Are you following God's voice, or someone else's?
VideoTranscript
This is the video’s transcript, lightly formatted. Tap a time to jump to that moment.
The Mediterranean sun beats down on a crowded harbor as Paul's ship pulls into the port at Tire. The apostle steps onto the weathered wooden dock, his eyes scanning the crowd until they land on familiar faces. Fellow believers who've been eagerly awaiting his return. You can almost feel the excitement in the air as they embrace, the joy of Christian fellowship evident in their greetings. But something changes when Paul mentions his plans to continue on to Jerusalem. The atmosphere grows heavy. These believers, people Paul respects, people who love God deeply, begin to speak with urgency.
They've been praying, seeking God's face, and the Holy Spirit has revealed something to them. Paul will face suffering in Jerusalem. Chains await him there. Persecution is coming. Now, here's what makes this moment so fascinating. The spirit told them Paul would suffer, but they drew their own conclusion from that revelation. In their love and concern for Paul, they interpreted this divine warning as a clear sign.
Don't go to Jerusalem. Stay here. Avoid the danger. It makes perfect sense from a human perspective, doesn't it? But Paul had already heard from God himself. The same spirit who spoke to these believers had already spoken directly to Paul, telling him he must go to Jerusalem, knowing full well what awaited him there. So now Paul finds himself in this incredibly difficult position.
Faithful people he trusts and loves are telling him to do the opposite of what God has called him to do. Can you imagine the wrestling that must have gone on in Paul's heart? These weren't random people off the street giving him advice. These were believers who'd been seeking God, who'd received genuine spiritual insight. There must have been moments where Paul wondered, "Am I hearing God correctly? Maybe I should listen to them. Maybe I'm being prideful or stubborn."
The tension in that harbor must have been thick as Paul made his decision with love and conviction. He essentially told his concerns friend concerned friends, "I appreciate your love. I value your insights, but I've already heard from God on this matter. He's told me to go to Jerusalem, and that's what I'm going to do. This scene from Acts chapter 21 reveals something profound about our relationship with God. Something we desperately need to understand in our modern world. We live in an age where everyone's got an opinion about what God's saying.
Social media is full of prophetic words and spiritual interpretations. Well-meaning believers constantly share what they believe God is telling them about your life, your decisions, your future. And while there's tremendous value in seeking counsel and being part of a spiritual community, Paul's experience teaches us something crucial. You've got to have your own personal intimate relationship with God. You can't live your spiritual life secondhand, depending on others to hear from God for you. Think about what would have happened if Paul had bowed to the pressure of these sincere believers. If he'd said, "You know what?
You're right. These are godly people and they're hearing from the spirit. I must be wrong." He would have missed fulfilling the very purpose God had for his life. his testimony before kings, his witness in Rome, the letters he'd write from prison that would encourage believers for thousands of years, all of that could have been delayed or even prevented. Here's the thing we got to grab hold of. The Holy Spirit can speak to others about your life, but their interpretation of what they're hearing might not always be on target.
The Spirit told those believers Paul would suffer, and they were absolutely correct. But their conclusion that Paul shouldn't go, that was their human reasoning, their loving but incomplete interpretation of what God had revealed. This happens all the time in our churches and Christian communities today. It might come from your pastor, a family member, a friend, a well-meaning congregation member you've known for a long time. Someone has a dream about you or feels impressed to share a word with you or has a vision concerning your future or just some advice based on something they've seen or heard about you. Some of these might be genuinely from God. Others might be their own thoughts mixed with spiritual language.
And sometimes, like Paul with his friends, the revelation itself might be accurate, but the interpretation or application could be off. Scripture tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5 21, test everything. Hold fast what is good. The word test there means to examine, to prove, to discern. We're not supposed to just accept every spiritual sounding word that comes our way, even from people we respect. We need to take it to God ourselves and see if it lines up with what he's already speaking to our hearts. Proverbs 27:5 says, "Better is open rebuke than hidden love."
Sometimes the most loving thing someone can do is challenge what you believe God is telling you. But ultimately, you're the one who has to live with the consequences of your decisions. You're the one who stand before God and give an account for how you responded to his voice or didn't. Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying we should ignore all the counsel we get or think that we don't need other believers in our lives. That would be foolish and unbiblical. Proverbsap 11:14 tells us where there is no guidance of people falls but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.
And Proverbs 19 20 says listen to advice and accept instruction that you may gain wisdom in the future. So we absolutely need the wisdom and input of other believers. We need accountability. We need people who can see our blind spots and speak truth into our lives. The body of Christ is designed to function together with each part contributing to the health of the whole. That is very clear in scripture. But here's the balance.
Seek counsel. Listen to wise advice. Consider the input of mature believers. But don't let anyone else's voice become louder than God's voice in your life. Don't give other people's interpretation more weight than what God has already spoken to your heart. Think about it this way. If you're married, you probably seek advice from other couples.
You might read books about marriage. You might even get counseling when you need it. But at the end of the day, you and your spouse have to work out your own relationship. You can't live your marriage based on what works for other people. You've got to figure out what God wants for your specific relationship. Well, that same principle applies to your walk with God. You can learn from other people's experiences, gain insights from their relationship with the Lord, and benefit from their wisdom.
But you can't live your spiritual life through them. You got to have your own personal intimate connection with your heavenly father. That's between you and him. Here's what this looks like practically in your daily life. Maybe you're facing a big decision, a career change, a relationship choice, where to go to school, whether to move to a different city. You pray about it. You seek God's face, and you begin to sense a direction, a peaceful knowing in your spirit about what he wants you to do.
If you've been a believer for a long time, you know what I'm talking about. But then you start getting input from others. Your parents are strong opinions. Your friends think you're nuts. Even people from church start sharing what they think God is saying about your situation. Some of it conflicts with what you believe and what God has shown you. This is where Paul's example becomes our guide.
You listen respectfully. You consider their hearts knowing that they care about you. You examine their words in light of scripture. You pray about what they've shared. But in the end, if God has already spoken to your heart, if you've tested it against his word and found peace about it in prayer, then you move forward with what he's shown you, not what they tell you. Remember, God speaks to each of us individually. In John 10 3 and 4, Jesus says, "The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out."
When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Notice that the sheep hear his voice, not just the pastor's interpretation of his voice, not just what your small group thinks he's saying. You personally can hear from God. You can know his voice. And when you know you've heard him, you can move forward with confidence even when others don't understand or agree. Now, this doesn't mean we become prideful or unteachable. Paul listened to his friends entire.
He considered what they were saying. He probably wrestled with it, examined his own heart, double-cheed his understanding of what he thought God was telling him. But after all that, he remained firm in his conviction because he knew he'd heard from God. Sometimes the hardest part isn't hearing from God. It's having the courage to act on what he's told you when others disagree. It takes backbone to say, you know, I love you. I value your input, but I believe God has spoken to me about this, and I'm going to obey what he's shown me.
There's another layer to this that we need to explore, too. In Acts 21:1, a prophet named Agabus takes Paul's belt and ties his own hands and feet with it, declaring, "Thus says the Holy Spirit, this is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles." Notice that Agabus accurately prophesied what would happen to Paul. But he didn't say Paul shouldn't go. He just said what would happen. It was the other believers who interpreted that to mean Paul should avoid Jerusalem. Sometimes our own fears and emotions color how we interpret what God reveals to us.
And this teaches us something important. When God shows us something about the future, it doesn't always mean he's telling us to avoid it. Sometimes he's preparing us for it. Sometimes he's calling us into it. Paul knew his suffering in Jerusalem was part of God's plan for his life, part of his calling to carry the gospel to the Gentiles and stand before kings. I was having a conversation with a member of my discord about this recently and you can join us using the link in the pinned comment below. We were discussing Revelation 20 which is one of the most debated prophecies in the Bible.
During that discussion, I said that prophecy is often more about giving us hope, courage, and faith than it is about giving us giving us exact details of what's to come. In our own lives, God might show us challenges ahead, not so we'll run from them, but so we'll be prepared for them. He might reveal struggles coming in our marriage, not so we'll get divorced, but so we'll fight for our relationship with his strength. He might show us difficulties in the ministry or in a job. Not so we'll quit, but so we'll persevere with his grace. The key is learning to discern not just what God is showing us, but what he wants us to do with that information. And that kind of discernment comes from spending time with him, knowing his character, studying his word, and developing spiritual maturity through walking with him day by day.
Now, let's get personal for a moment. How many times have you made decisions based on what others thought God was saying to you rather than on what you believed he was saying to you directly? How many opportunities have you missed because someone else's interpretation of God's will became louder than God's own voice in your life? Maybe you felt called to missions but didn't go because people said it was too dangerous or impractical.
Maybe you sensed God leading you to start a business, but you didn't because others thought it was too risky. Maybe you believe God was calling you to reconcile with someone, but you didn't do it because people said you should protect yourself. Now, I'm not suggesting all those people were wrong to express concern. They might have been motivated by genuine love and care for you. But if God had already spoken to your heart, if you tested it against scripture and found peace about it in prayer, then maybe you should have moved forward despite their objections. That's what I'm telling you. Here's another crucial point.
Developing this kind of personal relationship with God doesn't happen overnight. It takes time, practice, and a lot of mistakes. I know that from experience. Paul didn't start his ministry with perfect discernment. He grew in his ability to hear God's voice through years of walking with him through studying scripture, through prayer and fasting, through both successes and failures and yeah, lots and lots of trials. If you're just beginning your journey with God, or if you feel like you struggle to hear his voice clearly, don't get discouraged. Start where you are.
Spend time in his word. The Bible is our primary way of hearing God's voice. Develop a consistent prayer life. Find moments of quiet where you can listen, not just talk. And yes, seek counsel from mature believers. Find people who've walked with God longer than you have, who demonstrate spiritual fruit in their lives, who handle scripture wisely. Learn from them by all means, but remember, they're not your intermediaries with God.
You have direct access to your heavenly father through Jesus Christ alone. Hebrews 4:16 tells us, "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." You don't need anyone else's permission to approach God. You don't need someone else to interpret his will for you. You can come boldly before his throne all by yourself. There's something beautiful about the relationship Paul had with God that allowed him to stand firm in his convictions even when people he respected and cared about disagreed with him. He wasn't stubborn or prideful.
He was simply secure. Secure in his identity as a child of God and confident in his ability to hear his father's voice. That's what God wants for each of us. He wants us to know him so well that we can distinguish his voice from all the other voices clamoring for our attention. He wants us to trust him so deeply that we'll follow his leading even when it leads into difficulty or misunderstanding. Think about Jesus himself in the garden of Gethsemane. He faced the ultimate test of this principle.
He knew what his father was calling him to do. Go to the cross, suffer, and die in a terrible way for the sins of the world. But everyone around him would have told him to avoid that path if they truly understood what was coming. Peter actually tried to prevent Jesus from going to Jerusalem when he talked about his coming death. In Matthew 16:22, Peter says, "Far be it from you, Lord. This shall never happen to you." But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Get behind me, Satan.
You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." Even Peter, one of Jesus' closest disciples, couldn't fully understand God's plan. His human reasoning and emotions led him to oppose what God had ordained. Jesus had to stay focused on what his father has shown him regardless of how others might interpret the situation. And that brings us to another important aspect of having a personal relationship with God. You got to be okay with being misunderstood.
When you follow God's leading, especially when it goes against conventional wisdom or popular opinion, people might question your motives, your intelligence, your spirituality, maybe even your sanity. Paul faced this throughout his ministry. People constantly questioned his apostilhip, his methods, his decisions, but he learned to find his identity and validation in God's approval rather than in man's approval. In Galatians 1:10, he asks, "For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ." Living this way requires courage, but it also brings incredible freedom.
When you're secure in your relationship with God, when you know he loves you and has good plans for your life, you can make decisions based on his leading rather than people's expectations. Let's talk about some practical steps for developing this kind of personal relationship with God. First, prioritize time alone with him. Jesus himself modeled this. Despite being surrounded by crowds and disciples, he regularly withdrew to pray privately. Mark 1:35 says, "And rising very early in the morning while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed." Second, immerse yourself in scripture.
God's written word is our foundation for testing any other voice that claims to be from him. The psalmist declares in Psalm 119 verse 105, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." The more familiar you become with scripture, the easier it'll be to recognize God's voice and distinguish it from counterfeits. There's a lot out there today. Third, practice listening, not just talking. in prayer. Too often, our prayer time consists mainly of us talking to God rather than creating space to hear from him.
Try spending some time in silence, asking God to speak to your heart, then listening for his gentle voice. Fourth, pay attention to how God speaks to you personally. He might use scripture, circumstances, a sense of peace or unrest in your spirit, the advice of others, or direct impressions during prayer. Learn to recognize his unique ways of communicating with you. For instance, personal example, I was talking to God recently about something I was disappointed about. I had asked for something to happen at a certain time and I believed it would fully, but it didn't. After my prayer, I went silent and quickly felt the response.
It was coming. I just needed to be patient. And sure enough, not long after that, the request was granted. And here's the thing, it wasn't a selfish request. It was something I wanted for someone else, someone dear to me that's a good person and worthy of the blessing. That's why I was disappointed because I didn't understand why God wouldn't do this for them. And I was right to believe that he would do it, but I was wrong to expect it to happen on my timeline instead of his.
But God didn't leave me wondering. He didn't leave me hanging. He gave me the answer because I was listening for it. If I had immediately begun to occupy myself with something else after that prayer, I probably would have missed it. You have to make room for God's responses, just like Jesus did, just like so many faithful followers of his have. Fifth, test what you believe you're hearing against scripture and through prayer. God will never contradict his written word or lead you to do anything that violates his character.
If what you think you're hearing doesn't align with biblical principles, it's not from God. Now, let's address the common concern. What if you're wrong? What if you think you're hearing from God, but you've misunderstood? This fear keeps a lot of people from stepping out in faith and learning to hear God's voice. But here's the truth. You will sometimes get it wrong.
Even mature believers occasionally misinterpret what they're hearing from God. But that doesn't mean you should stop trying to hear from him or rely entirely on others to interpret his will for you. When Paul made his decision to go to Jerusalem, despite the warnings, he was taking a risk. He could have been wrong. But he'd spent years developing his relationship with God. And he was confident in what he'd heard. Even if he had been wrong, God would have worked everything out together for good.
as he promises in Romans 8 verse 28. The key is to approach this with humility, always being open to correction and refinement in your understanding. Be teachable, but don't let the fear of making mistakes keep you from developing your own personal relationship with God. That would be the biggest mistake you can make. Remember, God is a good father who wants to communicate with his children. He's not playing hide-and-seek with his will for your life. He wants you to know his voice even more than you want to hear it.
I can promise you that, too. 1 John 4:1 encourages us to test the spirits to see whether they're from God, which implies we can learn to make this distinction. As we wrap up, let's consider what this means for how we interact with others in the body of Christ. We should be quick to share what we believe God is showing us for others, but we should hold it humbly, understanding that our interpretation might not be complete or accurate. We should also be gracious when others share spiritual insights with us, even if we don't feel it aligns with what God has shown us directly.
Most importantly, we should encourage other believers to develop their own personal relationship with God rather than becoming dependent on us or anybody else for spiritual direction. Our role is to point people to Jesus, not to become intermediaries between them and their heavenly father. Wall's experience in Acts 21 shows us that even the most well-meaning, spiritually minded, full of Holy Spirit people can sometimes misinterpret what God is doing. But it also shows us the beautiful freedom and confidence that comes from knowing God's voice personally and having the courage to follow his leading even when others don't understand it. God wants to speak to you personally. He wants you to know his voice intimately. He wants you to be so secure in your relationship with him that you can receive input from others graciously while still following his specific calling for your life.
This doesn't make you rebellious or unteable. It makes you a mature believer who's learned to hear from heaven and walk in obedience to God's personal word for your life. That's exactly what God wants for each of his children. a personal, intimate, unshakable relationship with him. Let this be our prayer. Aba Father, help us develop such an intimate relationship with you that we can clearly hear your voice above all others. Give us the wisdom to receive counsel from others with grace, but the courage to follow your personal leading for our lives, even when it's difficult or misunderstood.
Help us trust you so deeply that we'll risk everything to obey what you've spoken to our hearts. Make us people who know your voice and follow you faithfully wherever you may lead in Jesus name. Amen. [Music]
