Recognizing God’s Voice

Hey, welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self. Thank you for listening to today's show. I'm going to be covering a very important topic about how do you know when God's talking to you. There's so many thoughts and voices and distractions but He is speaking. But how we respond, how we hear and respond is critical. Hey, don't forget to check out the show description. We have all kinds of links at the bottom. You can purchase my books, you can get some free lessons, you can uh, contact us, you can see our store, all kind– you can subscribe and rate the show which will be fantastic. So I appreciate you listening to today's show. Um, I'm doing it for you guys and so thank you so much and uh, I hope this show means a lot to you. God bless you.

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Okay, here we go. Episode 151 of Self Talk with me, Dr. Ray Self. Thank you again for downloading this show and again, I thank you for all your support. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for each person listening to this show. I pray, Father, you would just use me to speak to them, Father, on this very important topic. Lord, we just praise you. We give you honor; we love you, Lord. In Jesus’ name, we say this. In Jesus' name, we pray this. Amen.

Well, today's topic is important. You know, in scripture Jesus said - in the Gospel of John - “My sheep know My…” “My voice and they follow Me.” And He says um, He hears their voice, you know, “My…” “My sheep hear My voice. I know them and they follow Me.” That's John 10:27. And so the obvious question is how are we going to follow Jesus if we don't recognize His voice? Now, the context of that scripture is very important for us to understand. Um, in the days of Israel and the days of Jesus, there were shepherding and you know, sheep farming was, was a big deal. In the evening time, the, the shepherds would bring their sheep to the community sheep pen so to speak. Right outside the village, there would be a, a sheep pen and there would be a gatekeeper who would actually guard the sheep. But in this sheep pen, there may be a thousand sheep in the sheep pen but the thousand sheep may be owned by 10 different shepherds, okay? 

So in the morning time, the, the shepherd would approach the gatekeeper and as long as the gatekeeper recognized who he was, he'd let him in and the gatekeeper would call his sheep, of those 1,000 sheep– let's say he –100 belonged to him. Those 100 would follow their shepherd and leave the sheep, sheep pen and he would take them out to green pastures. Now, the sheep that did not belong to that shepherd would stay in the sheep pen and would not follow them. So every, every lamb, every sheep, would recognize the voice of their shepherd. And there were many different shepherds. So Jesus is saying in that context that, “My sheep,” those that belong to Jesus, hear His voice. Think about this. Those that belong to Jesus hear His voice. And then He said, “...and I know them.” In other words, we should know Jesus but Jesus also knows us. And He said, “...they follow Me.” But in that same verse, “...they follow Me because they hear My voice.” 

So hearing God's voice is so, so critical and so important to us. But you know what? How do you know it's God talking to you and it's not your imagination? If your mind is like my mind, a lot of things go on in my mind. I have a lot of distractions, I have a lot of things that I think about and I tend to be– I don't like to claim this and I'm not claiming this, but I tend to be a little ADD so my mind tends to jump around quite a bit. But the point is in the midst of all these thoughts and all these voices in our mind, Jesus through the Holy Spirit that resides within us is talking to us. I believe He's talking a lot but we're not listening a lot. I believe God is broadcasting like an FM radio and we need to tune in to His station. Hearing His voice contains answers to everything. Everything. Everything we need. Now, God does talk to us in a number of ways. Of course, a very important way that God talks to us is through the word of God; through the Bible. And to me, the way this works is as you read scripture, you'll see instructions from God. You'll see information from God. You'll see um, commandments from God. But also what’s really interesting, so many times you're reading scripture and you come to a particular voice and it leaps off the page and really gets to you. It touches your heart and as you're reading, it's like that scripture was, was written exactly for you in that particular moment. It's important I think that when we read the Bible we should ask the Holy Spirit - who's the author of the Bible - to talk to us and give us revelation and understanding as we read the word of God.

So through the word of God, God speaks to us very, very loudly. Now, here's where a little… interesting things come with some traditional churches. There are some traditional churches and traditional church leaders who teach that's the only way God speaks to us is through His written word and that's absolutely not true. And the reason that's not true is because His written word tells us that God speaks to people over and over and over and over again. We have example after example after example of God speaking to man. God speaking to Joshua and Jeremiah and Isaiah and David, and God speaking to Paul and to Peter. God speaking to us is throughout the Bible. So if we say we believe the word of God, the word of God teaches us that God likes to speak to his people; and sometimes it's out loud. Maybe through even a burning bush. So to say that God only speaks through the written word is actually not what the written word of God tells us, okay? That's probably the best way to explain it. However, many times the written word is all you need to understand what God is trying to tell you. Again, as you read that word, you're getting an understanding and a message from God that is meant exactly for you and your particular circumstance. So I hope you, you know, understand that principle. 

But God speaks in other ways as well. God speaks so many times to our, our mind. Now, the way this works is Jesus told us also in the Gospel of John that um, everything the Father has belongs to Him and what He has, He gives to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit reveals it to us it's like a chain of command. God reveals himself to Jesus, Jesus reveals himself to the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit who's residing within you reveals to you; speaks to you. So if God has something He wants to tell you, it goes through Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, into your mind. And that's just the way it works. So it's very important that you have the Holy Spirit residing within you. The Bible says you are the temple of the Holy Ghost in the book of Romans, so the Holy Spirit loves to talk to us. Sometimes when the Holy Spirit talks, it can be a thought that just seems to come out of nowhere. In Isaiah, the Bible says that God's thoughts are not our thoughts, His ways are not our ways. 

So thoughts that are not our thoughts, that are– that come out of nowhere, can so many times be God because it's something you would not think of. I like to pray and listen. And prayer so many times seems to be just a one-way conversation. You ever had that friend who calls you on the phone and they do all the talking and you can't get a word in? I think sometimes that's the way we are with God. We do all the talking; we don't allow God to speak. But prayer should be a conversation. It's a time when we, we pray and we make our petitions known to God. But at the same time, we should get still and listen. A really good way to do that is to pray in the spirit or in tongues and then get still and listen. Now to me, what I've seen countless– I mean literally thousands of times, is so many times the way God speaks to me - and I've also, can give you… many, many, many Christians will testify of this - it's just these thoughts that just seem to pop into your mind out of nowhere. It's something you wouldn't think of. It's something you wouldn't conceive of and it turns out to be the voice of God. Now, over a period of time you can train yourself to recognize these thoughts coming from God and recognize these, the– maybe a vision or picture coming from God, and distinguish it from your own thoughts. 

I believe there's three types of voices in our head. I know it sounds kind of crazy, amen. Voices in our head. But what there are, I believe the Holy Spirit is talking to us from our heart and it's going into our mind. I believe we have our own thoughts. Matter of fact, I don't believe, I know we have our own thoughts. A lot of thoughts. I think about a lot of things all day long, okay? Before I do anything, I'm thinking about it. And those thoughts are not God, they're simply Ray Self. It's me thinking. And there's a lot of that. Probably too much of that. And then there's always those demon spirits who love to talk to you. You know, they, they love to, to present condemnation and shame and guilt upon you. They love to do that because these are things Jesus took to the cross and they're making a vain attempt to undo the work of Jesus Christ. So if there's three types of categories of voices in your head, we have to learn how to discern what is of God and what is our flesh, and what is demonic. And that's actually not that difficult. Our flesh just sounds like us. You know, my flesh sounds like Ray Self. It just sounds like me. It's stuff that I would think of, it's, it's my own ideas, my own thoughts, my own plans, my own vision, my own things I want to do, my own things I want to say, you know, blah, blah, blah. It's just me. And you, you… hopefully, you recognize your own thoughts. 

Then there's these demonic thoughts and these thoughts are from the devil and nearly always are full of condemnation. Like, like I said before, condemnation, shame, and guilt. Uh, you're a failure; and there's never really any love involved in it. More… the condemnation, shame, and guilt is, is really big. You didn't make it, you shouldn't have said that, What, you call yourself a Christian? You think you're going to– ever be anything? You’ll probably never make it, you're a failure, you know, you're not worthy, you're unacceptable um, you know, nobody cares about you, blah, blah, blah. Of course, sometimes our flesh is, is doing exactly the same thing. But when the— God speaks; when God speaks, there's a peace about it. There's a peace you cannot explain. There is love, there's a sense of love and caring in the voice of God. There's never condemnation. The Bible says, “There is therefore no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.” There's never condemnation in the voice of God. There is love, there is peace, there is comfort, there is exhortation, there is um, it will always, always be in alignment with scripture. And it just… it's, it's beyond you. 

See, God is always bigger and better, smarter than we are and so when we get these thoughts, there are things that you couldn't conceive of. But it, it, you know that this is beyond your own capability and there's love involved in it and there's no condemnation in it and there's a peace in your heart about it that's going be God speaking to you. And it's important that we continue to train ourself on how to recognize His voice. Now, I, I think - and I'm going to give you kind of some silly things you can do but are actually very powerful ways to train yourself to hear God. One thing that I used to do is I would ask God a simple question and wait for the answer. And it could be something silly like “Lord, would You please show me where my car keys are?” You know, if you're like me you probably lost your car keys a number of times - now it's your little remote for the car - and then you get still and you listen and all of a sudden, you get this impression of exactly where they are. And the reason little small things like that are important, that kind of trains your ears to hear the voice of God. You who are listening are mothers, uh, mothers have trained ears. Trained to hear their children. Mothers with young children can be in a playground with a 100 kids playing and their kids are just running all over the playground. The mother may be sitting there on a park bench but if her little Johnny falls and scrapes his knee and begins to cry, she will recognize that cry all the way across the park. She knows it's her kid crying even though there's a 100 kids out there making all kinds of noise - you know, kids are noisy. She will always recognize her own child's voice despite all the distractions around her; she knows it's her child. And every mother I've known can do that. I think we can train ourselves despite all the distractions and all the stuff in the world - everything that's going on around us. We can train ourselves to hear God's voice despite the distraction. 

So practically speaking, pay close attention to pictures, impressions, feelings, thoughts, words that come out of nowhere - especially your first impression. The reason first impressions are important is God usually will speak pretty quick to us. The second, third, and fourth impression is normally our logic getting in the way - us trying to figure things out - and it's our brain causing all kinds of interference. When I'm ministering prophetically to people and I pray for someone, usually what God wants to tell them comes pretty quick because - and if I wait too long - it's going to get confused with my thoughts. So I especially pay attention to your first impression. There's another thing that, that everybody's talked about - the world has talked about for years. It's called that gut feeling. You know, I, I, I've got this gut feeling that I need to, to do this or do that. Well, your gut is actually the center of your being and that's really what’s sometimes referred to as our heart. That's where the Holy Spirit resides. So many times, that gut feeling that something's not right or something's wrong or something is right, or that gut feeling you need to call someone or that gut feeling you need to do this or do that, um, you need to give this or you need to say this, so many times that is God talking to you; that gut feeling. And I, I cannot tell you how many times I've had that. 

Another thing about that quote, gut feeling, is many times it's a warning not to do something. It's a feeling or what we used to– sometimes we call it a check in our spirit. There's this little feeling that we shouldn't do that, we shouldn't have said that, something's going to take place, uh, something's happening or something didn't happen. It's that gut feeling. And I, I encourage you to pay attention to that ‘cause so many times what the world calls a gut feeling is actually the Lord speaking to us. Now, when God speaks to us, again, there's always a sense of love. There's a sense of peace. And it never contradicts His word. Now, if you don't know the word of God, that's going to be hard for you to figure out. But he doesn't contradict Himself. Um, I'll give you an example of this. For instance, uh, years ago, years ago a pastor called me and he said um, “God told me to divorce my wife.” And I said, “Really?” I said, “Has she been unfaithful to you or she been abusive to you?” “No. I, I just think it's time to move on. God told me to divorce her.” And I said to him very clearly, I said, “God didn't tell you that. That's, that's completely contrary to His word. That is, that's not God.” And he didn't want to hear it so we politely ended the conversation. And it was obviously non-scriptural or you know, “God told me never to speak to this other person again.” You– that's just not, that's just not scriptural. Um, you know, God told me to, to. When God tell– God doesn't tell you to do things that are rude, that are inconsiderate um, that are hurtful to other people; that are unforgiving, uh, that have a condemnation or, or things that are vengeful or things that deliberately cause pain and suffering to other people. God doesn't tell you to do those kind of things. And you know, “God told me to never speak to you again.” Oh, give me a break. You know, give me a break. That's not God. So sometimes it's just common sense. 

But so many times when God speaks it's a impression, a picture, or a feeling that pops into my mind from my spirit quickly out of nowhere. Now, sometimes in learning to hear God, you're going to have these feelings, these impressions, these things that pop into your mind and it's not going to be God and you'll probably make some mistakes but that's how we learn, and that– that's okay and that is okay. But God is speaking. He wants us to hear. Let me make another very important point. This is something I've noticed with a lot of Christians. When you first get saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit, it's like God is talking so loud. I mean, it's almost like He's shouting at you. You can hear Him so clear there's no doubt that God is speaking to you. But as you grow in the Lord, God's voice will get quieter and quieter. He, He begins to whisper to you. He doesn't shout at you, He doesn't need to do that. And the reason He doesn't need to do that, the reason He shouldn't need to do that is because as you grow in the Lord, you learn to recognize His voice and you have grown close to Him. So close to Him that all He has to do is whisper to get your attention, okay? 

Now, God will speak through other methods. God will– God has a message He wants to get to you. It may come through another person as a prophetic word it may come through another person prophetically and they don't know they're speaking prophetically. It may come through a child, it may come through a circumstance where everything is just lining up supernaturally pointing to a certain direction. You know what I'm talking about. Everything just lining up to that direction. It may.. may come through– I've had it, I've had God speak to me through a TV commercial, have God speak to me through a billboard, it' be a billboard sign and I know that was God trying to show me something. It's amazing how creative God is. ‘course, He is the creator. When He wants to speak to us, how many ways he will do it? So be, be on the alert for a number of ways that God wants to speak to you. 

Another gigantic way that God speaks to you is through your past. So many times our past contains a message. You can look at what you went through the last few years and you can see a message from God in your continual circumstance. Can be a message from God. It may be… the message was, you know, what– that was God trying to tell me not to do that and I did it. I did it anyway. Um, maybe you can see how things have lined up in your past. Things that were happening to you in the past where you went– the divine appointments, people that came into your life, what you went through, what you experienced; and the whole time, it was a gigantic, incredible, wonderful message from God. The whole time God wants to speak to you, He wants to be heard. It's so critical that we hear His voice. One of the best ways is to say “God, speak to me. God, open up my ears. Forgive me for distractions. Forgive me for doubt, for doubting.” And you know, the people that sometimes struggle the most are the analytical folks. The ones who, you know, some people have very analytical minds. They want to analyze everything. And, and you know, calculate everything out. Uh, sometimes they're teachers and professors where everything is very intellectual. And the problem with that is the mind cannot get still enough and quiet itself enough to hear God speaking. What I've learned over the years is sometimes I thought it was God and it wasn't. But most of the time when I pay attention to, to God and learn– pay attention to God, especially those first impressions, uh, it is God. 

Some years ago, um, I was at a church. I was in the pastor's office - and I'll just give you an example of hearing God - and the pastor had lost a um, this was some years ago and he had lost a check for $300. And he said, “Dr. Self, I've lost a check, I need this check. It's for $300. I don't know where it is. I don't know what happened to it. Would you pray? Would you pray?” Now, that's really critical because prayer is critical to, to, to hearing God. Let me say again. You can pray in the natural and that's great. We should always pray. But as we pray, we should also have our ears open to God speaking, not just our own mouth speaking. So as I prayed - I'm in this office - and as I prayed, all of a sudden I, I got a picture and I saw a briefcase. And in then - and I believe this has been some years ago, but - and in that briefcase, I saw a notebook. And in that notebook, I saw the check. I just got these– just got this picture and I said, “Pastor, I, I was pray–” I said, “I was praying, I believe this is the Lord.” I always want to be humble. You know, we don't want to go around, “Thus says the Lord,” you know, be humble. Say, “This is what I believe I hear God saying.” I looked at the pastor, “This is what I believe I hear God saying, uh, I believe I saw a picture of a briefcase with a notebook, and the check was in the notebook.” He reached beside his desk, he pulled out a briefcase, he opened his briefcase, he pulled out a notebook, and inside that notebook was the check. And it was so cool because when you hear God like that, it's such a faith builder. His faith was built, my faith was built, it's such an encouraging thing. 

So pray to hear the voice of God and know there's a lot of ways He speaks to you. Through dreams; He can speak through your dreams. He can speak, give you a vision. He can give you an impression, a gut feeling; or He gives you these words that that pop into your mouth and a sentence or a thought that pops into your mind out of nowhere. And last but not least, there have been cases where God speaks audibly. We know Moses, you know, at the burning bush, God spoke audibly to him… Um, I had a case where I believe God spoke audibly. I was um, in business. I was driving down the road in a pickup truck driving down a two-lane road - two-lane country road and uh, I was working in business many years ago and I heard a voice. It just seemed so loud and so clear and the voice said “Ray, I've called you into the ministry.” And I was not thinking about ministry, I didn't know I had a call to ministry, and I was a Christian. But you know, I just wasn't letting the Lord be Lord. It, it, it scared me. Uh, I remember swerving off the road a little bit but I knew in my heart that God had spoken to me. And it was true that He had spoken to me, and it sounded like it was audible. Was, was it audible? I don't know. But it was so loud and so clear it was like He was sitting next to me in the truck. And I've had other people tell me that uh, kind of funny things… as we get ready to wrap up. Countless people have told me that God speaks to them while they're driving. And a number of people - don't laugh at me, you, you probably relate to this - a number of people have told me that God speaks to them while they're in the shower. I cannot explain that at all but I've heard that over and over. If you're listening to me, you’re probably go “Amen, that's happened to me too.”

Anyway, I hope this show has been a blessing to you. You know, pray, and I'll pray with you right now that we can hear God's voice better. Lord, I thank you for each person listening to this show today. I pray, Father, that you open up our ears and our spirit, and our minds to recognize when you are speaking to, to us and to hear your voice clearly. Father, forgive us for not listening to you and, and missing it when you're trying to talk to us. But Father, we just commit today to listen carefully. Lord, help our unbelief. Open up our ears and our spirits to hear you and to know when it’s you speaking. Give us your divine wisdom and discernment to know without a doubt when it’s you speaking to us, Father. And Lord, we praise you because we know you have– want a relationship with us and we know you want to talk to us, Father. So Lord, speak to each person listening to this podcast now. Even, even now in Jesus’ name. Lord, talk to us, Father. We love you, Lord. We praise you, Father. We give you honor, Father. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Thank you, Jesus. Amen and amen.

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Okay, we did another show, episode 151. Again, I'm incredibly grateful for you and thank you for listening. As you know, I really would love for you to go to our website, icmcollege.org/selfttalk. icmcollege.org/selftalk. Subscribe, give me a review, share this podcast with as many people as you can. That is very, very important to us. Another thing I want to remind you of: in the show description there's a little, there's notes that go with this show. We have links where you can purchase my book uh, Hear His Voice, Be His Voice. The book’s just $9.98. It's on Amazon but I got a link to purchase that uh… it's an incredible book about going much, much further than what this show talked about. Um, you can follow and subscribe. The link to that is on the show description, a link to our website. We have actually two websites for the show now. Our donate button, that'd be nice if you'd like to donate to us; that would help us. We are a 501c3. My Gmail account. Maybe you have something; a question or something you want to talk about in a future show; something you'd like me to talk about. Email me, drrayself@gmail.com. Perhaps you would like to finally get that college degree… an accredited, Holy Spirit-filled seminary, bible college degree - associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, doctorate degree in ministry, theology, or Christian Counseling. And we take life experience credits and it's affordable. We even have scholarships for people who’re struggling financially. We've got free courses, there's a link to the free courses on our website. Free courses, folks. Anyway… we got a store, you can purchase our stuff which also helps us with our scholarship. That's all the promo but you know, all this stuff can really bless you. I'm not telling you anything that can't be a blessing to you. So I appreciate you again for listening to Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self. May God richly bless you and may you continue and know without a shadow of a doubt that God is speaking to you. Amen and amen.