How do you know if it's God?

Q. I know someone who says God spoke to her in a dream. How do I know whether it was really God?

This is a question about discernment. In knowing what is or isn't "of God," there are at least three good sources of authority you can utilize.

1. The witness of Scripture. People love, of course, to pull out specific verses that they can use to "prove" or "disprove" things, but the best way to use it is as a whole, with an emphasis on the life and ministry of Jesus. In this case, Scripture shows us that God does in fact show up repeatedly in people's dreams, visions, musings, writings, and even in person.

2. The witness of God's people. The Bible and God's continuing interaction with creation is best interpreted in the context of a community of faith. The first thing young Samuel did when God called him in a dream was to go to Eli, his mentor in the church (1 Samuel 3). A great verse that tells about discernment in the New Testament church is Acts 15:28, in which the apostles say, "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and us…" There's the community of faith working to know God's will in the specifics.

3. The witness of the fruit that is borne (Matthew 7:16). The great evangelist, biblical scholar and teacher John Wesley was calm in the midst of the howling going on over women preaching in his day. In the end, he simply said that women's preaching bore great fruit, and people's lives were transformed as a result of his willingness to enable women to continue their service. With regard to dreams, the question to ask is how it played out. Did the results build the Kingdom? Were lives changed for the better?