John 6:44-45
There are many pieces of evidence (which I call signs) that God will use to communicate his will to you. In fact, I have an entire playlist of previous videos I’ve done about that very topic. But in this article I want to focus on those signs which are extremely clear and very easy to know for sure that this was in fact God speaking to you.
So here are 5 unmistakable signs God truly spoke to you.
1. If You Heard God Say in Your Heart What You Read on the Pages in the Bible, This Is an Unmistakable Sign You Truly Heard God Speak
Despite all the training God will put us through to help us hear the Holy Spirit’s whispering and leading in our hearts, despite all the maturing the Spirit will do in your life to help you properly interpret the circumstances of your life – there will never be a clearer way to hear God’s voice than simply opening your Bible.
When you read the passages of Scripture, you are not just reading Paul or Peter or John or Luke. You are actually reading the very words of the Holy Spirit. As 2 Peter 1:20-21 (NIV) explains, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
God can speak to you in your heart. God can communicate through the circumstances of your life. God can help guide you through other Christians in your life. But all of these means of hearing God are open to human error. But when you read the perfect word of God which is without error, you are unmistakably hearing the voice of God.
2. If You Felt a Godly Grief that Led to Repentance, This Is an Unmistakable Sign You Truly Heard The Holy Spirit
God can say many things to his people. He often does tell us to do things that at face value are not morally right or wrong. For example: It’s not a sin to move to a different city. It’s not a sin to go on a date with someone. It’s not a sin to buy a gift for someone having a hard day. But it’s also not a sin to not do these types of things, which is why I refer to these types of choices as morally neutral decisions.
When it comes to these types of morally neural choices, I believe there is always going to be some subjectivity in knowing whether or not God is truly saying this or that to you. God could have really told you to move to Atlanta. Or he may not have and you just did it anyways. God could have told you to go on a date, or you could have just thought he did. You could have felt it was God leading you to buy someone a gift to cheer them up, or that could have just been a nice idea you had on your own. Either way, it is not a sin to do these things or not do these types of things.
But when it comes to true sin choices, this is when we can certainly know what God is saying to you. For example, if you think you heard God say it is okay for you to have sex with your boyfriend or girlfriend because you really love each other, you heard wrong because the Bible states sex outside of marriage is sin (1 Corinthians 7:2).
Not only will the Holy Spirit convict you of sin, he will also give you the power to repent and obey God. As 2 Corinthians 7:10 states, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”
So if you have been given this godly grief which led to repentance, this is a clear sign you actually heard from God.
3. If Jesus Christ Is Being Exalting to You, This Is a Sign the Holy Spirit Is Truly Speaking
The word “trinity” is not a word you will find in the Bible. But it is a word we use to describe a truth that clearly is in the Bible. Throughout the Scriptures, it is clear that God is one God and three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – all fully God, all individual from one another, and all one. While all are fully God with the same amount of divinity, it’s also clear that each function in a different role within the Godhead relationship.
In summary, the Father appoints what will happen, the Son accomplishes what the Father appoints, and the Spirit applies what the Son has accomplished. Whenever the Spirit truly speaks, he will reveal the truth about Jesus Christ. For in John 15:26-27 Jesus said, “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.”
So you will know the Holy Spirit is truly speaking to you when the truth about Jesus is illuminated to you. As 1 John 4:1-3 also says:
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”
4. If Your Mind Was Opened to a Biblical Truth that Has Expanded Your Knowledge of God’s Love for You, This Is a Clear Sign You Truly Heard God Speak
God is always speaking. He is eager to tell us what he wants us to do in each of our individual lives so that we might bring more glory to him. But while he will say different things to each of us when it comes to our individual lives, there are certain truths he will speak to us all at all times. One of those truth is that he loves you. As Ephesians 3:16-19 (NIV) explains:
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
If your mind and heart has been opened to God’s truth so that you are gaining a deeper realization of God’s great love for you in Christ, this is a sign you truly heard God speak.
5. If You Have Been Enabled to Follow Jesus Because You Have Been Transformed By a Renewed Mind, This Is a Clear Sign You Have Heard God Speak
As Romans 1:20 teaches us, God has spoken to all humans at minimum through his creation. But not all have listened.
There is a difference between God speaking and someone actually hearing God. For as 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 states, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18 also adds, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
Those who have heard God speak are marked by a changed life. As Romans 12:1-2 says:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Those who have been transformed by a renewed mind are also those who offer their bodies to God as a living sacrifice.
When you truly hear God speak, it will be marked by your obedience to Jesus. As Jesus said in John 6:44-45, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me.”