How Can I See God covers the case where you cannot spiritually hear or see at all, or have doubts that such efforts are biblically supported. If your spiritual sensory organs are damaged to the point where you cannot hear anything, then the question of verifying whether what you hear is from God is moot until you Unblock Your Spiritual Senses. But if you can hear or sense something, how do you know whether that thought came from God, or if it was just your own? It also could have been the Deceiver (John 8:44

⁴⁴You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

; 1 Tim 4:1),

¹Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons

or your own flesh which opposes the Spirit (Gal 5:17).

¹⁷For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

This article outlines a biblical method of verifying that what you hear is from God and not an evil spirit.

Are You at Peace?

The first question to ask in verifying whether you are hearing from God is to ask, “Are you at peace?” Jesus grants you peace (John 14:27

²⁷Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

; 2 Thess 3:16),

¹⁶Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.

calls you to peace (Col 3:15),

¹⁵And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

and guards your heart and mind with peace (Phil 4:6–7).

⁶do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

If you are not at peace, then use a stabilizer tool to restore your peace in God so that you can hear from Him. This is why worship services almost invariably start with worship—to quiet the congregation down, center on God, and listen to Him in peace rather than in distraction.

It’s important to take the time to allow God to restore your peace, even if you are in a rush to get the answer. Waiting for God’s answer is always preferable to being deceived by another voice just because you were impatient. Part of the assurance of knowing that you got an answer from God is if you are at peace when you received it.

Is There Interference?

The next thing to check if you are uncertain whether you are hearing from God is to check for interference. Interference is the partial blockage of a spiritual sense. You are being interfered with if you can hear something and you are not certain that is from God, and you are blocked if you cannot hear anything.

For spiritual hearing, interference manifests as confusing or conflicting answers, static, or an answer that is uncharacteristic of what we know of Jesus. For spiritual seeing, interference can manifest as a mist or a frozen or corrupted image. In either case, if you feel uneasy about the answer or if there is any doubt, then it’s best to assume that you are at least partially blocked.

If the interference is coming from outside of you, then you are by definition under some kind of spiritual attack, even if it is just a low-level one that is interfering with your spiritual communication with God. If the interference is coming from inside of you, then it might be due to an inward spiritual attack or injury. In either case, the next step is to use an unblocker tool to hear from God. If He tells you that you need to deal with a sin first, then use a healing method as per the Unblocking Your Spiritual Senses flowchart to restore your spiritual senses.

Does the Answer Contradict Scripture?

If you get to this step, then your problem is not with an obvious spiritual attack, but with the possibility that you could still be subtly attacked through deception.

The devil used that tactic against Eve with devastating effect (Gen 3:13),

¹³Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

but it did not work against Jesus because He knew the Scriptures (Luke 4:12–13).

¹²And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” ¹³And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

Thus, you should test any answer against Scripture and the biblically-revealed character of Christ. For example, if the voice you hear tells you to have an affair and divorce your wife, you know that it is not from God (Mal 2:16)

¹⁶“For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

and have to clear it with an unblocker tool.

If you are unsure that the answer contradicts Scripture, then try an unblocker tool anyway and see if the answer changes or is clarified. Sometimes God will bring new theological insights to you when you seek Him in prayer, as when Peter was praying on the roof (Acts 10:9–20).

⁹The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. ¹⁰And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance ¹¹and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. ¹²In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. ¹³And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” ¹⁴But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” ¹⁵And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” ¹⁶This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven. ¹⁷Now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon’s house, stood at the gate ¹⁸and called out to ask whether Simon who was called Peter was lodging there. ¹⁹And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. ²⁰Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.”

Does the Speaker Confess Jesus Came in the Flesh?

Another way to verify your answer is to test the speaker rather than the message itself using the 1 John 4:1–3

¹Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. ²By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

test.

By asking “Jesus, is that you who came in the flesh?”, you are asking the speaker whether a) he is Jesus (not all demons can tell this lie), and b) whether Jesus has come in the flesh (demons cannot confess that Jesus has come in the flesh).

If you get a “no”, or the speaker tries to avoid giving a yes/no answer, usually by changing the subject or remaining silent, then you are being interfered with by a demon and have to remove it with an unblocker tool before asking the question again. In this way, you are resisting demonic temptation in much the same way that Jesus did—by using Scripture (Luke 4:12–13).

¹²And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” ¹³And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

Does the Listening Community Agree with You?

One person may be deceived, but it is harder to deceive two or three witnesses of the voice of God, for “in an abundance of counselors, there is safety” (Prov 11:14).

¹⁴Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.

Not every decision warrants forming a listening community to jointly hear from God, but if it is a big decision, or you are part of a leadership team deciding whether to take disciplinary action on someone else, then the biblical standard for making a judgment is the unanimous testimony of two or three witnesses (Deut 19:15

¹⁵“A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.

; Matt 18:16

¹⁶But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

; 2 Cor 13:1).

¹This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

The goal of a listening community is not to argue others to your position, but for the listening community to be unanimously convinced that what you heard as a group is from God. If you hear different things, then everyone should use an unblocker tool on themselves and ask God again until the answer changes and you all get unanimity.

Take-aways

Further Reading

If you cannot hear anything at all, follow the steps of Unblocking Your Spiritual Senses to restore your spiritual hearing before you test that what you hear is from God. If you do not know how to hear from God in the first place, then What Are the Spiritual Senses and How Can I See God will give you the foundational theology to understand what it means to hear and see God, a promise God gives to every Christian (Acts 2:17–18).

¹⁷“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; ¹⁸even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.

Even so, you might be Hurting Too Much to Hear God, and therefore need an intercessor’s help to get unblocked.