Is the Holy Spirit trying to get your attention? I want to give you four signs that the Holy Spirit is trying to speak to you. In fact, he could be trying to communicate something to you right now. It’s not that we necessarily get abandoned by the Holy Spirit, and it’s not that the Holy Spirit stops speaking, but rather it’s that we become so distracted, we become so self-absorbed or we become so immersed in this life that we often ignore the voice of the precious Holy Spirit.
I want to show you from Scripture different ways that the Holy Spirit will try to get through to you. Maybe He’s trying to speak to you in this season, and perhaps you’re missing a word from him. I don’t want to miss anything that the Holy Spirit is communicating to me. I want to be attentive to the voice of the precious Holy Spirit so that even when he whispers, I can hear him with confidence and clarity.
it’s not that the Holy Spirit isn’t being clear; It’s that we’re not being conscious.
God can get through to anybody that He wants at any time. As we become surrender to the voice of the Holy Spirit, we can recognize those warnings and those points of guidance.
There are those seasons where we become so distracted by this life, we become so preoccupied with whatever’s going on around us, and the Holy Spirit will have to use certain methods to get a hold of you. God could at any moment cause you to have a vision or a dream. But also watch out for these other biblical ways that he tries to get your attention.
1) Consistency.
Often, the Holy Spirit will speak and we ignore what He has spoken in hopes that he’ll change his mind.
Micah 2:7: “O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD straitened? are these his doings? do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?”
It’s being asked, “Does the Holy Spirit change His mind? Can God be persuaded to do it your way? Can you negotiate with God? Can you bargain with God and get Him to change direction?”
No, my friend. When the Holy Spirit speaks to you, He speaks a word out of His omniscience. He speaks a word out of that perfect, divine wisdom so that, when He speaks, it is instruction you can count on. Why would we try to get Him to change that? When the Holy Spirit speaks, He speaks for your good. He’s not going to do things all the time exactly how you want them to be done. He will challenge us, speak things that inconvenience us, change our plans, or even bring some heartache and sorrow because, sometimes, sacrifice brings forth sorrow. But on the other side of that sacrifice, on the other side of that step of faith and obedience, is the reward of having listened to God’s voice.
The Holy Spirit will speak and may not speak again until you’ve obeyed what He has already spoken. He will never stop trying to place you on the right path. The Holy Spirit is more patient than we are stubborn and more faithful than we are sinful. He will never abandon you and say, “Well, forget it! I spoke once, and he didn’t obey, so now I’m going to move on.” No. The Holy Spirit will work with you. He won’t leave you alone; He will do what He can to get your attention.
Sometimes the Holy Spirit speaks to us with clarity, and we ignore it, hoping it wasn’t Him. We think, “Maybe that was my emotions, or just my thoughts. Maybe I don’t really need to do that, or maybe God changed His mind and now I can do it my way.” But it never works out that way. When the Holy Spirit speaks in instruction, you can’t bargain with Him.
This is why consistency is one of the signs that the Holy Spirit is reaching you. There is that speaking to your spirit—you know it’s from Him. It’s not in the conscious mind, the subconscious mind, or the emotions. Deep within your spirit, you know that you know that you know the Holy Spirit has given you an instruction. You’ll notice that instruction stays with you consistently, even through different seasons and even when time passes between when God speaks and when you listen again.
This is why many believers struggle with prayer. They know that when they return to the prayer room, they will hear the same instruction. Wanting to avoid what they know God will say, they avoid deeper prayer. They keep it superficial—praying for loved ones, for blessing, or for favor in certain areas—but they don’t allow themselves to fully surrender. They avoid the deeper places of prayer because that is where the Holy Spirit is dealing with them.
Some believers go into the prayer room, receive a revelation about their lives, and receive instruction. Then, offended or inconvenienced by it, they leave, hoping that the next time they return, it won’t be there waiting. They think, “Maybe this time it will be different. Maybe God will reason with me or change His mind.”
Let me balance this, especially for those who struggle with what I’ve termed religious OCD. They might think, “God wants me to wear a red shirt—no, a blue shirt,” and feel trapped by legalism, wondering if choosing wrong will bring judgment. Or they may feel random urges, like stopping the car and standing on a corner waving their hands. Sometimes intrusive thoughts are mistaken for the voice of the Holy Spirit, and condemnation is mistaken for conviction. That’s not always the case. A consistent, clear message from the Holy Spirit will align with the Word and will not come with accusation, because the devil is the accuser.
What’s the difference between conviction and condemnation? Condemnation says you are a mistake, while conviction says you’ve made a mistake. Condemnation pushes you away from God in fear and shame; conviction draws you to God in repentance and surrender. We have to be careful to keep that balance.
We do see in Scripture that if you obey, God may relent from punishment, or if you disobey, you may forfeit a blessing. That’s not what I’m addressing here. I’m talking about a personal instruction the Holy Spirit gives that remains in your spirit. You know it’s Him, and you’re ignoring it because you don’t like what you’ve been instructed to do. That consistency is a sign the Holy Spirit is trying to reach you.
2) God will use others` to try to get to you “Act 10:1-end: “
God will actually use others to try to get through to you. He uses loved ones. God will even use complete strangers. The Holy Spirit coordinates among His faithful believers. He was able to speak to Peter, saying, “Go with the men,” and He was able to speak to Cornelius, saying, “Send the men.”
You have to be humble enough to receive correction. The Scripture says, “Submitting yourselves one to another.” This doesn’t mean you take criticism and correction from anyone who comes to you.
For example, if I did that, I would never have any identity or any ministry because I would constantly be changing everything to adjust to the thousands of opinions that come my way. For the most part, I ignore 99.9% of opinions, but I make sure I surround myself with people who are God-fearing, grounded in the Word, and not “yes” men. I listen to men who are able to speak to me with boldness and say, “This is something you need to get right. This is something that’s off. This is something you taught that may need to be tweaked.”
There are some believers who won’t receive from anyone. They say things like, “All I need is Jesus. I don’t need anybody to help me,” or, “I don’t care what anybody else thinks of me.” The Bible says, “Iron sharpens iron.” You know what happens when iron sharpens iron? Sparks begin to fly. There is a chipping away of self. God will put people in your life who can get in your face.
Some of the most valuable relationships you will have are with people you may experience conflict with. You know you have a solid relationship when there can be conflict, and you can still come back together and make peace.
If you are too prideful to take heed to what others around you are saying, you will end up isolated and disconnected, and you may miss the instructions the Holy Spirit sends through people who love you.
3) The Lord doesn’t mind confirming things for you.
What about the Scripture where Jesus says a wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign? There, specifically, Jesus is talking to religious leaders who are not asking for a sign out of sincerity, but are demanding a sign out of cynicism.
It’s a mistake to take that one instance in Scripture and give it universal application by saying that we should never ask God for a sign at all. In fact, all throughout Scripture, we see that God was able and willing to give signs and, in some instances, multiple signs to demonstrate what He was speaking.
So, the Holy Spirit will give you signs. The Holy Spirit will send you prophets and friends. The Holy Spirit will speak to you through your spouse, brothers, and parents. This doesn’t mean that every time they speak, it’s of God, because sometimes the enemy can speak through them as well.
But if you’re discerning and desire to listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit, you’ll be able to recognize it when He begins to confirm these things through others. The Holy Spirit speaks consistently, and when that doesn’t work, He starts sending confirmation through others. You have to humble yourself, because if you don’t, what comes next is a little harsher.
There is a difference between the believer who’s saying, “I’m not so sure yet if this is God, so I need to wait on confirmation,” versus, “I believe this is God, but I’m afraid, or I don’t want to be inconvenienced, or I don’t want to be embarrassed, or I don’t want to have to give too much up,” and therefore suppresses that instruction and ignores it.
Sometimes we lie to ourselves and say, “We’re waiting on confirmation,” even when we know it’s the Holy Spirit, but we’re just standing behind a spiritual-sounding excuse. We know God has spoken, and to give ourselves a way of escape and relief in the conscience, we lie to ourselves and then choose to believe ourselves when we say, “I’m waiting on confirmation.” That may be true, but you have to test your heart and also allow God to test your heart and reveal these things, because it’s possible that you are actually ignoring the voice of the Holy Spirit while telling yourself you’re waiting on hearing Him.
I don’t want you to feel condemned if you truly are sincerely waiting for confirmation from the Holy Spirit. But at the same time, I don’t want you to have false comfort by lying to yourself and saying you’re actually waiting on confirmation when you already know what He has spoken.
4) The Holy Spirit begins to weigh heavily upon you.
The believer, God speaks to them through the word. They don’t receive the message because, sometimes, we can be really stubborn. Then the Holy Spirit begins to speak directly to the heart. The Holy Spirit does that with consistency. Many times, believers at will say, “Okay, if this is you, God, I’m going to go for it.”
If you ignore that consistent voice of the Holy Spirit, he begins to send prophets, he begins to send people, those around you begin to recognize and say, “Hey, there’s something off here. There’s something not quite right in your life”. I’m not talking about strangers like Internet critics and members of your church who just like to talk trash on everybody. That’s not what I’m talking about. I am talking about people who love you and who have the authority and the right and the place to correct you in these ways. God will send those people to you and they’ll begin to speak to you. Here is where we have to be careful, because like with Pharaoh, if we ignore that, then our hearts become harder. If we ignore that instruction, and then we go through this cycle of ignoring the instruction, the heart becomes harder.
God sends more representatives to speak to us and we harden our heart at them. Don’t harden your heart, because once you do that, you start this cycle that’s very difficult to break. And then the Holy Spirit has to now begin to weigh heavily on you.
5) Conviction.
These signs don’t necessarily flow in chronological order or in the exact sequence written here, but they are ways the Holy Spirit will try to get your attention. Next, conviction begins to weigh on you. You might have trouble sleeping at night, praying, and worshiping. You might even have trouble reading the Word, and you can’t enjoy fellowship with other believers because that conviction is weighing heavily upon you.
John 6:8: “And when He comes, He will convict the world of its sin, of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.”
What is conviction? A conviction is a deeply held belief. In this sense, you could say there’s a legal aspect attached to the word, but ultimately, it is the Holy Spirit calling our attention to certain things. The Holy Spirit will bring sin to your attention. But not only that—He doesn’t just show you what you ought not to do; He shows you what you ought to do and reveals God’s righteousness.
Many times, when we think of the conviction of the Holy Spirit, we only think about sin. We think about the Holy Spirit saying, “This is wrong.” And He does do that. The Holy Spirit will convict you of sin, but He will also convict you of God’s righteousness. What does that mean? He holds a standard before you and says, “This is what God has called you to.” He calls you to higher places, to meet a standard—not necessarily in perfection, but in surrender through what Christ has accomplished—and of the coming judgment.
He makes you keenly aware that we will all stand in judgment. He makes you aware that you will be accountable for your actions and that you will stand before God. He convicts the world of sin, of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.
Once you ignore that conviction, and you know it is the Holy Spirit, but you delay anyway, that delay becomes disobedience. I’m not talking about those who are sincerely waiting for confirmation from God. But you shouldn’t wait for confirmation if something is perfectly clear in Scripture.
James 4:17: “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
Psalm 32:1–5: “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty. When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night, Your hand of discipline was heavy upon me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Finally, I confessed all my sins to You and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord,” and You forgave me. All my guilt is gone.”
I know no individual more miserable than the disobedient believer—the one who gets stuck in that place where they know God has spoken something, yet they stubbornly refuse to turn. If you don’t respond to that consistent voice, if you don’t respond when He sends confirmation, if you don’t respond when He turns up the heat of conviction, God will turn to His last resort, and that is “chaos.”
6) Chaos.
I don’t mean disorder, because God is not a God of disorder; He’s a God of order. When I talk about chaos, I’m not speaking from God’s perspective. I’m saying it can seem chaotic from our perspective because God begins to disrupt the things that are not of Him.
If you ignore that conviction long enough, God will resort to chaos—not because He’s cruel or mean. Scripture is clear that He chastises those whom He loves.
Acts 27:9–11: “Now when much time had been spent, and sailing was now dangerous because the Fast was already over, Paul advised them, saying, ‘Men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also our lives.’ Nevertheless, the centurion was more persuaded by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the things spoken by Paul.”
They did not heed the voice of the Holy Spirit spoken through Paul the Apostle. He saw prophetically what was going to happen, and they ended up being shipwrecked.
The same thing happened to Jonah. God said, “Go one way,” and he went the other. So, God sent a whirlwind from heaven to destroy the ship. In Jonah’s case, God destroyed his means of disobedience.
People wonder, why do the wicked get away with so much? It’s because God is not destroying their means of disobedience. Why does it seem like when believers begin to disobey, suddenly it’s chaos, but not always for the wicked? It can seem like the wicked prosper because God’s hand is not on them in that way. It is His mercy that destroys your means of disobedience.
1 Corinthians 5:5: “To deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”
Scripture is not talking about a born-again believer becoming demonized. It refers to the attacks of the enemy that humble them, which God may allow—circumstances and chaos that can be incited by demonic power. God allows this to shake us out of complacency.
I am not saying that every time you face chaos it means you have disobeyed God. The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike; the sun shines on both as well. Everyone on earth will experience both good and evil in this lifetime. There will be trials and tragedies in every life because we live in fallen conditions.
But there are also specific situations that come as a result of God trying to get your attention. Maybe He is trying to get your attention now, and you feel tempted to close this page or scroll away because the conviction of the Holy Spirit is setting in.
You should heed the voice of the Holy Spirit. Surrender before God sends forth the whirlwind; surrender before He has to shake things up, before He has to chastise. That is a last resort. The Holy Spirit is speaking to you through God’s Word, showing that God will do what is necessary to get your attention.
Do not stifle the voice of the Holy Spirit. Do not ignore His leading. He is speaking to you right now. What is He asking you to do? What is He asking you to give up? Is there a relationship, a connection, an attitude, or a mindset He is asking you to surrender? Is there a step of faith He has required of you that you have withheld because of fear or selfishness? The Holy Spirit is saying, “Move.” When God says move, act when He speaks.
Respond to the voice of the Holy Spirit today. Lift your hands and say, “Lord, I surrender. Lord, I’m done running. I’m tired of doing it my way. I’m tired of being stubborn. Holy Spirit, you are so gracious, so merciful, so humble in nature to continue to speak to someone like me who ignores that conviction.”
I am pleading with you, child of God, listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit today. He is calling to you in love and mercy, saying, “Surrender.” Stop fighting His voice. You will not be able to bargain your way out of this. Heed the voice of the precious Holy Spirit.
