We all have them—these voices in our heads. Not only do we all have them, we all generally listen to them, allowing them to shape our mood in the moment if not our outlook and disposition on life.
Which raises a question: do we ever think to challenge them? Do we ever think to reject what these voices say?
To ask the question a different way: how do we discern the voice of God in our minds (spirit)?
My question is based upon several assumptions.
The first assumption is the Spirit of God speaks to us. The role of the Spirit is to teach us spiritual truth (John 14:25-26; 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 2:10-16). The Spirit’s role is to guide us in living out that truth (Romans 8:14; Galatians 5:16-18, 25).
This first assumption naturally leads to the next. We can discern the Spirit’s guidance. We can recognize the voice of God speaking to us through the Spirit. Because God speaks to us through the Spirit, we do not normally hear an actual voice with our ear. (While some claim to have heard such a voice, that has not been my experience.) Rather, we discern a movement in our spirit—in the interior realm of the heart.
This second assumption leads to a third: recognizing the voice of God requires discernment. Discernment involves thinking, reflecting, evaluating, and choosing. The Greek word commonly translated as “discern” carries the idea of cutting through. We cut through the surface of what we hear (the content, the message) to the underlying spirit and intent of the message. Discernment goes beyond the surface to the deeper level of spirit and intent. Discernment calls for intentionality. It generally requires being still in order to sense and reflect on the Spirit’s guidance.
Perhaps the most important assumption is that Jesus is the standard we use to discern the guidance of the Spirit and the voice of God. What the voice of God says to us will always align with what Jesus taught and how Jesus lived. Jesus is the in-the-flesh-embodiment of the character of God. He lived and taught the ways of God. Thus, what the Spirit teaches us and how the Spirit guides us will always align with the life and teachings of Jesus.
These assumptions bring us back to the voices in our heads. The voices in our heads are seldom—if ever—the voice of God. A couple of reasons contribute to my confidence in making this statement.
The voices in our heads are rooted in our formative years. Their messages reflect the training we received from our family and the society in which we grew up. They are the internalized voices of the authority figures who shaped our lives. Their voices continue to tell us what we need to do and be if we want to be accepted and valued. They communicate the expectations of culture, not the ways of God. Thus, they seldom echo the voice of God.
In addition, the messages these voices speak to us invariably communicate condemnation and judgment. They are shame-based and shame-inducing messages. They are about our failure to measure up to or conform to social, moral, or religious expectations. They are about how we didn’t do it right—our behavior.
The voice of God never speaks condemnation, judgment, or shame. John 3:17 explicitly says “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world.” The apostle Paul, in Romans 8:1, proclaimed, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Grace and forgiveness, not condemnation and judgment, are the way God deals with the failures inherent to our human condition.
Condemnation and judgment are the ways of the adversary, the one the Bible calls Satan and the devil. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the being called “Satan” was a member of the heavenly court (Job 1:6-7). His role was to identify how people failed. Although it is commonly translated as a name, the word in the original is a noun with the article “the.” A more accurate translation is “the accuser.” The word carries the idea of adversary or opponent—the one who is against us, the one who accuses us. The Greek word translated as “devil” means “to throw against” as in throwing accusations against another.
Thus, the voices that communicate condemnation and judgment—whether the voices in our head or in our churches or in our culture—reflect the spirit of Satan, not the Spirit of God. Their intent is to shame us into trying harder to do better, through self-effort.
In contrast to these voices, the voice of God—the guidance of the Spirit—will always speak grace and forgiveness. God’s grace and forgiveness free us to face, acknowledge, and deal with how we fail to measure up. They allow us to learn from our failures and thereby to grow from them. The intent underlying the Spirit’s guidance is the transformation of our lives—our growth in Christlikeness. The Spirit always leads us into deep, inner peace—the peace of Christ (John 14:27)—that frees us to love as Jesus loved (Galatians 5:21-22).
So how do we deal with the voices in our heads? We follow the example of Jesus. In the temptation experience in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11), Jesus recognized the voice that was speaking to him was not the voice of God. It did not reflect the spirit or the intent of God. What it said went against the teachings of scripture. Consequently, Jesus challenged the voice and rejected its message.
Like Jesus, we recognize the voices, acknowledging the messages they communicate. Rather than letting their messages create our mood in the moment or the outlook of our lives, we allow them to point us back to the grace and forgiveness of God where we find peace. Recognizing them, we turn to God, seeking to discern the guidance of the Spirit.
“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit,”
Galatians 5:22 (NIV).
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