"God spoke to me"

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Mijoy2

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What is meant by the often used term:
“God spoke to me” or “God made His will known to me” , I think you get the idea.

I think it is fair to say that except for a relative very very few, this does not mean audibly (but if this is so, I’d love to hear about it).

We hear these terms all the time. The same question can apply to other God/us relations we refer to. Such as the answering of prayer.

i.e. I pray for a coversion and the person is coverted. Did God answer my prayer or did this person recently begin to think about his/her evil ways has developed a fear of damnation? And my prayer had nothing to do with it.

How do we discern the difference between God speaking to us (and for that matter Satan speaking to us) and ourselves speaking to us? Isn’t this what is meant by our having free-will? The angel on one shoulder devil on the other analogy. We are spoken to but we have a mind and thought process of our very own.

I have trouble with this. And for the sake of the thread please allow me to be frank yet (I hope) non-offensive. When I hear one use such a phrase doubt crashes in on me. Sometimes I feel the fool for entertaining such a thing. I’d never use this phrase myself because I wouldn’t be being honest. I feel my thoughts are mine not a supernatural intrusion. I say this reluctantly, not with pride (I don’t believe), I rather dislike most of my thoughts. I wish I thought with more goodness of heart.

I listen to a lot of Evangelical radio only because I do not get Catholic radio and I have a 3.0 hour commute each day and it beats Opey and Andy.

Evangelicals use this phrase very often. Catholics seem to use these phrases also. Although maybe not quite as often or loosely. However this digresses from the point I don’t want this question to become a Evangelical vs. Catholic discussion.

I hope I can ask the quesiton articulately enough to express exactly what I mean,

In other words, are feelings that lead to, and possibly act on, for the sake of what my conscience trusts is a “good”, is this God speaking to me? Or am I minimizing and underestimating what is meant by God speaking to me? Is it possible God has never spoken to me where I am asking this question?

Many people in these forums use these phrases. If possible, try to help me understand.
 
Personally, I know that God talks to us all the time via our Conscience. This clear in Scripture and the Catechism

1776: “Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment. . . . For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. . . . His conscience is man’s most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths.”

1777 Moral conscience, present at the heart of the person, enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil. It also judges particular choices, approving those that are good and denouncing those that are evil. It bears witness to the authority of truth in reference to the supreme Good to which the human person is drawn, and it welcomes the commandments. When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking.

But the question is how do we know we hear the voice of God. It is from Peace. God is of Peace. Satan is of Chaos and Noise. When we go to prayer and weigh to choices for which we are troubled, when we “decide” to go with one and we are peaceful about the decision, we can be confident that we have listened to God. When we are still troubled, we know we have ignored God and listened to Satan.

Personally, though, I too am skeptical when I hear someone say that they are “doing what God told them to do.” The reason is I consider our conversations private. i don’t tell people what I said to God and I don’t think I have the right to tell people what God said to me. I just let them know that this is what I feel/believe/think and that I’m at Peace with where I am. If they are trusted, reputable, or authoritative, I continue to keep my heart and mind open in the event that God is using them to speak to me but usually I try to rely on that what I have found in my conscience. The reason is that I have greater accountability for my actions (good and bad) if I follow my conscience. Following another puts burden and consequences on my brother.

To answer you last question, the Holy Spirit is talking to you every second of every day. But His voice is a whisper.

1779
It is important for every person to be sufficiently present to himself in order to hear and follow the voice of his conscience. This requirement of interiority is all the more necessary as life often distracts us from any reflection, self-examination or introspection:

Return to your conscience, question it. . . . Turn inward, brethren, and in everything you do, see God as your witness. (St. Augustine)
 
This subject often bothers me too. I’ve no doubt that God does speak to us. The lives of the Saints are an inspiring example.

My question has always been: How do you know God is speaking to you?
 
Mijoy:
How do we discern the difference between God speaking to us (and for that matter Satan speaking to us) and ourselves speaking to us? Isn’t this what is meant by our having free-will?
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You are correct that God does not speak in an audible voice, for He is Spirit, although in rare circumstances He may speak in this manner, when it is truly necessary. These people use language that is confusing to another, like they a have special set of ears or something. 😃

May I suggest you read the story of the seed in Mark 4:13-20. We find the disposition of those to whom God speaks, and why His words are not always fruitful. Note in verse 16 that they “heard the word and received it with joy.” When God inspires, often there is joy in our spirit, and since God is also light, there is deeper understanding when He speaks. Let me share an example.

I had a close friend with whom every contact was by my initiation. Never did she attempt to call or visit me, and this went on for several years until it began to bother me. I heard of a gathering in her home to which I was not invited, and I was quite disturbed. In prayer that day, I kept asking the Lord for direction as to whether or not I should abandon my friendshp with her.

In one of those anguished moments of prayer, the thought popped suddenly in my mind, “Why did you plant two trees?” Immediately I knew it was from God, for the intent of my planting a pair of trees was for cross-pollination … one tree giving to the other and both producing fruit. Obviously in my distress, this thought did not come from me, and only God knew this about my trees, for they were planted several years previously.

Funny thing, though, while I realized He was reminding me of the principle of friendships, He left me free to choose how to handle it.

I have often found that when God speaks, it is in these types of answers that are so wise and so unexpected beyond a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or ‘do it this way.’ Suppose you receive an inspiration to do a kindness for someone and you are delighted to begin. Suddenly, a thought crosses your mind that it would not be a good idea because thus and so. The devil has just stolen the good seed … follow?

Remember, too, that in the parable of the field, the good seed was sown first (God’s leading). Afterwards, the enemy sowed cockle to thwart its growth. (Mt. 13:24-25) Again, when Moses tried to convince Pharoah through performing God’s supernatural manifestation of the plagues, the magicians of Pharoah performed the same sign, causing him to remain obstinate. But God’s word came first.

I pray these few points may be helpful to you, but keep in mind that learning to listen is a process, and little by little, you will come to recognize when God is inspiring you.
 
One example from me:

Background:
I haven’t read the entire bible. Just barely started the old testament a couple of years ago. New testament exposure has mostly been through readings at mass all my life, although I recently read Acts all the way through along with some of the letters and some bible studies of the Gospels and Revelation.

I’m cradle Catholic but didn’t really take ownership of my religion until a couple of years ago because of my teen kids, Relevant Radio and this CA forum, so for the most part, I was an average person going about my business with my head and heart more than my faith (though not anymore).

One night I was sleeping, when I awoke to a particular phrase in my mind - something about “to whom much is given, much is expected”. This passage was intermingled with images of my older brother with whom I have little contact over the course of any year. None of my 3 siblings are practicing catholics anymore, and I remember trying to think about them in the midst of this, but I couldn’t conjure up an image of their faces, only my elder brothers’ images were present. It was as if something was blocking their images from coming forth, so I relaxed a bit and let whatever was happening finish. My heart was racing and I was very sad, moved to tears. By this time I had woken up but decided to just lay there in a kind of meditative mode until the images passed and the anxiety lessened, then went back to sleep for the rest of the night.

Since I had not given any thought to my family for quite a while before that happened I knew God was talking to me about my one brother, but not my other siblings. I don’t know what he was saying, specifically, so I prayed in the morning for direction. I looked on the internet for bible passages and used what I remembered in the search field to find Luke 12:48:

*But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. **For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: **and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. *

Bottom line:
I took it as God telling me I could no longer stand by silent on the matter of my brother turning from the faith. I’m the youngest of four, he’s the eldest. I never presumed to treat him as an equal and I’ve never spoken against his divorce/remarriage/conversion to another faith.

The sorrow I experienced suggested to me that perhaps my brother’s life was at a crossroads or coming to an end and that I was being called to make at least one attempt to bring him back home to the Catholic church. There was definitely a sense of urgency about it.

I posted here for help in finding conversion stories in DVD/book format which might help me reach my brother. People responded and I bought Steven Ray’s book, Crossing the Tiber along with his DVD, Finding the Fullness of Faith. For Christmas that year I sent to my brother (he lives in another state) Steve Ray’s DVD and book, the catechism, and Jimmy Akin’s book, Annulments: What you need to know, and a green scapular.

I wrote a two page letter to my brother explaining my dream/vision, that my job was to pass the message along to him, and invite him to consider returning to Catholicism. I never received a thank you or response, though every year before I would receive thank yous from his wife (I didn’t expect her to be happy about my gift).

Over the summer I was visiting my parents and participated in a video conference call with him and his family, and all seemed well, so I’m certain he did not take offense. I have not bothered to pursue the matter with him because it seemed clear in my message what my role was, that is was limited and I fulfilled it. The rest, as I wrote in my letter, would be between him and God.

So far, I have no indication whether or not I discerned the message properly except incredible peace whenever I recall the situation. I still don’t know if he was/is giving Catholicism a thought…if at that time he had been struggling with his baptist faith…or if he’s even healthy. I do know he’s diabetic and still very overweight, so I do worry about that.

Time will tell. I have no doubt God spoke to me that evening. I wasn’t seeking Him. I hadn’t prayed about my family. I wasn’t even thinking about them or worried about them for quite a while and yet I got hit out of the blue with something so specific the message was found in Scripture. I don’t expect Him to speak to me like that again, but if He does, that’s ok with me.
 
Thank you for the responses. I’m often amazed at how willing people here are to help.

What’s interesting to me about both JoySong’s and YinYangMom’s stories is that they are not stories where God sent a message and something miraculous followed (yet 😉 ). Yet both remain faithful the message was from God. To me this illustrates that God can send messages and still grant us our free-will (in the case of the friend and the brother respectively). Thank you for your stories.

The responses addressed the main premise of my question which is how one discerns a message from God (or satan) and a message from oneself.

I can’t say for certain whether I have ever had such an experience. . A thought or message that seems to come as if from something/someone external. Although maybe I have and have creditted myself for it. It seems my thoughts have a history, or can be traced back to some experience or event that perpetrated it.

Maybe I need to put up my antenna.

Love to hear more stories, keep’em coming 🙂
 
I have received some pretty serious skywriting.

On my long “submission retreat,” the day I was scheduled to make my general confession, at 4:00 a.m. I had one last spasm of resistance. Practically screaming at the crucifix on my wall, I cried: Lord! What in God’s name am I DOING here? I must be insane! Who in his right MIND would want to be a CATHOLIC? The Catholic Church is so BIG, so impersonal, so slovenly – and the music is EXECRABLE!!!

Calming down a bit, I thought that instead of yelling at God, I might better just sit down and pray morning prayer. After all, this whole business was not about ME, and what I wanted, and what I liked; it was about meeting God on HIS terms in HIS Church. Opening the breviary, I turned to the morning office. Six months earlier, I had chosen as the theme text of this retreat, the first words of Ps. 108: O God, my heart is ready. There, in the first Psalm of the morning (57) were the words: My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready.

How’s that for a message?

As for locutions, one must test the spirit. Talk to a priest. Check it against Scripture. We have had a couple of people on these forums preaching the “word” that Jesus has personally given them – because his sheep know his voice, so anybody who doesnot accept the “word” is a goner :rolleyes: – and that “word” is so contrary to Scripture that it makes you dizzy. But then, these people are convinced that they have been singled out by God . . . Obedience is not in their vocabulary.
 
Mijoy2 said:
I can’t say for certain whether I have ever had such an experience. . A thought or message that seems to come as if from something/someone external. Although maybe I have and have creditted myself for it. It seems my thoughts have a history, or can be traced back to some experience or event that perpetrated it.
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I’ve always looked to God to help me decide which course of action to take at any given time, and His response is usually manifested through doors opened or closed or people coming in or out of my life at that particular time. As you noted, those are those matters that have a history or can be traced to some conscious thought/prayer on my part. Still we mustn’t underestimate or undervalue God’s speaking to us in that manner. Truly He does.

But, yeah, it was the out-of-the-blue aspect of that one instance along with the scriptural reference which differentiated God actually talking to me then from God guiding me as He has been all along, and continues to do so.
 
Joy -

I too have ‘heard’ what I believe to be the voice of God, or at least one of His angels, on a few occasions. Here I will only bore you with the first instance, which I have shared here long ago on another thread:

In my early 20s I stopped going to Mass because it started to seem as only an exercise in boredom. When I was about 30, my wife was pregnant with our first child, and we were planning to have the baby baptized (I never stopped thinking of or calling myself ‘Catholic’). I realized that it would be good if our pastor knew who I was and saw me at Church, so I started attending Mass with my wife. In just a couple of weeks, I began to crave the Eucharist, but knew that would mean confession, which I was not willing to do with our old Irish Pastor (I had grown up with an old Irish pastor). At the time, I was taking Tuesday and Thursday night classes at the local university in a building that ‘just happened’ to be across the street from the Newman Center. I decided that before this baby was born, I would go to confession one evening after class. Well, being a creature of habit, time after time I would get in my car and go on ‘auto pilot’ straight for home. As the due date approached, my comittment was increasing, but auto pilot continued. Finally, on Tuesday a week after the due date, I was again on ‘auto pilot’ and about to get on the Interstate (not far from class) when I remembered confession; my immediate thought was “Oh well, you can go on Thursday.” No sooner had I finished that thought when a LOUD internal (not audible) voice yelled at me “NO!! Go tonight.” I pulled over, made a U-turn, and went to confession. When I got home, my wife was in labor and wondering why I was so late. Our daughter was born at 4:59 AM the next day. I have been thanking God and growing closer (in fits and starts, of course) to Him ever since.

Chuck
 
MountainMan said:
Joy -

I too have ‘heard’ what I believe to be the voice of God, or at least one of His angels, on a few occasions. Here I will only bore you with the first instance, which I have shared here long ago on another thread:

In my early 20s I stopped going to Mass because it started to seem as only an exercise in boredom. When I was about 30, my wife was pregnant with our first child, and we were planning to have the baby baptized (I never stopped thinking of or calling myself ‘Catholic’). I realized that it would be good if our pastor knew who I was and saw me at Church, so I started attending Mass with my wife. In just a couple of weeks, I began to crave the Eucharist, but knew that would mean confession, which I was not willing to do with our old Irish Pastor (I had grown up with an old Irish pastor). At the time, I was taking Tuesday and Thursday night classes at the local university in a building that ‘just happened’ to be across the street from the Newman Center. I decided that before this baby was born, I would go to confession one evening after class. Well, being a creature of habit, time after time I would get in my car and go on ‘auto pilot’ straight for home. As the due date approached, my comittment was increasing, but auto pilot continued. Finally, on Tuesday a week after the due date, I was again on ‘auto pilot’ and about to get on the Interstate (not far from class) when I remembered confession; my immediate thought was “Oh well, you can go on Thursday.” No sooner had I finished that thought when a LOUD internal (not audible) voice yelled at me “NO!! Go tonight.” I pulled over, made a U-turn, and went to confession. When I got home, my wife was in labor and wondering why I was so late. Our daughter was born at 4:59 AM the next day. I have been thanking God and growing closer (in fits and starts, of course) to Him ever since.

Chuck
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:bigyikes: Goosebump central!
 
I think the “audible voice from the sky” is rare, but God communicates, talks to us if you will in many different ways. Those who have eyes and ears attuned to God’s “voice” hear him often. There is an excellent little book by Fr. John Powell called “He Touched Me” which helped to open my ears and eyes. I recommend it, I believe it is still in print and quite inexpensive.
 
There is another manner God speaks to us, and it is through Sacred Scripture, coinciding the events in our lives and confirming them through the timely written word. Another example.

My sister-in-law had tried unsuccessfully for about eight years to conceive a second child. She and her husband had even seen fertility specialists. One day prior to mass starting, I was unexpectedly moved to pray with a deep interior unction for my SIL that she might conceive. When mass began, unknown to me previously, the first reading that day was the one from 2 Kings 4:14:
14 So he said, “What then is to be done for her?” And Gehazi answered, “Truly she has no son and her husband is old.”
15 He said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the doorway.
16 Then he said, "At this season next year you will embrace a son. " And she said, “No, my lord, O man of God, do not lie to your maidservant.”
17 The woman conceived and bore a son at that season the next year, as Elisha had said to her.
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I truly believed God was speaking because of the correlation between my prayer and the confirming scripture, and also the deep feelings I had spiritually when I prayed. Excitedly, I phoned her and told her what occurred, and that she would have a child. True enough, she did, a year later - not a son, but a girl! 😃 And then another girl the following year! I believe God used my prayer to be an instrument of “annunciation” to her, for she had prayed for many years. Great was our rejoicing and thanksgiving!

There have been many incidences where something going on in my life just “happens” to align with the readings of the day, and I can see the answer. I never read ahead, because it would spoil the surprise, but I know God speaks through His word when I see these types of events.

Our previous poster was right, that God does not speak in audible dictation. God’s ways are so far above our ways and understanding! He is able to reach us more certainly than using a “voice.”
 
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