To reinforce your understanding more on how to know when the Holy Spirit is speaking to you without you hearing his voice, I will start by stating that human beings, are the best means of understanding the image of God.
Genesis 1:26
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
As Genesis 1:26 stated it above, God has an image, which is inherent in his invisible form.
Of course, no man can better understand the image of a Spirit form as it is invisible to the naked eyes. Thank God we are made in God's image. Intuitively, that implies if anyone wants to understand the image of God, all the person needs to do is to study himself or herself, as he or she is a replica of God in visible form.
To bring that analogy home, it means if God has eyes, then man, definitely, must be able to see, too.
Likewise, if God can walk, man then must possess legs, too.
Moving on, man can communicate with the aid of some parts of his body. However, mouth seems to be the best means of passing vital information to others.
As man can speak — and created in the image of God — God, his creator, too, will definitely possess same feature and exhibit the same function.
In a layman's language, God can speak or talk like we do. Or that should be better rephrased as man can speak like the Almighty God.
Now, to the aspect of communicating with others...
If you are right in front of a congregation of people, you can speak to all of them at the same time.
And if you like, you can decide to speak to few people sitting right in front of the congregation. In this case, only the people at front seats will hear you unlike when you are speaking to the whole congregation.
Also, you can decide to make only one person hear you even when there are hundreds of people sitting next to the person you are speaking to by just placing your mouth directly in the person's ear.
So...
From the aforementioned scenario, you would have grasped the fact that there was nothing magical or mysterious about hearing a voice alone even when other people are sitting next to you.
In the same vein, Holy Spirit can decide to speak to a large number of people in such a loud voice that everyone will hear him.
More so, he can decide to speak to one person in the midst of thousands of people without any other person hearing his voice just like the scenario I gave earlier about someone placing his mouth in the ear of another person.
Not understanding this simple concept while we were growing up in faith was why so many of us baby Christians of then almost turned our pastors to a kind of godhead that should almost be worshipped.
In retrospect...
I could remember attending a church service — many years back — where a typical scenario played out.
Hysterically, the pastor made everyone in the congregation to keep quiet because he claimed the Almighty God was talking.
As confusing as that sounds, no one heard this acclaimed voice of God except the pastor, himself.
That left me more astonished, as I kept wondering why only one person out of hundreds of people heard the voice of God.
The act made the pastor who heard the voice alone sound special in some way to us all who were in attendance.
As a young convert, I was inquisitive and confused at the same time.
Hearing The Voice Of The Holy Spirit Speaking To You
Thank God for spiritual growth in Christ, as no one can now hold us to ransom with such heretical mechanics.
We know better that God speaking to one person without making another to hear his voice is not magical or mysterious, it is just more or less like placing one's mouth in another's ear so as to ensure no one is privy to the information given.
If he wants everyone to hear the information he wants to pass across, then he will make everyone hear him.
For instance, during transfiguration of Jesus, the three disciples present heard the voice of God as he spoke...
Matthew 17:1-6
17 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves;
2 and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.
3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.
4 Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
5 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a VOICE CAME OUT OF THE CLOUD, SAYING, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!”
6 And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid
That statement made by God: "this is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" was heard by all the disciples present: Peter, James and John.
On the other hand, when he spoke to Samuel who stayed with Eli, the priest, only Samuel, the little boy, heard God's voice while he was in the same house with Eli.
1 Samuel 3:1-9
Now the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation.
2 And it came to pass at that time, while Eli was lying down in his place, and when his eyes had begun to grow so dim that he could not see,
3 and before the lamp of God went out in the tabernacle of the Lord where the ark of God was, and while Samuel was lying down,
4 that THE LORD CALLED SAMUEL. And he answered, “Here I am!”
5 So he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.”And he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” And he went and lay down.
6 THEN THE LORD CALLED YET AGAIN, “SAMUEL!” So Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” He answered, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.”
7 (Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor was the word of the Lord yet revealed to him.)
8 And The Lord Called Samuel again the third time. So he arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you did call me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord had called the boy.
9 Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and it shall be, if He calls you, that you must say, ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
The two instances above are enough to bring home the point I've been trying to hammer in this post that there is nothing mysterious in God communicating with man as many Christian read special meanings to it.
It's just more or less like Father speaking to his child or children.
I think the reason many Christian read special meanings to this kind of communication is probably because God is Spirit and man is human. These people actually forget that they are Spirits, too.
Don't misquote me, of course, God is special and Superior to all. Mind you, if you are the son of the president of United States of America, you won't necessarily feel anything special when your father is communicating with you.
However, when this your dad steps out to speak with other people, they feel privileged of being spoken to by the most powerful president in the world.
This is exactly what plays out in the mind of people when God speaks to them or to someone they know. They see it as something special or mysterious, which of course is absolutely unnecessary.
And then...
Don't feel anyone is more special than you because he or she is hearing God's voice when you can't hear him at that point in time.
Responding To The Voice Of The Holy Spirit Speaking To You
I can assure you that you, yourself, must have heard him speak to you before. It's just that most people don't know it's God who speaks to them in most cases.
As an example, I've heard people who said they heard someone spoke, and they asked the person close by what he or she said. To their amazement, these people they ask replied by stating that they didn't say anything.
In fact, little children often experience this same act of hearing a voice that tend to be more or less like the voice of their parents. As a result, they ask either their dad or mom of why they were being called for.
Trust African parents, once they hear that, they warn their children never to respond to such voice.
Unlike Eli, he told Samuel to answer the voice. In fact, he instructed the little boy to tell the voice to speak on, as he knew the voice would rightly be that of God.
Although I don't blame African parents from thinking otherwise, they know evil people seized this opportunity to perpetuate their evil acts.
I mean an evil person with a devilish power can speak directly to the Spirit of someone. Mind you, your spirit has a typical image of your body.
In other words, your spirit has ears just like you see in your body. So, whenever your spirit is being spoken to, it appears as if you are hearing the audible voice with your physical ears because your spirit is placed right inside your body, by God himself.
Paying close attention, the best way you will figure out that it is not your physical ears who heard the audible voice is when you look around and fail to see the person who spoke to you.
Back to the evil people attack...
These people can call the Spirit of someone, like the way God called Samuel. As we know from the experiences of people who fell for this mischievous scheme, once the person answers the devilish call, immediately the spirit of the person shows up to them and make the person susceptible to their evil plan.
Moving on...
Other Means Through Which Holy Spirit Speaks To His People
Holy Spirit is not confined by a single way of doing things or by a single method of communicating with man.
Because he is God, he will never act less of who he is.
He can decide to speak to you through the use of his voice.
Pay a close attention to me right here...
He can decide to speak to you through trance;
He can decide to speak to you through revelation;
He can decide to speak to you through vision;
He can also decide to speak to you through dreams;
He can decide to speak to you through impression...this is why I'm heading to in this expository, Christian, article.
You see...most Christians are so found of hearing from the Holy Spirit through all the means I mentioned above that when he decide to speak to them through impression, they miss out on him.
And it is quite unfortunate that many Christians have lost their lives, lost precious ones or things because they missed the impression of the Holy Spirit.
How do I mean?
Holy Spirit speaking to someone through impression is more or less like Holy Spirit speaking to your body by laying something heavily in your heart.
As an instance, if everything feels good about you going out, but it seems you don't feel like going out, that is mostly Holy Spirit speaking to your body (pay attention to my underlined conditional statement).
To add to that, if everything feels good about you marrying someone, but it seems you need to do some more findings, you'd better make more findings as that could be Holy Spirit speaking to your body.
More so, if a plate of heaven-looking food is given to you, but it seems you suddenly lose appetite, that can be the Holy Spirit speaking to your body.
So, it always something POSITIVE being accompanied with NEGATIVE body signs from the Holy Spirit.
Surprisingly, a lot of Christians are not even aware that Holy Spirit speaks to us through such means because they've always known it is a traditional practice to read body signs...like when your right palm scratches you, it means you should watch out, as it is a sign that money is coming to you in one form or the other.
And if your left palm scratches you, it means the opposite: money is going to be spent by you for one reason or the other.
And if your foot scratches you, it means you are going to be going to a new place sooner than later.
Those traditional practices should (and most) never allow you miss the impression from the Holy Spirit.
To round this off, a top American televangelist named Mike Murdock had dinner with the wife of his late pastor's friend who died in a plane crash.
While they were together, the wife made a statement that surprised him...that her husband felt like not flying that morning the plane crashed.
In fact, the late pastor revealed the feeling to her wife before he left the house. The urgency of the program he wanted to attend and the pressing need of the people who invited him took over his heart and made this great man of God ignored the impression Holy Spirit laid in his body.
And in less than one hour, he lost his dear life in a plane crash.
Don't ever think for once that Holy Spirit is to be blamed for not using other means of speaking to him.
Of course, Holy Spirit cannot be blamed for such an unfortunate event, as he spoke to the man of God about the impending danger. The unfortunate thing is just that he didn't know it was the Holy Spirit speaking to him when he felt uneasy about his traveling.
From all these, I believe you now know how to hear the Holy Spirit when he is speaking to you without you hearing his voice.
For more resources on hearing God or about the Holy Spirit, check out the posts below...
The Exact Meaning Of Blasphemy Against The Holy Spirit According To The Bible
What Most Preachers Don't Tell Us About The Holy Spirit
Shocking Facts About The Spirits Of The Dead & Other Spirits In Heaven
God The Holy Spirit In The Old Testament Bible
3 People Who Heard A Voice From Heaven In The Bible And What Happened To Them
Holy Ghost vs Holy Spirit
And don't forget to share this expository and life-saving article (by using the sharing button below) with friends and family so that you can save a life.
