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How Do I Know God is Talking to Me? · Arise Women of God

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  Have you ever had a thought pop into your mind and wondered, is that God or is it me?
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  You want to follow his direction, but perhaps you're terrified of making it up or following your own imagination.
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  Today we are answering the essential question, how do I know God is talking to me?
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  And by the end of today's episode, you will understand the signature of God, how His voice feels feels different from your own.
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  And we're going to help you solve the pain of spiritual second guessing by sharing real life stories of baby wipes and bed rest visits to show that God is in the details.
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  We're moving from doubting the whisper to walking in the light.
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  Stay tuned.
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  Ordinary Women Extraordinary Faith When God calls, we say yes.
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  The Arise Women of God Podcast hello and welcome to another episode of the Arise Women of God podcast.
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  I'm your host, Tamara K.
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  Anderson, and joining me today is Wendi Christensen, my co founder of Women warriors of Light and a licensed clinical social worker.
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  And today we're pulling back the curtain on how the spirit actually communicates in the messy middle of life.
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  Because that's where we live, right, ladies?
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  First, we'll discuss the still small voice, why God is rarely in the thunder and almost always in the whisper.
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  Second, Wende is going to share her diaper wipe miracle and why God cares about your mundane daily needs.
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  Third, we're going to talk about scary promptings, what to do when God asks you to show up unannounced on someone's doorstep.
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  And finally, we'll share how to tell the difference between between a peaceful impression and a feeling of concern so that you never miss a warning.
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  But let's start it off by talking about how do you know if God is speaking to you?
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  For me, speaking with God and hearing him back often comes in just little thoughts or whispers.
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  And when I was younger, I had more questions about is this God?
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  Am I really feeling him?
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  Am I really hearing him?
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  And I found that the sense of peace was one of my main indicators that God is talking to me right now and I can hear Him.
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  And it's.
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  You feel the sense of peace.
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  For me, it's in.
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  In my heart.
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  And the thoughts come to my mind and heart.
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  I don't know how else to explain it other than a thought will pop into my head.
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  And I'm like, oh.
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  And I.
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  And I once heard a quote that said, never dismiss a positive thought that can benefit somebody.
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  Act on it.
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  Just say it is because God wants us to love and serve others.
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  And so that is how I hear God.
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  I love the example in Elijah, in First Kings, chapter 19, where Elijah goes up on the mountain to commune with God, and there's a big storm that comes.
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  And God's not in the lightning, he's not in the thunder and all these things.
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  He's in the still, small voice.
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  And I think that perfectly describes what it feels like, at least to me.
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  It's still and it's small.
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  And so often we have to kind of cut the clutter out of every other part of life.
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  Turn off the tv, stop the social media thread, and kind of be in a place of stillness.
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  It's all about cutting out the noise.
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  If our minds and our eyes are constantly scrolling on social media, we can't hear.
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  Hear the whisper.
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  Next.
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  Wendi has found that when life is the loudest, even when she had three kids under the age of three, God still found a way to speak to her through the most ordinary thing.
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  I remember as a new mom, I had a daughter and twins, and so I had three, three and under.
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  And I remember that stage of my life was so busy and so overwhelming, but I decided that I was going to act on whatever it was that I felt impressed during the day.
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  So.
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  So I remember one day I was heading out and I lived kind of in a space that was a little more rural at the time.
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  And so when you were leaving, you knew it was going to take you at least 20 minutes to get to anything close by, and so you would have to pack up things.
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  Well, this day, I was heading out the door and I had this little thought come to my mind.
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  Don't forget the baby wipes.
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  And I was like, was that me?
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  Was that God?
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  What was that?
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  Was that the spirit?
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  I didn't know, but I thought, I don't care.
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  I'm just gonna follow it.
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  So I grabbed extra wipes and threw them in my diaper bag and headed out the door.
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  Well, as I'm driving to my destination, one of my kids throws up.
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  And it was all over him and all over the sea, and it was just a mess.
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  And I was able to pull over and I had.
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  I went through so many of those wipes cleaning him up.
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  And I thought, I'm so glad that I threw in these wipes.
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  Then I really knew it was from God.
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  I was like, he inspired me.
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  And I thought, if God cares about this, mom's gonna need these wipes today.
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  He cares about everything.
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  He cares about the little things.
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  So even if it's a thought where you're like, I don't know if that's God, if It's a good thought and moves you forward.
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  Act on it.
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  If he cares about baby wipes, he cares about you.
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  He is a father who knows exactly what your day looks like.
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  But sometimes his whispers aren't about your needs.
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  It's about him using you to answer someone else's prayer.
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  And sometimes that can be a little bit scary.
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  But sometimes I think the impressions we get ask us to do something scary or something that maybe takes us a bit out of our comfort zone.
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  I remember being a young mom, too, and I was driving home from the store, and.
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  And I had this thought pop into my head.
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  You need to go visit this lady on your way home.
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  And I'm like, just, like, show up on her doorstep, you know, I mean, and we were okay friends, but, you know, I didn't feel like that bosom kinship with her, that I felt like I could totally just show
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  up.
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  And I'm like, all right.
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  And so I remember showing up, and I think I had at least two kids in Tower, and she had littles as well.
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  And she answers the door.
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  It took her a minute to get there.
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  Come to find out she'd been put on bed rest because she was pregnant with, I think, her third or something like that.
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  And I'm like, hi, I don't know why I'm here.
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  I literally said that.
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  But I had the thought that I should come and visit you.
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  And she told me.
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  She goes, I've been put on bed rest, and so I'm not really supposed to be up and walking around.
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  And so our kids just took off and played together.
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  And I actually sat there and got her laundry out and helped her fold a whole bunch of laundry.
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  And it ended up just being a really positive thing.
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  We just sat and visited.
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  And I don't know if you've ever been put on bed rest or been stuck in your home, but having a visit from somebody is, like, so uplifting mentally that you're like, oh.
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  And so I remember leaving that and going, yeah, that was totally an impression.
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  And even though it was so awkward, it ended up being such a positive experience that I ended up going over several other times, you know, while she was on bedrest.
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  And so follow those impressions even when they're a little bit scary.
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  I've.
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  I've shown up at several people's homes, and I'll just knock on their door.
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  And I have one friend that she's like, how do you always know to come?
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  She's like, it's like, you show up right after I get some bad news or Something terrible has happened and life is falling apart.
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  And you just show up on my doorstep and.
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  And I'm like, it's not me, it's God.
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  And that's God saying, hey, I see you, I love you.
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  I'm gonna send somebody to help you in this time when life is falling apart.
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  And so if you're wondering if God is speaking to you, really, I think asking that question, God, who can I help today?
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  Those are the prayers.
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  He answers so fast.
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  He just answers them quickly.
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  Because there's always somebody in your sphere of influence who needs help.
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  And if you're not sure, just ask him.
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  Say, lord, help me to hear and recognize when you are speaking to me.
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  When you ask, who can I help?
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  You are signing up for active duty.
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  And don't worry if you're not perfect at it yet.
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  I love what Wendi shared about God being a patient parent.
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  He's not gonna fire us if we miss a whisper while we are learning.
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  You don't have to be perfect in hearing him and he knows that.
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  And so it's okay if you make mistakes along the way because there have been times where I was like, I didn't act on that and I didn't do what I thought I should.
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  And it's okay.
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  We're his children.
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  He knows that we're in a learning process.
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  I wouldn't get mad at my kids.
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  You know, how many times do I give them directions or say things and they don't hear me or they don't listen or they get lost in the instruction.
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  Right.
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  I have to be patient as a mom with them.
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  And God is even he's perfect.
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  So he gets it.
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  He understands that it's taking her some time to learn to recognize me and to hear my voice.
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  And that's okay.
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  I'll keep giving her information.
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  I'll keep tapping and knowing that he's not going to walk out and go, oh, I'm done.
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  She never hears me.
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  I'm walking away.
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  He's never going to be like that.
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  And I think if you can remember, he really is an all loving God.
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  Like, I'm here.
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  I'm prompting you, hey, can you hear me?
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  I'm listening.
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  And I'm also giving you direction.
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  If we could just remember that, I think that would help and being patient with ourselves and hearing him because sometimes it is easier and other days it's hard.
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  It's.
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  It can be.
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  I feel like I over the weekend was like, hello, Hello.
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  Is the, Is the ceiling made of concrete?
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  I'm not feeling anything.
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  You'll have moments like that too.
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  But.
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  But hold on to the ones where you did hear it and you acted like the time when I did have the wipes.
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  I think there was another time where I didn't have the wipes and he prompted and said, hey, bring your your baby wipes.
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  But I learned.
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  I learned the next time, okay, if I hear a little thought pop in my head, I'm just gonna act on it.
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  I'm gonna do it.
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  And you practice it and you get better and better at hearing Him.
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  Hearing God isn't a one and done event.
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  It's a lifetime of practice.
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  And the longer you practice, the better you get.
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  So keep trying.
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  Whether it's a feeling of peace or a nagging sense of concern, God is actively trying to guide your path today.
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  And if you want to move from guessing to knowing, we have two free special gifts for you.
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  One is our Roadmap to Revelation PDF download.
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  It gives you six steps to hearing God in your daily life and along with it you will get our Receiving Light and Revelation Meditation by Wendi that is a free audio download to help you find that stillness that
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  we talked about today.
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  Click the link in the description below to grab those so my friends, stop second guessing the light, connect with God and ask him to teach you your right next step to hearing him more powerfully and until next time,
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  may you arise.
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  Do it God's way.
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  God strong.