Researchers estimate that over 6,000 thoughts pass through our minds in an average day.

And as a believer with the Holy Spirit resident inside us, we know that some of those thoughts are from God, because Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27).

When you believe in Jesus, you will start hearing the voice of Christ, but that doesn’t immediately guarantee that you will recognize Christ’s voice.

This leads to an interesting story on Faithwire, involving Pastor Timmy Hensel, who, along with his wife and two children, were attending the Kansas Chiefs Super Bowl parade and celebration on Wednesday, Feb 14, 2024.

Timmy pastors a Foursquare Church in Raytown, Missouri. He and his family were standing along the parade route when they decided to go to Union Station, where the players and coaches would be speaking.

They were sitting in the crowd when Timmy felt the Holy Spirit urging them to leave. When he mentioned it to his wife, she was getting the very same thought, and so they decided to leave.

This was complicated by the fact, that their favorite football player was just about to speak. How many in a similar situation would have shrugged off that inconvenient thought because our favorite player was about to speak.

But Timmy and his wife obeyed this prompting.

As they were leaving, they started receiving texts asking if they were alright, because gunfire had broken out at the very spot where they were sitting in the crowd.

That shootout that started during a confrontation between two groups ended up killing one person and injuring over 20 people, including children.

In an interview with CBN, Timmy said that when he looked at aerial photos of the scene, he saw blood on the ground exactly where his family had been sitting.

Incredibly, within the 6,000 thoughts that pop into our heads during the day, Timmy and his wife discerned Jesus’ voice and correctly heard that the Holy Spirit was speaking to them.

“It’s not just Sunday,” Timmy said in an interview with CBN. “It’s every moment, and so he is speaking all the time and [we need] to train ourselves to know the tone of the Shepherd’s voice, to know that He is speaking, He is guiding, and I’m really grateful for that.”

“I would encourage others to practice listening,” Timmy added. We do a lot of talking. We do a lot of praying, which is good, but listening is just as important because He has something to say.”

The Holy Spirit is speaking to us all the time, and amidst the clatter of thoughts that bombard our minds in a day, we must learn to discern Jesus’ voice.

It takes practice and training and as Timmy said, the Shepherd’s voice has a different tone. The tone is different with each individual, but this difference will set it apart from the thousands of thoughts that pop into our heads. We must learn to distinguish it.

The ability to consistently discern God’s voice is the key to the word of knowledge, where we receive divine revelation about a situation that we otherwise wouldn’t know, the word of wisdom, and the gift of prophecy.

But with the way things are going in the world, properly discerning the Holy Spirit’s voice will be an essential part of our walk with God.