Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

What are possible causes for Spirit-filled believers to hear (or think they hear) audible voices (not "still small voices" or such) that aren't from ordinary sources, such as other people, radio, TV, etc.? This poll allows multiple selections, so click as many as you think could explain it in different instances.

Note: this isn't just about your personal experiences, if any. It is about Spirit-filled believers in general. They (some of them) have reported hearing audible voices, now and then. Just wondering what your thoughts are on possible causes for them. Not that they are all from the same cause (hence, the allowing of multiple clicks).

BTW (edit): if Satan/Lucifer/The Devil might be the culprit, select "A demon talking". Lump them all together. ;)

(This was inspired by the Does this offend you? thread. ;))

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

I chose (among others) Other. Only allows 7 choices, so I had to draw the line somewhere! My "Other" was trickery. Someone else could be playing a trick on them. (I guess that almost counts as an "ordinary sources". But, just sayin'.)

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Sometimes when I turn everything off at night and turn over to go to sleep I hear music and there's no music. I think it's just my ears ringing from all the droll and input from the day.

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Gonna vote "Mental illness"? :ursofunny

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Probably should! It's the strangest thing. I'll turn over to expose both ears and can't hear a thing, but roll back on my side and I hear muffled music and its not every night either........:offkey

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

I feel a cell phone vibrating in my pocket sometimes, when it's not even there. It's a pretty common thing, apparently.

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

:toofunny

At night, I wake up at 3 in the morning to the call of all those evil customers who think the only person in the World is them! I brace myself, as my mind continues with one presumed scenario after another, those people who help pay my bills, and I see them coming at me with KNIVES!

I start counting sheep, but they keep coming. I imagine walking on the beach under the tone of crashing waves, holding the hand of my precious wife, but JAWS has to ruin it every time!

Those "Voices" are out there......

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Great Thread, Timmy. It bothers me to no end when people say, "God told me".

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Why is that?

Do you not belive God still speaks to His people?

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Has God told you something recently?

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Have you taken the poll? You can click more than one answer, btw. If you want to. ;)

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

I've only heard a voice once for sure. I was driving down Smithville Rd. in Dayton Ohio. I was approaching an intersection and had a green light. It was late and I was the only car heading my direction. Clear as day I heard a voice in the back seat say, "STOP!". I thought someone was in the car with me and was about to rob me. Terrified I slammed on my breaks just before the intersection. At that very moment a large semi ran the red light at about 35 or 40 mph. Sitting there, I was still terrified. My primary thought was "Who is in the car with me. Are they going to hurt me." After maybe a minute or a minute and a half I didn't hear another word from the back seat. No one was in my rear view accept some cars that were approaching a few blocks down. I would have been T-boned by that semi. To this day I don't know if it was the Lord or an angel. But I do know it was a voice. It still gives me chills talking about it. It was very scary to just hear another voice where there shouldn't be one. I hope God doesn't do that again... I might have a heart attack.

Beyond that, when dealing with the Spirit, I sometimes get what I call "impressions" and visionary pictures in my head. For example I'll be shopping and suddenly I'll see a mental picture of someone I know, or perhaps a vivid memory of them will come to mind... then suddenly I'll bump into them. Or I'll get a strange "feeling" regarding something and find out later I was right to follow my "gut".

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

I'm waiting for a voice in my head to tell me the lottery ticket numbers.

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Be sure and post them, here, so we can all share. :D

Nobody has voted "The Holy Spirit talking". And this is the Spirit-filled poll. :blink The HS got two votes in the non-Spirit-filled believer poll, and none in the unbeliever poll. Interesting.

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Wow Auquila - - that is amazing!

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

This is the "Spirit-filled believers" poll. Interesting.

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

At least they should say, "I felt the Lord impressed me to..."

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

A vote for the Holy Spirit! Yay! :)

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Why not, "I really think this is a good idea...?"

I have seen the most comically lame and schtoopid schemes promoted with a "God told us..." Then, after it all fell apart and turned to dust and ashes, there is not accounting. YOU must have a "bad attitude" for noticing that "God was wrong."

Seriously, the OP movement would number in the hundreds of millions today and there would be revival and joy everywhere if we'd just stop saying, "... God spoke to me..."

God spoke in His Word. If you don't line up, then the problem is YOU. If anyone thinks that their own private revelation trumps the Word of God - or trumps just plain common sense - then they need to be sat down and made to restudy the first principles of the oracles of God.

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

I've "heard" my cell phone ringing when it really wasn't. And sometimes I "hear" Jon call my name from across the house when he isn't there. Like Timmy, I figure that pretty common, though.

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

So, Timmy, what are the voices telling you????? :ursofunny :ursofunny :ursofunny :ursofunny

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Not sayin'.

:heeheehee

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Time for my follow-up question. Discussion only, not a poll. :D

So, if Spirit-filled believers (according to some voters, at least) may hear audible voices from God Himself or from other sources (mental illness, e.g., was one popular response), can the hearer of an audible voice tell whether it came from God or not?

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Mental illness got more votes than the HS, even if you discounted my vote! :hmmm

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

First of all, someone that is "hearing voices" due to a mental illness, is not just hearing a voice once in a great while, but often. And they probably exhibit other symptoms like paranoia and other delusions.

If God spoke to someone in an audible voice, or an angel, it would not contradict the word of God. It would probably also confirm some other "sign" that person had already had like another person telling them the same thing etc

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Timmy I can't take your poll seriously, you made it so people can vote for every option

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Not everyone voted for every option. I'm not even sure what your point is, here.

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Is that a yes?

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

A lot of them did. In other words you can't really say "well option X has the most so...." when at least 2 persons that voted for option X voted for ever other option too. Those 2 persons thing the other options are just as valid

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

convince me you understood what I said first, offer your agreement or your disagreement

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Well, I'll try. Let's see now. Here's what you said:

First of all, someone that is "hearing voices" due to a mental illness, is not just hearing a voice once in a great while, but often.

Not sure if this is true or not, but I'll give you the benefit of doubt. So, OK, let's say it is true. Are you also implying that when there are other reasons for hearing voices, or at least when it is God talking, it is infrequent? And can we therefore conclude that if one is hearing voices often, then it is not God speaking? With that, I do not agree. That is to say, if I believed God speaks to people, I would not agree. God would talk whenever He wanted to talk, and as often as He wanted to.

And they probably exhibit other symptoms like paranoia and other delusions.

That seems likely, so sure, I can agree with that one. And again, are you implying that if one exhibits other symptoms, then the voices are not God's voice? You don't believe that God will speak to someone with symptoms of mental illness? Again, I would think that God would speak to whomever He wanted to, regardless of their state of health.

If God spoke to someone in an audible voice, or an angel, it would not contradict the word of God.

This, too, seems likely. I can agree that God would not contradict Himself, and angels (the ones on God's side, at least) would not contradict God, either. But what if a message doesn't contradict the Bible? We could then not rule out the message being genuine, but we cannot conclude for sure that it is genuine.

It would probably also confirm some other "sign" that person had already had like another person telling them the same thing etc

I have no idea if this one is true or not. But I'm not sure it matters, since you said "probably", implying that there may be exceptions. That being the case, it would not be relevant to the question of whether the audible message is really from God or not. Well, except that maybe it would tip the scale in one direction of the other, but it would not be conclusive.

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Here's another follow-up:

Does it matter?

Is it important for an individual to know, for sure, if a voice he or she hears is coming from God or not?

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Ah. I think I see what you mean. But it was not my intention to declare a winner, as if to say that one of the options was the most likely cause for hearing voices in any particular case. Rather, it was to invite people to think of what possible causes there could be, in the various occurrences that there are. And to, if they like, to rule out some of the offered choices, if, e.g., they don't think demons can use audible voices.

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Given the biblical data, God does not frequently speak to persons in an audible voice, so if someone is hearing voices often I would doubt that is GodIf someone is exhibiting other signs of schizophrenia I would doubt they are hearing from God

Again you can't just take this part of what I said and isolate it from the rest of the points.

Again there is another biblical principle of 2 or 3 witnesses.If God spoke to someone else to speak to you, there should be some sort of sign...for example the person knows nothing about a situation you are dealing with and gives you details.

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

He seemed to speak to Moses quite often. Do you somehow know that God will never do that again with anyone in modern times?

:blink Was there something wrong in what I said?

Were there verifying witnesses for what God told Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Paul, etc.?

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

In fact, I can't think of a single case, off the top of my head, where an audible message from God was verified by other witnesses.

What scriptures support this principle?

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Cool design but image looks very flat form the render would look cool if the mountains in the background where blurred and at a darker tone

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

:laffatu

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

OK, that part about isolating one thing you said. That's not what I meant to do. I thought it went without saying (my mistake! lol) that this was one of the several conditions you have named, and that if this one is met along with all the others, it still would not prove that a voice came from God. And I agreed that this condition (God would not contradict Himself) is reasonable.

Have I demonstrated that I understood your post? I have indicated agreements and disagreements with it. Now can you answer that question with a Yes or No? Or perhaps with a Sometimes?

Can the hearer of an audible voice tell whether it came from God or not?

Re: Spirit-filled believers hearing voices
 

Define quite often. He did it in frequently but for long periods of time. He also had a witness, Aaron and others that saw the glory of God and the miracles


Huh?


Let's take Paul for an example. Yes there were witnesses to the event. Further God spoke to another man to go visit Paul, confirming this witness