"Listening to the Holy Spirit"

Ways in which God speaks to you

Hearing the voice of God is the greatest skill you can pick up and hone in your life. For some people this may sound exceptional, fantastic and hard to believe. The key is that you must believe that God loves you enough to speak to you and you must look forward to hearing from him.
Each person is unique and God uses different ways to speak to different people, but He certainly speaks to all His people.

The Word of God

God already has given you a comprehensive guide on how to live and what to do in many situations through the Bible. This is the first set of instructions, it is essential that you have a good workable knowledge of the Bible.
A study of how the original King James Version (1611) of the Bible was put together will show you how many people suffered persecution and lost their lives, just so that you can have a copy of God's Word. It will prove beyond doubt the love God has for man and the extremes to which satan went to prevent you from getting a copy.
Anything God tells you will supplement the Bible but never go against it. God already has given His people a detailed set of instructions like pray for the sick, love your neighbor and spread the Gospel. His Word also has practical directions on living life like don't be idle, but work for your living, don't lust after someone else's wife and forgive people.You can be sure that God will not put in your heart a desire to commit adultery or to lie or steal because they go directly against His written Word.

For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.- John 5:5-21: 7

The word of God is like a perfect balance, it helps you check if the promptings of the Holy Spirit and the desires of your heart are actually from God and not your own selfish desires.

Desires of your Heart

Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.- Psalm 37 : 4

If you seek after God sincerely He will change the desires of your heart. He will put His Will and His own desires in your heart. Its a wonderful position to be in knowing that both your own heart and God want the same thing.
Suppose you need guidance on the next step in your education, you just need to ask God to guide you and be willing to obey when He responds. He may put in your heart the desire to pursue a specific course or college. Although you have no direction on your own God will guide you through your heart's desire.Similarly if you are presented with two choices, but not sure about on what to choose and both options seem correct, God can make you desire one option more while diminishing your interest in the other option.
It is VERY important to completely surrender to God when you seek after him for this to be effective, or you may just end up hearing your own mind. Also you MUST test any desire in your heart against the written Word of God (The Bible), God will never put anything in your heart that goes against the Bible.
Also once God puts a desire in your heart, you can test it by getting close to God in prayer and worship. Pray strongly, as you get closer to Him and become aware of His presence the desire gets stronger and stronger if it is from God. It will give you a great deal of inner peace and tranquility. Likewise if the desire is not from God it will diminish or completely vanish as you draw closer to Him.

The Holy Spirit

God speaks to you through His Holy Spirit once you are born-again and baptized in the Spirit. Jesus himself says that once the Holy Spirit comes into your life, He will reveal and explain to you whatever God wishes to communicate to you. He will guide you and bring you closer to God with every passing day.

When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak:- John 16 :13

The Holy Spirit is an extension of God and the He is one who inspired people to write and compile the Bible as we have it today. You can be sure the Holy Spirit won't guide you against the Word by asking you to do something like hurt somebody or dishonor your parents.
There are many ways that the Holy Spirit uses to communicate with you, these are covered in the next topic.

REAL LIFE INSPIRATION

Imagine yourself in the middle of a thick forest, you have cities on both sides but to reach either city you have to wade through difficult jungle terrain. There are dangerous animals, treacherous marshes with quicksand, rivers which cannot be crossed and other challenges throughout the jungle.
You know deep down the jungle is not your house and you must get out soon. You however do not know the path or the direction you must go in, to escape. Also you know of the dangers in the jungle but you have very little skill and almost no strength in overcoming these hurdles.
This is how God would help you, He will put in your heart the desire to go to one of the two cities. He gives you a map that you can look up at anytime which has most of the directions you need and a radio which you can use to speak to Him. This map is the Word of God or the Bible, the radio is His Holy Spirit and the jungle is your life in this world. It is not where you belong and it is not permanent. You are on a journey and the destination is the City of God or Heaven.
There may be times when you may not be able to understand the map or you may be in a situation that requires help urgently. You need to know exactly what to do and more importantly, the right time to do it. God guides you with His own voice for times like this. He blesses you with His Holy Spirit who is your advisor and guide. His gentle comforting voice speaks to you from the inside.
The voice confirms the map and vice versa, they are not exclusive. The map confirms that what the voice is saying is true and is from God and not your own mind, at times the voice confirms that you are reading the map correctly. It is essential to understand this concept, you need both the Word of God and the Holy Spirit to successfully navigate through life successfully.

BIBLICAL INSPIRATION

Throughout the Old and New Testaments you will find God speaking to his people, both individually and as a group.
He met with and spoke to Adam and Eve every evening in the garden of Eden.
It is written that God spoke to Moses face to face and showed him things most of us can't even imagine.Israel heard God speak to them through thundering, lightning and loud noises with smoke coming out from the mountains.
Samuel heard God speak to him in an audible voice when he was sleeping in the temple.
Daniel had an angel delivering a message from God to him, he also had many dreams and visions from God which showed him things long before they actually happened.
God used dreams and visions to speak to so many prophets showing them things that would take place hundreds of years later.
At times God uses His prophets to speak to people, like when Nathan spoke to King David and Elijah when he spoke to King Ahab.
God used the Urim and Thummim on the breastplate of the High Priest to speak to Israel.
The birth of Jesus Himself was made known to the Virgin Mary through an angel who gave her a glimpse of His destiny.
The Acts of the Apostles records many instances of the Holy Spirit guiding the followers of Jesus.
The number of ways God used and spoke to his people are just so numerous to list, but He is a loving God and will speak to those who love Him and are willing to listen.
People are willing to believe that God spoke to people in the Bible, but have great difficulty believing that its the same God even today and He is willing to speak to you and me.

LIFE APPLICATION

*The way God speaks to each person is unique, you must identify ways in which God speaks to you personally
*The Word of God is a great test to see if its really God speaking. It is very important to know the Bible well or you may be deceived