God is always speaking to us. His Spirit is continually guiding and prompting us. His eye never leaves us and a way is forever being made for our next step within God’s divine will. But sometimes the lines get crossed and we’re not sure if that’s God talking to us or something else.
How do you know when it’s really God? Afterall, we do have an enemy in this world who prowls around like a lion looking to devour us. You darn well better believe he wants to twist God’s promptings into something they’re not. Our enemy always wants to confuse us, overwhelm us and detour us. So, how do we know for sure its God’s voice we’re hearing? How do we eliminate the distractions of our flesh, the world, and Satan?
Well first, you have to know, there are some things God simply won’t do.
God won’t tell a married woman that another married man is her soul mate. Nope, that’s not God. But in all honesty, it can get all twisted in our flesh and we can work that out in our head. If you’ve been hearing that and believing that, you’ve been hacked.
God won’t promise an easy way for you when everyone else is having a hard time. You won’t be guaranteed ease … ever. If you’ve been hearing that ease is in your future in exchange for anything you could do today, you’ve been hacked.
God never promises you will get what you deserve. We’re so quick to assume good things will happen for us because our goodness says we “deserve it.” You won’t get what you deserve, and it’s a darn good thing you don’t. We’re a bunch of entitled brats believing we deserve an easy, effortless life of goodness, but the truth is, we’ve all fallen short of the glory of God. We don’t deserve goodness, we actually deserve punishment. Alone, we could never be worthy to step into an eternal paradise with a perfect God, but with Jesus we have been made worthy. Thank God we don’t get what we deserve! Drop the entitlement, Sis. Jesus alone makes us worthy and none of us can boast. If you’ve been counting on getting what you deserve because of your self-righteousness, you’ve been hacked.
God never said he wouldn’t give you more than you can handle. When we believe this, we walk around disappointed and overwhelmed. God will no doubt give you more than you can handle, and here’s why … so you will turn it over to him. If you can always handle it on your own, you mistakenly believe you don’t need God. So, there are times you will be given more than you can carry, more than you can fix, and more than you can manage. Why? So that you seek God and get over yourself. We’ve twisted scripture to fit our needs and dropped the last part. 1 Corinthians 10: 13, “God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.”
God will show you the way. He won’t give you a way without the trouble, but he will show you a way through the trouble. If you’re believing God’s way is void of any hardship or trouble and you’re guaranteed to never be given more than you can handle, you’ve been hacked. If you’re feeling like the trouble you’re facing in your family is all your fault and you’re constantly carrying the burden and shame for not being good enough, honey, it sounds to me like you’ve been hacked.
God never said if you have enough faith, you and your loved ones won’t die. In fact, he never said healing was only here on Earth. Isn’t the ultimate healing a new body in Heaven where you walk in wholeness and perfection with Jesus? When we pray for healing, recognize healing can happen here, but it is also beyond this life in eternity. I remember standing by the hospital bed of my 34 year old best friend as her body began to shut down from blood clots. I remember her asking us to gather around her and pray. Then I remember her saying, “Okay, now I’m going to pray for myself.” What followed was the most faith filled prayer for healing of her own body. She bodly asked God for complete healing the next day. So, when the next day was her final day of life, did God fail her? Was her prayer not answered? Was her faith wavering? Absolutely not. She received complete healing that next day and she was given her new and perfect body with Jesus. This wasn’t a lack of faith. This wasn’t a prayer not powerful enough. If you believe healing is only here and now, you’ve been hacked.
God never said your sickness is a punishment. When I was 19, I suffered a massive brain stem stroke. That’s the kind of stroke with up to an 88% mortality rate. It’s the kind of stroke if you are lucky enough to survive it, you likely never heal from it. On my first day back to work after my stroke, a well meaning co-worker pulled me into his office and asked me if I had resolved my sin that caused my stroke. In that moment, I felt absolute shame. I also felt fear. Was God punishing me? What was this sin I carried in me wrecking havoc in my life? That day, I began to believe my sickness was my punishment. Ya’ll I had been hacked!
God’s words can be twisted to mean something they’re not. We can unintentionally get it all wrong and be stuck in confusion. So, how do we know for sure what is God and what isn’t? What if the answer is actually quite simple? What if we can drop all the stress and overwhelm, and find peace in knowing God speaks to his girls, and his girls know when its him.
That’s the biggest clue of God’s truth. God’s promptings bring peace. If you feel led to do something but it is void of all peace, maybe you’ve been hacked! Maybe that’s your flesh speaking, maybe that’s the influence of the world, or maybe that’s the enemy of your soul trying to derail you. A lack of peace is a lack of providence. If God’s providence is all over it, then peace flows from it.
Do you have peace with this? Is your spirit settled in confidence? When everything says you should be rattled and overwhelmed, do you feel God calming your soul with a peace that doesn’t even make sense? That’s God! That’s the real thing! Trust that!
We’re God’s girls, and we are guided by him. Jesus is the good Shepherd guiding his girls, his sheep, and he says it like this in John 10: 3-5, “The sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.” Then in verse 27, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
Stay close to Jesus. Study his word. Grow close to his voice. Over time, you will know when it’s him talking to you and you won’t be fooled by your own flesh, the influence of the world, or the twisting of the enemy. This comes with closeness and a growing relationship. As you grow to know his voice, you will know every voice that isn’t his. The voices that don’t bring peace will be immediately spotted and you will actually run from them.
You know how a sheep learns to not follow a voice that isn’t their shepherd? They screw up a few times. They follow the wrong voice, then their shepherd has to come rescue them and bring them back. Failure is part of this process. Jesus is so patient with us. We will follow the wrong voice in the beginning, but Jesus will always come rescue us. If you find yourself in a place that is a result of following the wrong voice, ask Jesus to just come get you and lead you back. He is faithful. He never stopped looking for you. Don’t hate yourself for being fooled. You know better now and you can follow better now too.
Study God’s word and learn his voice. The world is going to try and hack your account and twist his truths to confuse and distract you. That’s not the way God works. He doesn’t tie strings to your faith, then pull the strings. He doesn’t promise ease or comfort in exchange for your faith. He doesn’t tempt you to fail you, that’s the enemy. He doesn’t give you the silent treatment out of punishment or abandon you because you abandoned him. No, his eye never leaves you. He always offers a way back to his good plans for your life. He paid for complete redemption for your sin before you ever even screwed it up.
And he’s here today, guiding you, prompting your spirit, and showing you the way. Listen to him. Hear his voice. You know it. You’re his girl. He’s your good Shepherd. Following him brings peace nothing else can provide. When you feel that peace, you know. Keep seeking his voice, stay close in relationship, and he will guide you through this faithfully.
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