The Gentle and Small Voice of Holy Spirit
Many times, our good Lord chooses to use His gentle and small voice in our spirit to speak to us. That’s His good plan. But sometimes, it can be hard for us to distinguish if the voice we heard is from The Lord or not. Today, we will look at one of the criteria to discern…
ENGLISH - HEARING GOD'S VOICE
YTM
8/17/20254 min read
It was an early Friday morning in a hot summer day at west Texas. A group of men, so called “rednecks” gathered as a small group at a church building. These are farmers, workers at the factories, small business owners. The day is till dark, but these men had already started their day begin with studying God’s words before they head to their work places.
The topic of that day is about knowing God the Holy Spirit as a person.
Yes, you hear me right. Holy spirit is not a “it”, or a “force” or a “power”. Holy Spirit is one of the Tri-union God Heads. He is a person; His name is “Holy Spirit”. I wish Holy Spirit have a different name, such as Jesus Christ, or as Mr. WHO I AM. Well, I don’t know why the third person of the God Heads chooses this name which can be very confusing, especially, some denomination also calls Him as “Holy Ghost”. In this society, anything related to “ghost” does not sounds good, especially for younger kids.
Since Lord Holy Spirit is a person, so He also speaks. I remembered Brother Derek Prince’s teaching; he said, if this is voice, then behind the voice, there is a “person”. Yes, God the Father speaks, Our Lord Jesus speaks, Holy Spirit speaks, other people speak, you and me speak, angles speak, demons speak.
I wish God will speak to me audibly. I know there are many accounts in the Bible that God chooses to do so. But many times, God chooses to use His gentle and small voice in our spirit to speak to us, for He is using this way to invite us to get into an intermediate relationship with Him. I don’t like this and I don’t understand, but I know His ways are higher than my ways and I believe this is good for those who loves Him.
During the discussions, one brother said, I really hope to know how to discern the voice I heard is from the Lord and not from the enemy or from myself. His eyes filled with honest and eager. I completely agree! I said, the matter of fact, I just had the same struggle couple of days ago. At that time, I reached out to person I don’t know very well, and asked him if he can share some of testimonies on this website. In the beginning, I was very excited about that idea, I thought it might be the Lord’s inspiration. Then after I wrote the email, and I started to hesitate to send it out. Somehow, I feel, there is another voice says no, it’s a not a good timing, please wait. I struggled and don’t know which one is from the Lord. In the end, I sent it anyway and of cause, days had passed and I have not received any respond. I know, I should have obeyed the second small voice and not sent that out. But how do I know at that time?
I left the gathering without an answer to this question. While, I am driving, I started to ask Lord for the answer. First, my impression was directed me to James 1:5, If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. I thought, that’s right, I need wisdom to understand this. So, I prayed, Heavenly Father, please give me your wisdom to understand this. Immediately, a Bible verse came to my memory, it’s James 3:17-18. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. I felt that the Lord is highlighting “is first”. Suddenly, I come into the revelation of the Lord: the motivation of the voice or thoughts from the Lord has to be “PURE”!
The Lord brought me back to the writing the email question. He asked, when you had that idea in the beginning, what were you thinking? I said, well, to get a testimony from that person? The Lord asked, then what’s your intention and motivation? Immediately, a sneaking thought that had passed through my mind when I was thinking to ask him to give a testimony was brought back to me memory – “this brother is generous, and if I ask him to give testimony, maybe he will consider to give me a donation to this ministry”.
Lord, I am sorry, I said. I should have trusted you to provide for this ministry instead of trying to use tricks to do so. It’s a form of witchcraft! Lord, please forgive me!
I was overwelled by his presence. I knew, I was forgiven at that time. Our Father is good! He turns my sinful thought and action into a lesson for me to learn how to hear from Him better. Praise the Lord!
Dear brothers and sisters, this is the first class I have learned on how to discern God’s voice. Since Lord Holy Spirit’s name is “HOLY Spirit”, so, when He speaks, His thought and His voice has to be “Holy”, pure, and without any bad intents and motivations.
Lord, I worship you, as Job said in his confession: "Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6 NIV). Your ways are pure, your ways are holy!