’m just delighting myself in the Lord and doing what He gives me a desire to do. This has been my experience and what has worked for me. It’ll work for you too. If you will delight in God, He will give you the desires of your heart. You can do what you want to do.
HEARING GOD’S VOICE
The final way I want to share with you about how to hear God’s voice is through the power of the Holy Spirit. I want to focus on 1 Corinthians 2, where the apostle Paul wrote, And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2:4–5
Paul said it wasn’t his charisma or his oratorical abilities that allowed him to make such an impact. He came in the power of the Holy Spirit so that the faith of the believers would not be in the wisdom of man but in the power of God. Likewise, you need more than human ability to accomplish God’s will for your life. It’s going to take power beyond what you’re able to produce. The next couple of verses say, Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory. 1 Corinthians 2:6–7
You need revelation, which only comes from the Holy Spirit. You don’t need to figure things out with just your brain. You need to go beyond your thinking and let the Holy Spirit reveal the wisdom of God to you. It’s wisdom that comes by revelation, not by education.
The Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth and even show you things to come (John 16:13). How beneficial would it be for God to show you that a train wreck is up ahead or that the plane you’re getting ready to board will go down? Not only will the Holy Spirit tell you about the future, but He will also bring to your remembrance what Jesus said (John 14:26).
You need to depend upon Him to supernaturally quicken revelation to you. 1 Corinthians 2: 9 Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him . You will hear people say, “Well, we just can’t understand the things of God. When we get to heaven we’ll know all about it, we’ll understand why.
But look at the next verse: But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
With our little peanut-sized brains, we can’t understand the things of God, but with our hearts, with the Holy Spirit giving us revelation, we can understand! The things of God are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:14).
If you want to hear the voice of God, if you want to be led by God, you are going to have to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which includes speaking in tongues.
1 Corinthians 14:1 For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
Did you know that speaking in tongues is not gibberish? You can’t understand it with your mind, but it is language (Acts 2:4–11).
1 Corinthians 2:7 “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom.”
When you speak in tongues, you are speaking the mysteries of God. Speaking in tongues is not something you do just to prove that you’ve received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The reason to speak in tongues is because of the benefits that it offers. For instance, one of the reasons speaking in tongues is so powerful is it makes no sense to your brain.
We have all been taught to approach things with logic. We don’t want to look foolish. We want to be perceived as being intelligent. But when we’re speaking in tongues, our minds don’t know what we’re saying. This bothers a carnal Christian because something is going on that their minds don’t control or understand. Their minds will begin to wander, and ultimately, they will rebel at speaking in tongues.
But one of the reasons speaking in tongues doesn’t make sense to us is so we’ll get beyond our minds and through faith, put our focus on the Lord and trust Him!
I can tell you from experience that praying in tongues makes me focus not on my problems and what’s going on in the natural realm, but it makes me focus on God.
So many things of this world are competing for your attention. It’s like Peter walking on the water and being distracted by the wind and the waves. As long as his focus was on Jesus, he walked on the water. But when he took his eyes off of Jesus, he began to sink. When you get to looking at all of the negative things in this world, the negative things that you’ve done, or the negative things that are being done to you, you will be overcome.
But if you pray in tongues, over a prolonged period of time, it forces you to focus on God, which will pay huge dividends in your life. It isinvaluable.
1 Corinthians 14:4 He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself.
The word edify here means to build up, to promote spiritual growth.
Jude 20- But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.”
When you pray in tongues, you build yourself up on your most holy faith. It edifies you. Isaiah prophesied that speaking in tongues would be the rest with which God would cause the weary to rest (Is. 28:12).
If you’re baptized in the Holy Spirit and have the gift of speaking in tongues, there really isn’t any excuse for you to be depressed, worried, or defeated. There may be reasons why you’re that way, but there is no excuse. The good news is, you don’t have to stay that way!
Speaking in tongues will build you up, edify you, give you rest, and refresh you. You’ve got what no Old Testament saint had available to them: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn’t have the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and yet they were able to stand strong and escape death despite being thrown into a fiery furnace (Dan. 3:24–27). Daniel was able to be thrown into a den of lions and be delivered (Dan. 6:16–23).
What you have is so much better than what they had. You just have to get what’s in you out. Speaking in tongues is one of the ways you do it! Pray That You May Interpret Did you know that the one whom God used to write half of the books of the New Testament—Paul—was not one of Jesus’ twelve disciples? In fact, he was a man who previously hated Jesus. However, after he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus and got his life turned around, he ended up knowing Jesus better than most of the apostles, but he spoke in tongues more than them all 1 Corinthians 14:18.
I believe that one of the reasons for this is he had such a hunger to know the Lord (Phil. 3:10). The Bible says that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be filled (Matt. 5:6). But how does this knowledge come? Through revelation by the Holy Spirit. Now, some people might say, “No, Paul was a disciple of Gamaliel, a doctor of the Law. He was an educated man!” They would attribute Paul’s revelation to his education. Well, that is true: Paul certainly had an advantage over others, according to the flesh, which he made clear in Philippians 3:4–7. Apostles Peter and John, meanwhile, were said to be unlearned and ignorant men (Acts 4:13). But that isn’t where Paul said he got his revelation. He wrote in Galatians 1:11–12, I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. A few verses later, Paul went on to say, But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. Galatians 1:15–17
What was Paul doing in Arabia? He was being taught by the Holy Spirit the message of grace. In other words, even with all of his education, Paul still needed revelation of what we call the Gospel today.
Speaking of Paul’s revelation, Peter wrote, Even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. 2 Peter 3:15–16 Peter equated what Paul wrote to Scripture—that more sure word of prophecy he spoke about in 2 Peter 1:19–21.
He recognized that even though he lived with Jesus day and night for three and a half years, he struggled to understand the things that Paul knew. Amazing! I believe that Paul provided insight into his life of how he received the revelation that he had. He taught the Corinthian believers, Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. 1 Cor. 14:13.
Paul went on to write that when he prayed in tongues, it was his spirit praying (1 Cor. 14:14). In your spirit, you have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).
1 John 2:20 you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things. That’s talking about your spirit—the part of you that prays in tongues—that knows all things. But the knowledge in your spirit doesn’t do you any good until you get it out into your physical mind. That’s why, when you pray in tongues, you need to also pray that you interpret. It’s like sticking a bucket down into the well of your spirit and drawing out the hidden wisdom that you’re speaking.
That doesn’t mean that speaking in tongues and having an interpretation can supersede the Word of God. But if you would take the Word of God, pray in tongues, and ask for an interpretation, the Holy Spirit will give you supernatural revelation. This is how Paul received the revelation that he had! As a matter of fact, he spoke in tongues more than all the Corinthians (1 Cor. 14:18). You need to be praying in tongues a lot and then asking for an interpretation! I have done this thousands of times. I also want to mention that Paul wasn’t saying that he prayed more than all the Corinthians in a church service. He said that he would rather speak five words with his understanding than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue in church so that people could be edified (1 Cor. 14:19). He was saying that he prayed in tongues privately more than all of them. So, when you’re by yourself, you can pray in tongues as long as you want; you don’t always need to interpret.
GROANING IN THE SPIRIT
When you don’t know how to pray, the Scripture talks about groaning in the Spirit, which is a step beyond praying in tongues:
Romans 8:26–27 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
The Holy Spirit will take hold together with you and help you intercede. He doesn’t intercede for you without your participation. If He did, you would be totally set free, healed, delivered, and prosperous in every area of your life. It’s a partnership.
When you operate in groaning in the Spirit, supernatural things will happen. For example, if you’re praying for someone to be saved, and you don’t know why they haven’t responded, you can intercede with the Holy Spirit and see things accomplished. It’s a powerful gift, and goes beyond praying in tongues.
BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Jesus said he wasn’t going to leave us without comfort (John 14:18). He left us the Holy Spirit, and He is more than enough for any problem that we have. Anything that we need, the Holy Spirit is not even challenged by these things.
The enemy fights against the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues at best, to make this optional and, at worst, reject it as demonic. But if you can get a hold of what I’m saying, I guarantee your ability to hear God will increase. If you haven’t received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you need this gift. It will change your life! If you’ve already been baptized in the Holy Spirit but you don’t speak in tongues very often, you need to make a change. You have to deliberately, on purpose, exercise yourself in these gifts of speaking in tongues and asking for an interpretation. If you’ll stop limiting the ways God can speak to you, you’ll start receiving revelation for every area of your life! I want to challenge you to begin to seek the Lord in hearing His voice in the four ways I have shared.
God is always speaking. You just have to recognize His voice and tune in to the ways that He is speaking. Recognize that God is using your conscience to draw you to Himself. Don’t ignore or violate this intuitive knowledge of right and wrong. It’s foundational. Then go to the Word of God. It’s anointed, and God will speak to you through the Scriptures. You just can’t go very far if you don’t know what the Word says. However, even though the Word is absolutely essential, it is not enough. If you’re born again, you are one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 16:17), and He will speak to you Spirit to spirit. He will lead you by the peace of God acting as an umpire in your heart (Col. 3:15). You just need to delight in the Lord and put Him first. He will lead you by your desires.
Conclusion
Finally, another important way God speaks to through your spirit is through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which comes with speaking in tongues. It’s a powerful gift that, when coupled with interpretation of tongues, will give you supernatural revelation that you otherwise wouldn’t have. It’s how the apostle Paul received his revelation. If you don’t have the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it’s like charging hell with a water pistol! You need power (Acts 1:8). I promise you that if you start operating in what I’ve shared with you, your ability to hear God’s voice will go through the roof! You will get beyond just the physical, natural realm. Supernatural things will begin to happen around you, and in the lives of people you encounter. There’s a reason that some people hear God and others don’t. The Holy Spirit is vital to this process, and you must allow Him to flow through you. My prayer is that you have been stirred up to go after what is available to you. You’re not waiting on God; He is waiting on you. If you will draw near to Him, He will draw near to you (James 4:8). You will be hearing Him speak to you. I guarantee it!