How do I know God's voice from my own thoughts?

¹“Most certainly, I tell you, one who doesn’t enter by the door into the sheep fold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

²But one who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

³The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.

⁴Whenever he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

⁵They will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him; for they don’t know the voice of strangers.”

⁶Jesus spoke this parable to them, but they didn’t understand what he was telling them.

⁷Jesus therefore said to them again, “Most certainly, I tell you, I am the sheep’s door.

⁸All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them.

⁹I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will find pasture.

¹⁰The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.

¹¹I am the good shepherd.The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

¹²He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches the sheep, and scatters them.

¹³The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand, and doesn’t care for the sheep.

¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own;

¹⁵even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.

¹⁶I have other sheep, which are not of this fold.I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.

¹⁷Therefore the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again.

¹⁸No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down by myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. I received this commandment from my Father.”

¹⁹Therefore a division arose again among the Jews because of these words.

²⁰Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane! Why do you listen to him?”

²¹Others said, “These are not the sayings of one possessed by a demon. It isn’t possible for a demon to open the eyes of the blind, is it?”

²²It was the Feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem.

²³It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in Solomon’s porch.

²⁴The Jews therefore came around him and said to him, “How long will you hold us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

²⁵Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you don’t believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, these testify about me.

²⁶But you don’t believe, because you are not of my sheep, as I told you.

²⁷My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

²⁸I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

²⁹My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand.

³⁰I and the Father are one.”

⁶We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown; yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing.

⁷But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory,

⁸which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory.

⁹But as it is written, “Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear, which didn’t enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him.”

¹⁰But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

¹¹For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God, except God’s Spirit.

¹²But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God.

¹³Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.

¹⁴Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

¹⁵But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is judged by no one.

¹⁶“For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him?” But we have Christ’s mind.

¹⁶Rejoice always.

¹⁷Pray without ceasing.

¹⁸In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.

¹⁹Don’t quench the Spirit.

²⁰Don’t despise prophesies.

²¹Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good.

²²Abstain from every form of evil.

²³May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁴He who calls you is faithful, who will also do it.

¹⁰But you did follow my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness,

¹¹persecutions, and sufferings: those things that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I endured those persecutions. The Lord delivered me out of them all.

¹²Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

¹³But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

¹⁴But you remain in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them.

¹⁵From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

¹⁶Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness,

¹⁷that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

¹Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

²By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,

³and every spirit who doesn’t confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God, and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already.

⁴You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.

⁵They are of the world. Therefore they speak of the world, and the world hears them.

⁶We are of God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not of God doesn’t listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.