5 Things You Will See When God Is Trying to Warn You About Something

Are you just getting cold feet about this relationship, or is God trying to say something to you? Are you just nervous about starting a new job, or is God telling you to stay at your current place of employment? Are you just being paranoid, or is that bad feeling you got from the Lord?

It can be confusing to know when God is truly sending you a warning or not. Therefore, to help you know when God is actually saying something to you to help protect you, here are 5 things you will often see.

1. When God Is Truly Warning You, You Will Have an Inner Conviction that Is Rooted in a Clear Biblical Precept or Principle that Directly Applies to Your Area of Concern

Some people just have a very sensitive conscience. They have a lot of deep convictions about things that are not clearly explained in the Bible. These types of inner concerns are not always the Lord. Sometimes you just have a fear-based view of the situation because of past trauma or a cautious personality type.

When God is clearly sending you a warning, it will be matched by an inner conviction that is rooted in a biblical precept or principle.

For example, perhaps you are nervous about going on vacation with a group of friends. If there is no immoral reason for why you should not go on vacation with them, it’s less clear if you are anxious because God is warning you or just because you are a worrier. In a situation like this, you should pray and do your best to walk with the Spirit, obeying his leading. Maybe he wants you to stretch yourself and go even though you are nervous. Or maybe he really is telling you not to go.

However, if you are about to go on vacation with a group of worldly people who want to sleep around and party the whole time, your inner worries are the Spirit of God warning you not to go. This is clear since the Bible warns against us participating in worldliness and exposing ourselves to unnecessary temptation (1 Corinthians 6:18, 1 John 2:15-17, James 4:4, 1 Corinthians 15:33).

2. God Will Warn You Through Timely and Relevant Circumstantial Signs

It’s dangerous to attach our own meaning to random things that happen (2 Timothy 4:4). For example, if you see a street sign of a woman’s name, that is not a clear sign from God. You would have to attach meaning to that situation for it to mean anything; and the meaning you attach to it is really your decision. You could interpret that to mean your future wife will have that name, thus always looking for women who have that name; or you could interpret that to mean a woman by that name will be your arch enemy, thus always fearing women by that name.

However, let’s say you are praying to God about buying a house, but then on your drive to work you hear a sermon about the borrower being slave to the lender (Proverbs 22:7), and then a coworker randomly tells you they wish they never bought their house in the area you were considering, and then your realtor calls and says that house is being bid up so you are going to need a bigger loan to get it.

The timing and relevancy of these external warnings are a good sign that God really is probably telling you not to buy that house.

For more on this topic, you can read my article, What Does the Bible Say About Signs from God?

3. When God Is Truly Warning You, He Will Use Different People to Communicate the Same Message to You

One of the most amazing parts of Scripture is how varied and consistent it is. From an earthly perspective, the Bible was authored by approximately 40 men of differing backgrounds over the course of 1500 years.¹ And yet, when you read the Scriptures, there is one clear and consistent message that never contradicts. This is a miracle! If there was just one author to the Bible, it would be less believable that it was truly from God. It’s theological consistency would not be so amazing.

In a similar fashion, when one or two people have the same opinion about something, it’s less clear that their warnings are truly from God to you. However, when multiple people are telling you the same thing, particularly when their warnings are biblical, this is usually a strong piece of evidence that God is warning you about something (Proverbs 11:14).

4. When God Is Warning You About Something, There Is Usually a Clear Negative Consequence that Will Happen If You Don’t Obey Him

Some people wakeup in the morning and feel like the Holy Spirit is telling them not to wear green socks today. I’m not telling those people what the Holy Spirit is or is not saying to them. I’m just saying it’s not very clear whether that warning not to wear green socks is just their own intrusive thinking, their OCD flaring up, or if God is really saying that.

In most cases, because there is no immoral reasons why you should not wear green socks, I would say it’s wise to assume God is not saying something like that to you. But again, it’s not very easy to know one way or the other.

When God is for sure warning you, there is usually a much clearer danger behind the warning. For example, if God is telling you to stop hanging out with that non-Christian friend from the opposite sex that you are starting to have romantic feelings for, that warning makes a lot more sense. If you ignore it, you are probably going to end up dating this person and walking away from the Lord (2 Corinthians 6:14, Proverbs 13:20).

5. When God Is Really Warning You, You Will Know What He’s Warning You About

Charlatans and psychics like to use general warnings that can’t be proven wrong. For example, if someone says, “I sense danger in your near future, be very careful,” that is not helpful. You will just be fearful for no reason. God doesn’t operate like that (Lamentations 2:14).

Likewise, if you feel like God is warning you about something but you don’t know what he’s actually saying, it probably means God is not actually warning you and you are just being fearful. If God is really warning you about something, it will be specific and clear.

This is why our personal walk with Jesus must always be governed by the word of God (Psalm 119:105). Yes, God does speak to us personally, but we can also pretend to hear God and make his voice up in our heads.

When this warning is not really from God, it will unbiblical, unclear, and random. When God is truly warning you, it will be biblical, clear, and useful.

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