On hearing from God/ What God has promised you…

**seeking opinions and educated guesses so please feel free to comment**

I’d really like to know how one knows when God is speaking to them.

I often hear people say “God spoke to me/God wants this for me/God promised me”. That, and the numerous songs like ‘He’s able’ and ‘Already Done’ that talk about how God will fulfill the promises He’s made to you etc.

My question is this; How do you know that this is what God wants for you? How do you know that it isn’t just what you want? Perhaps, so fiercely and desperately that you convinced yourself that God wants it for you because that is the only way you can make sense of how badly you want it.

I’m asking because we, as human who speak the same language, face to face, with the ability and time to clarify and explain; still manage to make a glorious mess of communicating.

We sit in front of each other and talk at cross purposes, have heated arguments based on the tiniest miscommunication. We stop talking to each other for years, harbor feelings of resentment and even go to war (literally) because we fail so heavily at communicating. How do we know that we’re not, in the same vein, misunderstanding God.

I often watch people fighting, holding on to something that’s toxic or even on to a dream that seems good (in that if it succeeds, it’s expected to glorify God’s kingdom). I see people looking at other’s “accomplishments” and thinking they should have the same; like we’re all meant to have the same things or we’re all meant to have everything we have convinced ourselves we deserve.

Sometimes I wonder if God is watching us like say things like “God put this dream in my heart/He promised me…” and He’s like….”Yeah… nope. I did not say/promise you that.”