Which voice is God’s voice?

Does God still answer prayers the way he used to, like he did to Abraham? Early one morning Abraham was awakened by a voice that said, “Take your only son up to that hilltop north of you, …” What would you have done?

How did Abraham know that this strange request had come directly from God? I suspect that Abraham, in his long life, had done a lot of walking and talking with God. He had come to know the difference between his own inner feelings and God’s influence. Abraham had experimented by testing his impressions, and he had figured out when it was God speaking and when it was not.

Does God still speak to people today? I have experimented with the following process: Once God impressed me to do something but I got too busy and never followed the impression. It happened like this. I baptised Agnus in a country church in New Zealand many years ago now. Her estranged parents came to the baptism (Agnus was living with her Maori Grandparents.)

That evening we had a bonfire on a member’s property. As I stood around and watched the fire, I was impressed to talk to Fred, Agnus’s father who was there. He was an alcoholic. I shuffled my way around the fire until I was standing next to him and then engaged him in small talk. He then related how he had been impressed by the baptism. Our discussion turned spiritual. Finally, he asked me when I was to be preaching in Kiakohe again, to which I replied that I would be there the next week. He said he was going to come. I duly invited him to have lunch with us after church, to which he gave a positive reply.

I was looking forward to Fred’s visit. I had these mental scenarios in my head where I would present him with the gospel and he would accept Jesus, and this in turn would help him with his alcoholism. On about the Tuesday of that week I was impressed to ring him. I even went to the trouble of calling in as I passed by on the main road, where Agnus was living with her grandparents. I got Fred’s number, so I could ring him. However, I was ‘busy’ in ministry and never got around to it, all the time thinking Fred would rock up for church on the weekend anyway. The morning of church came and went, and Fred never showed up. I was disappointed but understood the spiritual battle that must have been going on in his life.

At lunch time the phone rang. It was Bert, Agnus’ grandfather, and he informed me that Fred had shot himself that morning. The person that I was impressed to follow up on had committed suicide! The sense of my failure was over whelming. I was impressed to call him and talk to him – it probably would have saved his life, but I was too busy. I was like the religious leader in the parable of the good samaritan, who passed by on the other side of the road. Since that time, I have always followed impressions. If I am impressed to do something, call someone, visit someone, or write something, I will do it.  Sometimes it has been from my own mind other times it has been a divine appointment. I always pass any impressions I have through the filter of scripture, as far as I understand it, because the Holy Spirit will never work contrary to the word of God. If the impression was from God, then He intended someone to be blessed.

Whether or not an impression is from God can be discerned by the results of trying out the impressions that come to us. My best “impressions” often come in prayer as I awake in the morning. Try it!