If you spend time around Christians, or listen online to various Christian YouTubers, you surely have heard someone say, “God told me_____(fill in the blank).” Could it be true that God actually told this person something? And, how does one know it isn’t just one’s own desire to hear what I want to hear?

Pastor Allen Parr explains in this video on his YouTube channel, The Beat,  why we should think twice before we claim we heard from God. He says before you say the words, “God told me,” you should ask yourself, How do I know, without any doubt that it was God speaking to me? Allen doesn’t say it is impossible for God to speak to us, but we need to learn to be discerning about it.

Allen lays out this principle:

Outside of the Word of God, there is not a 100 percent sure way for any of us to know that God has spoken to us apart from the Word of God. Why? Because we are introducing the potential of human error.

Questions reviewed in this video are the following:

Why we shouldn’t use the words, “God told me.”

Why do people say, “God told me.”?

When should we say, “God told me.”?

When should we not say, “God told me.”?