How do I know if the thoughts I had are mine or from God? How to know if God wants me to do something?<\/p>\n\t
“For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God<\/em>” (I Corinthians 2:11).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Your thoughts are your own. In the distant past, God did communicate with men directly, but He changed this in the Christian era. “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds<\/em>” (Hebrews 1:1-2). Prophecy, the direct revelation of God’s instructions, ended when the Bible, the perfect law of liberty, was delivered in full. “Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away<\/em>” (I Corinthians 13:8-10).<\/p>\n
But even if you examine the past times when God communicated with men, He did so by speaking with men. There was no confusion over whether a thought was one’s own or came from God. It was the false prophets who took their own ideas and proclaimed them to be God’s.<\/p>\n
\n
- “Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; they speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the LORD” <\/em>” (Jeremiah 23:16).<\/li>\n
- “And the LORD said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart” <\/em>” (Jeremiah 14:14).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Knowing what God wants you to do is as simple as opening your Bible and reading His teachings. Here is what God told Israel: “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good?<\/em>” (Deuteronomy 10:12-13). It really hasn’t changed. Jesus quoted this verse as the greatest commandment. And John tells us, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome<\/em>” (I John 5:2-3).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: How do I know if the thoughts I had are mine or from God? How to know if God wants me to do something? Answer: “For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[169,97],"class_list":["post-42064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-prophecy","tag-thoughts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":63071,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-only-the-holy-spirit-know-the-mind-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":42064,"position":0},"title":"Does only the Holy Spirit know the mind of God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 4, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hey, I have a question. In I Corinthians 2:11, the Holy Spirit is said to know the mind of God. Does that mean that the other members of the Trinity don't know the mind of God? And since Jesus is called the Word by John, does that mean that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30907,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-god-preparing-me-to-be-a-preachers-wife\/","url_meta":{"origin":42064,"position":1},"title":"Is God preparing me to be a preachers’ wife?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been in the body of Christ for nearly a decade. Struggling through it all, I have learned to deny my own will and go with God's plans for my life and that has made me successful. I had heard the call that anything I do with my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21692,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-we-know-what-is-in-our-spirit\/","url_meta":{"origin":42064,"position":2},"title":"How do we know what is in our spirit?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a sort of complicated question, and really would like any logical answer you can give to help. Any advice you can give, based on Scripture, that helps to establish the truth as to what is the best way for a person to know themselves inside? For instance,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3260,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-god-cleansing-the-earth-with-these-recent-storms\/","url_meta":{"origin":42064,"position":3},"title":"Is God cleansing the earth with these recent storms?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is God cleansing the earth with these recent storms? If so, is it because of divorce and the return of the Nephilim? Answer: While the Bible discloses that God has used storms in the past to accomplish His will, the Bible warns man not to try and second guess\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46249,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-the-lord-only-speaks-through-the-bible-why-was-the-spirit-promised-in-john-1613\/","url_meta":{"origin":42064,"position":4},"title":"If the Lord only speaks through the Bible, why was the Spirit promised in John 16:13?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: So the Lord only speaks through the Bible and not through the Spirit? I'm kind of confused now. Just wanted to see if you could clear this up for me: \"But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86714,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-preachers-prophets\/","url_meta":{"origin":42064,"position":5},"title":"Are preachers prophets?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 20, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good afternoon. My family and I are members of the Church of Christ, and I have been reading your articles on your church website for several years now, learning a great deal. If you don't mind responding to this email, I would greatly appreciate it. Recently, the preacher at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42064\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}