How Does God Speak to Us?

Many believers are under the mistaken idea that when it says, “God spoke” or “the Holy Spirit said” that the people heard an audible voice.  But if you ask people who clearly hear Him on a regular basis, they will tell you this is not the case.

Let’s take a look at how humans function when it comes to interacting with the spiritual. 

It is helpful to visualize a person as consisting of three parts which can be diagrammed as three concentric circles.  Although the Scriptures usually just refer to an inner and outer man, 1 Thessalonians 5:23 details this more fully. 

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The outermost circle represents the body.  This is obviously the physical part of us.  It receives stimuli from the world through the five senses.  The middle band is the soul or psyche.  Traditionally people think of it as the mind, the will and the emotions.  It is the basis of our personality.  This is where our thoughts reside.  It can receive stimuli from both the body and the spirit as well as generating its own thoughts and ideas.  The inner circle is the spirit—that part of the person that becomes alive when a person becomes a follower of Jesus.  This part of us is where the Holy Spirit dwells.

 

We can choose to live under the control of any of the three areas. 

• Some people choose to live from the flesh, from their body.  Maybe they are fixated on food, or on sex.  They are controlled by their bodily desires. 
• Many more people live from their soul.  Perhaps their emotions control them.  Their lives are dominated by the emotion of the day and how they feel directs how they live.  Or maybe their intellect is in control.  They will not believe or do something unless they can understand it and analyze it, unless there is scientific or philosophic rationale for it. 
• We can choose to live from our spirit and allow the Holy Spirit to be in control of our lives. As we surrender to Him, He affects every part of our lives including our soul and our body.  As we yield our lives more and more to Jesus, we find ourselves just naturally living more and more in accord with the Word of God.

For the Christian, the aim is to live from the Spirit within—that is, from the inner circle.  The Bible tells us that it is very difficult to distinguish between the soul and the spirit.  In fact it takes the Word of God to do so (Hebrews 4:12).  We will know if we are living by the spirit if our lives line up with the Scriptures, but our motivation in doing so isn’t to keep a set of rules, but to learn to live from the life of the Spirit within us. 

Comments

[Carolyn Spence]

Helpful explanation. As physical human beings, we can feel the influences of body and soul more easily than spirit, but that situation can change.

In Ephesians we are told this: 22That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Renewing the mind by considering and changing the way we think to conform to what God has said in scripture enables us to hear the spirit more clearly. It is in this hearing that God can speak to us! He is so good!

[John White]

Very helpful, Felicity, on seeing the context of this question. I'm hoping you will do a part two and talk about what God's voice sounds like. If it's not audible, what is it? This is what confused me for many years.

[Stan Meador]

I like simple! This is a very concise explanation in simple terms of tricotomy. If only the Systematic Theologians could explain the theory and its importance this well. Up to now, I've leaned toward dicotomy. Thanks for spurring me on!

[Lisa]

I am a Christian and God has spoken audibly to me twice. It was out of the blue I was not praying or asking him to speak to me either time. Why would he not speak audibly to us?

[Felicity Dale]

Lisa
My sense is that God only speaks very rarely to us in an audible fashion. I'm not sure I personally have ever heard his audible voice, but he speaks to me constantly through my thoughts. My husband, Tony, has once heard God's audible voice. We need to be open to whatever ways God may use to speak to us.

[C. Edwards]

Thanks for the input. I'm teaching a theology class in Brazil and next week I'm presenting Dichotomy vs. Trichotomy. Your explanation is very easy to follow and leaves out a lot of the "theological jargon" that is difficult to translate into Portuguese. Again, Thanks!

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[Nike Shox Deliver]

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[Jordan Shoes]

I only recently started leaving comments! Makes me imagine a tiny additional about what I enjoyed and learned about the post! Fantastic ideas, thanks!

[Felicity Dale]

Jordan
Thanks for commenting. It's always an encouragement when people take the time to add something

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[Alison]

God has audibly spoken to me twice. He shone bright light down on me while I prayed once - light whose brightness is beyond anything I have ever experienced. He has allowed me to hear my fathers voice within hours after my father's death, after I humbly prayed for him to allow me to know if my father was alright. Does God want me to be in the ministry? God spoke Peter Marshall's name twice and he felt drawn to the ministry. Why does God reveal himself to me in these ways? God's leading for me is powerful and obvious. I'm almost scared that God wants me to do something I won't feel I am able to do.

[Felicity Dale]

Alison, I once had an experience of the light that you describe. I found myself flat on my face in his presence.

His strength is made perfect in our weakness.