We may experience more failure than success. Yet we must struggle to grow. To shrink from failure is to remain immature in our faith.

So, as we listen for God, we recognize that some other foolish thing is likely to pop into our minds instead. We acknowledge that it may seem impossible to distinguish the foolish or fleshly from the God-initiated. We try to deal with this problem by sharing with others the impressions we receive, judging them against what God does subsequently and in view of the Scriptures.

In some cases, there may be no correlation between what you thought God was saying and what actually happens. However, in other cases, the specificity of what you have been shown in prayer lines up so well with what God does, there can be no doubt that God has spoken to you. When you see that God actually did speak, not only does your faith in him grow, but your faith in your own ability to hear grows as well.

Because we can be so fallible in our hearing, one moment interpreting our stray thoughts as directives and the next writing off the Holy Spirit's promptings, we need to start paying attention to our thought life. To grow in this skill of distinguishing between your impressions of God's voice and your own thoughts, you have to take some risks. It's like riding a bicycle. You have to be willing to take a few falls in order to master it. You have to be willing to say, 'These may just be my own thoughts and not God speaking, but this is the impression I received.'

We learn by taking risks—no risks, no increasing of your trust. No trust, no 'getting on the bicycle.' No getting on the bicycle, no progress.

4o mini