12 Aug How to Know the Holy Spirit is Talking to You
How to Know the Holy Spirit is Talking to You
The Bible tells us multiple times that the Holy Spirit is “the Helper.” There are many roles of the Holy Spirit but everything He does is direct help from God. If you want some practical ways of How the Holy Spirit Speaks to us read the blog post, 14 Ways to Hear God’s Voice in Business, it’s not an all-inclusive list by any means but a good start.
Now we cannot put God in a box and make Him into some kind of formula to figure out or be understood. But what I have found is some consistent characteristics of God’s voice and what the voice of the enemy or what my flesh sounds like. This table below will help you discern the Holy Spirit’s voice. Know that God will confirm His voice to you and you will more often than not having a knowing inside of you that it is God speaking. We are made in God’s image but at the same time unique so God may speak to you differently than he does to me or someone else. The important thing is that you can know when the Holy Spirit is talking to you.
Knowing God’s voice is 110% vital for the Christ-Centered Entrepreneur. There are often times that Holy Spirit leads you to do certain things or make decisions that don’t 100% make sense to our own logic and natural reasoning. So here are some distinctions you can use to help recognize and discern God’s voice in your life and business.
How do You Know When the Holy Spirit is Talking to You
|
Voice of the Holy Spirit |
Voice of the Enemy or Myself |
|
Leads |
Forces |
|
Guides |
Drives |
|
Directs |
Compels |
|
Voice is filled with peace, even if it doesn’t make perfect sense. |
Voice is filled with stress, worry, or anxiety |
|
Trust that the Lord knows your needs and will direct you to solutions |
Feels like you’re running out of time, money, & resources. Almost feels like your pouring water into a bucket with holes in it |
|
Decisions are made after seeking God’s direction and listening for the Holy Spirit’s voice |
Decisions are made rashly |
|
Can have peace while outside the comfort zone because you have “the comforter” |
Can be outside of the comfort zone and still be filled with fear and/or anxiety |
|
Actions are motivated by God’s desires. He places burdens on your heart for people groups, problems to be solved, and messages to be shared. |
Actions are motivated by a sense of fear, dread, selfish gain, pride/ego, or scarcity |
|
Motivated by a desire to serve, love, give, empower, uplift, solve problems, bring aid. |
Selfish ambition, greed, excess, domination, status, are motivators |
|
Money is a by-product |
Money is the Primary Objective |
|
Confident peace of God’s control |
Desire to control people, process, & outcome |
|
Desires to see God and others exalted |
Desires to exalt SELF |
|
True Freedom and peace through a relationship with God |
False Freedom and peace in possessions, finances, & pride |
|
Peace in the presence of conflict/adversity |
Peace ONLY in the absence of conflict, adversity, or need |
|
Is satisfied in lean times and during plenty |
Always wants more, never fully satisfied or content |
|
Work is Worship unto God & lead by the Holy Spirit |
Work is toil and ONLY a necessity |
Still Not Sure How to Know the Holy Spirit is Talking to You?
One thing I love about God is His grace. While we do our best to follow His direction and voice we won’t get it right 100% of the time. I believe God sees that and still honors our efforts. Do your best to move forward with what you believe God is saying to you. Use the first 4 points of the chart above as a quick test. It is also helpful to ask another mature believer in business; there is wisdom there.
Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers, they succeed. - Proverbs 15:22
Growing in your giftings and discerning of His voice is something that will get easier. You’ll become quicker to recognize His voice as you continuously seek AND read the Bible. Not because you earn it or qualify or something like that. Simply because you learn more of what He sounds like and what God’s character is like through His book.
So even if you aren’t sure if it’s Him, take your best faith-filled step forward and trust that God’s grace is sufficient even when we make mistakes. Either way, it is a win-win, so don’t allow fear & doubt in. If you can’t find peace yet, wait and pray for God’s surpassing peace again and then move forward whenever that comes. Again, this is not a formula but just some patterns I have noticed in my own walk with the Lord in regards to the Holy Spirit’s voice in business. Remember, working with God requires steps of Faith and you can’t experience what is is like to work with Him unless you respond and take action on what you believe God’s leading is.
“Why Can’t I Hear the Holy Spirit?”
At times I have found myself frustrated when it seems like God isn’t leading or directing my steps. While intellectually I know He is always with me and leading because the Bible says, “ the steps of a righteous man are ordered” and “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
So here is what I have found to be true for me when it seems I can’t hear the Holy Spirit’s voice. Here are the steps I take.
- What is the last thing God spoke to me about? Did I respond to that? Take action on that? Sometimes God has already spoken to you and we forget the instruction he has given us.
- God already spoke and gave direction. Sometimes I don’t always like what I think God is saying to me. A few years ago I kept praying for direction for the business and how to increase my profits. God wouldn’t answer my requests for business success and the only thing I felt like he was directing me on was to change my diet, hire a nutritionist, and start swimming. Long story short swimming was the main exercise that restored a herniated disc I had long term pain with, I was eating wrong for my body type and my excess weight was further hurting my back condition. What I realized was that God cares more about me than he does the success of my business. I found out that he wanted me to be a good steward of my body, my temple of the Holy Spirit. If my body and health are not in decent shape I won’t have the strength and energy I need to carry out the Holy Spirit’s direction. Despite my prayers for business success at that time, he gave me something better. A realization that he loves us all too much to give us a job or answer prayers that we aren’t prepared to handle the results or that we can’t fulfill because of our own health choices.
- God usually gives 1 step at a time. I have found that God sometimes gives me a big overall vision/picture. However, on how to execute it I usually only see/hear 1 step at a time. I think this is to keep me in a place of dependence on Him. If God gives us all the steps at once it would be easy and tempting for me to try and run and accomplish the vision without relying on Him as much. The Bible calls us “co-laborers” which means we are supposed to work together. Jesus only did what His Father in Heaven did and did nothing by himself (John 5:19)
- Ask God to speak to you again. God is good and gracious and if you can’t hear Him or remember what he spoke last to you simply ask for guidance and a reminder. One of the roles of the Holy Spirit is specifically to remind us all that God speaks to us. I regularly try to journal down what God is speaking to me. “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” – John 14:26 ESV
- Too Many Competing Voices & Distractions. The Bible tells us that nothing can remove us from the Love of God in the Book of Romans. Sometimes I believe we have too many of the wrong voices, people, and influences going into our minds that it can be difficult to recognize Him. There is a reason that God tells us to, “be still and know that I am God.” Remove distractions like social media, or tv, or whatever you feel is competing too much with God and taking up too much of your time. If work is competing with your time going to God, where can you delegate, let go, and give tasks to others that would create more time for you to find peace in your relationship with God?
- Press into God. The Bible tells us that, “blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they will be filled.” – Mathew 5:6. The Bible tells us also to ask, seek, and knock in Mathew 7:7-8, which is basically an encouraging promise to us that we will hear and find God when we persist in reaching out to him.
I think it most often seems like God isn’t speaking to us because it’s not what we want to hear, we are trying to go too fast, or we don’t have an answer to our situation in the timing that we want the answer to. The truth is that God desires us to spend time with Him and know His voice more than we can imagine. He is looking for people who are want to be lead by His spirit and are those that worship in spirit and in truth. – John 4:24
Do you experience some of these ways of recognizing the Holy Spirit’s voice? Leave a comment below to let us know how the Holy Spirit is talking to you.
Need help growing your Christ-Centered Business? Want more sales, leads, and repeat customers? Click here for a Free Strategy Call
Rev. Ron Gelok III, MBA
P.S. Want to be a POWERFUL Christ-Centered Business Owner, WITHOUT feeling awkward? Check out the Glorify God in Business Workshop
Darren Young
Posted at 10:33h, 25 AugustDear Rev Ron,
Great nuggets there. If I took the entire blog in a nut shell I would say that God created believers to create,to work our faith out in Godly ways, We will succeed if we create. If we do nothing we will not. God created us to create and to succeed.
God Created us to create
He gives us His desires to will and to do good for His good pleasure. God gives you those desires Hallelujah!!! And it brings Him good pleasure! Trust Him! And go for it! Trust the Jesus in You!
Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
He has given us everything we need to succeed in who we are in Him. Trust the Jesus in you. “‘ That’s a whole another subject” If you are a believer, Christ is in you and you are in Christ.
We can bank on the word of God here. Believers
Hebrews 10:16 “This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the LORD: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”
I trust the new born again nature in you as a believer in Christ Jesus because God says this is true in the bible. The Lord put His laws of grace on my heart and wrote them on my mind. Will we make mistakes? Yes but its ok, You will keep learning and learning and doing better and more amazing things for the Lord.
John 14:12-14
12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
God is already giving you the desire to will and to do good for His good pleasure Philippians 2:13
Sometimes we get stuck because we think we cant hear God or the Holy Spirit speaking to us. I like what Ron said about relationship. God almighty the creator of the universe is longing to have a real living relationship with us and as we cultivate that relationship we are going to explode with awesome desires to will and to do good things for Him, Amazing things!
As we read God’s word and apply God’s word we learn so much.
Proverbs 20:4 The slacker does not plow during planting season; at harvest time he looks, and there is nothing.
Sometimes we may do nothing because we feel that the Holy Spirit is not speaking to us or we are unsure what He is saying or said. I think Rev Ron cleared this is up very nicely in his blog. I want to also remind myself that according to Hebrews 10:16 and Philippians 2:13 we can trust the God living inside our hearts. Many Times God will just say go for it, up to you son, go ahead and create, you have everything you need because I have already giving you everything you need to succeed that pleases me. Don’t worry the Holy Spirit will council you as you go. God gives us the desires to want to and to do good for His good pleasure and the Holy Spirit councils us and guides us.
Proverbs 15:19 A slacker’s way is like a thorny hedge, but the path of the upright is a highway.
What does God’s word say here in Proverbs?
We know that if we slack its not going to go well which is probably going to lead to depression if we don’t nip that thing in the butt!!! We also can see that if we do things with integrity and excellence “Path of the Upright” leads to a lot of fruit and healthy living that just keeps coming and coming.
Proverbs 6:9-11
9 How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
11 So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.
So how do we get out a rut especially when we have a relationship with the Lord and we know or have a idea what He is leading us to do?
Wake up To Reality and bring a Diligence into your life now!
WE NEED TO WAKE UP AND STOP PROCRASTINATING!
DILIGENCE may not be the word you think it does. Diligence seems to mean hard work but lets slow down a second and think about that. We could be diligent at working very very hard at something like trying to cut down a tree with a hammer and it just does not produce what we need to excel, You would get worn out! Even if you could cut down one tree you would wiped out and quit eventually. But if you had a chainsaw everything changes and the tree cuts like butter compared to an hammer.
Proverbs 21:5 – The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, But everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.
Here are some ideas of Diligence we see in Proverbs.
DILIGENCE
A Learnable Skill that combines
Effective partnering
Creative persistence with a
Smart working effort that is
Rightly Planned and
Rightly performed in a manor that is
Timely
Efficient and
Effective attaining a result that is
Pure and of the highest quality of
Excellence
How do we create this Diligence?
DEFINE YOUR VISION
Write your Vision down!!!!
Proverbs 29:18
18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
You may say do I really need to write my vision down!?? YES!!!
When ever you introduce a new vision into any area of your life, you gain new energy, You will discover, motivation, joy, passion, energy, creativity, and commitment. Defining a vision is an essential component of diligence. If fact, it’s impossible to be truly diligent if you don’t have a clear vision of what you want to achieve. Bringing diligence into your life is the single most important step you can take. < Steven K Scott
Effectively Partner
Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed. Proverbs 15;22
In any worthwhile endeavor, it's impossible to be diligent without seeking outside counsel and effectively partnering. We all know a little, no one knows a lot. Most of us are deeply knowledgeable in only a few things, and we're totally ignorant and incapable in millions of other things. Yet true diligence demands excellence in every step we take. The only possible way to achieve excellence in the areas in which we lack the necessary talent or know-how is to seek out counsel and/or effectively partner. When I talk about partnering, I'm talking referring to asking the help of advisers, counselors, mentors, and anyone else who can provide us with the knowledge and the skills we need to achieve excellence in fulfilling our vision. < Steven K Scott
If you do not know how to do vision mapping/writing down your vision with the goals and the task to do them on time to get you to your destination, find a mentor who can teach you how to do a simple Vision Mapping Journal. A map like a road map, like google map, gives you the direction, and time to get there and the task and turns you will take to get to the designation. This will change your life. Find the right mentors who have done or who believes in your vision. Don't just look for any doctor/Mentor. Work with mentors who have been successful in the area of the vision or task you need help with. Partner with people who can do what you cant do.
Pursue Wisdom: Build your life Upon it
How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen above silver. Proverbs 16:16
The final component critical to becoming a diligent person is to pursue wisdom and build your life upon its foundation.
Solomon tells us to seek wisdom as if it were a hidden treasure. True wisdom is rarely found lying on the ground in plain view. Rather, it's a treasure that must be searched out, and those seeking it must often dig beneath the surface. But it's not a difficult pursuit. It's fun to search for buried treasure, and it's wonderfully rewarding to find it. – Steven K Scott.
This type of vision mapping and diligence, effective partnering, and always searching for wisdom has changed and enriched my life, my families life, and my ministry. I don't always apply these simple truths and I am not always diligent but my life has changed so amazingly by learning and applying them to my life. Plus I know have some simple life changing tools that are so easy even an 5th grader can apply them. They can also be used in any area of life, relationship with kids, wife, family, relationship with God and of coarse business and ministry.
This Blog is helping and encouraging so much!
Thanks Rev Ron for stocking the fire!!!!
Darren