Latest / Divine515 Podcast / How God Uses Peace, Scripture, and Prayer to Guide Your Decisions | Walking in Spiritual Discernment

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How God Uses Peace, Scripture, and Prayer to Guide Your Decisions | Walking in Spiritual Discernment · Divine515 Podcast

• 0:13
  - Welcome to the divine five one five pod
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  - podcast. Here is this week's devotional.
• 0:21
  - Hello, and welcome to daily prayer with Valerie
• 0:24
  - Brochu.
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  - It's my pleasure to be here and share
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  - hope and inspiration with you today.
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  - This week, week number three, we're gonna be
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  - talking about how God uses peace, scripture, and
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  - prayer to guide your decisions.
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  - I wanna start off the conversation by saying
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  - that
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  - we as believers often are waiting for dramatic
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  - signs from God while overlooking the ways he
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  - already provides direction.
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  - Now I don't know about you, but I'm
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  - sure if you're like me, there's always
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  - a point in your life where
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  - you wanna do something, but you're not quite
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  - sure if you should stop or if you
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  - should go.
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  - And what exactly does that look like? Right?
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  - Well,
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  - sometimes it's it's a faith walk. Right?
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  - Because there can be any number of things
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  - that can cause us to to pause.
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  - And usually, a lot of times, that key
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  - thing is often
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  - fear.
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  - And so
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  - while we we have to use faith with
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  - everything we do,
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  - I am so glad to know that God's
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  - word
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  - is it really is a lamp,
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  - a guide to help us.
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  - And when we mix it with our our
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  - faith
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  - and and we just meditate, just sit still
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  - before God, he really does get us where
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  - it is that we need to be.
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  - Now God often
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  - guides through his word prayer and peace and
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  - wise counsel rather than extraordinary
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  - experiences.
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  - And I think this is really important
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  - to remember
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  - because
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  - we often look for the sensualized thing. Right?
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  - We we we look for some dramatic thing
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  - to happen.
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  - But it's not in
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  - the the
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  - amazingly
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  - big things
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  - that that god gets our attention.
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  - Right? Because he's often comp competing with distractions
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  - in any number of things.
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  - But
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  - it's in those quiet moments
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  - when we actually
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  - calm ourselves down,
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  - where we can hear
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  - that still
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  - soft voice.
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  - I love how in Colossians three and fifteen,
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  - it says, let the peace of Christ
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  - rule in your hearts.
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  - We are faced with any number of things
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  - that can cause us to feel emotional turmoil.
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  - But
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  - the beautiful thing
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  - about what we're going through, regardless of what
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  - we're going through,
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  - is that
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  - despite the intensity of it all, spiritual discerning
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  - isn't complicated.
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  - But it does require some attention
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  - on our part.
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  - God has already given us the tools we
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  - need to recognize
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  - his direction.
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  - He gives us his word
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  - that provides truth. He he swears by his
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  - truth.
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  - That's how the the the heavens and the
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  - earth were,
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  - were formed. And I always jokingly say you
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  - should never argue with the truth, AKA God,
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  - because you won't win.
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  - It's through prayer
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  - because prayer is what develops intimacy.
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  - I often say that
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  - it's more important to God than it is
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  - to us
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  - how important the relationship is because he's always
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  - got something to say about our relationship.
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  - And his heart always aches to be with
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  - us,
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  - probably more so than we
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  - ache and should pursue being with him.
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  - And it's the peace
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  - that surpasses
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  - all understanding
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  - in the midst of all of the chaos
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  - and the turmoil
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  - that acts as a spiritual indicator.
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  - It's the wise counsel that provides confirmation.
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  - You know? In the previous
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  - episode, I talked about
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  - how
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  - we are
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  - like sheep,
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  - and the sheep know the shepherd's voice.
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  - And I use the example that
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  - in The Middle East, there are still shepherds,
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  - and the shepherds
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  - will sometimes,
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  - come and they'll talk to each other. And
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  - while they're talking, the sheep are intermingling with
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  - each other. But when that shepherd
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  - leaves,
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  - he calls to the to to the sheep.
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  - However, he calls to them and they follow
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  - him.
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  - And
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  - it's that same kind of concept that God
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  - uses in our everyday lives. It's the situations
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  - on our jobs or with our families or,
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  - a financial situation
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  - that he uses
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  - to to drive us to his word, to
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  - test where we're weak at. And when we
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  - when we're put up against that litmus test
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  - and and fight it effectively
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  - through prayer,
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  - he gives us the peace.
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  - He gives us the wisdom. He'll provide
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  - the discernment that we need. And when these
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  - align,
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  - discernment becomes so much clearer,
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  - and that's the end game.
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  - God is more committed to guiding his children
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  - than we are finding his direction.
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  - It's as if to say, we, as sheep,
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  - we do really go astray. We get distracted
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  - easily,
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  - but he never gives up on us. And
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  - he's so committed
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  - to us being
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  - emotionally and spiritually
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  - healthy and building our character that sometimes he
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  - allows the hardships to come to drive us
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  - to him.
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  - And the challenge is often
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  - learning to trust the guidance he has already
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  - provided.
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  - Discernment is less about finding hidden answers and
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  - more about walking closely with the one who
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  - leads. So
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  - minimize the distractions and stay close to your
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  - shepherd.
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  - That being said,
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  - let's pray.
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  - Heavenly father,
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  - help us to recognize the ways you are
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  - already
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  - guiding us.
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  - Give us peace,
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  - wisdom, and clarity
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  - as we seek your direction.
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  - And teach us to trust your leading
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  - every single day in Jesus' name. Amen.
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  - If you are enjoying this series and growing,
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  - hit follow so you don't miss next week's
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  - devotional.