How can you tell when the Holy Spirit is speaking to you?
Read Dave’s answer
Answer 1
The scriptures help us understand how to recognize when the Holy Spirit speaks.
And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:
And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.”
1 Kings 19:11–12
“A still small voice” is the way that I most frequently experience the Holy Spirit - almost on a daily or even many times each day now that I’ve learned to listen carefully to that still small voice. The passage above is marvelous in that it warns us not to expect the Lord to speak to us in dramatic terms or through easily recognizable means.
“Still” means that the Holy Spirit speaks peace to your mind and heart. “Small” means that it is not loud or dramatic. It can even be so small as to be easy to confuse it with your own thoughts, but I have learned to listen again in faith to see if any confusion goes away. If it doesn’t go away, it’s not the spirit. In another revelation, the Lord refers to that confusion as “a stupor of thought.” The Spirit brings peace of mind, not confusion, for God is not the author of confusion.
The Holy Spirit won’t even necessarily need to speak to us about things He has already taught us. For example, I don’t listen for the Spirit each week to know whether I should go to church or not. Or whether I should buy a pack of cigarettes or not, or visit a porn site or not. But I do try to listen to the Spirit more often when it comes to reacting with kindness to family members when they might do something to annoy me. And often forget, to everyone’s dismay. But I shudder to try to imagine just how big a jerk I would be without the Holy Spirit to be prompting me to be kinder and more caring than I’m prone to be when left alone to be my own “natural man.”
At times, however, the Holy Spirit can be as described by John, in reference to Jesus:
John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.
Luke 3:16
Far less frequently than I experience the “still small voice,” but often enough that I diligently seek it, I experience the Holy Ghost (same thing as the Holy Spirit) as a “baptism of fire.”
When I am feeling the Holy Spirit in this way, it is a transcendent spiritual experience. The joy and assurance felt, for seconds at a time even though it feels like eternity in the moment, is unspeakable and immeasurable. It is exactly as if the blood coursing through my veins is burning with a brilliantly tingling energy that dispels all doubt and can easily be described as a fire. This experience is somewhat akin to being warmly embraced by God in the arms of His redeeming love and grace.
Hence, the Mormon hymn “The Spirit of God like a fire is burning” has been sung on many special occasions such as the dedication of temples when entire gatherings of saints enjoy a communal experience with the Spirit that is like an outpouring of God’s love upon the entire congregation.
Peter showed us the way to experience the Holy Spirit and receive this glorious gift from God when he said:
Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Acts 2: 38
Having these experiences with the Spirit of God, after receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands is what the Savior referred to when he said”
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God….
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
John 3: 5,8
Between those two extremes of experiencing the Holy Spirit, there are many other manifestations that most people have experienced. The words people use are “conscience,” “inspiration,” “creativity,” and “flashes of insight.”
These experiences are so common that atheists often overlook them, and if forced to explain them, simply describe them as evolutionary artifacts or the natural workings of our chemical brain and nervous system. *sigh*
Believers who have faith in the living God, however, know better. The Holy Spirit is the way whereby God gives us the help and comfort and guidance He promised when He commanded us to “ask,” “seek,” and “knock.”
And when we humble ourselves and sincerely show our love for God by seeking diligently to obey all of God’s commandments (See John 14:15), then He often sends His Holy Spirit and the fruits that accompany it (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) - and the increase of those good fruits in our lives, even momentarily, is how we can recognize that the Holy Spirit has spoken to us or is speaking to us, since all good things come from God.
Answer 2
The evidence a person has received the Holy Spirit into his life is found in the fruits of the Spirit that are then evident in that person’s life in ever-increasing abundance as he or she seeks them with faith.
The nature of homo sapiens and the natural lot of the species is to be full of enmity, misery, fighting, restlessness, brutality, skepticism, ego, and self-indulgence.
On the other hand, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, and self-control are gifts from God, given to those who seek those gifts, according to their desires.
Answer 3
It’s something you learn over time.
The Holy Spirit brings love, peace, goodwill towards others, and assurance.
A wicked spirit brings pride, enmity, uncertainty, and confusion.
The problem, of course, is that we often want our own will, not God’s, to be done; and thus are willing to persist until the Spirit stops “striving” with us, and we convince ourselves to feel good about what was initially unsettled and in doubt. And then we defend that unholy decision with yet more pride and hostility towards whomever questions our decision rather than responding in calm love and understanding.