I have an old friend that thought everything she thought was the voice of God, therefore, absolute truth. She would always say, "God told me..." Anyone relate? I can. I remember that era when everyone was saying that. Of her, I was skeptical. So I can understand the skepticism that people have with me, because of the gift of the Spirit I have since being baptized in the Spirit. I can tell the difference between my thoughts and what is of God - she couldn't. She has a religious spirit, and by her fruit I know she cannot be saved - she could even be a sociopath with no conscience. And the other side of the coin are those who believe no one can hear God, therefore, cannot believe when I now say "God told me..."
I just finished watching a foreign film on Netflix (dubbed) called The Wrath of God. I have goosebumps. It was the most influential movie I've seen in a long time. And I related to the madness so much. You must watch it in one sitting. Powerful. We must really guard our minds, and reading into things what is false, and what is truth. Let me know what you think. BTW, this is a secular film.
I love the thread!!!
This is a topic that needs far more attention on Christian forums, and in the church!!!
There are 2 issues I see in the OP;
The first is simply hearing with our spiritual ears:
May people don't hear with the spiritual ears, so they don't know Jesus Christ!! They might know the Bible. They might go to church regularly. They might even desire and pick up high positions in the church, but none of that means they personally know Jesus Christ unless they are talking with Him.
Is 30:20,21 Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression,
He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. Your ears will hear a word behind you,
“This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left.
So Isaiah wrote about what it is like to actually hear from the Lord Jesus Christ, our Teacher.
That brings us tp the second problem, which is discernment of spirits!!
The Holy Spirit is not the only spirit around!! So the Bible talks about the need to discern what we are hearing. In the OP it seems like we find a person who the Lord gave ears to hear and does hear, but she is missing the discernment part. When that happens the enemy is also going to be able to plant his words (religious words) into a person!
The subjects of both hearing from the Lord with our spiritual ears, and honest conversations about discernment of spirits are needed!!
Now there are a couple of things we all need to understand. The first is that we must seek Jesus Christ and listen to what He says. And the second is that we all have our battles!!
Eph 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual
forces of wickedness in the heavenly
places.
All of us has our struggles against the dark forces in heavenly places!!!
So a person is hearing but is having a struggle with religious spirits - well that is no big surprise. Pretty much anyone who turns to the Lord is going to come under attack from religious spirits - which is to say the devil is going to try to turn those seeking Jesus Christ to getting them to seek the things of Jesus Christ instead of Jesus Christ. And on that same line - if the devil can get you thinking that everything you hear is from the Lord so that you now don't make any mistakes, the devil can really mess you up.
We read the example of the tare going up with the wheat, right? So if the word of God is like seeds being planted, then the tares from from the enemy planting in the field, and we are the field since that is where all those words wind up. And note: the Lord can't just have His angels pull up the tares because the good words from the Lord which the wheat came from will also come out. Yet maybe if we keep talking about discernment and getting other Christians to use the tests in the Scriptures (1 Jn 4:1-3, 2 Cor 12:3) while they practice hearing the Lord, then perhaps the wheat with grow over and stronger than the tares and choke them out, as opposed to vis versa.