All scripture in NLT unless otherwise noted.
‘When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” ‘
Luke 24:30-32
Spiritual Discernment Tools
The notion that some thoughts, words, and ideas come supernaturally to us from God himself is an ancient idea with many skeptics. It has taken years for me to fully embrace it. It sometimes takes even more faith to embrace the notion that some ideas also come from Satan and his demons. Once you accept the notion that thoughts can come from outside ourselves and that those thoughts can be either good or evil opens up the question of how do i figure out which thoughts are mine, which ones are good, and which ones are evil. Guiding you in this sorting process is this page is suppose to aid you with.
Here are some tools I have found useful for discerning the Holy Spirits guidance from other forms of inner guidance. I did not invent these tools, they came from many books collected over time. See the Book Shelf for the many sources of guidance on discernment. I collected and combine the ideas from these books in a way that direct quotations and citing is not feasible. I provide the tools here to help if you have never heard them before.
Peter’s Inner Voice
The clearest teaching on inner voice comes from an encounter Jesus has with Peter in the last year of his earthly ministry. The story is found in both Matthew 16 and Mark 8. The Matthew narrative provides more details and will be cited here.
Jesus and his disciples are traveling north towards Caesarea Philippi and Mt. Hermon far away from the crowded sea of Galilee or the streets of Jerusalem. Jesus asks his disciples who the crowd says he is, and then who they think he is. Here is the exchange:
‘“You are Messiah, the son of the living God.” [Jesus responds] “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. . .”’
Matthew 16:16-17 NLT
Jesus then goes on to talk about the new kingdom and how it will stand against all earthly and heavenly things. Jesus then begins to talk about his path to the Cross. Peter reacts strongly to the notion that Jesus would go to the cross. Here is the exchange:
‘But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” He said. “This will never happen to you!” Jesus then turned to Peter and said:
“Get away from me Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”’
Matthew 16:22-23 NLT.
These two exchanges that happened within hours (at most days) of each other. In these exchanges, Peter is speaking with both God’s voice and Satan’s voice. Jesus identifies each voice for Peter’s and our benefit. This is one of many times in Jesus’s teaching where He expects his followers to discern the differences between divine truth and human (fleshly) ideas.
God’s Thoughts/Man’s Thoughts
In Matthew 6, Jesus said that we recognize pretenders by their fruit. He said that good people bear good fruit and bad people bear bad fruit. It is the same way with thoughts. Our thoughts can be viewed through the lens of 1 Corinthians 13 and judged. The following is a list of contrasts between good thoughts from God through the person of the Holy Spirit and bad thoughts from the flesh or Satan himself:
When we feel driven towards action on thoughts that align with column two, it is time to stop and pray. Pray against Satan’s and against our own human influence on your mind. Pray for a renewed heart that aligns with the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Pray for the power to overcome temptation. Pray the way Jesus did in Gethsemane: “Thy will be done, Lord.”
One of the clearest signs that you are following down a path from human and demonic guidance is the use of guilt, shame, and control. When God convicts us, it does not come with a self-deprecating shame spiral. It comes with clear definition of a specific thought or action that is sin. When we surrender our lives to the Holy Spirit of God, He hands that life right back to us and empowers us to:
“do more than we could ever ask or imagine.”
Ephesians 3:20
Satan and the world burden us with duty and responsibility and make us feel bad when we don’t live up to the ever-increasing standards of their harsh expectations. Satan seeks to control and manipulate us. God inspires us through His divine presence to stretch for new and amazing things.
We Need the Holy Spirit to Understand
There is woven into the fabric of scripture the idea that we cannot perceive divine truth without the aid of the Holy Spirit. We should be in constant prayer, requesting that the Spirit reveal truth to us. One clear example of this occurs after Jesus’ resurrection on the road to Emmaus, as recorded in Luke’s gospel.
Two of Jesus’ followers are walking to Emmaus discussing Jesus and the crucifixion when Jesus joins them and explains why he had to die and how these events fit into the whole larger picture. The followers report deep and powerful emotion (See Luke 24:32) when listening to Jesus but they did not recognize him. Then Jesus:
‘. . took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to them. Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared!’
Luke 24:30-31
The most important principle of discernment is alignment with Biblical text. There is however many incidents in the Bible where Satan or corrupt humans use the Holy text in evil ways so the fact that it is Biblical is itself not quite enough.
The Spirit will often use emotion to communicate. To warn, encourage, or confirm truth, but emotion does not give us understanding. In this encounter Jesus spends time teaching and explaining. Jesus also supernaturally guided their minds. We benefit from the emotional guides, we learn through being taught, and we need Jesus to open our spiritual eyes. All three pieces are a part of the processes of growing spiritually. The Spirit provides the emotion, we need to invest in learning and reading and discussion with other wise Christians to gain understanding, and the Spirit provides supernatural understanding as we pray and ask.
The Royal Way
Another useful guide for discerning God’s voice is evaluating the means of achieving a particular outcome. Brother Andrew in his book God’s Smuggler describes this discernment technique as “The Royal Way.” He often received promptings which were objectives. In his case, he might feel called to go into this country or that country to bring Bibles. Then he would spend time in prayer and striving towards that objective. Along the way, there would be opportunities to achieve that objective through a means that required compromising his understanding of right or wrong. It might be lying on a passport, borrowing money, keeping something he was being prompted to give away. His conclusion was that this is not the Royal Way, meaning this is not how his King would conduct royal business. Instead, he would pray and wait on the Holy Spirit to provide an alternative path to achieve the same objective. His example guides us to a principle of discernment. God does not prompt us to compromise. Considering compromising one’s integrity to achieve an outcome is not of God. The outcome may be good and may even be a prompting from God, but we must always use royal means to achieve royal ends.
When in Doubt Reach Out
When you are struggling with self-deprecating thoughts, temptations to sin, anger, resentment, fear, obsessive attachment to worldly things get help. Surround yourself with some other Christians you trust will always speak the truth to you in love and ask them to hold you accountable.
There is no temptation that you will face that has not already been used by Satan on others in the past. Here are some verses on temptation.
‘“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” ‘
Matthew 26:41
In Matthew 9 Jesus instructs us to pray:
‘ And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. ’ ‘
Matthew 6:13
‘So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. ‘
1 Corinthians 10:12-13
Temptation is normal, but there is always a way out. Everybody experiences the same kinds of temptations. You are not unique. But God won’t allow it to become too much for you. He will always make a way out. Look for it! It may be some unusual path to take. You may even have to be humble and ask for help. (Note: This verse is often taken out of context to say that God will never give you more than you can take. It doesn’t say that! It says he will never let you experience more temptation than you can resist or find a way out of.)
Does your action violate Biblical directives as you understand them?
Always ask this question before doing anything. If it violates your understanding, it is ok to seek guidance on your understanding. But don’t act until your soul is satisfied that you are not violating your understanding.
Life On the Rock 