The Bible says "we're led forth with peace" (Isa. 55:12 KJV). It also says that, "He leads us beside still (or quiet) waters" (Ps. 23:2-3 KJV). These are all things to help us know when we're hearing from God, and when we are not. When we want to know if the Lord is leading us to do something, we can "look down in our spiritual hearts" and see if we have peace on the inside.
If we have peace in our spirits when we think about doing a certain thing, we can be fairly certain that the Lord is leading us to do it. But if there is turmoil in our hearts, or a struggle—anything other than peace—it's probably not God.
Peace is more of a feeling than it is a thought or words, isn't it? When we talk about the Holy Spirit leading us by peace, it's not words He's leading us with—it's the feeling of calmness down in our spiritual hearts
When God speaks to us He doesn't say "Now hear this! This is God speaking. This is what I want you to do." He's much more subtle than that. There may be times when a quick thought will come to you, or you will hear a couple of words in your spirit.
But most of the time, God's leading is a little more challenging to detect than that. That's why we say He has a "still small voice." It's not real obvious—like the bubbles that are so delicate. You have to be tuned in to what He's trying to say to you or you may miss it.
When you hear someone say, "I've really got a peace about that," you know that they have a good feeling in their hearts about a certain situation. They have a "green light" in their spirits. It's a feeling. They probably didn't hear God speak any words to them at all. It was just something they sensed inside.
When something happens and all of a sudden a person's heart is filled with confusion or fear, they say, "I lost my peace," or "I don't have any peace about that at all!" Right then, you can know the Lord is trying to get their attention. That's the red light going off in their spirit.
In order to learn to follow the voice of God, we have to really want to obey Him! We have to make a deliberate effort to learn to recognize His voice. Part of that effort comes in the form of spending time with Him in prayer, worship, and reading our Bibles.
Being "led by the Spirit" is what we call a "walk of faith." That's why the Lord isn't any more clear or obvious about what He says to us. If He was, following Him would be a "no-brainer" (we don't have to think about it).
But the way it is we have to have our ear tuned to Him all the time. Then when we hear Him say something to us, we have to step out in faith that we really did hear Him. Our whole Christian life is a walk of faith.
The Bible says, "The just shall live by faith," (Rom. 1:17) and "Without faith it's impossible to please Him," (Heb. 11:6). Being led by the Spirit is one of those areas where we live by faith.
Excerpt permission granted by Kids In Ministry International