Hearing of the Soul

Discerning Thought Voices

 

 

Benefits: 

1. Recognition of God’s Voice  
2. Distinguish Nefarious Thought Suggestions  
3. Better Self-control  

 

Tell a psychiatrist here in the western world that you’re hearing voices in your head and there’s a high probability you’ll be assessed for some type of mental disorder, like schizophrenia. According to the Mental Health Foundation, staticians estimate that from 5 to 28% of the population hear voices others do not, or are not able to hear. (1)

 

But doctors are now aware of a small percentage of people who simply have an amplified version of what all of us experience in our minds.

 

On the other side of the globe, in India, the concept of silent inner voices is well accepted. They refer to these as angles, with good angles being the conscience, and bad angles are that which encourage us to ignore it. The bad keeps our minds zeroed in on materialism, and includes things like lust for power and wealth. A high level of awareness in this regard is referred to as a type of inner sight, or an inner eye. We’re familiar with the symbol of the all-seeing eye in the forehead. Mankind is capable of coming up with all sorts of creative imaginings to explain away things in the spiritual realm using anything but the truth.

 

It is my assertion that we all have various silent voices that sound from within us, and while it’s certainly interesting to hear the beliefs of those who love to mystify the spiritual, those are simply manifestations of human pride. It’s very similar to the Gnostics of Apostle Paul’s day. They loved to set themselves up as gurus—mystics who possessed some secret knowledge to impart to their disciples. And some tried to mix this with Christianity, giving rise to the gnostic heresies. Today Gnosticism is alive and well, yet has taken on many different faces; that’s a topic for another time.

 

After reading medical journal articles about people who do not have a mental disorder, yet still hear voices in their heads, I was intrigued. Later the same day while studying the bible, I connected some stuff God had already taught me with what the psychiatrists, psychologists and other researchers have avowed. Thank the Lord! He’s helped me sift through the falsehoods espoused by those in psychiatric feilds who do not hold with a Christian view. That’s not to say they don’t get many things right.

 

I’d heard it often: Christians who say, “God told me such and such…” I remember dismissing them without a second thought, but I was wrong to do that. Allowing God to educate me on how to be more gracious, I now understand what those believers meant. God does speak to His own. The bible often refers to heeding the voice of the Lord. It is in the way God goes about speaking to us that we sometimes get confused.

 

The fact is, all of us hear voices inside our heads, we simply don’t hear them with our ears. We think in words, and technically we can hear ourselves think. As we read this sentence right now, we can hear ourselves reading in our minds. Everyone has hearing of the mind, or what most theologians refer to as the soul. To each of us it sounds a lot like ourselves, because it’s our own inner voice. Yet, we hear these thought voices at various levels of amplification. If these were external sounds we could measure the volume in decibels. About now, some might hear the voice of their thoughts asking, Where the heck is this guy going with this? 

 

Let’s just say that I am convinced—some of us are able to distinguish voices from within, which are not our own, in the same manner that you hear your own thoughts. How distinct and loud these thought voices sound to us, is in proportion to each person’s level of awareness, combined with practice—learning the requisite discipline. Yes, this ability can be developed. Again, it’s louder and more pronounced for some folks than for others. In fact, before we’re through I hope we’ll note the benefit of fine tuning our capacity for distinction in this type of inner hearing. It’s my prayer that if we haven’t already, each of us will learn to differentiate between inner voices, but especially to recognize the voice of the Lord. And yes, I am connoting that we all hear silent voices in our minds, some that are our own thoughts, and some that are not, but sound like they are.

 

The importance, then, of knowing whose voice said what becomes vital. Aware of it or not, we have bad thought influencers that sound from inside us, which often come as suggestions, yet they masquerade as having come from ourselves. And then we have the voice of the Lord. If you’re keeping track that’s three sources, or voices, contributing to our thoughts: our own, the forces of darkness, and God. The Holy Spirit will often prick our consciences, which then actually does become our own inner voice, influenced by God’s goodness.

 

With my interest peaked, I sought whatever secular resources I could dig up on the subject of inner voices. Then I went to the bible in hopes of discovering if there were any scriptures which might pertain to the same. After all, if I’m being deceived into believing every single thought in my mind originated from myself, when in fact it did not, I need to know about it. It’s my mind and I don’t need some nefarious influence deceiving my thought processes. I’m quite capable of thinking wrong thoughts all by myself. If someone, or something is suggesting corrupt thoughts and fooling me into thinking they are from my own mind, that could prove to be catastrophic.

 

My substantiation for this post is God’s word. I believe the entire bible to be the infallible word of Almighty God, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. That’s why I’m citing the bible as my corroboration of these things, for the purpose of validating the existence of various inner voices that speak to our minds. And the necessity of recognizing whose voice said what.

 

Silent Prayer 

Do we pray? Do we expect an answer to our prayers? More precisely, do we expect to hear an audible voice in response to our prayer? No? Then why did we ask a question in prayer, if we did not expect an audible answer? That’s right, God utilizes many different means of communicating with us. We hear mentally audible answers far less than we’d like. Nothing worthwhile ever seems to be easy. But then, thousands of believers testify that they sometimes hear God’s voice, usually in the mind. There are also some who believe they’ve heard God’s voice with their external ears. I believe it just happened to be louder than usual in their minds, and so they thought they heard it with their ears.

 

Pandemic difficulties arise when we do not distinguish God speaking through our thoughts, speaking to our hearts.

Many true Believers are not aware of ever having heard the voice of God inside them at all. But the fact is, they have! They’ve heard it, and not realized it. More often than not, they attributed what they heard to their own thoughts.

 

Peppered throughout Scripture we find references to heeding, hearing, listening, obeying, and following God. We have Jesus the Son, God the Father and His Holy Spirit—AKA: Spirit of Christ. When a believer is walking in the Spirit, they are fully capable of hearing an actual voice from within: the voice of the Spirit.

 

In John 10, Jesus reveals Himself as the Good Shepherd who gives His life for the sheep.

 

Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me…” John 10:27. If we follow Jesus then we are His sheep. He said we hear His voice. I want to make certain I always recognize the voice of the Spirit of Christ. That’s why I practice and exercise this ability, and every believer can do the same.

 

Was Jesus talking only metaphorically about hearing (in modern translations it’s listening), or did He mean it in a more literal sense? I believe it to be literal as to Him speaking in our minds. But yes, He also means paying attention to Him — obeying Him.

 

God’s voice has a primary means of speaking—it’s called the bible. It saddens me to hear Christians say they’ve never heard God’s voice, when they’ve never read the bible all the way through, even once.

 

A little earlier in John 10:4, Jesus had said, “And when he (the Good Shepherd) puts forth his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.” Jesus says that we who follow Him will recognize His voice leading us. He leads us both from within, and from without. This connotes God’s word (the bible) and an audible inner, or “thought” voice from His Spirit. Both are paramount.

 

Verse 5 says, “But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will flee from him because they do not recognize his voice.”

 

Anyone pretending to be Christ is an anti-Christ, a false shepherd and is of the evil one. The bible warns us about our powerful adversary, the devil. He is quite capable of suggesting thoughts to us, often about another person. He employs our weaknesses of the flesh against us, especially our pride, or lust, or greed, or self-centeredness. He offers thoughts that fit right into our flesh’s view of things—and makes it feel good. But because something feels good does not make it right.

 

Recognizing Christ’s voice, here in John ten, I believe indicates both determinates. We gauge the source of each thought by what was said, and by the actual sound of the voice. Optimal results are gained by using both measures concomitantly.

 

“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21

 

The primary way we distinguish the Lord’s voice requires knowing Him through His word. The Spirit speaks to us as we read and study the bible to help our understanding of what we’re reading. But we can benefit from this ONLY when our minds are yielded to Him. Everyone has preconceived ideas of what the bible means before they open it the first time.  Some preachers may tell us to leave those notions outside the door. Yet what we really need to leave outside the door is our pride—what we think we know. One must diligently guard against confirmation bias!—truly allow God to lead our thinking.  I’ve found that often the Lord will use the false notions we had, and show us how ludicrous they are. As He straightens out our false beliefs we can say, “But Lord I thought such and such was true.” He can then show us how what we had thought was wrong, and the light of His truth will bring the greatest clarity, with joy, to our hearts and minds.

 

Once we understand theological truth better—when we know what God says in His word, about Himself and about mankind, and we know the accurate meaning of His words (hermeneutically), the Spirit can then bring those truths to our remembrance when we need it. I recall a time when I was all set to give in to a particular temptation, which I’d done periodically (a sin in my thoughts accompanied by a physical action). I knew it was wrong, but just couldn’t seem to overcome it. Well, I was getting ready to do it again.

 

I heard the Lord very loud in my thoughts, speaking a bible verse that I had known well.  But I hadn’t read it in several years. It sounded a bit like my own thoughts, but was different. Trust me when I say, at that moment my thoughts were as far away from the bible as they could be, and from God. It rang like an ultimatum: “Choose you this day whom you will serve!” (Joshua 24:15)

 

I was terrified, trembling like a leaf in the wind, and almost soiled myself. It was suddenly a whole lot easier to resist that temptation! What I heard that day was definitely NOT my own thoughts. It was so loud that, at first, I believed I’d heard it externally.

 

 Knowing the Lord and understanding His word will insulate us in the truth.  

 

Knowing God intimately also empowers us to instantly detect false teaching or preaching. And can set off alarm signals when the evil one suggests wrong thoughts to our minds. When a demon suggests a thought that goes against what we know God has said, we automatically know it is not the voice of our Lord. Remember the devil is an imitator and he’s extremely good at it. He does thought-voice impersonations—both our own, and God’s.  We do not heed, or listen to that voice. Instead, we resist that thought/voice, and the evil influence will flee at the mention of Jesus’ name (if we are in fact in Christ).

 

“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” John 14:26

 

The enemy, Satan, is also capable of making suggestions to our minds. He’s very good at imitating the sound of our own inner voices, and every so often, he tries to imitate the voice of the Lord. But to the astute listener, subtle, yet distinct differences are detectable between the actual sound of a demon’s voice, their own thoughts, and the voice of Christ. The difference in the sound, however, is the secondary manner in which to distinguish who said what. The best and primary determining factor of whether or not to heed the voices inside our heads (thoughts) is comparing what’s said with what God’s word says.

 

The Spirit and the Bible will always be in perfect harmony.

 

The Spirit will NEVER contradict, or go against what the bible says, but the enemy, of course, will. Ideally, God’s word and His Holy Spirit, should have complete rule over both: our words and actions. After spending much time being obedient, our thoughts are also trained in righteousness, and when that’s the case, we are extremely difficult to fool! Allow me to restate this—The Spirit and the bible will always be in perfect harmony. They are the double check, to be certain we are doing and saying the right things in the right way. It is learning to discern the Lord’s voice and comparing what we hear with God’s word, these are the two fail safes that victorious Christians employ.

 

There is a ton of information I want to share here, but this post is too long already, so I’ll drive in a peg right here until next time.

 

The following is a link to great post to edify and further prep our minds.  https://www.allaboutprayer.org/hearing-gods-voice.htm

 

1. https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/h/hearing-voices

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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God’s Revealed Truth

 

In Mark 7:3-13 Jesus condemns the traditions of men when those traditions take precedence over God’s word.  Note, however, that not all traditions are wrong, or bad.  Apostle Paul wrote, saying to follow the traditions he and his missionary team had preached to the churches they had established through the Spirit’s leading.

 

Let’s read a short bible account that includes some of Jesus’ teaching.

 

Here are verses 1 through 9 of Mark 7.

“The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.) So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”

“Jesus replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.”

 

Our Lord then goes on to say, “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!”

 

Jesus gave one example of how they did so in verses 10, 11 & 12. He then sums up the great truth He was teaching in the following verse (13). “Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”

 

We often hear theologians quoting other famous theologians in order to validate their point. But if they cannot find that particular truth in God’s word, then they are teaching falsehood and error. Don’t get me wrong, many of them are fine Christians and are saved, and yet they do not understand certain truths of God’s word accurately. A good indication of this is, as I’ve already stated: they reach to quote another man’s words, rather than quoting the bible.

 

Nowhere in scripture do we find a command from God that told the Israelites to perform the particular ceremonial washing the Pharisees referred to when they were accusing Jesus’ disciples of breaking God’s laws. Yet there were ceremonial washings God had commanded, but the Pharisees and religious leaders added additional ceremonial washings to God’s commands.
It isn’t so much that the teachings of men are always wrong or bad: it is when those teachings usurp authority over God’s commands, and over God’s word that they become abominable to the Lord. No man is to be our authority when it comes to knowing the truth as it is clearly set forth in the word of God.

 

As believers we are afforded the assistance of God’s Spirit residing inside us to lead and guide us into all truth (See John 15:26 & John 16:13 & 14).

 

“The bible is the only book we can read with the author Himself always present.”—Unknown.

 

The scriptures were written under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and He knows precisely what He intended for them to mean. This is why we should always read God’s word prayerfully and submissively. Truth is the only right defense against falsehood and error. And we know that Jesus is “The Way, the Truth and the Life.”

 

On a personal note, I pray that you have a fruitful day, filled with the love of Jesus.

 

 

 

Bible Translation Wars

 

As we continue our Bible Origin series this post focuses on various bible translations. Please reserve judgment until you read the post all the way through, as it may surprise you. This being a blog post and not a text book, we’re barely scratching the surface of a plethora of historical facts concerning how we’ve received the bibles we have today. There will be more along this vein in later posts.

 

The original bible texts were penned in Hebrew, Greek and some Aramaic.

 

The King James Version (KJV) translation of the Bible used 7 texts from which to translate the New Testament scriptures. They were the 5 editions of Erasmus, the 1550 edition of Stephanus, and the 1598 edition of Beza. Those were the seven printed Greek texts that the King James translators used between 1604 and 1611 to produce the New Testament of the King James Version of the bible. Erasmus only had between six and twelve manuscripts from which to draw. Today we have over 5700 ancient manuscripts from which to translate the New Testament. The KJV translation became known as the textus receptus (received text). So from the 1600’s to the late 1800’s that was pretty much the text that was used, even though it had a very small early manuscript tradition behind it.

 

As better manuscripts from the early centuries were found, naturally there was a drive to create increasingly critical editions of the scriptures which rigidly scrutinize earlier, more accurate manuscripts. We now use much earlier manuscripts than what the King James translators used.

 

Erasmus wanted to use Vaticanus, one of the oldest manuscripts of the Greek Bible of both Old and New Testaments, which is one of the four great uncial codices and is largely extant today. It was written on 759 leaves of vellum in uncial script. Through paleographic dating it has been determined to be from the 4^th century AD. But Erastus was unable to access it, because it was in Rome, housed at the Vatican, which is where it gets its name Vaticanus. Viewing it was reserved for a narrowly select group who were at the top of the religious hierarchy: the religious pontiffs of Roman Catholicism which acted as a ruling body wed to the government. The manuscripts used to translate into the King James Version were documents about 1200 years later than the ones available to us today. But just because we now have those many older manuscripts available to us, in no way guarantees the integrity of the translators of modern versions of the scriptures. Granted, some of them have unscrupulous agendas, whether those working on the new translations are aware of it or not.

 

Any translation you pick up whether King James, American Standard, Holman Christian Standard, English Standard Version, or a host of others, there are going to be a few words that you disagree with. When translating from Greek, Aramaic and especially Hebrew, some meanings are extremely difficult to convey in English. But there are many dozens of other translations in other languages around the world, of which we have no idea how accurate they are because we do not speak that language and must rely on linguistic scholars to compare them. There is an Arabic bible translated from the Van Dyke text, but how many of us speak Arabic and have the ability to judge its accuracy? One thing is certain: God superintended the writing of His words. The bible is God breathed. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” 2 Timothy 3:16 KJV

By the way, in the above verse the NIV uses the more literal, more accurate translation of “God Breathed” in place of “by inspiration of God,” because they didn’t understand it, so they changed it. Today we know it means that God literally spoke the words of the bible through His Spirit. In other places it’s the other way around where the King James translation is more accurate than the NIV’s.

 

“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. “ 2 Peter 1:21 KJV

 

So let’s take the above verse as an example to point out a fact. Do you see those three words in italics? In the King James as well as in most all other translations, the italics indicate that those particular words do not appear in the manuscripts that were used to translate into English. But reading the text we see that it helps convey the true meaning of the text, as it specifies that it was the “holy men of God” who were “moved”. In no way does it change the meaning, rather it expounds the meaning. But then, when other transitions do the same thing many of the “King James only” advocates yell “foul!”

 

There are several fine newer translations that take into consideration not only the earliest Greek texts, but also the texts of earlier codices penned in various languages, including the Arabic, which was the language of the business world in the Apostles’ day; much like English is the prominent language of business today.

 

There also exists what are called AMPLIFIED translations. They don’t claim to be word for word verbatim of the original manuscripts. They write it in words they hope will help today’s readers understand the original writer’s intent. But they don’t always get it right, and that’s why amplified versions can be very detrimental when read by those who are reading the bible for the very first time. A case in point which I strenuously warn against for first time studiers is the “Good News” or “New Living” bible translations.

 

I’d like to inject here the necessity of using more than one translation when studying the bible. Even more importantly, we are to study prayerfully, in communication with the Lord. God through His Spirit is the literal author of the book, and He dwells within believers. Jesus promises that His Spirit will lead us into all truth. The Spirit renders the true meaning of any translation of scripture to those who are seeking God with all of their heart (In a later post I will point out the specific books that people claim are God’s word but are not). If one is not a believer they need only ask God to reveal truth to them as they read, and the Spirit will help them understand too! Only for them, He will do so from without, rather than from within. The Holy Spirit even moves upon unbelievers to set up circumstances as God wills, as demonstrated in the Old Testament. In the book of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar was used to testify of the one true living God and he was definitely an unbelieving pagan.

 

On the other hand, for example, the most popular translation of scripture in America today is the New International Version (NIV), which many leading biblical scholars do not like. But because it is so popular, many contemporary bible scholars and theologians of Reformed Evangelical Christianity have been compelled to help the NIV readers understand what the original texts actually say. A case in point is that Dr. John MacArthur created an NIV study bible, and yet he speaks as if he does not like the NIV. He came out with an NIV bible that includes notations on every page which straightens out the misleading wording used in many places within the NIV. This is wise. If people are determined to read the NIV, then we need to have NIV’s that have notations explaining the true meaning of the text, rather than allowing fallacious thinking which can be derived from the translation itself.

 

There are Satanic and nefarious attempts to poison God’s word. Again, for the sake of example, I say that one of the driving forces behind some modern bible publishing firms is the attempt to create a more egalitarian view of scripture concerning gender roles, such as Zondervan. This is infection from the world. It was motivated by the age in which we live, with the majority of the populous wanting to embrace certain aspects of the demonic feminist movement. And there are other nefarious agendas as well.

 

Our goal should never be to condemn those who are seeking truth, and yet who may be misled by bad translations. They are reading what they believe to be the bible—they are seeking truth. Why not expound the truth to them rather than condemn them? Unless, of course, hatred and pride has so embittered our hearts that we no longer care about evangelizing the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

Jesus went to where the sinners were. He met them at their level of understanding and lifted them with truth. We should do no less. Our motives come from the love of Christ, abhorring even the garment stained with sin, while holding aloft the truth as the Spirit has; revealed, superintended the writing of, and expounded through preaching and teaching.

 

Yes, we are angry at Satan and the twisted work he has perpetrated in our world. We hate falsehood and lies because of the souls it corrupts and deceives. We want to rescue those deluded souls, not see them condemned!  We always confront error head on with the truth, in the hopes that every soul will be saved, because we are driven by the Love of Christ (we don’t know who the chosen are). Let’s stop with the hate speech and bashing each other over the head because of what translation of scripture we like best. We need to come alongside, humbly, and take this case by case, verse by verse to teach sound doctrine, explaining the differences in wording through the leading of God’s Holy Spirit.

 

Trust me, I understand the fervor and the zeal of many, just like Jesus’ fervor when He cleared the temple of those with minds fixed on monetary gain. But love for His (and our) Father and His house of prayer, as well as Jesus’ love for the worshippers was His motivation in driving the vendors out with a whip (see Psalm 69:9).

 

Let’s not taint our witness and our testimony for Christ by acting in a worldly manner, while trying to proclaim our translation is the only correct one. God needs no help in preserving His word of truth. But He will use us to preach and teach accurate doctrine. His truth is shed abroad in our hearts along with His love, as the Spirit translates God’s word to us. Blessings!

True or False—Continued

Please do not misunderstand my intent in this message. I love the fact that being a Christian gives me a close relationship with God. My relationship with Christ, who lives within me by His Holy Spirit, is the greatest love interest in my life. Yes, Christianity at its core is based upon our relationship with God. We are intimately united with Christ. We are IN Christ. Yet, within that relationship there are things that God requires of me, just as any Father requires of his children. These things I am to do fervently with great devotion and out of love for Him and reverence for Him. Practicing what God asks of me is religion. Just because an apple has a designation of its own does not mean that it is no longer a fruit. Likewise, because our religion includes the glorious privilege of having an intimate relationship with our Creator, makes it no less a religion. I delight in doing God’s will, and my sweet relationship with Jesus makes doing God’s will as delicious to me as a sweet, crisp apple. God also commands me to have a relationship with the body of Christ, His church. We worship and praise Him together and individually. Also, I am to relate the things of God to the world. I must obey Him and do these things religiously.

While both of the images above have true statements, they each also have a false statement. If you’ve had a relationship with Christ for any length of time, then He has taught you, just as He has taught me: things that are only partially true are meant to deceive. Because they are not completely true, they are false.  Whenever the truth is mixed with a lie, the entire message becomes false. That’s a tactic of the devil: mixing truth with error in order to make it sound plausible.

So let’s see if we can discover what the enemy is hoping to accomplish by getting Christians to deny their religiosity.

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. ( James 1:26-27 NIV)

In these verses James reminds us that our expression of love towards others, practicing self-control, and striving to live pure lives IS our religion. Yet too often today, Christians hope to fit in with a world which God has commanded that we separate ourselves from. Yes, we are to witness to the world, but we are different and separate from those outside of Christ. There should be a huge distinction perceived through the love we have for one another within the body of Christ.  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.  John 13:35 KJV

Are we willing to be Christ’s followers, and have we counted the cost? Will we be obedient to Him? If so, then the following will be true of us.

If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. John 15:19 NIV

Again, I understand the love which compels you and I to make the gospel as attractive as possible. But God’s word does not need that kind of assistance. People will believe or they will not, and trying to blend in with them does not help our cause. But that’s what the enemy would have us do: attempt to dull the sharpness of the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Now I can already hear someone coming back with something Paul said concerning winning souls. I’ll save that for when someone brings it up.

It is my prayer that your relationship with the Savior of the world will grow closer and more intimate every day. His love is sweeter than any apple. God Bless You!