When the Spirit of God Speaks, Listen
The Power of Prayer, Praise, and Spiritual Discernment
"When the Spirit of God speaks through the praises of His people—listen, listen, listen.”
"There are moments when God is speaking, but the greatest miracle is not always the sound of His voice. Sometimes the greatest miracle is that He has prepared our hearts to recognize it." ~ Shane Bryant
God still speaks. He speaks through His Word. He speaks through prayer. He speaks through worship. He speaks through the quiet prompting of the Holy Spirit. And Scripture teaches us that He can also speak through the spiritual gifts He gives to His people.
But when the Spirit speaks, there is something we must learn to do:
Listen.
Not casually.
Not distractedly.
Not simply listening for what we want God to say.
We listen with humility. We listen with Scripture open before us. We listen with hearts surrendered to Christ. And sometimes, when God speaks, He confirms His word in ways that leave us standing in awe.
Opening Prayer
Father, quiet our hearts today.
In a world filled with noise, opinions, distractions, fear, and uncertainty, teach us to recognize Your voice.
Open our spiritual ears that we might hear what Your Spirit is saying to Your people. Give us wisdom to distinguish Your voice from our own desires, and give us humility to receive what You speak.
Teach us to pray with faith, to praise You even in our midnight hours, and to remain sensitive to the movement of Your Holy Spirit.
If You speak through Scripture, let us hear You.
If You speak through worship, let us hear You.
If You speak through another believer, give us discernment.
And if You choose to use one of the spiritual gifts You have given to Your Church, help us never to seek the gift more than we seek the Giver.
Above everything else, let us hear Jesus.
In His name we pray.
Amen.
The Lessons
Old Testament Lesson
2 Chronicles 7:1–3
Solomon has completed the dedication of the Temple. The sacrifices have been offered, the musicians and singers are worshiping, and then the glory of the Lord fills the house of God. The fire falls from heaven. The people bow down. They worship.
Psalm
Psalm 22:22–28
The psalmist moves from personal distress into public praise, declaring the faithfulness of God before the congregation and proclaiming that the nations belong to the Lord.
Epistle Lesson
1 Corinthians 12:4–11; 14:1–5, 26–33
Paul teaches that there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. Among those gifts are tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, and other manifestations of the Spirit. But Paul repeatedly brings the Church back to one essential purpose:
Edification.
The gifts are not given so that we can impress one another. They are given so that the body of Christ may be strengthened.
Gospel Lesson
John 10:1–5, 14–16
Jesus describes Himself as the Good Shepherd. His sheep know His voice.That is the heart of this devotional.
The sheep know the Shepherd's voice.
When God Spoke in the Night
Many years ago, around 2010, I was regularly attending First Pentecostal Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Our pastor at the time was Brother Ron Becton. Brother Becton's mother had been very sick in the hospital. His father had passed away about a year earlier, and now his mother was seriously ill.
One Tuesday morning in March, very early, around 2:30 or 3:00 a.m. I had a dream about our pastor. In the dream I could feel his anguish. I could feel his grief. When I awakened, I was praying in the Spirit, speaking in tongues as the Apostle Paul describes in his teaching about spiritual gifts. I did not recognize the language I was speaking. But I knew what was being said.
The words were:
“When the Spirit of God speaks through the praises of His people—listen, listen, listen. Listen to hear what the Spirit has to say through the praises of His people.”
Three times.
Listen.
Listen.
Listen.
I didn't know why I had received that message. I didn't know what was happening. I simply prayed. Later that morning, I learned through social media that Brother Becton's mother had passed away during the night. The following Sunday, Brother Becton was out of town with his family in Texas preparing for his mother's funeral. The assistant pastor, Brother Mike Rickenbacker, was preaching. During the service, one of the elders, Larry Curtis, gave a prophetic message in tongues.
Brother Mike then gave the interpretation. As he looked toward the section where I was sitting—not directly at me, but toward that section—he spoke the words:
“When the Spirit of God speaks through the praises of His people—listen, listen, listen to hear what the Spirit has to say.”
I knew those words. I had heard them before. In the darkness of my bedroom, days earlier. Before I knew that Brother Becton's mother had died. Before I knew what would happen in that Sunday service. And suddenly, something I had experienced privately was being spoken publicly. It was one of those moments when you realize that you cannot manufacture what God has done. I had not planned it, I had not announced it, I had not told anyone what I had heard. I simply prayed. And then God confirmed it.
For me, that moment became more than an extraordinary experience. It became a lesson.
When the Spirit speaks, listen.
Praise Is More Than a Song
Psalm 22:3 says that God inhabits the praises of His people. Praise is not merely music. It is not simply singing because the worship leader has asked us to sing.
Praise is an offering.
It is the declaration of our hearts that God is worthy regardless of what circumstances may look like. There is something powerful about praising God when everything around us is telling us to complain. There is something powerful about lifting our hands when we feel like we have nothing left. There is something powerful about saying, “Jesus, You are still good,” while standing in the middle of a situation that does not feel good at all.
We see this throughout Scripture. When Solomon dedicated the Temple, the singers and musicians praised God, and the glory of the Lord filled the house. The priests could not continue their ministry because the glory of God had filled the Temple. The people bowed down. The fire of God fell. Praise became the atmosphere surrounding the manifestation of God's glory.
That does not mean that we can manipulate God by singing enough songs or praising loudly enough. God is not a spiritual vending machine. We do not praise Him to force His hand. We praise Him because He is worthy. And when our hearts are turned toward Him, we become attentive to His presence.
Praise turns our attention from the problem to the Presence.
And sometimes, when we stop staring at the storm, we finally become able to hear the One who is speaking to us in the middle of it.
Midnight Praise
Paul and Silas understood something about praise that we often forget. Acts 16 tells us that they had been beaten, thrown into prison, and placed in stocks. It was midnight, not noon, not morning, not after the victory, Midnight.
And at midnight, they prayed and sang praises to God. Then something happened. An earthquake shook the foundations of the prison. The doors opened. The chains fell away. Notice the order: they prayed, they praised, God moved. Their praise did not deny the prison. Their worship did not pretend the wounds did not hurt. They didn't sing because everything was fine. They sang because God was still God even when everything was not fine. And their worship became a testimony to everyone around them.
The other prisoners were listening. That detail matters. They were listening. The jailer was listening. The prisoners were listening. And when the earthquake came, the jailer eventually cried out, asking what he must do to be saved. The miracle was not merely that chains fell off.
A man's heart was opened to the Gospel.
Sometimes God breaks chains because He intends to use our deliverance to reach someone else.
Prayer Opens the Door
Acts 12 gives us another picture. Peter was in prison. The church was praying for him without ceasing. Peter wasn't sitting in prison giving a lecture on faith. He was chained, he was guarded. The situation looked impossible. But the Church prayed, and God answered. An angel entered the prison. Peter's chains fell away. The doors opened. And Peter walked out.
There is a reason Scripture repeatedly brings us back to prayer. Prayer is not our last resort. Prayer is our first response. Prayer is where we surrender our circumstances to the One who is greater than our circumstances. Sometimes the answer comes suddenly. Sometimes gradually. Sometimes differently than we expected. But prayer changes us because prayer places us in the presence of God. And in His presence, we learn to listen.
Another Voice, Another Language
There is another testimony that reminds me of the seriousness—and wonder—of this subject. Dr. David Petts, a Pentecostal minister and former principal of Mattersey Hall Bible College in England, has publicly recounted an experience from the late 1970s.
According to Petts's own account, in 1977 he traveled with approximately fifty Bible College students to a large Christian gathering at Bethshan Church in Manchester. Petts preached during the meeting. Near the end, an Irish woman began speaking in tongues. Petts was still at the microphone. Because it was a large gathering, he felt that he should give the interpretation so that everyone could hear what had been spoken.
He says he interpreted the message by faith, trusting God to give him the interpretation. The meeting ended. But then something extraordinary happened. One of the Bible College students, Guetawende Roamba, who was from Burkina Faso, came rushing up to him. The student told Petts that the woman had been speaking his native language. Petts knew the woman had not been speaking French, the other language the student would have commonly used. “What language?” Petts asked. Moré, Roamba answered.
Petts says that, at the time, he had never even heard of the Moré language. He later learned that the Irish woman had never learned or heard the language either. And there was another remarkable element to the story. Petts was the person who had given the interpretation. The student understood the Moré language. According to Petts's testimony, the student understood both the woman's utterance and Petts's interpretation.
Petts has described the experience as deeply significant because, although he had interpreted tongues for years, he had always done so by faith. This experience gave him something he had not previously possessed: a tangible witness that what he believed he had interpreted corresponded with a language he did not know.
But there is something I particularly appreciate about Petts's testimony. He did not present himself as someone who had everything figured out. He admitted that he was nervous. He knew he could have been wrong. He understood that spiritual gifts must be exercised in faith. And that humility is important. Because the purpose of spiritual gifts is not to make us look spiritual.
The purpose is to build up the body of Christ.
Listen—and Discern
There is a danger on both sides of this subject. One danger is unbelief. We can become so skeptical that we refuse to believe God could ever speak supernaturally.
But there is another danger:
believing everything simply because someone says, “God told me.”
The Bible does not teach either extreme. Paul tells the Corinthians to desire spiritual gifts. But he also tells them that everything must be done properly and in order.
He teaches that tongues should be interpreted when spoken publicly. He teaches that spiritual manifestations should edify the Church. And when prophetic words are spoken, they are to be weighed and discerned.
That is why spiritual maturity requires both: faith and discernment. We should be open to the Holy Spirit without becoming gullible. We should be expectant without becoming sensational. We should believe God can speak without assuming that every thought, dream, impression, or spiritual experience automatically came from God.
The Holy Spirit never needs to contradict the Word He inspired. If something claims to be from God but contradicts Scripture, it is not God's voice. If something glorifies the messenger instead of Jesus, we should be cautious. If something produces pride instead of humility, we should be cautious. If something creates confusion rather than godly order, we should be cautious. And if a spiritual gift is genuinely from God, its ultimate fruit should point us toward Christ and strengthen His people.
The gift is never greater than the Giver.
The Shepherd's Voice
Jesus said:
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
The Christian life is not simply about knowing facts about God. It is about knowing God. The sheep recognize the Shepherd. They know His voice. And they learn His voice by spending time with Him.
You cannot expect to recognize the voice of someone you never spend time with. That is true in human relationships. It is true spiritually as well. If we want to recognize God's voice, we need to become people of the Word. People of prayer. People of worship. People of obedience. People who listen.
God's voice will never lead us away from Christ. It will never lead us away from holiness. It will never contradict Scripture. It will never encourage us to exalt ourselves. The Spirit of God always points us toward Jesus.
So perhaps the question today is not merely:
“Is God speaking?”
Perhaps the better question is:
“Am I listening?”
When You Reach Your Midnight Hour
Maybe you are in a midnight season right now. Maybe you are sitting in a prison you did not choose. Maybe fear has become a chain around your heart. Maybe grief has locked you inside yesterday. Maybe sickness has made you afraid of tomorrow. Maybe disappointment has convinced you that God has forgotten you. Maybe you have prayed and prayed, and heaven seems silent.
Then remember Paul and Silas.
Pray.
Praise.
Listen.
You may not see the earthquake coming.Peter didn't, Paul and Silas didn't. The early Church did not know exactly how God would answer their prayers. And I did not know what God was doing when I woke up in the darkness of that March morning in 2010. But God was already moving.
Sometimes God speaks before we understand why He is speaking. Sometimes He gives us a word before we understand the circumstance surrounding it. Sometimes He confirms something privately through something that later happens publicly. And sometimes the only thing we can do is hold the word in our hearts and wait.
But waiting does not mean God is absent.
Silence does not mean God has stopped speaking.
Sometimes He is teaching us to listen more carefully.
The Charge
Today, I want to challenge you to become a listening Christian.
Don't merely pray to God.
Listen.
Don't merely sing to God.
Listen.
Don't merely ask God for an answer.
Listen.
Open your Bible.
Quiet your heart.
Worship Him.
Pray in faith.
Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you.
And when something comes to your heart that you believe may be from God, don't immediately run with it.
Bring it before Scripture.
Bring it before prayer.
Bring it before mature believers.
Test it.
Discern it.
And if it proves true and points toward Christ, receive it with humility.
There may be times when God speaks through a Scripture that suddenly comes alive in your heart.
There may be times when a hymn seems to contain exactly the words you needed.
There may be times when another believer says something that reaches directly into the place where you have been hurting.
There may even be moments when the Holy Spirit gives a spiritual gift that brings encouragement, revelation, prayer, praise, or direction to the body of Christ.
When those moments come:
Listen.
Listen for the Shepherd.
Listen for the Spirit.
Listen for the voice that calls you closer to Jesus.
Because God has not abandoned His people.
The God who filled Solomon's Temple with glory is still God.
The God who heard the prayers of the Church for Peter is still God.
The God who shook the prison for Paul and Silas is still God.
The God who spoke through His Spirit to the early Church is still God.
And the God who spoke to me in the darkness of a Tuesday morning is still God.
He still speaks.
He still calls.
He still comforts.
He still guides.
He still answers prayer.
He still inhabits the praises of His people.
And when the Spirit of God speaks through the praises of His people—
listen, listen, listen.
Reflection
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Am I making enough room in my life to hear God's voice?
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When I pray, do I spend time listening, or do I simply present God with my requests?
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What does praise look like in my current “midnight” season?
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Have I ever experienced a moment when Scripture, prayer, worship, or another believer confirmed something God was already speaking to my heart?
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Do I have enough biblical discernment to distinguish God's voice from my own desires?
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Am I more interested in receiving a spiritual gift—or in knowing the Giver of every gift?
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When God speaks, am I willing to obey?
A Prayer for Listening
Father,
I want to know Your voice.
In the middle of all the noise around me, teach me to recognize the voice of my Shepherd.
When fear speaks, let Your truth speak louder.
When discouragement speaks, let Your promises speak louder.
When the enemy tells me that there is no hope, remind me that Jesus is still Lord.
Teach me to become still enough to hear You.
Give me a heart that loves Your Word, a life that seeks Your presence, and a spirit that remains sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
Teach me to praise You in the midnight hour.
Teach me to pray when I do not know what to do.
Teach me to wait when I do not understand.
And when You speak, give me the courage to listen.
Give me discernment to test what I hear.
Give me humility to receive correction.
Give me wisdom to know the difference between Your voice and my own.
And above everything else, keep my eyes fixed on Jesus.
May every gift, every prayer, every song, every word, and every spiritual experience ultimately bring glory to Him and build up His Church.
Lord, make my heart attentive.
Make my spirit sensitive.
Make my life a place where Your presence is welcome.
And when the Spirit speaks—
teach me to listen.
In the name of Jesus Christ, my Savior and my Shepherd,
Amen.
Scripture and Testimony Notes
The biblical foundation for this devotional is found particularly in 2 Chronicles 7:1–3; Psalm 22:22–28; John 10:1–5, 14–16; Acts 12:5–11; Acts 16:23–34; 1 Corinthians 12:4–11; and 1 Corinthians 14:1–5, 26–33.
The testimony of Dr. David Petts concerning the 1977 meeting at Bethshan Church in Manchester is preserved in his Great Bible Truths material. Petts identifies the student who recognized the language as Guetawende Roamba of Burkina Faso and identifies the language as Moré. His account also emphasizes that he had given the interpretation by faith and that the experience was significant to him precisely because another person familiar with the language could recognize what had been spoken.
The value of the account for this devotional is not that it requires the reader to accept every supernatural claim without examination. Rather, it provides a historical testimony that illustrates the very biblical principle we have been considering: spiritual gifts are to be exercised in faith, received with humility, and discerned carefully for the strengthening of God's people. Dr. Petts himself emphasizes that spiritual gifts must remain subject to Scripture and that prophetic words should be weighed carefully.
For further reading, Dr. Petts's own published material on tongues, interpretation, prophecy, and spiritual gifts provides the primary source for the testimony.
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