God doesn’t always speak to us in the ways we think He will. He can definitely guide us through the Bible, but He can also guide us through images and our own thoughts. When we tune ourselves into His voice, His guiding, we learn how to determine what God’s trying to tell us. He may guide us with an image or picture that shows us what’s ahead, or keeps reappearing. He may speak to us in prophetic words, or guide our feelings. If we’re not used to hearing God’s voice, in whatever form that may take, then it can be challenging to work out whether it’s Him speaking to us or not. We can learn to recognise His voice through spending more time with Him and getting to know Him better. The more we know someone, the more we know their voice. We can get to know God through testing, through experience, and most of all through intimacy with Him. And when His Spirit prompts us to do something, or shows us something, or someone gives us a prophetic word, we need to test whether it’s from God. The Bible says: ‘Don’t suppress the Spirit, and don’t stifle those who have a word from the Master. On the other hand, don’t be gullible. Check out everything, and keep only what’s good. Throw out anything tainted with evil’ (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 MSG). And once we’ve checked it, we need to carry it out. The apostle Jude said, ‘I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith’ (Jude v.3 NIV). Those words – ‘I felt compelled to’ – are the inner promptings of the Holy Spirit. And Jude knew he had to write. So when we get that prompting, we need to listen and respond.

What Now?

Spend some time talking to God about any decisions you’ve got to make. Have a pen and some paper ready to write down anything you feel He’s saying to you.