Don't Confuse Your Thoughts for God's Voice

Have you ever thought God was speaking, but later you realized that it might've just been you? That's where the confusion begins to set in, when your thoughts feel spiritual and the line between your voice and God's voice starts to become blurry. So I wanna show you the differences between God's voice and your thoughts or your own emotions so that you can tell the difference. Now, I wanna begin by making this very clear, because if you're receiving this message right now, It's because you have a desire, a hunger to hear God with confidence and clarity. You don't wanna be second-guessing all of the time or blurring that line with your emotions or your own thoughts or your own will. So I wanna make this clear. When it comes to listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit, it's not a skill to be acquired, it's a sense to be sharpened. Because if you think it's a skill to be acquired, now you've just placed an unnecessary burden on yourself. Let me show you what I mean. In John chapter 3, we read beginning at verse number 5, Jesus replied, I assure you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don't be surprised when I say you must be born again. The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind, but can't tell where it comes from or where it's going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit. When you were born again, you were born of and into a new spiritual reality. Therefore, you were born of a new nature, spiritual eyes, spiritual ears, a spiritual voice, a spiritual being, your spirit came to life. And so you were born with natural hearing, yes, but when you were born again, you received your spiritual hearing. So you can hear the voice of God. You do hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. It's not a matter of trying to work a formula or earn the voice of God, because a lot of Christians see it that way too, that they have to earn the voice of God or become such a good Christian that now God begins to talk to them. No, it's your birthright. As a born-again believer, the voice of the Holy Spirit, the ability to hear his voice, that is your birthright. And so we wanna get rid of what I call religious OCD. That is this tense, obsessive, almost angry or fearful way of approaching the voice of the Holy Spirit to where now you're living in this anxiety. And it doesn't just stop there in trying to hear God, because some Christians feel that pressure in just trying to hear God or constantly afraid that they missed God. But it also comes in the form of these obsessive thoughts that sometimes you mistake for God's voice. So like, you may think this thought where I should stop at that gas station, and go up to that person and start witnessing to them. And if I don't do that, then I've just disobeyed God, I've ruined their eternity. And maybe you've even heard sermons like that. There's condemnation, there's guilt, there's this weight that's on you. But here's the reality, God knows how to get through to you. And you can rest in that reality that God knows how to speak to his children. So let's begin our approach to hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit. Let's begin from the place of peace, not from the place of tension. Let's begin from the love and acceptance of God and not from the fear of punishment. I don't want you living the rest of your life constantly wondering, did I miss the voice of God? Constantly wondering, was that God telling me to wear that red shirt instead of the blue one? Was that God telling me to shake their hand with my right hand instead of the left hand? Or, you know, there's all these different things that may pop into your mind. That's what I call religious OCD. And your mind can be bombarded with these things. And if you're not careful, you will live in torment simply because you're approaching the voice of the Holy Spirit from fear rather than trust, acceptance, and God's love. Now, when I talk about the voice of God, we have to speak in principles, and this is very important. I want you to get this because if I were just to give you like a subjective description, then you would take that description that I gave you, apply it to whatever came to your mind that sounded like that description I gave you, and then think that was the voice of God. Let me tell you what I mean. If I say the voice of God is like the sound of many waters, okay? Now that's biblical. And of course, this is something that the scripture describes, but that doesn't mean that if you have a thought or emotion and in your mind, you make it sound like many waters, that it's absolutely the voice of God. Or some people might say, well, when the Holy Spirit speaks, he speaks with a soft, kind tone. That means that now every thought that I think that's soft or kind in its tone, that I'm gonna attribute to the voice of the Holy Spirit? No, not necessarily. So we can't take other people's experiences and other people's descriptions, and then just say that's our means by which we, or our measure by which we hear the voice of God or determine whether or not we've heard the voice of God. Rather, we have to begin with biblical principles. So I'm gonna give you these, and these are principles. And in receiving these principles, you're going to be able to recognize the voice of God based on biblical principles, as opposed to subjective experiences. So first and foremost, God's voice is stable and consistent. Your voice is inconsistent. Your emotions are inconsistent. Isaiah 40:8, the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of God stands forever. There's a consistency to the voice of God. There's a foundational aspect to the voice of God. You see, when we get a thought that we might think is God, we sometimes waver on it. We go back and forth, or maybe that thought might change in application, or maybe depending upon how we're feeling, our calling changes. I met a lot of Christians, their calling seems to change every time their emotions change. But no, the voice of the Holy Spirit is consistent, firm. There's not confusion to that voice. There is a single truth that is spoken. You might even notice this with the Holy Spirit, to when the Holy Spirit convicts you of something or speaks something to you, and you try to ignore that, or you don't like the instruction that you were given, so you try to explain it away. But deep down, there's this, persistent speaking coming from the voice of the Holy Spirit, and it pricks the heart. And you try to suppress that, but you can't because it's just pervasive and it continues to be firm in its instruction to you. That's the voice of the Holy Spirit. That's one of the principles about the voice of the Holy Spirit. By contrast, your emotions up and down, your thoughts up and down. So if one day God instructs one thing, and then the next day God's instructing something entirely different, and then the next day it goes back to that other thing, That's obviously you, that's not the voice of the Holy Spirit. Next, we see that God's voice guides, your voice pushes. Psalm 23:2, he lets me rest in green meadows. He leads me beside peaceful streams. So there's a difference between being pushed and being led. God does not push you. The Holy Spirit does not push you. He's not necessarily forcing you. forceful or antagonistic. He leads. There's this confident leading to the voice of the Holy Spirit, as opposed to this chaotic, pushy, anxious voice. Now I wanna make clear that there's a difference between when God is speaking instruction to you, leading you, and when he's addressing something like sin or an urgent action. Like for example, one time I was driving home, It was early in the morning, late at night, somewhere in between. And I heard the Holy Spirit tell me to stop longer at a stop sign than I normally would have. So I'm stopped at the stop sign. And instead of just going after having stopped, I waited because I sensed this urgent instruction, wait. It was gentle, but there was an urgency to it. Like, don't go anywhere. Well, a car ran their stop sign, no headlights on, and just drove right through the intersection. Now I would have been either, killed or inconvenienced or injured, doesn't matter. The Holy Spirit prevented that accident from happening by speaking an urgent word to my spirit. So there are those instances where yes, the Holy Spirit's gonna speak with urgency, but for the most part, when it comes to life decisions, there's gonna be this gentle leading. He speaks precept upon precept. There's this confirmation with which the Holy Spirit speaks. So God will speak in seasons. And over that season, he'll begin to confirm something. It'll just become solidified in your heart. At first, it'll be a simple instruction. You'll say, okay, I heard that. I think that was the Lord. Let me pray, make sure I heard God. And then someone will come along and confirm that. And then another confirmation will come. Then the Holy Spirit will speak again. There's this, how shall I say, the Lord is faithful. in our frailties. So even though we as human beings sometimes falter, the Lord's consistency makes up for that faltering. So he's gonna speak continually, and he's gonna help make that absolutely plain to you. He's going to lead you with confidence, not push you or force you with anger, fear, or anxiety. And again, conviction over sin and certain urgent messages may feel like that, But I'm speaking generally about the voice of the Holy Spirit. There's this confident leading to his voice. Now, if this is helping you and you think that other Christians need to hear this concerning the voice of the Holy Spirit, you think that we need to hear more about the Holy Spirit or his voice or his power or his presence or his gifts, then make sure you leave a like on this video right now, because by you leaving a like on the video, you're helping to spread this content to even more people. Just that simple action, Click the thumbs up, and you never know who you're gonna help with that. Also, make sure to comment. How is this blessing you so far? Where are you being challenged? And don't forget to subscribe so that you don't miss any of the content coming your way. Next, we see that God's voice will always align with his word. Now, this should be obvious, but it isn't always, sadly, because some Christians will go based on their emotions. They'll go based on their compromise. They'll go based on that sin. that they want so badly, and they try to justify everything around that sin rather than just repenting of that sin. Look at what it says, the scripture in Numbers 23:19. God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through? So God will always speak in alignment with his word. He will never, ever, ever instruct you to do anything that contradicts the teachings of scripture. He'll never ever instruct you to do anything that contradicts his standard of holiness. So when you hear people say things like, well, I know the relationship I'm in is ungodly, but I feel the Holy Spirit speaking to me to stay in the relationship, you can bet that that individual is going based on their thoughts and emotions and not on the voice of the Holy Spirit. When you hear people say things like, well, I know that sin is compromise and, And I know it's something that God doesn't necessarily like in my— you know, they're trying to downplay it. God doesn't necessarily like in my life, but he understands where I'm at. He understands my situation. So he gets me. He understands why I compromise in that way. There you go again. That's the flesh. That's human reasoning. That's emotion. That's your thoughts. That is not the voice of the Holy Spirit. God will not contradict his word. Your emotions sometimes will. God will not contradict his word. Your desires and your thoughts sometimes will. Next, we see that God's voice speaks from peace, and your thoughts can speak from fear and anxiety. Now, again, I wanna come back to that concept of conviction, because it doesn't necessarily always feel peaceful when you're being convicted. In fact, maybe you're tossing and turning at night because the Holy Spirit's conviction. is heavy upon you. But look at this in 1 John 4:18. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. God speaks from the place of peace and love. Now, what does this mean? Does this mean that the voice of the Holy Spirit will never make you feel uncomfortable? Of course not. There will be times when the Holy Spirit will speak an instruction that makes you very uncomfortable, a step of faith that you have to take, a sacrifice that you have to make, an instruction that you have to follow that you don't quite understand. Is the voice of the Holy Spirit always going to tell us something that we like? No. In fact, sometimes the voice of the Holy Spirit is going to offend you. He's gonna correct something in your character. He's gonna speak against a certain behavior or a certain thought pattern or a certain attitude that you carry. And that's not always going to feel peaceful. There will be times when the Lord gives you warnings, warnings about the future, warnings about the coming calamities, warnings about things that maybe you're entering into a season where you're gonna be attacked and there's gonna be some chaos, but the Lord's gonna be with you in that season. That's not always going to feel peaceful. When the Holy Spirit corrects us, when the Holy Spirit asks us to take a step of faith, when the Holy Spirit warns us, that's not always going to feel peaceful. So when I talk about God speaking with peace, I'm not talking about the absence of any negative emotion. I'm talking about a deeper inner knowing, a confidence in the voice of God. Think, for example, of Abraham. He had a nightmare that the Lord gave him. The Lord gives him a nightmare and it terrified him. There was great dread that came over him. But it was still the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking. That's with Abraham. He hears the voice of God and feels dread when God is speaking, because God was warning him about a future event. So no, the voice of the Holy Spirit isn't always going to feel pleasing. It's not always going to feel comforting, but there will always be divine peace. What is that divine peace? That's ultimate confidence in God's Word. That's trust in who God is. That's this inner knowing that everything's going to work out. Sometimes God's going to speak an instruction that makes you sad. Sometimes he's gonna speak an instruction that makes you a little bit nervous to take that next step of faith. He's gonna speak an instruction that convicts you. But even in the midst of that, those warnings, that correction, even in the midst of all of that, there will be this inner peace in which you walk, and that is confirmation that God is speaking to you. Next, we see that God's voice affirms your identity. Your voice questions it. Now watch this in Romans 8:15-16. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's Spirit when He adopted you as His own children. Now we call Him, I love this, Abba Father, for His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children. So when you were born again, you received the Holy Spirit. When you received the Holy Spirit, You became, your spirit became one with the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:17, he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. So you have union with the Holy Spirit. Now, in that place of union, the Holy Spirit is constantly reminding you, you belong to God. You are God's child. You're not rejected. You've not been set aside. You've not been overlooked. You belong to the Most High God. Think about that. What a powerful truth about which the Holy Spirit constantly reminds us. And it's beautiful when we see this revelation given to us by the Holy Spirit. But here's what happens. Sometimes you'll receive something in your mind that makes you feel like God's rejected you. If you've ever heard the thought that God doesn't wanna speak to you, that was your thought, not God's voice. If there's ever been anything inside of you that said, well, I've made my final mistake and now God's finally done with me, that was your emotion, not God's voice. If you've ever had a thought that made you feel as though God was overlooking you, if you've ever wondered if God had finally rejected you, if you've ever wondered if God had said, you're no longer my child, if you've ever felt like you didn't belong, Like you had no place to truly call home. That was your thought, not God's voice. Those were your emotions, not God's voice. Even after you've messed up, please hear me now. And I know this is for someone prophetically. Even after you've messed up, even after you made that mistake, even if you knew better to not make that mistake and still made that mistake, God is not done with you. Why? How do I know this? What does the Bible say? And we just learned that the Holy Spirit will not contradict the word of God. We just learned that the Holy Spirit abides in us, confirming that sonship, reminding you of who you are, so that when you pray, you pray in that identity and not in the shame of some mistake that you made. So that when you approach God, you approach him according to the righteousness you received when you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and not on your failures or your performance, you approach him based on the cross. So if anything has ever told you that God rejected you, I'm talking about born-again believers. If you've ever had a thought that made you even slightly feel like God was done with you, that was not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit did not say, God is done with you. The Holy Spirit did not say, there's no more forgiveness for you. The Holy Spirit did not say, that you've been rejected, overlooked, and despised. The Holy Spirit says, Abba, Father, and he causes you to cry out knowing that you belong to him. Holy Spirit, give them discernment that they might hear your voice with confidence and clarity. I pray, Father, that when their emotions stir and when their thoughts race, that you would give them a confident faith and that they would hear the voice of the precious Holy Spirit with perfect clarity. Lord, cause them to hear in the Spirit with such clarity that they'll hear you even when you whisper. They could hear a pin drop in the Spirit. Give them that by your grace, by your power, through your faithfulness. Make them people who hear your voice and obey your voice. Amen. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray all confusion goes. In Jesus' name. I want you to type it in the comment section if you believe it. Type a big amen. Well, we know that as believers, we follow after the word of God. And this, of course, is the primary way that we hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. And we as believers are to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and then obey. And so here's where I wanna challenge you. The Word of God teaches that where you receive the Word from, you are to sow into. That we are to so honor the Word of God, we're to so honor the preaching of the Word of God, that we sow of our finances where we receive the Word. That's biblical. That we have a responsibility as Christians to support works of ministry. And this is something I've been praying that my generation and the generations after would capture this revelation, because I've seen generations before, they've understood this revelation, but I pray my generation comes to understand it and generations after. You hear all this talk about how millennials, Gen Z, and now Gen Alpha, that they're gonna be struggling to buy homes, they're gonna be struggling financially, that they're gonna be struggling just to make it by, just to live. I rebuke that in the mighty name of Jesus. And I say, we stand on the Word of God. We don't base our lives on the world's economies. We base our lives on the Word of God. And so I'll tell you this, I believe that Millennials, Gen Z, Gen Alpha, these generations are going to experience an increase in resources as we come to capture the revelation of generosity to the kingdom of God. As we sow, God increases our resources. That is absolutely biblical. As we sow, God blesses our generosity. Now, as you sow into this ministry, I want you to do so because you love Jesus. I want you to do so because you love souls. I want you to do so because you believe in what we're doing. Maybe you've been blessed by this ministry. Well, it's time to pay that forward. But as you do it for the right reasons, the right motives— love for God, love for people, love for souls, love for the ministry— I want you to also have the faith for the blessing that the Word of God promises. Paul writes that if you sow sparingly, that means you sow a little bit, you reap a little bit. He's talking about money in the context. But if you sow bountifully, you'll reap bountifully, and God will increase your resources, is what the Scripture says in the NLT. He will provide and increase your resources, and he will produce a harvest of generosity in you. So I don't know about you, But I reject the notion that these generations will be broke. I reject the notion that you'll never have your own home, that you'll never have a job where you can pay your bills. I reject the notion that you're always gonna be struggling to get by. I rebuke those lies in the mighty name of Jesus. All it takes is acts of faith, consistent acts of faith, consistent obedience to the word of God, and generosity is one of those ways in which you respond to God's word concerning your finances. So I challenge you now, sow into this ministry, become a monthly ministry supporter. I need your help, brothers and sisters in Christ, I need your help. The ministry's expanding, growing rapidly, opportunities are presenting themselves left and right. We don't wanna say no to the nations, we don't wanna say no to world evangelism, we don't wanna say no to church planting, and we don't wanna say no to continuing to produce content like this that blesses the people of God. So give today. You can go to davidhernandezministries.com/partner to become a monthly ministry supporter. You can also go to davidhernandezministries.com/donate to give a single gift. Now, whether it's single or monthly, whether it's large or small, everything counts. I'm talking to everyone from the person who is praying for an increase to the person who God has blessed tremendously financially. Everyone needs to give in a way that stretches their faith. And as we do, God's gonna do the work. So thank you for partnering with me. And if you enjoyed this teaching, then make sure to also check out this teaching entitled, Right Before God Uses You, the Devil Will Try These Attacks.