How do I know that this is God's voice, and not my own, or from the evil one? Discerning God's will is a lifetime learning process. It is not a one-time thing, nor can it be “mastered” in a way that is foolproof. There are a lot of very good discernment methodologies out there, most notably, St. Ignatius' Discernment of the Spirits to help us discern God's will, which is one of the most important life skills to learn. And yet, it may take us a long time to master the skill. Having said that, there are basic concepts and life attitudes that can help us navigate through this maze of hearing God's voice in our lives.
First, we should simplify our lives. No one has a simple life these days. We are all bombarded by many different things: duties, information, ideologies, or even disasters in lives, oftentimes out of our control. We are anxious and worried about many things. Sounds familiar, right? Yes, Jesus told Martha, “there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” (Luke 10:42) We need to set our eyes only on one important treasure, and put aside the other lesser ones. “For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” (Matthew 6:21) In practice, that means having one or two simple goal(s) in life. Don't be greedy! Like Mother Mary, her goals in life was to focus on bringing up and serving her son Jesus; and to bring others to Him. That's all. It's simple. Based on that, she continued to respond to God's call, every moment, until the next prompt from God to “change course”. To be more exact, to finetune her course. Having only one or two thing(s) in her life, she could remain very focused. Not only could she pick up the minute movement of the Spirit in her life, but she could also recognize the subtle movement of the evil spirit who tried hard to take her eyes off God. These two “senses” helped her to choose the right thing and avoid the wrong one.
The second way to help us discern God's will is through Jesus' teachings. One vivid example is when Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) If our ultimate goal in life is to return to the Father's house, we need to listen to Jesus further. And He said, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) Here, Jesus actually teaches us how to discern God's will. We first need to stay focused by denying oneself, by choosing what God desires and not based on one's desires for pleasures, possessions and wealth, power and popularity. The next step is to take up one's cross daily by accepting and embracing life's challenges that are permitted by God, as a way to prune us. And finally, to follow Him by constantly listening to God's voice and follow closely. This is a simple and foolproof way to discern God's will. It sounds simple but doing it is difficult! Jesus knows that some of us will leave Him, because it is difficult to even hear about these instructions, let alone living them out, and persevering until the end. But Jesus does not back off from what He commands us to do, as that is the cost we need to pay, the cost and conditions of discipleship. And at the end, our effort will not go unnoticed. God will not hesitate to share His own glory with those who persevere until the end.
