#STRask - When I Can’t Stop Thinking About Something, Is That God Speaking?

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

Questions about whether having a recurring thought is an indication God is speaking to you, what to say to someone who says they sinned because “God told them to do something” and they didn’t do it, and whether God speaks to us through premonitions.   Would you characterize not being able to stop thinking about something as God speaking? What would you say to someone who says they sinned because “God told them to do something” and they didn’t do it? Does God speak to us through premonitions?

Well, good morning, Greg. You're ready to get started. Good morning, Amy. I am. All right. Here is a question from Grace. Would you characterize not being able to stop thinking about something as God speaking? example, doing something wrong and need to stop or needing to do something like apologize, pray, or check in with someone, or even a verse that keeps coming to mind. Okay, I'm going to make a distinction here, and this may be for some people a distinction without a difference, but I think it's an important difference. I would not characterize it as God's speaking to me, all right, because that way of phrasing it implies a certain, two things, a certain phenomenology, and in other words, a certain characteristic of the way

the experience is being experienced, all right, and like God is saying something. Now, it may be that what the person means is that God is hinting something, you know, or that God is trying to influence me in a certain way regarding that thing. So this phrase, God is speaking to me, could cover a lot of things, and therefore it's kind of ambiguous. And so that's one concern. And the other is that I have complete confidence that God can get what he wants done in our lives through all sorts of influences.

So it may be that there's something that, you know, in his sovereign purposes, he wants to focus in on my life. And so this passage keeps coming to mind. I don't have to try to divine the source. Where is that coming from? Is that God? I better pay attention to it. But if I can't figure out if it's God or not, maybe I could just ignore it.

Those are all questions that are not even relevant. you don't need to ask them. And by the way, I don't think anybody would have asked those in an era in the past when this kind of thing wasn't a received tradition. And so we wouldn't say, I think God's trying to tell me about this verse. No, we think about the verse. The verse comes up, and if it has application in our circumstance, then we take counsel from it.

So, look, I'm thinking of, you know, I'm married. So everybody is married, has conflicts in their marriage of some sort, okay? Sometimes I feel faulted. And then I'm going to think, how am I going to respond? Oh, I'll just make coffee for myself this morning. I won't make coffee for both of us, how they'll get hurt, you know. And then I realized, wait, the scripture says, do not return evil for evil. Now, where do that come from?

That came from my understanding of Scripture, but the verse comes to mind. Now, I'm completely comfortable if somebody pressed me on that to say, did God bring that to mind? Well, I guess so, maybe, whatever. You can see, it's not even a relevant question. Is it the truth? And does it come from the source of truth? Yes, it's a directive from Scripture. And so I'm thinking, oh, that's not right.

I'd be returning evil for evil. So that is not an option for me at this point. And I realize, by the way, there's a lot of times in relationships where when I feel faulted, that what I think about doing in response turns out to be just a clever way of returning evil for at least perceived evil. I think that she did evil to me. And I say she, I've got a wife of the two daughters. So there could be any of them, you know.

therefore I am going to do this, get back. That's really what's going on. And when this verse resonates in my mind, I'm thinking, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, you can't do that because that's not right. So I'm not asking the question, well, where did that come from? Did God say that? Did I think that, well, look, I know the verse. I've hidden God's word in my heart in some measure so that I would not say,

sin against you. That's Psalm 119. And so consequently, by the way, did God just tell me that verse because I'm talking about this? And he put that in my mind just now. That never even occurs to me to think that. What came to mind is a verse that's appropriate to the circumstances and I offer the verse. I don't have to think about. Get introspective about the source. And there are all kinds of other things that an idea comes to mind. just before we came in broadcasting here and recording, I shared an idea with Meg about stand the reason. Hey, why don't we try to do this? I outlined it a little bit. I said, chew on that. She said, well, I'm chewing on that. Okay, wait a minute. Where did that idea come from? Did that

come from God? Did that come from the devil? Did that come from me? Notice if we think it came for the devil, or especially, certainly that would be problematic, I suspect, although sometimes the devil gives you, causes things to happen that God turns out to use for good, you know, like the crucifixion of Jesus. If the powers of B would have known this, they would have never crucified the Lord of Glory. So that's a text. But if I think, well, maybe it's me. Notice that there's a sense that if it's me, then it's somehow substandard. It's not okay that it's just my idea. It's got to be God's idea, and I think sometimes people will go through this procedure.

Well, I think God is telling me this idea, and that gives it more authority, which is another problem with that. Then if it's your thinking of it, then you have the freedom to assess it as a group with wisdom. Is this going to work? Is this a good idea or not? But if the God language gets in there, well, then that throws a curveball. Then you've got to think, well, if it's God, I better obey God. And I think all of that is just distraction from trying to assess some idea or some circumstance or something that you think of in a wrong way, for the sake of either qualified it or disqualifying it.

I think sometimes when I'm talking to people and they get into this thing, what I say and I know this is going to sound a little strange at first, but I think having offered what I just offered, people will understand my point. Sometimes I say, let's just leave God out of it for a moment. Let's just leave God out. Now, I don't mean to leave God completely out. I just want to forget about the God language because that's just clouding things, this confusing things. It makes it more difficult for us to assess the thing on its own merits. And that's what

I think we should be doing, not trying to figure out where it came from, although this is part of the system here that people have taught. If God doesn't tell you, if it's not coming from God, then you better not do it. Or they might say, here's how you can tell if it's from God or not. You can take the idea that came into your mind, and then you can rebuke it in the name of Jesus. And if it's still there, then it's not from the devil. It's from God. I mean, this is, pardon me, but this is nonsense. It's just nonsense.

If you have an idea, assess the idea. If it's a good idea, pursue it. Now, there's nothing while I'm praying about having wisdom and asking other people to give their feedback on it or refer. reflecting on it, is this a good idea or not. But trying to divine the source of it is not going to be helpful. I think that's the bottom line here. You don't have to figure out where the idea is coming from. Assess the idea, not the source. Right. You can't assess the source. I don't even know how you would figure that out. But if you're trying to figure out what you're going to do, assess the thing you're going to do, not where it's coming from. I think that that makes it really simple and clear. And I think

eventually we can look back and see how God has been working through our lives. In a sovereign fashion. We can just look over a shoulder and see that it happened and thank God for it. Hey, that really worked out. Praise the Lord. That idea that I gave Meg, oh, we moved on it and it was sensational. Praise the Lord. Or if it's like, that's dumb, I said, well, you know what?

I'm glad that I brought it up. Thank you, Lord, that other people had good insight to put the cabash on this idea. And we'll move in another direction. So there's always the opportunity to thank God for his sovereign involvement, but we're not trying to second guess him in terms of source. And we can't mess up his sovereign involvement. That's right. So maybe that'll help as you're assessing.

But if you have a sense that if there's something, if there's a moral command that is needling at you because it's something you need to do, then just do what the moral command is. You don't have to know if it's from God. Right. And it could be... Well, if it is a moral command, it is from God. Right, yes, right, through the text or whatever. So if your conscience is bothering you about something, then definitely do something about it. If there's something that you see that you can do to help someone and that opportunity is there, then do it.

If it's bothering you, then assess whether or not doing it is a good idea and if it is, just do it. If you wake up in the middle of the middle of it, then you wake up in the middle of it. the night worrying about somebody or thinking about somebody that you're not in or think about and are concerned about them, then pray. You know, you don't have to say, is God waking me up to tell me to pray for this person? It's that you're wasted an effort that way. I think of people all the time and their difficult circumstances, and I just use that as an opportunity to pray for them. Why not? Couldn't hurt. And it might help. You never know. Okay. Here's a question from Sandy. What would you say to someone who says they sinned because, quote, God told them to do something, end quote, and they didn't do it. The person may be thinking of verses where going against your conscience can be considered a sin.

Yeah, I wouldn't think that's what a person who uses that language is referring to. I think they're probably thinking that God told them to do something. Now, here's the simple equation is this. If God actually tells you to do something and you don't do it, then you've sinned. The question here is whether or not God is actually telling you to do something. And I am certainly open, and I believe that it happens that God gives directives to people, not out of Scripture, but direct revelation. We have examples of that throughout the Scripture. I just don't think they're standard. I don't think this is the ordinary thing that Christians can expect, even in the Book of Acts.

It was rare. We have 14 occasions of that from the time of Pentecost all the way 30 years later at the end of the Book of Acts. And we have all kinds of other decisions that are clearly made without any special guidance, though they're important ministry decisions. So I'm open to that, but the biblical pattern, and I wrote on this recently, a solid ground that came out titled When God Speaks, that is when you look at the Book of Acts

and see those 14 occasions, there's a couple of characteristics that are very clear, and virtually none of them comport with the way people usually describe God, nudge, nudge, hint, hint to them in their daily experience, you know. So one of the chief ones is that it's just crystal clear. It isn't a nudge.

Not in the scripture. An angel shows up. That ain't a nudge. Jesus appears. There's a dream that God directs different people in, for example. And you have these supernatural interventions that are manifestations that are unmistakable because of their supernatural manifestation. They're utterly clear.

Now, if God gives you a supernatural utterly clear, and just to pause for a moment, because I don't want somebody to hear utterly clear and think, well, I really, really, really, really, really felt that God was leading me. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about something like what happened. Did you have a vision? Did an angel appear to you? Did Jesus show up and stand by the side of your bed like he did with Paul and Corinth and say, do not fear any longer? Are many people in this city?

Preach with boldness. If it's not something like that and you just really, really, really, really, really feel God is leading you here, then I would say get the God language out of the discussion and assess the thing itself on its own merits. And then you could decide to do it or not to do it as per your judgment. If God is not directly and clearly commanded it, you're not obliged to do it. in the circumstances that we face in the Book of Acts, there was a clear command, set aside Saul and Barnabas for the work that I have called him, and that was the first missionary journey. Yeah, that was a directive. The Holy Spirit was not allowing us to go into the Northern Galatian region.

Okay, sir, there you have a very specific intervention, though we don't know the phenomenology in that particular case. But another case, he says, it forbid. The Holy Spirit forbade us from doing it. Now, that sounds like a direct communication of some sort. But none of this nudge, nudge, hint, hint, kind of thing. And I will add to that that any command in scripture is also utterly clear, as clear as an angel standing in front of you and giving you a message from God. So my guess is maybe Sandy's talking about situations that aren't. moral commands. So maybe go talk to that person or go do this. But if it's a moral command, then that is as clear as an angel speaking to you. So take that as coming from God whenever a moral command strikes you to the heart and the Holy Spirit brings some sort of conviction in your heart that this is something that you need to address right now in yourself or in someone else or whatever it is. And I think that is probably most often, I mean, I would hope that's what most people are talking about when they're talking about this.

Well, let me make a distinction here. If there is your point of moral command, if you're violating moral command, that means you're doing something that is wrong and you know it's wrong for a number of reasons, not based on your personalized revelation, but because of what scripture says, either explicitly or implicitly. and so you have a conviction, you're convicted, and you say, okay, but I'm not going to do that because it's just wrong. But if God says, okay, like Jesus told Peter, throw the net on the other side, well, that was a command, and it wasn't a moral issue per se, but because it was a command, he was morally obliged to do it. So if God does give a clear command that otherwise would not be a moral concern, the command itself creates an obligation to obey. as a moral requirement.

But it's, these are, my point here is that these are the kinds of things that are very, very rare, okay? And, and when you read in the New Testament, the Book of Acts, they're very clear, they're supernatural, so they can't be mistaken. And I can't remember if you said the name of the article, but it's called When God Speaks, when you talk about that particular thing. Right. Okay, here's a question from Christine. does God speak to us through premonitions?

And part of what you said already, we'll apply to this. Yeah, when you say, I'm not sure what she means by a premonition. Usually that means you have a sense of something that's about to happen. But premonitions are senses of things that are about to happen. They're not clear characterizations. You know, in the book of Acts, so you have Agabus, who is, well, it actually, I think two different prophecies, maybe they're both from him. One of them has to do with a famine that's about to arise there in the Jerusalem area.

And so because there is a prophetic word about some event that will happen, it's interesting, the people then decide to set aside money to send because the prophecy doesn't say there's going to be a famine, set aside money to send. It just says there's going to be a famine as far as what we know about the details of the prophecy. It was up the people to decide what to do about it, but that was adequate. So they decided, in light of that. So there was a premonition prophetically communicated, so it's clear, and it gave them an opportunity to decide on a good response. Another one was when Agabus took Paul's belt and tied his hands with it, and he said,

so shall the Jews tie your hands when you go to Jerusalem. So he's just letting him know what's going to happen. Again, it wasn't like Paul was thinking, gee, I wonder if I'm going to run into trouble. I just have this feeling it's going to be. No, there's a prophetic word that was given. So the ambiguous element here is what is meant by premonition. I wouldn't put any authoritative stock

in what was seen to me a premonition of something was going to take place. And I'll tell you one reason, in my case, all the anything that could be characterized as a premonition almost never took place in my life. I thought, oh, here's what's going on. Here's what God's doing. This is what's going to happen in light of these things stacking up here. And it didn't go that way at all in many cases.

Maybe once in a while. But I think most of our premonitions just turn out to be a, not a prognostication. We're not kind of foretelling the future, but we're just watching things unfold and we're anticipating a certain result. And so, oh, I don't think this is going to work out well. I'm just looking at all. And so this is our feeling inside. But guess what? I know in my case, a lot of times I felt like that, it worked out just fine. It didn't go in the direction I thought it was going to go. And some things that seem like they're going to work out really well, oh, how I know what's going on, my premonition is that I see got all these, the dominoes

are being set up, they're going to fall in this direction. And I'm totally disappointed because it's nothing like what I thought was going to be the case. So I would think of what is being referred to here as a premonition is just a, what was the word I used a moment ago, not a speculation, but an anticipation of how the events that are unfolding will end up. But I have been wrong so many times. I can't call it a premonition. I think ultimately, God can work through any of these things to move us in a certain direction. We just don't have to figure out if it's him. Yeah. We just continue to make our wise choices.

And whatever is working into those choices, he can sovereignly direct any of those things to direct us. But I don't think we should be trying interpreting those things as, being either from him or not from him. So ultimately, if we're trusting in God's providence, we don't have to figure out what he's doing and how he's doing it. We can't mess it up. We just do our job where we try to be wise and we try to do what's moral and we try to get advice from people and wisdom and all those things.

And then we make the best decision we can and we trust that God is, is. is providentially moving us for whatever reason he has. And usually we look back and we say, oh, I see what God was doing in my life at the time. It's a perfect example of this is what we've seen happen in the last year and a half or so. There's a number of things, books that are written, interviews that were had in large venues, including some that I've done. And a responsiveness in the church, Bibles being sold, higher levels than ever before, church attendance way up, young people going to youth groups, and the Charlie Kirk affair was just kind of a force multiplier to all of that.

It gave it all a boost in a spiritual sense. And it's very tempting for people to say, revival, revival, revival is about to happen. And I've been asked that question. I said, I don't know. I can see all these things going, and I think they're good. And let's just position ourselves to, and stand a reason as position, to be useful. in this set of circumstances, but I'm not going to, I'm not going to predict that this is a revival about to happen, I don't know. And it's interesting these questions that we're dealing with,

though. It shows how deeply this, I think, inaccurate understanding of how God works, an individual Christian's life with communicated is penetrated, because these questions are all about this subtle voice of God in these different things that we have to somehow discern out of the circumstances to know how we properly respond, you know? And of course, our view is that none of these things are going to be the subtle voice of God that you have to discern the source of. God can work in all kinds of subtle ways. Let him work. We are faced with circumstances. Let's just assess the circumstances. That was the great simple way that you put it a few moments ago. But I'm just observing that all these questions show how deeply influenced people are by this broader

tradition that evangelical Christians largely have adopted that just creates more confusion and is certainly not biblically grounded. And we know if you want to become a more godly person and make more godly choices, because that's what this is about. People want to do what God wants them to do. They want to do the right thing. Well, the Bible does tell us how to get there. It says be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is that, which is good and acceptable and perfect. So if we are shaping our minds to become more like Christ, that's when our decisions will start to reflect him more and more. And we do that by reading the Bible, by praying, by being in fellowship with

others, but in particular by reading the Bible and letting the words of God shape who we are and shape our minds and our thoughts and how we see the world. That is what is going to enable us to make godly choices in the future. Doesn't Ephesians 5 say, is that it? Or maybe it's Colossians, let the word of God richly dwell within you. I think that's the language. I think that is Colossians, but I mean, what a powerful statement. And it doesn't say let the voice of God always be present in your mind so you'll know what to do.

It says, let the Word of God richly dwell within you. And even in the cases of the earlier parts of the show here, and these verses are coming to mine and I'm mentioning them, well, they're accessible to me. They come to mine because at least those verses, the Word of God, is richly dwelling within me, and so it informs these decisions. Well, thank you so much for your questions. Grace and Sandy and Christine, and we would love to hear from you if you have a question. Just go to our website at STR.org or you can always send it on X with the hashtag STR Ask. Thank you so much for listening. We appreciate hearing from you and we appreciate you being a listener. This is Amy Hall and Greg Kokel for Stand to Reason. Thank you.