To Know in Your Knower

flowersIMG_2709What does it mean to hear the voice of God? It’s an age-old question. Sometimes you listen so hard and it seems like all you hear is silence. Sometimes you think you’ve heard more than one voice and it seems difficult to know which voice is the real deal.

I’ve had my children ask me, “How do you know when God is speaking to you? What does His voice sound like?” Of course there isn’t any audible sound, at least not when He speaks to me. But there are times when I know that I’ve heard from the Holy Spirit as surely as if He had spoken aloud.

I’ve explained it to my sons by telling them that I just know in my knower. I can’t pinpoint where that is exactl—it’s somewhere between my head and my heart. It really can’t be confined to one or the other because both have been known to want their own way and not be totally honest with me!

I remember a time when one of my boys asked permission to go somewhere. I’d prayed about it and felt sure that the answer should be no. Logically there was no real reason I could give him and my heart really wanted to let him go. I knew he would be disappointed but there was just this deep sense that it was not to be. He pressed me for a reason and I finally told him that when you walk with the Lord for a long time you develop a place inside that is for God alone. It’s not your mind or your heart, it is God’s place. It’s where God speaks and if you are willing to quiet both your heart and your mind, you will be able to hear God’s voice. I told him that I trusted that God was speaking about the situation and I knew enough to listen even when I didn’t understand.

I recently read an article that was trying to explain the difference between your heart and your mind. It said, “If it feels good it’s your heart and if it feels right it’s your mind.” I suppose that could be true, but it isn’t always helpful.  Sometimes what is right doesn’t feel right and certainly doesn’t feel good so how can it be either mind or heart?

Have you ever needed to make a decision that just wasn’t fitting into logical arguments and you also  felt clueless as  to  what your heart really wanted? That’s when you must direct both to be still and listen with your knower. God will speak. He’s waiting for the clamor to cease so you can hear.

Jeremiah 33:3 Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.

John 14:16-17 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.