Dear reader, for many years after receiving Jesus Christ as the Lord of my life, I was bothered by the Bible verse in Acts 13:2. This verse reads as follows:
While they were serving the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul (Paul) for the work to which I have called them.
Acts 13:2
I was always asking myself: “How did the Holy Spirit talk to Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen, and Saul? Did these five prophets hear an audible voice of the Holy Spirit?”
What the Lord has taught me.
After walking with the Lord for more than 30 years, I can now tell you with certainty how the Holy Spirit talks to a Christian.
Usually you do not hear an audible voice.
The first thing I have to tell you is that the Holy Spirit does not talk with an audible voice, like a human being does. For this reason, do not waste time isolating yourself somewhere with the hope of hearing an audible voice, like that of human beings, from Heaven.
The Holy Spirit talks through your thoughts.
What I have discovered is that the Holy Spirit actually talks through your thoughts. What differentiates the voice of the Holy Spirit from other thoughts is that thoughts of the Holy Spirit always promote God’s Kingdom.
The voice of the Holy Spirit will never promote Satan’s kingdom. For example, you may suddenly get a thought telling you as follows:
What you are about to do is sin. Do not do it
Such a thought is most likely the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Detecting the voice of the Holy Spirit requires God’s training.
For more than twenty years God has been training me to master thoughts generated by the Holy Spirit. I can now be 100% sure that a certain thought within my mind is the voice of the Holy Spirit.
For example, today I was doing some domestic work when suddenly I got a divine suggestion to write about how the Holy Spirit talks. I obeyed and wrote this article for the benefit of other Christians. This was the voice of the Holy Spirit that instructed me.
Examples of thoughts that are actually voices of the Holy Spirit.
Having a thought prompting you to ring a certain person.
Call that person immediately. The Holy Spirit is telling you that this person may be having some problems.
Having a thought prompting you to move away quickly.
Move away quickly from where you are. The Holy Spirit is either warning you of some danger, or wants you to take some important action from a different place.
A thought reminding you about something.
Take action about what you have been reminded. The Holy Spirit is reminding you so that you do not soon regret.
How the Holy Spirit talks to you.
