We know the author of the voice we are listening to by the content of the words spoken.
I've written a previous post on hearing the voice of God—several actually—but this one seems to be the most referenced in emails from readers to me. The main gist of the questions I get on this topic boil down to one question: "How do I know which one I'm hearing is God's?" Or, rephrased, "How do I know I'm hearing God?" The implication being that we often have more than one "voice" in our heads.
I know I certainly do. My mother's voice tends to kick in at odd moments like adding spices to soup or knocking down walls. My father's voice kicks in when I've got my keys in my hand (it says "Keep those keys in your hot little hand!" which was his attempt at making sure I didn't lose them YET AGAIN) or when I'm thinking about a theological problem. There's my own #voice that tends to be upbeat but can trend to negativity if I don't guide it (yes, I have to discipline my own voice so that it conforms more to His voice over time). It always has a "teacher" tone to it because I love to teach and see everything as a potential lesson in life. It also regularly reminds me of all the loose ends in my house or life that need shoring up. (A Brain Dump is good for quieting it.)
Then there's God's voice. Anything else that pops in is temporary and summarily dismissed, quite frankly. Hollywood, books, or other people could create a voice or "stream" in my mind, but I have learned the #discipline of ignoring them or actively throwing them out.
An ignored voice becomes a quiet voice. Maybe that's why so many people refer to God's voice as the "still small voice."
Currently, His voice is not so small and not so quiet because I have practiced tuning my inward ear to that voice. I'm nowhere near perfect at it, mind you. But I have found the more I tune in, the more I test what it says, the more I recognize it, the louder it sounds to my inward ear. And I'm grateful because it's sometimes chaos around here. (Let's be real here: sometimes He has to be loud like the crashing-waterfall-voice referred to in Revelation for me to hear Him over my two-year-old's wails.)
The way I #tune my ear is by listening (#practice). I practice by testing it. The first umpteen times I heard His voice, I was not sure it was His. I finally learned that by testing what it said (obeying, sharing what He said to say, doing what He said to do, comparing it to what the Bible says before doing the above, asking leaders in my life and getting confirmation for the direction He gave, etc.) I learned to trust. But I couldn't have gotten there without knowing Him.
To know Him is to love Him. To love Him is to trust Him. To trust Him is to obey Him.
If what I know now to be His voice says something good (e.g. "Go tell that person I love Him and I know what it means to be rejected by a close friend" or "Don't turn there" or "Read Ezekiel for guidance" or "I am with you always", etc.), then I know it is Him talking.
The Bible says everything good and perfect comes from the Father. So, at the risk of sounding elementary, if that voice is telling you do do something bad, IT AIN'T GOD'S. If it's telling you to do something good (e.g. loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, gentle, kind, faithful, good, and self-controlled) or tells you something that aligns with who He has revealed Himself as in scripture, then it's from the Holy Spirit. It's not even from your mom or dad or yourself. It's from God.
Test it against scripture. Try it. Get counsel. Act on it. Lean in immediately to get answers. Don't wait until you have an hour to seek God's face (though that's good times too!). Flex your listening-ear muscles. He's always talking. He hasn't changed from the days of the Bible when He walked and talked with Adam. We changed. He's ready for that relationship still: as the old song goes "And He walks with me and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own."
Grace knows God.