That Little Voice in Your Head
Categories: Bible Study Lessons“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” is the famous line from the Wizard of Oz wherein the “wizard” doesn’t want Dorothy and the others to know what is actually going on. Once his “magic” is revealed for what it really is, Dorothy and the others are no longer intimidated by the “wizard” and he is free to give them what they have actually had all along.
It seems to me that many people view the inner workings of their mind in just this way. God has created man with unique mental faculties. We have a reasoning mind; we have a conscience; we have a will; we have emotions. Each of these aspects of the human psyche operate together to make us what we are, namely, a functioning human being.
There are times when we hear the proverbial voice of reason. We need to hear that voice when we are studying for an exam or trying to get certification for a particular job. God appeals to our reason (Isaiah 1:8) when trying to convince us of our need for repentance and salvation.
There are other times when our conscience speaks to us. When we have done something wrong and that “little voice” in our head condemns us for what we have done. The conscience is part of God’s design and it is there to either approve our actions or accuse us of wrong (Romans 2:15). The conscience is a powerful part of our psyche. Well meaning individuals may confuse their conscience for the direct operation of the Holy Spirit.
Another part of the psyche is the will. When we need to do something and it must be done, people will talk about willing themselves to do it. That “small voice” may be saying, “Let’s do this; get going!” The human will is a powerful force that moves us to action. John 7:17 says that we have to will to do God’s will.
We then have our emotions. They are numerous and powerful. Emotions can take us to dizzying heights and they can also bring us down to the depths of despair. Emotions play their role in the human psyche as well. Good emotions may be experienced when we’ve done well. Bad emotions are experienced when we do otherwise. Emotions also move us one way or the other to take action. Happiness, sadness, love, hate, anxiety, contentment: these are all emotions that we may experience and there are many more. Emotions also are often confused as the act of God in one’s life.
Perhaps most importantly, when all four of these parts of our psyche work together, we can experience strong urges and have powerful experiences. We may get confused and believe that we are experiencing something that we are not actually experiencing, like Dorothy and her friends. We may also attribute our experiences to something other than ourselves, when we have it with us all along.
God can certainly be credited with creating us with such wonderful mental faculties; we also can credit the Holy Spirit for inspiring the source of information upon which our psyche can base its decisions. In that way, God/the Holy Spirit is indirectly responsible for what happens in the Christians life when the Christian bases his decisions upon God’s word. However, let’s not conclude that “little voice” is the Holy Spirit when God has created us with such tremendous faculties of mind.