Hearing God. But doubting you do.

When I became Pentecostal, I suddenly found myself among Christians who regularly said, “Oh, God told me [ENCOURAGING WORD],” or “God showed me [DIRECTION TO GO].”

It’s not that I hadn’t met such Christians before—even in a cessationist church, where they preached he didn’t do that sort of thing anymore! Most Christians are continuationist, same as Pentecostals: God never turned off the miracles, never went away nor hid himself. He can and does talk to his kids whenever he wants. Where we disagree is how often he talks. Pentecostals, myself included, find he talks to his kids all the time. Other Christians think it’s more rare; supposedly God saves his statements for special and important occasions, and doesn’t just chat with us like a loving Father would with his children. Kinda reveals more about how their prayer life isn’t conversational. But I digress.

But yeah, I was surrounded by plenty of Christians who claimed God told ’em this or that. And as I learned how to hear God, I gradually became one of them: “God told me [SUCH-AND-SO].” Not as prophecies for others. I wasn’t trying to pull any Moses-style “Thus saith the LORD” declarations or commands. I only talked about what he told me personally.

Here’s the funny thing. Every so often, somebody publishes a book about how to hear God. And these very same Christians who act as if they know God told ’em stuff… scramble to buy these books.

There’s a preacher of my acquaintance who once said, “Y’know, every time I tell people there really needs to be a book about how to hear God, they get all excited: ‘I would love such a book.’ But these are the same people who claim they already do hear God. So… do they? Do they really?”

Fair question. I would suspect they really do. But here’s why they’d would love to read a book about hearing God’s voice: They have doubts. And rather than deal with those doubts like the Holy Spirit wants ’em to, they don’t. It’s easier not to.

Y’see, when we hear from God, in order to make sure we heard from God, we gotta test those messages. We gotta confirm them! Just as the scriptures instruct. Whether it’s somebody else claiming they got a message from God, or we ourselves believing we just got a message from God, we’re always meant to double-check.

But here’s what humans typically do: Believe it if you like it, disbelieve it if you don’t.

Nope, no further checking. No confirmation. Nothing more with any of the things which get dropped into our spirit; we never bother to confirm it’s God. Or, just as bad, never double-check in case it’s us talking to ourselves, or an evil spirit trying to mess with us.

You really don’t have to buy a book about how to hear God better. You just have to start confirming what you think he’s told you. Find a fellow Christian who also hears God. (Ideally your spouse, or some other trustworthy family member.) Make yourselves accountability partners. Make this prayer request to God: “If you’re ever gonna tell me something, please tell my partner the very same thing.” Then watch him do it. There, was that so hard?

But for too many Christians, this is so hard. They’re terrified if they do this, they’ll find out absolutely nothing God ever “tells them,” is actually God. That it’s entirely in their own head; that they’ve been psyching themselves into thinking God speaks to them, or anyone.

Yep, they’re letting their doubts paralyze them. And stop ’em from legitimately hearing God.

It’s an irrational fear. Let’s be rational!

Okay, let me be blunt: Some of those Christians who constantly claim, “God told me this” or “God told me that,” never did hear any of that stuff from God, and it’s kinda obvious because they’re such fleshly people. In one of my previous churches there was a wannabe prophet who’d constantly say God told her this or that, but her lifestyle was so bitter and petty and hateful, it’s hard to see how God’s voice could get through the buzzing noise of her own rage. Obviously she claimed to hear God because she wanted to be respected as a prophet, and it enraged her—no surprise—how nobody in our church took her seriously. But duh, the flesh. We knew she wasn’t trustworthy.

I’m not at all claiming she lied about hearing God. I don’t think she lied; I think she thought she was legitimately hearing God. But “God” sounded so much like her, and her own hangups and prejudices, that really she was confusing her own voice in her head with God. Even if it was based on actual scripture, her attitude warped it into something unreliable.

Now if she had a devout Christian as her accountability partner, she’d learn really quickly this wasn’t God. Her partner would of course say they never heard such things from God—and warn her, “That’s not consistent with the Spirit’s fruit,” or “That’s not consistent with what Jesus teaches,” or “That’s not what that verse means,” or “Have you lost your ever-loving mind?”

In her case, it’d be an entirely rational fear that God’s not actually talking to her. (Well, hopefully he is now, but I haven’t kept up with her and don’t know.) Now, as for you and me: Is it a rational fear? Are we claiming to hear God for prideful, manipulative reasons? Hope not!

If we’re legitimately trying to follow Jesus, and legitimately trying to hear God’s voice and follow him, confirmation and accountability aren’t anything to fear. On the contrary! You wanna know you heard God? This is how you’ll know. This’ll erase your doubts.

And okay, let’s say you find out you haven’t actually been hearing him. Well, that’s actually a good thing. You were wrong; now you can correct yourself. Now you can be rid of your false assumptions about what God sounds like. Now you can get into the bible, read what he told people who actually did hear him, and get a better idea of what his voice actually sounds like. Now you can learn to weed out which “God-ideas” are actually you, and which are actually him.

“But what if my accountability partner also sucks at hearing God?” Then get a better one. Which won’t be fun if your accountability partner is in denial about how they suck at hearing God!—but it’s just what you gotta do. When you’re picking such a partner, always look for a fruitful, growing Christian with a good track record of hearing God. (And currently hearing him; they’re not just repeating the things he told them 20 years ago.) Then compare messages. Encourage one another. Accept constructive criticism. Learn and grow.

But this doubt stuff? Don’t tolerate it. Deal with it. God wants you to.