I'm in my office keyboarding (new word for typing) away, thoroughly entrenched in a new idea for a blog post about relationships, listening to my favorite Amazon tunes when I hear what sounds like a jet landing in the street. I look out my window to see this Jeep 4 feet off the ground playing country music so loud the windows are pulsating. Yet with all that going on, I hear these words very clearly, "You gotta find your people. The ones that make you feel whole. That won't leave your side when you lose control. The ones that don't let you lose your soul." Did God speak to me through a "Publix" commercial, or was it the voice of my overwhelming desire for a donut?
Years ago I had a loving husband and father, in his mid-thirties, come rushing into my office and say, "God told me to sell everything I have. Pack up my wife and kids (8 and 6 years old), move to Arizona, and serve on a Navajo Indian Reservation." I am sure I had a deer in the headlights look as I asked, what does your life have to say about this? His reply was, "She is not sure." After a couple of breakfast meetings and discussing 1 Corinthians 13:2-7, 1 Timothy 5:8, and a few other scriptures from the Bible, the young man decided to take a few vacations with his family to go and serve before he moved the whole family. Although he made several trips and helped build several houses on the reservations he never moved his family there.
Is it time to purchase a new car? Is it time to end a relationship or start a new one? How can you be sure that we are hearing from the voice of a lifetime's worth of wisdom or the voice of your desires?
How Do I know if it's God I am hearing? Is what I'm hearing come in line with God's written word? God's Holy Spirit will never contradict God's written word. If it does, it's not God you are hearing. Here is the good news, In all of life's challenges and choices there is not a situation in your life (Ecclesiastes 1:9) that is not addressed, either directly, through a principle, or precept, in the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16). When in doubt about what you are hearing, ask yourself, "What does the Bible say?"
What if you can't find the answer in the Bible? What if you are new to the "Word" of God or haven't studied the Bible much? Go to a mature Christ follower who knows you and your circumstances, and ask them, "What does the Bible say about...?"
BTW, Publix has (or at least they used to have) some amazing "apple fritters".
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