When listening to God, one of the key learning points is distinguishing which are God’s thoughts and which are our own.

A couple of weeks ago, I was in town, looking for a multi-port fast charger for my tablet and phone. I had brought my tablet with me and tested the charger that the shopkeeper showed me. Although the device charged, the fast-charging function didn’t work. I decided not to buy the charger. As I was walking out of the store, I received a strong impression that said “buy it anyway.” I resisted that thought and went home. At home, I wondered was that the Lord? The impression sounded like the Lord, but it didn’t make sense logically. I wasn’t sure. I decided to buy the charger anyway the next time I was in that part of town. I reasoned that paying $5 was a small price to pay for growing in discernment.

I bought the charger a few days later. I took it home and tried it on all my devices, and the fast-charging function most definitely did not work. Several months later, all but one of the charging ports failed completely. I never got good service from the charger and I never developed an ongoing relationship with the shopkeeper. No good came out of that purchase. I have since concluded that the strong impression to buy it had not been from the Lord.

As I reflect on that event, several learning points come to mind.

• Not every thought that pops into our minds is from the Lord. We must grow in discernment.
• Most of the time, particularly when we are learning, there is a measure of reasonableness to God’s voice. If we continually receive impressions that have no basis in logic, and no clear good comes out of them, then we must learn to reject those impressions.
• The proof is in the fruit. If the Lord tells us to do something, we can expect good fruit to come out of it. In the story in the post Too Tired to Decide, our reader found good fruit in the impression she received. They had a good time in their meeting together and were glad that they had met. If the Lord speaks, there will be good fruit.

May the Lord bless you as you grow in discernment!

Photo by Pedro Paiva