This is one of the questions I'm asked most. Someone feels a nudge, a knowing, a word rising up in prayer or meditation, and then the doubt comes straight after. Was that real? Was that me? Am I making it up?
If you've felt that, you're in very good company. Mystics in every tradition have wrestled with it. And the answer usually isn't a test you can pass once. It's a relationship you get to know over time.
Start with relationship
We often approach the Divine like a vending machine: insert question, receive answer. But think about how you come to recognise the voice of someone you love. You spend time with them. You learn how they speak, what they care about, how their presence feels in a room. After a while, you'd know their voice anywhere.
It's the same with God, Christ, a deity, or your guides. The more time you spend in honest presence, the more familiar their way of speaking becomes.
How the Divine often answers
Answers rarely arrive as a booming voice. More often they come as:
a quiet knowing that settles in the body rather than racing in the mind
an image, a memory or a phrase that keeps returning
a sense of peace, even when the answer is hard
a card, a dream or a synchronicity that speaks directly to what you asked
Anchoring what you receive
Rather than putting every message on trial, I encourage people to do two things. First, trust what is moving within you; your inner life is not something to be suspicious of. Second, anchor what you receive in what you already know to be true about the One you're in relationship with. If you know your God to be loving, a message soaked in shame and fear is worth sitting with more carefully. If something carries the same quality of love, truth and wisdom you've felt from them before, let yourself receive it.
Over time, that anchoring becomes discernment. Not cold analysis, but recognition.
A practice to begin
Find a quiet five minutes. Ask one simple, honest question, such as: What do you want me to know today? Then wait without forcing anything. Write down whatever comes: a word, a feeling, an image, even silence. Do this for a week and read it back. You may notice a voice you're starting to recognise.
I'm creating a series of workbooks, The Inner Temple Series, to walk alongside people in exactly this. Until it's ready, if you'd like support in hearing more clearly, you can book a Soul & Psyche Reading on my Work With Me page.
