Latest / Believe & Become | Ministry, Biblical Encouragement, God's Will, How to Change, Holy Spirit / 27. Hearing God Clearly When It Feels Hard

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27. Hearing God Clearly When It Feels Hard · Believe & Become | Ministry, Biblical Encouragement, God's Will, How to Change, Holy Spirit

• 0:00
  Speaker A: 2026 is the year of New Vision in the Lord. He wants to speak to you, he is speaking to you and he's renewing your hopes and dreams. He's giving you clear vision, clear direction and clear purpose for 2026.
• 0:30
  Speaker B: If you're tired of others while secretly battling doubt, discouragement and mental warfare and.
• 0:36
  Speaker C: You want practical tools to renew your mind and walk boldly in your calling.
• 0:39
  Speaker B: As a leader, you're in the right place. Welcome to Believe and Become.
• 0:43
  Speaker C: We're Josh and Karina, your spirit filled coaches, here to help you overcome those limiting beliefs and lead others confidently.
• 0:50
  Speaker B: If you're ready to hear God's voice more clearly, to step into your purpose and find joy and strength in the.
• 0:55
  Speaker C: Everyday, silence those Bible app reminders judging you from your lock screen and let's jump in.
• 1:07
  Speaker B: Hey friend, here's a quick invitation before we dive in. If you're a spirit filled Christian in leadership, whether you're a pastor, business owner or a stay at home mom, and you're feeling stretched thin, stuck and overthinking or unsure how to break through what's holding your back, you're not alone. We'd love to invite you to our brand new Facebook group, Overcome Limiting Beliefs for Christians in Leadership. It's a space for faith filled leaders like you to be refreshed, encouraged and equipped to renew your mind and lead from God's presence, not pressure. Inside, you'll find community, practical guidance and uplifting conversations that help you step into greater clarity, peace and purpose. Come join us. Follow the link in the show notes. We'll meet you there.
• 1:49
  Speaker C: Well, welcome back to the podcast. We are going to be talking about hearing God's voice in the new year and over the new year. It's so amazing when we get to hear what God says about our year to plan with purpose and with intentionality. And so we've invited our good friend Janet Hunter to share today about how she hears God's voice, about how she plans for her new year and all of the things that go into that. Janet is a good friend. She is a student in the Backland Leadership Academy and I've had the privilege of getting to know her this year. She is wildly prophetic. She hears the Lord so well. She's a beliefs trainer as well. So I'm excited to get to hear what you have to share today. Janet, welcome.
• 2:34
  Speaker A: Thank you. Corinna and Josh, lovely to see you. It's an exciting day because God is with us and he's wanting to know us and share his heart with us More and more in this new year.
• 2:48
  Speaker C: Amen. Well, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, where you live, what you do, all the good stuff.
• 2:54
  Speaker A: All the good stuff. Well, I live in Australia in the southern part where it's a bit colder, near a place called Warrnambool. I live on a farm and I work in the dairy industry. So I grew up on a dairy farm and I am now a farm consultant and I work with dairy farmers to help them achieve their goals and setting their strategies up, which is good fun. And I've also started a new business. I'm setting up a quilting business. So I've bought a long arm quilting machine and I'm setting up my house to be a quilt shop, but also an encounter house. So what I'm calling Encounter House. So I'm going to be running Crafternoon Teas where people can come and hang out and get to, you know, together. But it's a good time to interact and just share our lives together and get to know one another and support one another, which is, yeah, my vision for that.
• 3:51
  Speaker B: Wow, love that.
• 3:52
  Speaker A: And I have a family. I've got four children and three grandchildren, which are the joy of my life. Grandchildren are fabulous.
• 4:03
  Speaker C: That's what we hear.
• 4:06
  Speaker A: They are. They make having children worthwhile.
• 4:15
  Speaker C: Tell us about some of the ministry roles that you carry and what that looks like for you. I don't think you're leading a ministry right now, but what kind of ministry roles are you involved in?
• 4:26
  Speaker A: So I'm actually leading a youth group at the moment. We've just started that. And I used to run the Kids Alive program, but, yeah, technically I'm not paid to do any of that sort of stuff. I just volunteer in our church and lead up. I'm in our prayer team and I do beliefs training, so that's probably my favourite bit.
• 4:49
  Speaker C: That's great.
• 4:50
  Speaker A: Because our beliefs are so, so, so important to how we walk our fai because it's very hard to walk in faith when we're believing a lie.
• 5:02
  Speaker C: Yes, don't we know it?
• 5:05
  Speaker A: And the evil one's assignment is to use lies to steal, kill and destroy the seeds that God's put in our heart. Unfortunately for him, God's seeds, his word in our hearts grow despite his best efforts. Because we all know Hairy Legs is only a created being and God is God. Amen to that. I love it.
• 5:31
  Speaker B: So good. Jen, let's dive in here. We would love to hear what your experience is, hearing God's voice. Do you have any and Share any fun stories you have about what God's spoken to you and how that's shown up in your life?
• 5:44
  Speaker A: Sure. I think one of my fun stories, I'll tell you. It was years ago. I was starting to realize that I could hear God's voice. And I was doing a program where we. I can't even remember what it was called, but half of the group was sent off to listen for God while the other half were ministering to them. And we'd write down what we got on a piece of paper and we'd put it underneath the door. And that would. Then, you know, they would share that with the people that they were ministering to and see what God was saying. And I think the thinking behind that is, well, we don't know who's in that room. Therefore, what we're listening for and what we're getting is from God. It's not from us because we don't know who you are. You know, I went along to that with that trepidation of, do I really hear from God? Is this just bollocks or what? Or, you know, I'm not feeling the confidence here. Yeah. But anyway, I got this. I got this word, and it was graduation ball. And I thought, graduation ball. Well, maybe they graduated from something. And I wrote it down on the piece of paper in capitals. Graduation ball. I didn't make any. I didn't hear anything other than that. Anyway, after the session, they came out and they were sharing testimonies from those sessions. And the lady who was being ministered to, she said, I don't know who wrote down graduation ball, but you even put it in capitals. That was the ballet. I didn't know it was a ballet.
• 7:20
  Speaker B: Ballet.
• 7:23
  Speaker A: That was the ballet that I injured myself and wrecked my entire dance career. And God spoke into that particular word and that moment and took her and healed her of so many things in that session because of those words that the Lord had given me, which was graduation ball. So it was like, so he does talk to me. And that wasn't a voice that I heard as such. It was just a knowing. And I think that's the hardest gifting of hearing the Lord to take a grip of. And that's the one I've been blessed with. That's the channel that I've got. And it's like, I just know things. And I can't explain why I know things and I know where it comes from now. But years ago, I would just completely ignore it because I would think it's. It's just all in your head, Mrs. McCready. It's all in your head. It wasn't. It was the Lord speaking to me. So when I came to the realization that that's actually God speaking to me, I was gone. All these years he's been talking to me, and I didn't know it. Why don't we tell people this? Like, 20 years I've been hearing God and didn't realize it. So. Wow. So that's the one thing I would say to people, is if you believe the lie that he doesn't talk to you, well, I'll just let you know it is a lie, because he's more interested in talking to us than we are of hearing from him. And he might be talking to you on a channel that you're just not recognizing. So some of the other channels that he's been using in my life, and I'm sure this is similar to others, is the environment is you just can feel him in creation. I can go into creation and just feel his presence. And I never realized that was God either. And when I'm in. In his environment, in that. In that zone, so to speak, I get covered in peace. And when you're in peace, it's so much easier to hear him, because there's no striving in heaven. It's like striving is. It's like the static on your radio if you, you know, change the channel to the one that's clear is the other thing. Another one that mucks up your channel is when you're really emotional and emotionally attached to things. That makes it challenging to hear clearly. But another channel that he uses for me is songs. And I think you poor people have experienced that. The first time I realized that it was God speaking to me through song, and I released that song. So it's sort of a prophetic song. I was during time with the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, and we were doing prophetic sessions with people over zoom, and I got this song, and I was like, oh, I got this song. And I just felt him say, sing it. So I sang this song over the person, and God just moved so powerfully through that song. And the person we were ministering with, they just started weeping. And the other prophetic minister, he nearly fell off his cheek. And I thought, God speaks through songs. Who would have thought? The Bible is full of songs and thoughts is another thing that he speaks to me through is I just get these random thoughts and ideas that just bang into my head, and it's like they're actually from God, he's speaking to me through my mind. And I didn't realize until I was in BSSM that I had never surrendered my mind to the Lord. So you remember that old song, I surrender all. I surrender all to you, my precious Savior. And I'll give you my heart, I'll give you my soul, but nobody talks about your mind. And I thought, wow, well, I've never surrendered my mind to Christ. And I always had this plethora of thinking around my mind being evil. And, you know, who understands the thought of man? And there's this subtle lie that had come through the teaching in the church, is that our minds don't trust your mind because you know, that's where evil comes from. You think so? You are so. You know, I had believed these lies that my mind was evil. And when I surrendered it to the Lord and I thought, the truth is, I have the mind of Christ. Yes, you know, that's the truth. And he plants things in my mind, and I just need to hear him. I need to tune in and make sure I'm hearing. And sometimes he changes channels. He does. He changes it up. And I think that's partly because he wants us to keep coming back and not. Not get complacent in thinking that, you know, we've got all of him because he's so much bigger. Just so much bigger. And Josh, when you were leading that beliefs training thing, that was the next one is smell. That's one he's been doing for me lately is smell. Supernatural smells. And it's like. It's like a little love note that he's giving us and leading us down a path of there's a smell in the room. Wonder what that means. And it's an invitation to engage with him more. And that's what he does when he changes channels. It's an invitation to engage with him more. It's not the lie that I can't hear him because he's designed me to hear from him because that scripture in John says, my, the shepherd knows his sheep and the sheep hears his voice. So I hear him. It's just whether I've tuned in or not.
• 13:46
  Speaker B: Yeah, I love that. That's such a great tip. Sometimes we get frustrated when it feels like we're not hearing God. Sometimes he's just like you said, change the channel. He wants to talk to us in a new way and expand our relationship with him, expand our ability to experience him in new way. And so I love that. It's an invitation just to lean in and to Try and hear him in a new way. That's great.
• 14:09
  Speaker C: That's so good.
• 14:10
  Speaker A: And I have got stuck at times, especially when it's very emotive, when I'm feeling very emotional about things and I can't get out of my own way. And that's where beliefs training is really fantastic. Because coming in and just sitting with somebody else who's hearing and exploring what I'm actually believing.
• 14:35
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 14:35
  Speaker A: Because there is assignment behind every lie that the enemy sends our way. And being able to see that and recognize that sometimes we need help and it's not a problem to seek people to, you know, get help. I don't have to do it by myself. And that's one thing that I've really learned over the years is God designed us for community. If we're feeling stuck, reach out. We're part of the community because, you know, as iron sharpens iron, we need one another to sharpen our tools. And there's an old saying, you know, a coal by itself goes out easily, but if you put the coal next to other coals, it keeps burning. There's nothing wrong with reaching out and taking the hand of your fellow brother and sister in Christ and asking them for advice and asking them to encounter the Lord with you, to seek his wisdom more. Because that leads me to a particular place. That was hard for me is when I got it really wrong. I let my emotions and my fundamental desires and needs. So I got divorced a long time ago from my first husband. And then I met this lovely man. But I met him. And I walked into that relationship with an emptiness in my heart, a complete emptiness in my heart. And I was so wounded and alone. And I believed the lie that I wasn't good enough and that I would be alone forever and be insignificant. So I was coming from a place of false identity, and I basically talked myself into marrying this man. That was a big mistake. And I didn't hear. I didn't hear clearly because I had so much static, that of pain and loss that I hadn't dealt with very well. And, yeah, I just believed the lie that, yes, this was the man for me. Even though I had a very loving brother in Christ that said, no, this is a mistake. And I said, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm sure this is where I meant to go. Yeah.
• 17:03
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 17:03
  Speaker A: If you're worried about making a mistake when you're hearing the Lord, just look at what's motivating me. What desires and things haven't I been met? And am I possibly hearing my Emotions and needs as opposed to what God's speaking into your life. That's a hard lesson, I must admit. It was a hard lesson. A lot of pain and tears over that one.
• 17:28
  Speaker C: There's such wisdom to. To say, God, I. I don't know if I'm hearing you and reaching out to somebody else. That's. That can feel hard in the moment, because I think often we know and we don't want to hear that she was there.
• 17:44
  Speaker A: I did. I did know, and I didn't want to hear that.
• 17:47
  Speaker C: And so we continue on our merry way and just shut people out instead of really setting aside our. All of the emotions and the feelings and saying, help me see the truth. I think that's. It's so wise. So that's such good advice.
• 18:03
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 18:03
  Speaker C: Thank you.
• 18:04
  Speaker A: Especially when you're a feeler and a knower. Like, I'm a feeler as well. I feel environments. I can feel. I'll walk into a place and I can feel the spirit that's there.
• 18:16
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 18:17
  Speaker A: And I think for people like myself, that it's really, really important to a run it past the scriptures. That's always. That's the 101 of hearing God's voice, but also running it past other people as well. Because we only prophesy in part, not in whole. We need each other.
• 18:40
  Speaker C: That's so good. And that's such. So huge for so many people that we've talked to and engaged with through our podcast. That sense of community, that something that they long for. But I think that often we are so independent that we want the community without the vulnerability. And if you want community that feels like family, you have to be willing to say, hey, here's where I'm struggling. Help me hear God on this. I really see that you hear, well, help me in this area. You know, that's. That's huge. And so I love that so much.
• 19:11
  Speaker A: And I think there's also a bit of wisdom in picking out people who do speak life into you.
• 19:18
  Speaker C: Yeah, right. Someone that will keep you burning. Well, so have you ever experimented with prophesying over your new year? So this is really where we want to get to is what does it look like to prophesy over your year or to partner with the Lord for what he's saying?
• 19:37
  Speaker A: One thing that we did in the women's conference that we did not long ago, Wendy talked about sitting with God and imagining God. That's another point, is using the power of your imagination. So when I'm spending time with God, I use my imagination A lot. Because I have a sanctified mind. And he uses my imagination. And I see pictures. I don't see pictures. I feel pictures. I know that sounds weird, but I don't actually see them. But I can feel them. It's like, unless you do that same.
• 20:13
  Speaker C: I'm the same.
• 20:14
  Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, good. Yes. I'm not alone.
• 20:17
  Speaker B: I don't know how to feel a picture.
• 20:18
  Speaker C: He's always like, I'm like.
• 20:20
  Speaker A: It was.
• 20:20
  Speaker C: It's like I could. I don't know how to explain it.
• 20:23
  Speaker A: You don't.
• 20:23
  Speaker C: But that's exactly it. You feel the picture.
• 20:26
  Speaker A: Yep, Yep. I know. It's weird. I do see things as well. In dreams, but. Yeah. Anyway, part of. Part of what Wendy. Wendy and Connie were doing was getting us to imagine ourselves 2026, at Christmas time. What was happening as you gathered? And I put myself in that position. I let my spirit rise up and I imagined that place and just said, lord, what does this look like? And he gave me a picture of my family, all of my family together. So my four children at the table together, which is not what's happening at the moment. Okay. So that was inspiring. And then we were discussing two books that I'd written. So part of my journey with BLA Is my dream project is to write a book. I'm in the process of doing that now. But it wasn't just one book. It was two books. And it's like, wow. So envisaging that. And it's like, well, that is fairly similar to what you're talking about right here is, well, what's God doing in the next 12 months? So what's he got planned for you? So my thing would be, okay, let's Envisage, what is 2026 Christmas going to look like to you and see where the Lord takes you in that. So that's what my vision for 2026 is. So I had planned to do a walk along the Camino. So it's going to happen and finish writing a book. And the second book will be about the trip on the Camino trails.
• 22:11
  Speaker C: Wow, that's wonderful. I love that. I love that you. You said, this is what I saw. And so this is what I'm gonna do. And I think that's one way that we can partner with God, right? We. We see what he is speaking out over the next 12 months. And then we say, okay, this is maybe what I'm already doing, that I can shift towards what God is saying. But how can we partner with what God is saying over our New Year Besides, like, you are already writing a book that's kind of like part of what you're doing. What if God says, you know, I don't know, what if there's something else that pops in and you're like, oh, okay, how do we partner with what he says?
• 22:51
  Speaker A: Well, we use our pillar of intentionality and we plan it. Yes. That's so good. So I love that. I suppose capturing the vision is the first step, and the second step is making sure we. Our beliefs are in line with the vision.
• 23:12
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 23:12
  Speaker A: And quite often, if it's from God, it's bigger than what you can do. There's no way I can do this without him. There's no way. No way. Therefore. Therefore, I need to get my beliefs to where they need to be so that I can actually implement the plan. So sitting with him and looking at the time, like, blocking out the time, and you go, well, that means this has got to happen by then. To be able to do that, that's part of that planning process. But it's also, what do I need to believe? And instilling those, putting them in my declarations and walking those out. So one of the things that I've done to be proactive and intentional on what I'm doing is I've added declarations in on this whole thing. So I'm saying, I am an author now. That is a huge thing. Grow. I failed English. I can't spell. So if. If I'm looking at my past experience to give me motivation, well, it's just going to tell me I'm failing, you know, because I've failed, that I've failed English. I get my words fracked a month all the time. But that's not who he created me to be. I don't get my hopes from my past experience. I get my faith from who God says I am. So, and he says, I'm an author. And he says that my family is connected, loving, kind, and full of his favor. So that's my second step, is getting my beliefs right and making declarations. 63 days of declarations to change the neural pathway in your head so that your head and your heart align. So when I first started saying I am an author, it felt. Felt so wrong, so wrong. But now it's who I am. It's who I am because God says that's who I am. And the other thing that I'm actively doing is partnering with God with that to show me and ask him, what does this look like? So one of the lies that I was believing And I. I walked through many beliefs, training, and it was like, what does the lie look like that I'm not an author? And I saw a piece of paper with a dirty, great big black ink stain in the middle. And in my imagination, I poured the blood of Jesus onto that black spot. And I just watched it melt away. And then the paper became luminescent. It was almost too bright to look at, but it was so white and bright, it was completely clear. And then I asked him, well, what are you giving me in return? What gift are you giving me? And he gave me this gold feather fountain pen. And this is five minutes of time, maybe. And it spoke so deeply in me. And as I was writing with it, the blood came out. The blood of the lamb came out, the blood disappeared and became these little swords that just floated off the page. And it was like, it's not me writing, it's the blood of the lamb that's writing. And those words are the sword of his spirit. So that fundamentally changed something in me. Absolutely.
• 27:15
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 27:16
  Speaker A: And it's got that pathway from here to here that I. I am an author. No matter what my past says, no matter what the teachers said, no matter what. There were so many lies. All those lies just melted away in that five minute encounter with the Lord. Five minutes of his vision to renew the seeds that he designed me with. You know, he's so good at that. Yeah, yeah. And that's what I see for the listeners. Today is 2026, is the year of new vision in the Lord. He wants to speak to you. He is speaking to you, and he's renewing your hopes and dreams. He's giving you clear vision, clear direction, and clear purpose for 2026.
• 28:23
  Speaker C: Amen.
• 28:24
  Speaker B: So good. That's a great word for the year.
• 28:27
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 28:27
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Thank you, Janet, for just sharing your experience. And you just carry this joy and this childlikeness to go after the Lord and to experience Him. I love that story. One encounter with the Lord can change everything. And he's always. That's always available to us, and I just love that. Will. Will you just release over us and our audience just this childlike wonder and excitement of going after the Lord and, and the joy of hearing his voice and having him just speak to us and so we can encounter Him.
• 29:01
  Speaker A: Are you gonna make me laugh like a big. Oh, I'm going to release joy first because the Lord has so, so gifted me with joy, Lord, I release joy. I release purpose and revisition. Lord, you are re visioning people as I speak. They're getting new hopes and dreams. Lord, your powerful word, one word from you is all it takes to change the world. And that word is Jesus. And I'm releasing new vision, new joy, new hope and faith in the name of Jesus. Amen.
• 30:00
  Speaker B: Amen.
• 30:01
  Speaker C: Amen.
• 30:02
  Speaker B: So good.
• 30:03
  Speaker C: Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you for sharing your heart and for sharing so much good insight into hearing God's voice. We are so honored that you gave this time and we just appreciate you, Janet. Thank you so much. My pleasure to our listeners. Thank you for tuning in. We bless you, we bless this year and we bless you with more of God's voice.
• 30:27
  Speaker B: Well, thank you so much, Janet. This has just been such a pleasure to hear a little bit of your story and receive all the wisdom and those hard fought things that you've gone after in the Lord. And thank you for just releasing that over us and our audience. We appreciate you and yeah, thank you so much.
• 30:47
  Speaker C: Hey friend. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. If so, would you take 30 seconds to share this podcast with someone who may need encouragement or practical tools for fighting their battle?
• 30:57
  Speaker B: Then rate and review this podcast. Help us spread the message of transformation far and wide.
• 31:03
  Speaker C: All right, time to walk back into the noise with peace, purpose and maybe a tiny bit of guffing.
• 31:08
  Speaker B: We'll meet you back next Thursday for another episode.
• 31:11
  Speaker A: Bye.