How to tell hype from the Holy Spirit

This is the question I get most after I speak, usually near the stage, usually from someone who has been faking fine for a while: how do I know if what I felt in there was God or just the room?

I do not think we should be paranoid about our emotions. But I do think we should be patient with them. Here are four tests I run now, and none of them can be applied in the moment. All of them require time — which is exactly why hype hates them.

One: does it survive Thursday? Hype has a half-life of about seventy-two hours. The Spirit's work is still there next week, quieter but load-bearing.

Two: does it make me more like Jesus or just more impressed with the experience? If I walk out talking mostly about the moment, the moment was the point. If I walk out gentler with my wife and slower to snap at my kids, something real happened.

Three: does it send me toward people or away from them? Genuine encounter almost always ends in obedience that costs something and involves somebody else. Hype ends in a repeat purchase.

Four: can it handle being unnoticed? If I need it seen to keep it alive, it was performance wearing worship's clothes.

Grace on all of this. I failed every one of these tests for years and God did not leave. He just kept whispering until the noise died down enough for me to hear it.