Have you ever been with someone and you knew something was troubling them? They’ve not vocalized their feelings but still, you could sense that something wasn’t right. This is called discernment and it is a major component of effective communication, especially with God. Remember, communication is much more than words. Ideally, what you discern should help lead to more open dialogue with that individual. Working with God, discernment is like a radar that gives us insight into His feelings and desires. It will often be accompanied by a word of knowledge and word of wisdom for us to know what to do with the insight we are receiving.

You’ve likely heard someone say “God spoke to me” before but what do they really mean? Did they really hear an audible voice? God speaks to His people and we should be leery of anyone or anything that tries to silence Him. While God can speak in an audible voice if He chooses, one of His primary ways to communicate is by His Spirit through internal impressions. It’s important to know that the Spirit will first and foremost speak through the Word of God and will never speak something that contradicts it. This is the foundation and starting point of learning how God speaks. The voice of the Spirit flows from the pages of Scripture. As we immerse ourselves in the written Word of God, our spiritual senses are more aptly tuned to hear when and what the Spirit speaks to us.

The apostle Paul did not want believers to be misinformed about spiritual gifts. It was his desire that these disciples (and us too) would understand that spiritual gifts are available to everyone. While God’s body is made up of diverse cultures, personalities, and talents, it is the same Spirit working in each person. The use of spiritual gifts was not intended to be a sign of spiritual maturity or convey any sort of superiority. Rather, “A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other” (1 Corinthians 12:7). The chapter concludes with Paul’s admonition to desire the best which begs the question, why are some people still struggling to be used in the gifts of the Spirit?

Matthew 4 tells the story of Jesus being led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Two chapters later, He is teaching the disciples to pray “Do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13). It might seem like a contradiction; does God lead us to temptation or does He deliver us from it? The fact is these stories are a powerful reminder of how temptation works, what we must do to resist it and walk in spiritual victory.

There is nothing like the presence of God you experience in times of prayer. Still, there are times it seems for some unknown reason we struggle to connect with God the way we desire. The Lord plainly identifies one major reason in the Sermon on the Mount when He says “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). It is common to think of the struggle in terms of what is happening around us but when Jesus is teaching about prayer, He makes us look to the struggle within us.