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by Dr. Timothy Hoflund

10/01/25
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You know, as God’s children, it is just awesome when we hear God speak to us up close & personal!

However - - before we start saying that The Lord personally told us something, it would be wise to determine - First: Was that really God speaking to us? Second: Did we really hear what God really said?

Why do we need to do these things? -- Because The Lord wants us to know the truth of things, and our living in the freedom that His truth gives us, depends on it! Remember that Jesus tells us - “… when He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth …” (John 16:13).

Holy Spirit guiding us into all truth must, by definition, include that He will guide us into the truth of knowing if it was really God speaking when we think that He did. This is true regardless of the why we believe we heard from God!

By “why we believe,” I mean that perhaps: Someone spoke a word of knowledge to us, or there was a word of wisdom – or prophecy – spoken to us. There may be times when The Lord will speak directly to our spiritual minds about something special that He wants us to know or understand.

Then there are those times when Holy Spirit may quicken some part of a pastor’s sermon or a teacher’s lesson speaks to us in a personal, meaningful way. Maybe we get a Word from God through a dream, or as we pray, or through a sudden realization.

These are Biblically valid, legitimate methods of God personally communicating with us. Remember that Jesus clearly stated, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27).

So we don't take issue about the reality of God speaking to His people in a personal fashion. Rather, the issues that we must deal with are … How do we know when it is actually God - our Heavenly Father - doing the speaking? Also, how can we be certain we really heard what God really did say?

The most reliable way I know to discern these things is by applying the standard of “two or three witnesses” to establish if those instances are genuinely divine communications. Let’s look at two examples describing this standard:

In 2 Corinthians 13:1 Paul the Apostle explained why he was addressing something for the third time by stating this standard - writing, “… In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.”

In Matthew 18:16 we find Jesus stating this same standard while dealing with the issue of forgiving others saying, “… that 'by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established."

So what are these two or three witnesses - - that we should turn to? The first two are the Scriptures and then Godly Counsellors. The third witness is that of the Holy Spirit within our spirits which becomes evident based on what has been established by the first two witnesses

The first witness should always be God’s Word in Scripture. This should be paramount because of The Lord Himself so highly regards His Word! In Psalm 138:2, King David wrote about this very thing saying, “… For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.

Apparently, the Lord values His Word more than He values His name – which by the way He commands that we shall not take His Name in vain! So then, as God’s people, should we not regard His Word the same way He does

If so, then His written Word - Scripture, must be the supreme or ultimate authority in and for our lives. Now I know that some will say that TRUTH must be our ultimate authority - well, Jesus cleared this up in His high priestly prayer for us, saying, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” (John 17:17

So again, God’s Word must be our final authority in deciding or discerning all things that are part of our lives. Accordingly, anything that we believe to be personal word from The Lord must agree with or align with - and be in proper context – with what God has already said in the Scriptures, the written Word of God

Therefore if it is God telling you something then that “something” will of necessity line up with God’s written Word!

You know, I've heard some people say, “well I’m just going to trust what the Spirit is telling me! Why try to verify or to prove it?”

Consider this: If we say we follow God then remember God is Father, God is Word – the Son, and God is Holy Spirit! All three! On so many levels it is so dangerous to choose to follow only ONE part of God and neglect the fullness of Who He is!

All of God agrees with ALL of God - meaning IF God’s Spirit tells us something then ALL of God will agree with what His Spirit has told us! So, why do you resist verifying that it really is God speaking to you and if He really said what you believe you heard Him say?

Reading 1Thessalonians 5:16-22 we find that while we must not quench the Holy Spirit, at the same time we are to “prove (test) all things”, which again by definition includes what we believe we have heard from God. So it is obedient to verify that something we believe we hear, is really God speaking and to be correct in what we think He has said!

Also, Jesus tells us to measure what we hear. Read Mark 4:23-24, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.’ Then He said to them, ‘Take heed [– or be careful about –] what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given.”

So how should we measure, or be careful about, what we hear? (By the way, the meaning of “measure” includes comparing something to a reference point. We cannot truly know the value of a thing without its measure.)

Do we measure this by how very spiritual we consider ourselves to be? Do we measure these things by how good it makes us feel? Or, by other people telling us just how good, or powerful, or insightful these things are? Nope!

The one safe means of measuring or of “taking heed how we hear,” is God’s Word! Remember - - God never contradicts Himself! His Spirit does not say one thing, but His Word says something different! Therefore, if you believe God told you something but Scripture says something completely different - or even slightly different - choose to comply with God’s written Word and then pray for clarity.

Just as our Heavenly Father does not contradict Himself, neither is He the author of confusion! So in any given instance, if there is confusion because Scripture says differently than what you believe you heard God tell you then either, in this instance – God didn’t speak at all … or … quite possibly He was speaking to us but He didn’t say what we believe He said - - OR - - that we heard is something that we wanted Him to say!

Quite often God is speaking to us, but our hearing has been conditioned by our perceived needs, our wants, or self-serving expectations. Also, our spiritual hearing may be distorted by our preconceptions, presumptions, wrong beliefs, or errors that we have accepted as being true.

Any of these conditions can cause us to hear God incorrectly, which can then result in a person having very strong but false convictions causing conflicts that give rise to confusion! These conflicts can be avoided if we stay intentional about always turning to the first witness of God’s written Word found in Scripture.

Now for the second witness we should turn to and that is Godly counsel. Godly counsel will help to confirm if it was indeed God Who was speaking and help to clear away any confusion about what He may have said!

One reason that we should always also seek Godly counsel is that true Godly counsellors are trustworthy saints who are not novices in the faith but are well seasoned in discernment, wisdom and understanding!

In fact, one convincing evidence that a person is a Godly counsellor is that they also rely on God’s Word over all else! They themselves have the commitment found in Psalm 119:24, “Your testimonies also are my delight And my counselors.”

Now, you might just say then, that you don’t need the counsel of people, that you’ll just use the counsel of God’s Word and nothing else. However, God’s Word warns us against having this attitude!

In Proverbs 11:14 we read, “Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” In the Geneva Bible, Proverbs 15:22 reads like this, “Without counsel, thoughts come to nought: but in the multitude of counselors there is steadfastness.”

By the way, while every instance does not require a “multitude of counselors”, one benefit of having a multitude of counsellors is that it gives us a group of those we know we can trust from whom we can call upon one or two, or more, when we need that witness of Godly counsel!

Again, the counsel they give will be based on, or point to Scripture – not their opinions, not how they feel, not what will make you feel good or bad … Godly counsellors insist on God’s Word being the true discerner.

Remembering that God is not the author of confusion, we need to keep in mind that when more than one counsellor is involved there will almost always be a consensus of agreement. However, that same consensus may involve each counsellor presenting a different perspective – which, by the way, are not conflicting opinions but rather The Lord often uses these counselors’ different perspectives to give us a greater degree of reliable discernment.

I have been a child of God for nearly 50 years now and I’ve learned that because God loves His children so deeply that He really does personally speak to us. Also God loves us so deeply that He really wants us to know when what we hear is not really what He is saying or when it is not really Him speaking - - for God never wants us to be misled or deceived! And by the way - - confusion is often a symptom of deception trying to gain a foothold in our lives!

So when we think we hear God, thank Him for the Truth, and then make certain of two things: First that it really was God speaking and second, that what you hear is what God really is saying!

I’m Dr. Timothy and "I’m just sayin’ …" prayerfully think on these things!

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