The Voice of God vs The Voices in My Head

 "The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon" -Psalm 29:5 

As someone with Schizoaffective Disorder, I am very familiar with experiencing voices in my head. For some reason they are always negative and I am not really sure why but I know that they are troublesome. There are times when the voices in my head tell me that people in my church are worshiping me and that they are praying to me in Bible Study too. I also hear voices that command me to hit people and to drive cars off of bridges. The voices in these times are sometimes soft-spoken but other times they are very loud. When they are soft-spoken I can easily ignore them but when they get loud I usually have to remove myself from the area that I am in until the voices subside. The thing that helps me in these periods of time is the Word of God. I know that it is imperative that I stay grounded in God's word. This ends up helping because I know that when the voices tell me something that contradicts God's word that the voices are clearly wrong. Does this make the voices go away? Absolutely not! As a matter of fact, sometimes the voices will get even louder. However, I know that no matter how loud the voices get that the voice of the Lord is even louder and He speaks clearly to my mind and my heart. A verse that really helps me in these troublesome times is Proverbs 3:5-6 which says, 

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths"

According to this scripture, as long as I wholly trust in the Lord instead of my own vain reasoning He will guide me. This really resonates with me because on top of the voices that I experience I also experience delusions as well. It is because of my delusions that I experience that I know that I cannot trust my own thoughts, feelings, and perception. As a matter of fact, most of the time I cannot even trust my own personal experience at all because my mind often tricks me into seeing things that are not in touch with reality. All that I have is the word of God. The Bible is what keeps me grounded in reality and without the Bible I would be lost. So, because of my mental illness the Lord has really shown me what it means to be utterly dependent on Him for my sustenance, my well-being, and even my sanity. Actually, this reminds me of when Jesus was enduring the wilderness temptation in Matthew 4. After He just finished fasting for 40 days, the devil came to Him saying "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread" and Jesus responded with, "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God". I believe that this was a real temptation for Christ because He was indeed human but His response to the temptation is very profound. He basically tells the devil that man cannot survive by food alone and that man needs the word of God in order to survive. In my life I found this truth to be a reality because I desperately need God's word just to get through the day. Sometimes I cannot even get through a moment without the word of God. It is because of this that I have realized that I am totally helpless without God. The lesson I want you, the reader, to get out of this is that you are no different from me. Whether or not you have a mental illness, you still need God's word in your life. It is the height of human arrogance for man to think that he can travel through life without God, who is always sustaining him and providing for him too. We cannot even breathe without God giving us breath. In other words, we "live and move and have our being" in Him (Acts 17:20). Every single one of us is already utterly dependent on Him. I just have a literal constant reminder of this fact that I deal with on a daily basis. 
Voice of Truth by Casting Crowns

-David Lee Chu Sarchet
Christian Mental Health Advocate 

For 24 hour peer support, please call the Christ-Centered Mental Health ministry line at 567-343-3727 or email me at christmentalhealth@gmail.com Lydia Sarchet: mrssccmh@gmail.com Britton Garleb: britaingabriel@protonmail.com Joe Roman: Twiztedmembrain@gmail.com Scott AKA Johnny Kangaroo: scottsoconmhs@outlook.com Dwayne McLeod: psyconatics@gmail.com Veronica Talbot: vtalbot747@gmail.com Amber Williams: shayneedm18@gmail.com Chuck Ward: wcw50@aol.com Sarah Olivia: sarahjesseolivia@gmail.com Amber Marie: amarie0193@gmail.com Zachary Uram: Netrek@gmail.com Joseph McDermott: jpmlovesjesus@live.com
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