God Speaking
My church placed an emphasis on the idea that God communicates with his followers. This doctrine can be substantiated with verses such as Mat. 14:26.
However in practice, I found the idea hearing from God incredibly frustrating. As a new Christian, I was told that God talks to us. I was told that if I had a problem, I should ask God what I should do to solve it. In later years I was even told by a Christian friend that God will tell you jokes. I felt like I was doing something wrong, or wasn’t a real Christian, because I never heard any words from God. I expected to hear something audible or similar, but nothing definite ever came.
After a while my confusion was reduced when a visitor preached that you can hear from God in a variety of ways eg feelings, circumstances, doors opening and closing, Scriptures being highlighted in your spirit etc.
When I got my first job, the issue became important to me because I wanted to leave and needed to know what direction to go in. I prayed and tried to follow where God led, but I didnt feel like God was providing a clear answer. I panicked big time. I didnt know what to do. Stay or Go? What did God want? I didnt know. I was very very stressed about this and got several people to pray with me. I felt that if I didnt do God's will, he might disown me. Finally I decided that although I heard nothing certain, God probably wanted me to stay, even though I really hated my job.
These sorts of experiences continued to a lesser degree. Never being certain what God wanted, although I really wanted to do his will. I found it very stressful. I started to think that maybe my church placed too much emphasis on hearing from God. Some of the people I worked with came from churches which didnt even believe in God talking to you, so I wondered why I was trying so hard. I decided it wasn’t worth all the stress. I decided that I had to seek God's will because the Bible says to, but I would now recognise that I'd usually have to decide things for myself rather than have God tell me stuff personally.
I found comfort when I heard an edition of the Christian radio show Focus on the Family, which said that many people run into problems in the area of hearing from God. The program said that people have died, got married to the wrong person... all sorts of problems from doing something that they mistakenly thought God was telling them to do. I also noticed that hearing from God seemed to be a bit 'hit and miss' for at least one of my leaders. Sometimes he would report that God told him that something would happen, and later we would find that the prediction was incorrect. Maybe God never really told me that I had to stay at that first job, I wondered in frustration. I have still never had an experience of being certain that God has spoken to me.