Latest / Believe & Become | Ministry, Biblical Encouragement, God's Will, How to Change, Holy Spirit / 8. You Hear God's Voice: Learning to Tune In

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8. You Hear God's Voice: Learning to Tune In · Believe & Become | Ministry, Biblical Encouragement, God's Will, How to Change, Holy Spirit

• 0:00
  Speaker A: I just want to encourage you today. You hear his voice.
• 0:04
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 0:05
  Speaker A: And you are well connected to him because the Holy Spirit is living inside of you and he wants to direct your every step. And he's releasing grace right now for you to hear his voice better than ever before. And I just want to encourage you get your get your pencil and paper, your pen, your notebook ready to record what he's saying. And his voice carries that dunamis power, the explosive power of the Holy Spirit to do what he's calling you to do. Welcome to Believe and Become Spirit Led breakthrough for transformation that lasts.
• 0:46
  Speaker C: We're Josh and Corina Greegor, authors, speakers and freedom coaches who help Christians like you break free from anxiety, burnout and spiritual frustration by renewing your mind and walking in truth.
• 0:58
  Speaker A: If you're hungry for real, lasting change and ready to grow in identity, peace and purpose, you're in the right place.
• 1:06
  Speaker C: Let's believe what God says and become who he created us to be. Welcome back to Believe and Become podcast. Thank you so much for listening. We're so glad you're here today. We would love if you would follow us. Leave us a review or rating. Share this with your friends. Anyone who you know who could use encouragement or just a little bit of sunshine in their day, we would love it if you would share with them. Today I am hearing that the Lord is enlarging your tent pegs. Isaiah 54:2 says, enlarge the place of your tent. Stretch your curtains wide, do not hold back, lengthen your cords, stretch, strengthen your stakes. And I just believe that, like Jabez, you've been praying God, enlarge my territory. And I just hear him saying that he's doing that today and he's partnering with you to enlarge the place of your tent. So I just wanted to release that before we get started. Today we're talking about hearing God's voice and that is what I heard over you today. So we're going to get into why, how, what does the Bible say about hearing God's voice? And I'm really excited for this topic.
• 2:21
  Speaker A: Me too. Hearing God's voice is so important.
• 2:24
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 2:25
  Speaker A: That's really how we operate as believers. We're not hearing God's voice every single day. We're. We're in trouble. We really need it.
• 2:34
  Speaker C: For sure.
• 2:35
  Speaker A: But we're here to encourage you that you hear God's voice.
• 2:38
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 2:39
  Speaker A: Whether you realize it or not, you are hearing him and he is leading you every single day.
• 2:44
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 2:44
  Speaker C: Well, Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone. But by every word that proceeds continues to proceed from the mouth of God. And so that's our.
• 2:54
  Speaker A: That's Matthew 4. 4.
• 2:55
  Speaker C: It's our sustenance. That's what we need.
• 2:57
  Speaker A: Yeah. So maybe you feel like you struggle to hear God's voice or you don't hear him consistently. First thing I want to tell you is if you're a believer, you heard his voice. No one comes to faith in Jesus without hearing the call of the Holy Spirit. He is speaking to you, and he's the one that draws us to Himself. So you. You've heard his voice at least once in your life if you're a believer. There's a beautiful passage in John 10 where Jesus talks about how he's the good Shepherd.
• 3:31
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 3:31
  Speaker A: And in John 10:27, it says, My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. We're his sheep. He's the good Shepherd. You were designed to hear his voice. He created inside of us the ability to hear his voice. And I know we all go through seasons where it feels like the heavens are just glass. I don't hear anything. I don't feel like I'm hearing anything. I feel disconnected from God. Yeah, but that. That's just not true. That's a lie that the enemy tries to get us to believe. We are always connected to Him. The Holy Spirit lives inside of us, and he is always speaking to us. Whenever I get to that place, it's usually because God is speaking to me in a different way. Or. Or I've just gotten so distracted that I'm not. I'm not tuned into Him. You gotta tune your radio to the station. He's always speaking, but you have to be tuned into Him.
• 4:28
  Speaker C: I love that picture of a radio, like radio waves flowing through. They're always there, but if you're not tuned into them, if you're not on the right station, you're not going to pick up the right thing. And so just like we hear God's voice, there's lots of voices for us to be picking up that are floating around in the air. So we have to make sure that we are dialed in to his voice so that we can hear what he's saying. But I also love that he's inside of us. You said the Holy. We have the Holy Spirit inside of us. And so, so often we're looking outside of ourselves for what we need. Our daily bread. Right. We're looking to other people, to other pastors, to exercise, to the tv, to the news, to the radio, whatever it might Be. And when we really need to, just stop and sit with the Holy Spirit who is on the inside of us, and connect with him and listen to his voice, hear what he has to say, Sometimes it's just about getting quiet.
• 5:21
  Speaker A: Oh, that's so good. And I found that it matters what we're feeding our soul with. Yeah, I love what you brought up. What we're paying. We're paying attention to everything outside of us. Are we. Are we filling ourselves with the news or what the media is telling us or Netflix or, you know, all those things? Not that any of those are necessarily just. Are we feeding our souls with the word of God, with Christian teaching, with good podcasts, with books that are written by godly people? And I have found that as I am intentional, to feed my soul, feed my spirit with all those good things, with worship, with God's presence, it just becomes so much easier to be attuned to his voice. And the number one piece of advice I would give you is just to ask. Yeah, ask the Holy Spirit. Say, I need to hear your voice. What are you saying to me? Help me to listen. Holy Spirit. Jesus describes him as the helper. Yeah, that's his job, is to help us. Holy Spirit, help me to hear your voice today. What are you speaking over me today? Tune my heart to you. And he. He is faithful. He will do that.
• 6:35
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 6:35
  Speaker A: And the more you pray that prayer, it just becomes easier and easier.
• 6:39
  Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. So what does God's voice sound like? I love this picture that we got in first year from our beloved teacher, Dan Farrelly, that God's voice often sounds like a kinder, gentler, and wiser version of your own voice. So when you ask Holy Spirit, what are you saying over me today? Or what should I do in this situation? If you have a thought, if you hear a word that is something that is kinder, gentler, or wiser than you would naturally think that that's probably him. There's so, so often when I'll have a thought and it's a thought I would never think, and sometimes those thoughts are negative. Right. Like, sometimes I'll be like, oh, my gosh, what if this happens? Catastrophic. Right? What if the world ends? Not my thought, If I agree with it, then I'm gonna go down a bad path that's clearly the enemy, not Holy Spirit, you know, but when I have a thought like, today's gonna be an amazing day, that's not something that I naturally would think. Then I can go, oh, maybe God's trying to tell me something. It's so simple and such a small thing. But when we pay attention, we tune in to those positive things, those wise thoughts, those kind and gentle words that we hear.
• 7:56
  Speaker B: That's.
• 7:57
  Speaker C: I just heard God's voice. Stop, pay attention, turn, listen. Pay attention to those things, because that is him speaking to you.
• 8:05
  Speaker A: And write those things down.
• 8:07
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 8:07
  Speaker A: So key to record them, because then when you start to see a pattern, you know, he's saying this to me the next day. It was this. This. You can put together a narrative of what God is trying to speak into you over you. And that is so powerful. I remember early on in our relationship when we were just praying together and I was practicing hearing how, Learning how to hear the Lord. I remember we were praying and I just felt like God was speaking to me. And it was just beautiful. We had a beautiful time. And then at the end, I just heard, you're going to lose, Karina. It was this awful, foreboding voice. And so I just want to let you know, sometimes that will happen, especially as we're learning to hear God's voice. The enemy will sneak in, sneak in and try to add something. So it's like I had this beautiful, peaceful. And God's voice always. It's always peaceful. It's always for our good, and it's not for condemnation. If there's a word of correction. It's so beautifully gentle. And he's just correcting us into kindness. His kindness leads us to repentance. Right. And so but every once in a while, the enemy, you think you're hearing from God, and then you hear something that makes you feel bad about yourself or scared or it's fearful. That is never from the Lord. It doesn't speak to us, in fact, fear or in condemnation. That's just not his nature.
• 9:26
  Speaker C: That's so good. I actually had a. Recently, like. So that was probably, you know, 20 years ago. Yeah, recently an experience where I was struggling to hear God's voice in a situation, and I was just spitting out in anxiety over what I thought I was hearing. And it was the next day, probably a couple days, I think of just kind of like, God, what are you saying? And just feeling this swirl of anxiety. And I was praying about it, and I just heard him speak into the situation, and it instantly brought peace. And I was like, oh, that was God. What I was hearing before was not him, not in the way that I was hearing it or receiving it. And so this is something we've been working on and practicing for a long time. And so just so you know, that can happen, too. You can think of. I think I heard God on this. But if it's bringing anxiety, chaos, if you feel like you're caught in a whirlwind, that is not him. The word of God brings peace, it brings hope, it brings comfort, and it brings healing to your soul. And so you can know his voice. Just like, you know, if you're believing the truth, there's peace with it. And that doesn't always mean, yeah, I want to do that, but I will have peace in the midst of it, of knowing that I'm being led by the Holy Spirit.
• 10:44
  Speaker A: So let's nerd out a little bit and talk about the Greek. The New Testament's written in Greek. There's actually two words that are translated into English as word.
• 10:54
  Speaker C: Okay.
• 10:55
  Speaker A: The first one is logos, which is the written word of God.
• 11:00
  Speaker C: We know that one well.
• 11:01
  Speaker A: We know that one well. But there's also the rhema word of God, which is the revealed word of God. That's. It's always used to indicate spoken word.
• 11:13
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 11:14
  Speaker A: And so that comes up in the New Testament in a bunch of places, but we're just gonna highlight a few and talk through that. The first one, Karina Already mentioned Matthew 4. 4. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word. That's rhema, the spoken word that proceeds from the mouth of God. He's speaking to us. Cause so I know, like, when I grew up, I didn't think God spoke to us.
• 11:40
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 11:41
  Speaker A: I was not taught that until a little bit later on, until I got to high school, really. But I just didn't know that God was speaking to us. I remember one of my youth leaders said to me, well, pray about it and see. You know, basically ask God what he's saying about it. And I was like, you can do that. I didn't even know, you know, and that sort of just depending on how we're raised, sometimes we don't. We don't realize that God wants to speak to us. He is speaking to us. And all we have to do is tune our hearts to Him. We need his spoken word to us every day. Every single day. And of course, his spoken word does not replace his written word. He will never contradict himself or supersede it. We're not saying that God is revealing new scriptures to us. No, no. His. The Word, The Bible's done. It's written. He still speaks to us every day. And it fits within the parameters of what is in his written word.
• 12:39
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 12:40
  Speaker C: I heard somebody recently, and I like how he put it, he said, we have one compass, and it's the word of God. And I think that is so true in our lives. But also he'll tell us where we're going. I can find that in the Word, but when he speaks to my heart, it will line up with that. It's always pointing the same direction. God is not a God of confusion.
• 13:00
  Speaker A: He.
• 13:00
  Speaker C: He is a God of peace and a God of order. And so he's always going in the same direction. And that might feel. Sometimes that might not look like what your situation looks like, where you're like, I thought you were leading me this way, but now we're turning this way. You might feel like he's taking you in many directions. That's still his leading. He can take you here and there, but it's not going to feel like confusion and chaos. And I think recognizing when God speaks to me, it will align with what he's already spoken.
• 13:28
  Speaker A: That's right. John 8, 47 says, he who is of God hears God's words again, his rhema words, what he's speaking to us on a daily basis. So if you're a believer, you've given your life to Jesus, you hear his words. He is speaking to you.
• 13:49
  Speaker C: Yeah, you are of him.
• 13:50
  Speaker A: You're of Him.
• 13:51
  Speaker C: I love that.
• 13:52
  Speaker A: Yeah. And he is speaking to you. And sometimes he speaks to us in many ways. One of them is through his written word. How many times have you been reading the same passage of Scripture that you've read a million times? And something will jump off the page.
• 14:06
  Speaker C: Like it's highlighted, like there's breath on it. His breath is on it.
• 14:09
  Speaker A: His breath is on it. You feel the Lord speaking through that. That's his rhema word, where he's illuminating his written word to you. So, and we're going to talk later about the different ways that we hear his voice, but right now we're just going through some of the scriptures where it talks about the rhema words.
• 14:28
  Speaker C: So John 15:7 says, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. So if you abide in me and my words, my rhema words abide in you. And this, I love this whole passage of John 15 talking about abiding. It goes right along with John 10, where we are his sheep. And so there's this beautiful picture of we live with him, we are attached to him, everything we need is found in Him. And as we abide in him, then his words abide in us. And so think about a mother or a father and a child. They're together all the time. The child is constantly in the arms. As a parent, what you are saying, what you are doing, that is being absorbed by your child. And so there's this beautiful picture of just abiding in him. I actually had an encounter with the Lord in this passage that. About the vine and the branches where I would sometimes just feel like I was disconnected. We talked about that at the beginning. I would feel like, God, I don't know where you are. I don't know how to get to you. And I was reading this passage and he gave me this picture of being a branch attached to the vine, but it was me. And I was bear hugging a tree. And it was like, this is how you hang on to me. This is how you. You abide in me. It's for dear life. You wrap your arms and your legs around me. I am a solid and sturdy trunk for you to hang onto. And as you do that, as you abide in me, then I'm going to infuse you with my spirit. I'm going to give you everything you need, the nutrients that you need, the words that you need, whatever it is is going to flow into you. And sometimes as I'm praying, I'll get that picture of like, okay, we're just hanging on for dear life. Sometimes it's sweet and it's, you know, a little koala tucked in. And sometimes it's like the winds are blowing and you're just like God. I hope I don't let go. But every time, it's his, his word, his nutrients, his everything that he is, that I need flows into me because I am attached to him. I am abiding in Him.
• 16:39
  Speaker A: So good. And we have. I have one bonus one I want one bonus scripture I want to talk about real quick. It's Luke 1, 37 and 38. This is when the angel of the Lord comes to Mary and says, you're going to have the Son of God. It's crazy, right? Right? And it says, okay, so it says, therefore nothing will be impossible. Rhema with God. I'll explain that in a second. May it be done. And then Mary says back, may it be done to me according to your rhema word, your spoken word. The thing is, when it says, for nothing will be impossible with God, the word rhema is in the Greek there. But it doesn't get translated into English. If you look it up on blueletterbible.org, that's website you can see the Greek and the Hebrew and the Bible. It just, it's blank. It says rhema blank. But I'm not a Greek scholar, so take this. I might be wrong, but to me, what that says to me is that when God speaks, it gives us the power to do the impossible. What would be impossible without God? He gives us his grace to do. And I was actually reading in Bill Johnson's book the Holy Spirit this morning, and it talks about Moses. I will be with you. Anytime that God's presence comes on somebody, it's because they're called to do the impossible.
• 18:00
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 18:00
  Speaker C: So good.
• 18:01
  Speaker A: Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes on him and he's able to do all of them what would have been impossible. And it's God's spoken word that speaks that rhema word of God that, that speaks into us. The power to do what he's called us to do. And that's, that's our life. That's how we live. And as, as New Testament Holy Spirit filled believers, our job is to do the impossible. And God, he gives us the power to do it. It's him working in us and through us.
• 18:36
  Speaker C: And that connects so beautifully to Acts, chapter 1, verse 8. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you to be My witnesses to proclaim the Word. And we get that power. You don't have to be the special chosen one. You don't have to be Moses or Joshua or David. You get to be you and you get to have that same power of the Holy Spirit to do the impossible. Because without the Holy Spirit, we can't do what God has called us to do or created us to do. And so I love how God is consistent throughout His Word. But I also, I just cherish that every believer has that now, that we now have the opportunity to do the impossible, each and every one of us, because the Holy Spirit lives inside of us and because his breath has been released over us.
• 19:25
  Speaker A: Right now I just feel the Lord giving you grace to hear his voice, to believe that you hear him and that he's speaking clearly to you, that he is tuning your heart to his voice. Because you're his sheep. And his sheep hear his voice. They don't follow anybody else except for their shepherd. And he's the good shepherd. So how do you know if it's God's voice? We talked a little bit about this, but let's talk a little bit more. Always test what you're hearing against God's word.
• 19:56
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 19:56
  Speaker A: So if you hear something, you're not sure if it's yourself, because you can have wise thoughts. We have the mind of Christ, so we have wise thoughts that come from us, and those are good too. But sometimes it will come from God. He is speaking to us. So always test what you're hearing against the scripture. You can even ask the Holy Spirit. Say, holy Spirit, how does this line up with your Word? And listen to what he's saying. He'll lead you through this scripture. There have been many times that I have asked Holy Spirit for a scripture and he will give me something. I'll flip to it and I'll go, wow, that was exactly what I needed to read. And that's wild. It still blows my mind today that he is that good and that we can hear his voice that well where he can direct you in his word. This is what you need for today. Ask him for a scripture. He's not going to contradict himself. It's not going to contradict His Word. He's not going to tell you to do something that is sinful or against what he's already commanded you to do. So you have peace in that. And then if you're not sure, talk to a pastor. Talk to a trusted advisor, somebody that is more mature in their faith. Talk to a friend that you can trust. And people that you know hear from God and believe that you hear from God. Don't go to somebody that doesn't believe that God is still speaking because they're going to tell you you're crazy or.
• 21:18
  Speaker C: That that's not God or it's not true or whatever. They'll try to silence what you're hearing, which is not healthy, not what we're looking for.
• 21:26
  Speaker A: Yeah. And just like Karina said, there's. There will always be that sense of peace that comes along with his voice. Sometimes he will stir us up into action, but it's not.
• 21:36
  Speaker C: Or like discomfort sometimes where you're like that fire shut up in your bones. Or like, I just have to be obedient and you're not comfortable until you're obedient.
• 21:44
  Speaker A: Yeah, but it's not going to be fear. It's not going to. Not going to be anxiety. It's not going to be condemnation. God doesn't tell you you're stupid or can't believe you messed up again. He doesn't speak to us like that because he is the kindest, gentlest wisest father you could ever imagine. That's the only way I could describe his voice. Imagine the best father you could imagine. And then a million times Better. That's God.
• 22:07
  Speaker C: When I've worked with our kids since they were little, on hearing God's voice so often we would have devotions in the morning, and I would sit and say, okay, let's ask God a question just to get them familiar with his voice. And when one of our sons, I think he was maybe five or six, he was pretty little, he came out of his room one day and he said, God told me to go to Nineveh. And I had been working with them, you know, on how do we hear God's voice? How do we know if it's him? And I didn't want to discourage him, but I was like, I'm pretty sure God didn't say that, right? We read Bible stories. He goes to Sunday school. This is probably something that's just come out of a story that he's heard. And so I was like, oh, okay, what did he say? What did you hear? You know? And he's like, I need to go to Nineveh in the next 30 days. I was like, okay, well, that's probably not going to happen. And so there was this really delicate process of let's pray for Nineveh, right? And at the time, interestingly, at the time. So what used to be Nineveh, it's a specific city. It's still there. And the Christians were being slaughtered. It was a place where there was massive conflict and persecution of Christians. And so I'm like, yeah, we're definitely not going to Nineveh, but let's pray for the people in Nineveh. And I didn't necessarily go and search what happened in nineveh in these 30 days, right? But I think it's. It was important for us to pray with him on that, to talk about, okay, let's talk about. If God would really say that, why would he say something like that? And maybe he's giving you a burden for a place and not necessarily sending you to that place at six years old, you know, in the middle of Christian persecution. And so I. I think that kind of goes with this testing what you're hearing against Scripture. Cause you can find scriptures about going to Nineve, right? Like, that's pretty easy. Like God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, but then talking to somebody who is versed in hearing God's voice and allowing them to help you walk through, okay, if this isn't exactly what it is, what could it be? Maybe you're hearing or you got a picture and you don't really know what it means. Somebody who can help you walk through those things is really important. And I, I think it's important to, you know, walk with your kids through these things too. How do we hear God's voice? And so for us, that was something where it's like, let's navigate this together. And I think that you want, when you're seeking an advisor, a pastor, you want somebody who will navigate it with you, not somebody who will shut you down. Not somebody who will just say yes to whatever. Like whatever you're hearing must be God, you know, so somebody who's going to say, hey, if you didn't hear any scriptures, let's see what the Bible says about that. Or does this resonate with God's character, who I know him to be? I think that's really important. Like Josh was talking about, as you hear God, you begin to develop a history with him. You write those things down, you hear, you begin to understand how he speaks to you. And so when you hear something different, even though it might sound good, there is reason to question that. Is this God speaking to me? Is he speaking to me in a new way? And then begin to test that, test that against scripture. Test that as you talk to others. And then ask him, God, if this is your word and you're just speaking to me in a new way, confirm it, show me, speak it to me again, or show me in a different way. So I think that's really important.
• 25:14
  Speaker A: Yeah. And that's why it's so important to know your Bible and know it well.
• 25:17
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 25:18
  Speaker A: And know the character of God.
• 25:20
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 25:21
  Speaker A: And you only get to know that through relationship with him, through really studying His Word. The whole, the complete picture of the scripture is so important to have because we can take little pieces here and there out of context and get a little spun up or not understand the full. Because there's some scriptures that feel condemning, but if you read the whole of the Scripture, you know that God does not condemn us. We know his character. And so it's the same thing when you have a word. My test against God's character, how you know him to be, what you know about him, what you've experienced about him, and consult with other advisors. And I remember when this happened, we said, maybe you have a call to mission because sometimes God will speak stuff to us. Now that isn't a word for right now, but might be something, a seed that he's planting in your heart for in the future.
• 26:11
  Speaker C: Maybe it's 30 years, not 30 days.
• 26:13
  Speaker A: Right, exactly. And so as we're learning to hear God's voice. It takes practice. We are going to mess up, and that's okay.
• 26:20
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 26:21
  Speaker A: But it's. It's a process of. Okay, God. This is what I believe you're saying to me right now. I'm going to act on that.
• 26:27
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 26:28
  Speaker A: And I'm going to take a little bit of a risk and. And see how it turns out. Did I get it right? Was I. Did I get some of it right? And maybe the 30 days part wasn't right, you know, and that's okay. And God knows that it's a process, and he's okay with leading us through that and even just experimenting a little bit with him and saying, hey, God, what. What are you saying to me today? What do I. Is there something special I need to do?
• 26:53
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 26:53
  Speaker A: Person I need to reach out to and then just going along with that. And especially if it's things that aren't. Gonna. Aren't gonna harm you. Right. It's like I'm just gonna take a small risk and step out and see. Did that work out? Was that really God's voice that I heard? You gave the phone call, and your friend was actually was really having a tough time. They needed you to call them. And it's like, that was absolutely from the Lord. He was leading me to make that phone call, to make that text. And he is so faithful to do that and to lead us and grow us in that skill.
• 27:25
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 27:26
  Speaker A: So we want to talk a little bit about different ways that we hear God's voice. Karina, do you want to talk about that? You do such a good job.
• 27:32
  Speaker B: Oh, thanks.
• 27:33
  Speaker C: Yeah. So we hear God in many ways. There's not just one way. And I think that it can be confusing when you say, hear God's voice. Right. Because that automatically leads us to think of words or maybe a spoken voice. And you're like, I've never heard a spoken. You know, thus saith the Lord in my life.
• 27:51
  Speaker A: Very rare. Most people don't ever hear the audible voice of God. And the people that do, it's maybe once or twice. Once or twice, you know, like a couple times in their life.
• 28:00
  Speaker C: And I think that's so important for us to recognize that it's not going to be an audible voice most of the time. And it may not even be words that you hear in your mind sometimes. And so just because we call it hearing doesn't mean it will be words. I just wanted to clarify that hearing the voice of God just means that God is speaking to you and you are picking up information that he's sharing. So it can be a voice in your head. It can be your own thoughts, or it could be words that just come into your mind. But remember, like we said before, they're kinder, wiser, gentler than your own words. And so if you hear a voice that is kinder, wiser, and gentler, you can be sure that's God. If you have a thought, if you hear words, it might not be a voice. Spoken words in your head, like, maybe just words will run across your mind. So there are ways that we actually do hear, but it's generally not audible. We might feel something. We might have an emotion that is really strong. All of a sudden, you might sense something. I know that there's some stores that when I walk into those stores, I immediately feel confused. I feel uncomfortable or just a little bit lost, like, why did I come here? I'm just overwhelmed. And I believe that's a spiritual atmosphere, that I'm sensing something that's going on in that place.
• 29:14
  Speaker B: Or.
• 29:15
  Speaker C: Or if maybe you walk into a store and you're overwhelmed with tears or anger, those are often. You're. You're picking up spiritual things going on in the atmosphere. But God also speaks to us in those ways. So when you might ask him, God, how do you feel about me? You might not hear, I love you, but you might feel an overwhelming sense of love. You might feel loved, you might feel peace. You might feel hopeful or excited. So remember that you can hear God in your feelings as well. You can know something that you didn't know before. I think this is sometimes the hardest one, because there's not like, well, I just felt God's presence, or I heard these words. It's like, I just know. I don't know how I know. I just know. And that can feel a little bit tricky sometimes. But knowing is very common way that people hear God's voice. You ask God a question, and you just know the answer. There are times when I'm gonna ask God a question. Like, I don't even get through the sentence in my prayer, and I already know the answer. And so there's a really clear sense of knowing this one. I feel like you can gauge by the atmosphere that you're in the way that you're communing with the Lord in the moment. It's. I feel like it's a little bit tricky sometimes, but if I'm in church and. Or I'm in worship and I all of a sudden get this sense of knowing about something I didn't know before. I Can almost always say, yeah, that's the Lord, if I'm reading my Bible or praying. So you're in an environment where the Lord is present and you're actively pursuing him, obviously he's going to speak to you. It's a little bit trickier outside of those moments. And so that's one that you test, right? When you say, oh, I didn't know this before, I'm going to ask that person if, you know, maybe I see someone and I'm like, they have a loved one that's not doing well. And then you're like, that's so weird. Why would I know that? Go ask them, hey, do you have a loved one who's maybe not doing so well? And then it's like, oh, yeah, actually. And then there's this whole huge prayer request. And now you have an opportunity to minister to somebody, you know, take those little risks. That's not a big deal. If they're like, no, not really. And you're like, okay, just wondering, Just thought I would ask in case you needed prayer, Right? So simple. There's also seeing. Some people get pictures in their mind, visions that play out like a movie or maybe dreams. Dreams are a big way that God speaks to a lot of people. So if you tend to be more of a seer and you ask God a question, and then you have a picture, a video, or maybe you go to sleep and you have this really vivid, brightly colored dream, maybe God's speaking to you in that way. But with all of these things, remember that we are looking for peace. We're looking for total agreement with God's word. We're looking for things that reflect his character. And we're looking for kinder, wiser and gentler. The most important thing. There are many other ways that God speaks to us. Those are kind of the primary ones. God can speak to you through music. He can speak to you through other people. He can speak to you through nature. So there's lots of ways that we can be looking for God to speak. Speak and listening for his voice. I often like to tell people, if you ask God a question, say you're in your quiet time in the morning, whatever, you ask him a question and you don't get an answer right away, keep your ears open because God is always speaking. And so if I ask him a question, he's going to answer me. It may not be the minute that I'm asking, it may not be right when I feel like I need it, but he's going to answer that question. So Keep yourself open to what he's saying and just available to him to speak.
• 32:51
  Speaker A: I love how you talked about the atmosphere if we're in worship or whatever. And I've talked to so many people and experienced this so, so many times where you're in worship, you're at church, and it's, it's wonderful. You're sensing the presence of the Lord and then you start thinking about things or you have ideas popping in your head.
• 33:10
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 33:10
  Speaker A: And so many times it's like, oh, I'm distracted. You know, Lord, stop. You know, help me focus on you sometimes. A lot of times that's the Lord actually speaking to you because the, He's. His presence is there.
• 33:24
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 33:24
  Speaker A: And so, and a lot of times there's a creative presence that comes with, with God's presence, like his, his creative spirit. The Holy Spirit is very creative.
• 33:32
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 33:33
  Speaker A: God created everything and he put that inside of us. And so sometimes you will get ideas that are from. Directly from Him. And so sometimes it's good to just have a, your phone ready or a pencil and paper, like if that happens to you a lot. So you can write it down real quick and capture that and then you can move back to his. Into worship, into his presence. But I just, I don't how many times I've gotten, you know, different ideas or thoughts and that feel like, oh, I'm being distracted now. Actually, sometimes that's the Lord speaking to us. And so good. Even in your everyday practice, just like Karina was talking about, set the atmosphere with some worship. Spend some time worshiping him, thanking him and just be in his presence and then ask him, lord, what are you speaking to me today? And just be quiet and let him speak to you. We do a lot of talking when we pray. A lot of times all we're talking all the time. Or have we given God a place to respond? And I have found that he is very. He's so faithful to come back and say what we need. And just like Trina said, sometimes you don't. It's not right away you hear it, but if you're paying attention throughout the day. And a lot of times, like when I start, like I said, when you start to feel a little lost, Lord, tune me back into you. Show me how you're speaking. Sometimes if you are always hearing God's voice in your head or you always get an emotion or you see, always see a picture, sometimes he'll speak to you in a different way. A lot of times when I felt a little lost, like what is God saying it's just because he's trying to grow me to. To hear him in a different way. And that's okay. It's just recognizing that you're still connected to him. He's still speaking. He's always speaking to us.
• 35:17
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 35:18
  Speaker A: And so I just want to encourage you today, you hear his voice.
• 35:23
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 35:24
  Speaker A: And you are well connected to him because the Holy Spirit is living inside of you. You. And he wants to direct your every step. And he's releasing grace right now for you to hear his voice better than ever before. And I just want to encourage you get your. Get your pencil and paper, your pen, your notebook ready to record what he's saying. And his voice carries that Dunamis power, the explosive power of the Holy Spirit, to do what he's calling you to do. He's expanding your tent pegs. I love that word. That Karina released at the beginning of the podcast. He is giving you more territory. You're entering your promised land. And so walk it out with him. So we just want to say thank you for listening to us, spending some time with us. I hope that this has been really helpful for you to learn more about hearing God's voice. And just to practice that, we encourage you to practice it. It takes practice to get really good at it. And as always, if this has been helpful, share it with a friend. We appreciate if you subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a review that helps us out a bunch and just know that we're praying for you. We care deeply about you and what God's doing in your life. We just bless you. We hope you have the best week ever.
• 36:45
  Speaker C: Bye.