How do you know when God is speaking to you?

Can you hear Him?

All my life, I’ve never been an overzealous Christian. In fact, I never liked those Scripture Union students who always did too much in the name of being more Christ-like—you know, those ones who act holier than thou; like the people who always post Bible quotes. I’ve always considered them people to avoid based on bad personal experiences. They made me hate overshowcasing my faith. But I’ve always known and loved God. And there have been occasions when I felt God’s love and presence more strongly than others. Sometimes, these occasions last for very long, like now.

When I was younger, I used to have moments when I felt God loved me especially. For example, growing up in Nigeria with our perpetual power issues, which led to erratic power outages, there were times when there hadn’t been light for a while, and I desperately needed to iron my clothes for school or do something urgent with light; after saying a little prayer, they’d bring the light.

There have also been times when I’ve been studying for an exam and sleep off. I dream about the exams, and some of the questions in my dream are the exact ones that will come up in the exam.

Countless of such episodes.

When things fell apart

I was more of a believer growing up than I am now, as a grown up, especially when I started job hunting. I was very confident that I would get a well-paying job right after graduating from uni. But that didn’t happen. Instead, due to my inability to find a job or be financially independent, I went through a very long depressive period in my life.

Even when I had a job – for a brief period – there were times when I was so far from God that I considered dying. I was so tired and burnt out that, on the nights when I would be heading home late, from work, the water beneath the 3rd mainland bridge* became very inviting. 

When I quit that job and started my fashion business, God helped me get started by using some fabric sellers in Yaba market. How this happened was a miracle on its own. Strangers invited me to use their shop till I’m able to rent my own. I saw God’s hand there.

And now, even with the little successes I’ve been having as a content creator, there have been moments when I doubt the viability of my current career. In those moments, whenever I whisper a little prayer for reassurance from God, he’d more than send me signs.

Are you able to discern God’s voice?

On the day, I was doubting if this content creation thing would actually work because I had posted two long-form videos, and the only people who had seen them were a handful of my family and friends. After I prayed. I felt a nudge to post one of my short-form videos. Just a normal video that I didn’t expect to do well because there was nothing really special about it, that video did well. And as if that was not enough, later that day I got my first comment on Youtube from someone I didn’t know. And you wouldn’t believe the person’s name:

A song of Hope.

Like God telling me to have hope. Hope is a beautiful thing. 

If you’re this person, whoever you are, God used you to answer my prayer that day.

There will be times when he will speak more clearly to you than in my personal examples but you won’t hear. Most probably because what he’s saying doesn’t align with want you want in that moment or period. Which is also something I struggle with. It’s easy to sing “Thy will be done”, but the doing is not so easy.

As I grow in my journey with God, I realise that daily, He provides all that we need. And if we reflect on our lives very well, we’ll see his hands at work in our lives – guiding our every steps and keeping us even when we don’t want to be kept.

I’ve tried doing life on my own, and that stuff was haaaaaaaard!  I almost died of depression. But with God, it’s easier. Since I drew closer to him, I’ve gone through things that would normally break me, but I’ve been amazed because I found strength at the times when I was supposed to be weak. The funny thing is that I have always hated the Bible verse that says: His strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12). Because I’ve always wondered why we have to be weak for Him to be strong, but I understand better now. It didn’t make sense before, but now it does.

See, ehn! If you are a human being and you don’t believe in God or anything. You don’t have a spiritual system to keep you through the storms of life, and even when things are going well. Life will be tough for you.

Just try God and see for yourself.

Sometimes when I’m faced with a difficult situation and I don’t know what to do, I just ask Him to take over and do His thing. Let His will be done.

 If you noticed, I said “sometimes” because I still falter in my walk with Him. There are times when I’m supposed to have handed things to Him from the beginning, but because of my humanity, I rely on my strength and will, and when those fail me, that’s when I remember Him. I know I should do better and I’m working on that.

Finding God again

I’m rediscovering God for myself. 

Over the years, I stopped going to church. My spirit was not being renewed anytime I went there—these new churches. As someone who grew up in an old Pentecostal church, there was something about the way worship and preaching were done in these churches that didn’t align with my spirit. The church stopped being a place where I learn more about God and became a prosperity preaching charade. So, I stopped going.

But I found a new place here in Accra. They are not perfect, but they’re doing well, and I thank God for them.

One other thing that has helped me in my journey was becoming part of a Christian women’s Whatsapp group. There, I was introduced to the Bible app, which has immensely helped my prayer life.

Even if you can’t find such a group, look for an accountability partner. When I’m learning a new skill, I look for someone or some persons to hold me accountable to finish my learning journey, and it works. So, if your willpower isn’t so strong, seek others on the same journey as you. If you don’t find, ask God to help you find. You can even ask the Holy Spirit to be your partner directly. He answers all our prayers. I know this because I’m a living testimony.

Footnotes:

*3rd mainland bridge, Lagos, Nigeria, is a very popular bridge and the longest of the bridges connecting Lagos Island to the mainland.