Latest / Believe & Become | Ministry, Biblical Encouragement, God's Will, How to Change, Holy Spirit / 35. Hearing God’s Voice Doesn’t Have to Be Hard

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35. Hearing God’s Voice Doesn’t Have to Be Hard · Believe & Become | Ministry, Biblical Encouragement, God's Will, How to Change, Holy Spirit

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Do you ever struggle to hear God's voice? Ever pray and wonder if you're just talking to yourself? We get it. We've been there more times than we'd like to admit. In today's episode, we're going to unpack why it can feel hard to hear God and we'll give you simple, practical steps to recognize his voice with more peace and confidence. So grab your coffee, take a deep breath, and let's get started. If you're tired of leading others while secretly battling doubt, discouragement and mental warfare,
• 0:33
  Speaker B: and you want practical tools to renew your mind and walk boldly in your
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  Speaker A: calling as a leader, you're in the right place. Welcome to Believe and become.
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  Speaker B: We're Josh and Corina, your spirit-filled coaches, here to help you overcome those limiting beliefs and lead others confidently.
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  Speaker A: If you're ready to hear God's voice more clearly, to step into your purpose and find joy and strength in the
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  Speaker B: everyday silence, those Bible left reminders judging you from your lock screen and let's jump in.
• 1:05
  Speaker A: Hey friend, we have a quick invitation for you.
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  Speaker B: We're so excited to be launching our very first workshop.
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  Speaker A: We invite you to join us in our Move Forward With Clarity masterclass happening live online March 17th at 12pm Pacific.
• 1:18
  Speaker B: This is a free 45 minute workshop where you will learn how to hear God clearly, break free from what's holding you back and move forward with confidence.
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  Speaker A: Head right now to joshandcorina.com/workshop to sign
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  Speaker B: up or we'll see you there.
• 1:32
  Speaker A: Well, welcome to the podcast. We're so excited that you joined us today. We're talking about hearing God's voice. Doesn't have to be hard. Sometimes it just feels like you really need God to speak, but you just can't hear Him. And it's so frustrating. And I actually experienced this recently, like last week where I was praying and praying and praying. I was like, God, I just really need you to speak into my life right now. I need guidance, I need direction. I just need to hear from you. And it was like nothing. I would read my Bible and he would speak to me through that for sure, but just because the words are so encouraging in the Psalms. But as I would go to pray, it was like nothing was coming into my mind. Normally I hear him as this kinder, gentler version of my own voice in my head. Everybody experiences God in different ways, but that's how I do. And what I realized was I wasn't really receiving what he was trying to say to me. And because I remember when it kind of Started the not being able to hear God's voice very clearly. He was trying to tell me he was proud of me and that he loved me, which is kind of how most of our conversations start. I think he just wants to. He wants us to know that he loves us and that he's proud of us. And I was kind of like, God, I don't feel like there's anything to be proud of right now. I was feeling kind of discouraged. And after that, it was kind of like, God, where are you? And then once I went for a walk, cleared my head, I got out there, started praying, and I heard the I'm so proud of you. And I told him, I said, I don't feel like there's anything to be proud of right now. And he said, but I'm still proud of you, and I still love you. And I was like, okay, I received that. And once I received what he was trying to tell tell me, then it was like I was back. I was back to normal, where I could really hear him speaking to me, giving me some direction, answering the questions that I had for him. And so sometimes I think we put up those blockages and we're like, I don't. There's no way. I think that's what I think God's saying this, but I can't receive it. It doesn't sound right to me. Or you're like, God, I'm not so sure about that. And then he's like, this is what I'm trying to say. So you can receive it or not. But then once. Once we receive that and start to say, okay, okay, I might have trouble believing that right now, but I'm gonna believe that you are saying that to me and believe that that's the truth. And then it opens up the doors for him to speak so much more clearly.
• 4:11
  Speaker B: Yeah. I think it's interesting how our inability to receive what he's saying actually kind of blocks anything further. Like, we actually have that authority, or it's up to us if we're going to hear from him most of the time. And so when we refuse to hear what he's saying, he's not going to push it, but he's not going to keep talking. He's not going to rush onto the things that we're worried about. He wants to speak to our identity, and I think that's so huge.
• 4:43
  Speaker A: So why does it feel hard to hear God's voice sometimes?
• 4:46
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's such a good question. And I think that when it feels hard, it's not because he's not speaking. I think that's the biggest and most important thing we have to take away, that it feels hard for a reason. But that reason is never because God doesn't have something to say. It's so important. We have to know how to access his voice and recognize the truth. Like you have to start from that truth that God is always speaking. He always has something to say to you. He always has an opinion about your situation or something to speak into your life. And so if you find it hard to hear God and this episode feels like, oh my gosh, this is so for me. We would love to invite you to our upcoming workshop. We are doing a free online masterclass called Move Forward with Clarity. We're going to meet for 45 minutes and we're going to walk you through the process that we use. Just like Josh was just telling you about how to get reconnected to God's voice, how to hear him clearly for your situation so that you can move forward with confidence. The link will be in the show notes, but you can check it out at joshandkarina.com workshop that's J-O-S-H-A-N-C-O-R-I-N A.com workshop because we know what it feels like and it can feel so hard. And sometimes you feel like I've done all the things, but it's not working. And I often just think our receiver is probably busted up. There's something wrong on our end. God is always speaking.
• 6:16
  Speaker A: Sometimes our receiver is broken. Yeah, God is. Just like Karina said, God is always speaking to us. It's on our end. There's nothing wrong with God. And he doesn't stop speaking. He doesn't withhold his voice. Sometimes we think that. We think that God is. I'm not going to talk to you right now. Because he's mad at us. And it might have been like that in the Old Testament. God would sometimes remove himself. The New Testament, under the New Covenant, it is not like that at all. We have the Holy Spirit. God's very presence lives inside of us. So we always have access to Him. He is always speaking to us. He always wants. Wants to communicate to us. So what are the some of the things that can block our ability to hear God? I think that disbelief, unworthiness, falling into performance, those can all hinder our ability to hear from Him. So if we're not believing what he's saying, if we think I'm not worthy for God to speak to me, Or I've messed up. I'm not good enough. Those are all lies that we're believing. Because the truth is, through Jesus, we're worthy, and we can come boldly into the throne room. There's nothing holding us back. When God looks at you, he sees his son, Jesus, and there's nothing you have to do. You don't have to perform. And that was really what I was experiencing. I was like, I think I have to do better. I have to do something. I have to change something about myself in order to hear God's voice. And that's just a lie. It's such a common lie that our clients often are believing. And once we break that off, it really helps. It unlocks that ability to hear God's voice very clearly.
• 7:52
  Speaker B: Yeah, I think another thing that we can often get stuck in is just overwhelm. You're overwhelmed with your situation. You're overwhelmed with anxiety. You're afraid of what's coming. You don't know. And so we get stuck in this kind of like, fight or flight mode where we're stuck in flight and stuck in fight. We're like, what do I do? I'm gonna run, I'm gonna hide. I'm gonna fight. We don't really just calm. Just center ourselves with Jesus, invite Holy Spirit in, find the peace that we need so that we can hear his voice. And then sometimes we're just so distracted. There are so many voices coming at us from every direction. We have constant input. And it can be hard to be still. Not just from there's so much going on, but because when we get still, we don't know what to do. We don't know how to be still. Right, you go. We take our phones with us to the bathroom, for goodness sake. Like, we have constant input, constant input, because we don't even know how. We can't stand in line without something to read or something to look at or something to entertain us. And so when we try to get still with Jesus, we don't know how to do that. We don't know how to be still with Him. And so that distraction that overwhelm the anxiety, that just goes kind of. It's kind of like this fire that just continues to burn, and we never tamp it down. Those things can keep us from hearing God because we're. We're too distracted. Our brain, our hearts are everywhere else except for his presence. So I think these things are just a few of the things I think that can keep us blocked from hearing God's voice.
• 9:33
  Speaker A: Yeah. Job 33:14 says, For God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it. Yeah, wow. When I found that verse, I was like, wow, what a clear verse. God is speaking to us. He doesn't want to withhold his voice from us. He doesn't do that. We're just not recognizing that he's speaking. He's so, so cares about you. Yeah, he cares about you so much. He always wants to speak into our lives. He speaks to us through His Word. What we're not saying is that there's new revelation. There's not going to be new scriptures, but God wants to illuminate His Word to us, then he wants to speak into our lives because he is a personal God. He wants that personal relationship with us. And it's hard to have a relationship with somebody that doesn't talk to you. And so that's just a basic belief. We have a relationship with God. He's speaking to us. He listens to what we have to say. It's a conversation that you can actually have with Him. And growing up, I didn't know that. I didn't understand that, but once I did, wow. It just really helped my relationship with God so much.
• 10:39
  Speaker B: And I grew up knowing that God spoke, but I didn't understand the conversation aspect of it. And I think that when we think about prayer, we often think, oh, I'm. I am gonna list off my demands, you know, the things that I need. I'm gonna tell him all of the things that are bothering me that I'm worried about. I need to say all the words. And often I think God is just waiting for us to be quiet.
• 11:05
  Speaker A: Will you just stop and listen for a little bit?
• 11:07
  Speaker B: Would you just listen? I have something to say. And so reframing the way that we do prayer, that has helped me so much. It has helped me to recognize God wants to speak to me just as much as I want to speak to Him. I have a lot of words, and so I can really easily get into my prayer time. And then I leave and I don't feel better. I don't feel like I just met with Jesus. But when I have learned to sit and to listen and to still my heart and to be quiet in his presence, then I can connect to peace. If you want to hear God, you have to. You have to be at peace. If you're not at peace, it's really hard to hear Him. We have to start with peace. And so we have to get connected to Jesus is my peace. John 14:27, he says, Peace. I Leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your heart be troubled and do not be afraid. He just gives us his peace. And so sometimes we need to stop and reconnect. Okay, he gave me his peace. I have his peace. And really just begin to shift that belief that all these other things that are happening around me or the things that are happening inside of me are what direct my life. If I can connect to his peace, then I can hear his voice and he can be the one that directs my life.
• 12:32
  Speaker A: That's so good. One of my favorite verses is Isaiah 26:3, you keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. And that's a promise I take to the bank all the time and just say, God, thank you, that you keep me in perfect peace. But the key of that verse is, where's your focus? Where's your attention? Am I focused on all the churn and the craziness, the anxiety, the worries of life, or am I focused on God? And even if I can take a minute, 30 seconds, it can be fast and shift my mind from whatever's got me spun up, spiraling. If I can shift my mind onto Jesus, onto God, then his perfect peace comes. And then you get to apply trust. I trust that I'm hearing you correctly. I'm trusting your word that it's true. I'm trusting all those beautiful promises that you've given me. And once we do that, then, yeah, you get to that place of peace where you can really hear what he's trying to say to you.
• 13:37
  Speaker B: Yeah. So we have some simple, practical action steps for you. How can you step into a place where it feels easy to hear God? The first step is to receive the truth that God wants to speak to you. We talked about this right from the beginning. God is always speaking. He always has something to say. I loved that verse from Job that He speaks again and again. He's like, hello? Hello, I'm trying to tell you something.
• 14:04
  Speaker A: Anyone listening?
• 14:05
  Speaker B: Anybody? And we're, you know, over here, like, la, la. God doesn't speak, you know, and he's like, I'm just trying to get through to you. And so receive that truth today. If you take nothing else away from this. God wants to speak to you. He is speaking to you. Jeremiah 33 says, Call to me, and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. His desire is to meet us in that place when you are crying out to Him. And you feel like nobody's listening. That is straight lie from the enemy, trying to distract you, trying to deceive you and pull you away from the truth that God says. And you can literally say, lord, you said that if I call, you will answer me. You said you would teach me great and unsearchable things, Lord, this is what your word says. So I'm taking that to the bank like Josh says. I'm taking this to the bank right now, and here it is. I need to hear your word and find that peace, step into that place, but receive that truth. God wants to speak to you. He wants to tell you things that you don't know. He wants to help you out of the situation that you feel stuck in. He has something to say.
• 15:18
  Speaker A: And I actually just feel God's grace right now to remove that lie. We break it off of you right now that you can't hear God's voice. That is just plain blatant lie from the enemy. We break it off. We bind any power that you've given that lie. And we just release God's grace to hear his voice better than you ever have before. Psalm 32. 8 is a verse that I love so much. I will instruct you and teach you in the way should go. I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. That's a beautiful promise from the Lord. We need his instruction. We need his teaching when we're on our own. When I go on my own, it's not always that great. But when I follow the way of the Lord, it goes well for me. And I love that last part where it says, I will counsel you with my loving eye, and he always looks on you with love. There's other translations that say he's guiding you with his eye. The implications of that are that if we look where God is looking, then we're going in the right direction. If we look in his eyes and this is where his attention is at, we follow that. You're gonna get to where you're supposed to be. That's a beautiful promise.
• 16:28
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's so good. So the first step is to receive the truth that God wants to speak to you. The second step is to remove the barriers. So what are the lies that you're believing? What are the things that you believe about go or about yourself? I can't hear God. I've never been able to hear him. Other people hear God better than me. Right? God doesn't speak to people today. You only. I have to find it in. It's only in the Bible, God doesn't want to speak to my heart that he put the Holy Spirit inside of you. Jesus said the Holy Spirit will instruct you and teach you everything you need to know. So trust that God has put himself inside of you to teach you, to instruct you. He has something to say. We need to identify those lies and begin to tear them down with the truth of Scripture.
• 17:18
  Speaker A: So removing the barrier, step two, step three is actually connecting to peace, which we talked about. We gave you a couple verses for that. But that is so important. When we're churning, we're anxious, it's really hard to hear God's voice. And sometimes it's when you really need him the most. And so you gotta understand, I need to take a break, take a moment, take some deep breaths, put on some soothing worship music. Whatever it is that gets you into that peaceful place, put your devices away, get rid of those things, turn the TV off and focus in, Connect into Him. Get rid of those distractions, cancel some of your meetings, or if there's things that are optional, just don't go to them and say, actually, I need to stay home and I need to reconnect with God. I need to reconnect to his perfect peace. And once you do that, that helps so much. God all of a sudden shows up, you're like, oh, I can hear him. Oh, well, I was just distracted. I was freaking out too much. I was too anxious, too busy with life, the cares of this world to just stop. And not that those, the cares of this world, God cares about those too. He shows up in all of our needs, all of our situations, but we just need to set those aside for a moment so we can reconnect with the person of peace. Do you that Jesus embodies peace? He is peace. So we have him. Holy Spirit is perfect peace. He lives inside of us.
• 18:51
  Speaker B: We've both been in those seasons of life where we felt too busy probably to connect with peace. There were so many things going on in our lives when Josh was working full time and commuting and we were, you know, full time volunteers and we had kids that were homeschooling and lots of responsibilities. And you feel like, I don't have time. I just don't even have capacity to connect to peace. But I would challenge that because when I look back, there was plenty of time. There was five minutes for me to go, dinner's over, play with the boys. I'm just gonna go sit on my bed and like be with Jesus for five minutes, right? Eventually, Josh found time on his commute, where it was like him and the Lord, where I'm just gonna worship and connect with God on the way home or on the way to. And so we have to find those moments, even if your day is packed. And I know when you have little kids, your eyes open when they're screaming or when they need something, or when they're, good morning, Mommy. And so. And it goes until they're in bed and you're exhausted. And often that's how we felt that the day was over. The kids were finally in bed for the 15th time. And it was just like, I just wanna sit here and watch TV and not think about anything for the next 20 minutes before I have to get in bed and we do it all over again. And so we get it. We get that there are seasons of your life that feel so busy, but there's always time for you to connect to peace. Even if it is in those first quiet moments in the morning or in the evening before you're going to sleep, where you can just say, God, I need to connect to your peace. I know for me, it was often I had the boys playing or doing something and I'm gonna go make lunch or I'm gonna put a load of laundry on. Those were my moments where I could stop and take a deep breath and say, I just need your peace right now. And it doesn't have to be. I think we make it into this big thing, right? Like, I need 30 minutes to pray and 40 minutes to read my Bible. And then I have to have a whole worship service. And, you know, otherwise I just. My days doesn't work. And it's like, no, no, no. Some seasons of your life require. Literally, I'm gonna plug into peace, and then I'm just gonna move on with my life. I have 30 seconds right now while nobody's screaming or beating me.
• 21:14
  Speaker A: Five minutes in the bathroom.
• 21:15
  Speaker B: Five minutes in the bathroom. If I. If I could get five minutes in the bathroom. Been nice. So we. We get it. But find those moments where you can take a deep breath and breathe him in and breathe out the stress. God, I just breathe in your peace. There's some. Something really beautiful called breath prayers where it's literally, you just take one word and that's what you're praying every time you have a moment to take a breath. Peace. That's it. You're just breathing his peace. And so just throughout your day, if you're having trouble connecting to peace, I just challenge you. Take those deep breaths. Take those moments where it's Just you and the Lord. Take a deep breath and breathe out. Ask him for that peace because he wants to give it to you. He wants to speak to you. You can remove the barriers, you can take the apps off your phone, you can hide the remote, you can cancel social media. Cancel your social media. At least just delete it from your phone. There's so much you can do to remove the distraction, to quiet the busyness. Like Josh said. That's such great advice. If you don't have to go, don't go. Just, just take some time. Center yourself, clear the schedule, make some margin so that you can connect to peace. Because it's so, so vital. If we want to hear from God, we have to be in a place of peace.
• 22:34
  Speaker A: And remember, God's voice will never contradict his written word. So you gotta be in your word. If you wanna hear God's voice and know that you're hearing him correctly, you have to know your Word and that's a great time to meet with him and invite him into a conversation. As you read God, what does this mean? What are you saying to me through what I'm The Bible is the only book where the author shows up when you read it every time. Isn't that amazing? God is so good. And remember that God's voice is kinder, gentler and wiser than your own. So if there's condemnation in there that's not from God and you can just flush that, say, I don't receive that, but if it sounds like your own voice in your head, but it's so much better and it's speaking truth over you, you know, you're hearing from God. And so I actually just want to pray over our listeners, our viewers, and just pray for God to release his voice over you. God, we just thank you so much that you are always speaking to us. Thank you that we are perfectly connected to you, Holy Spirit. And so right now, God, I just ask for extra grace to hear your voice, extra grace to remove the distractions, to connect with peace and just to receive from you. Thank you God that you are always, always, always speaking beautiful truth over us. Thank you for your promises that are so good, that you love us so, so much. So we thank you Lord for an increased ability just to connect with you and to hear what you're saying and hear what you're speaking into our everyday circumstances in Jesus name, amen.
• 24:16
  Speaker B: Amen.
• 24:16
  Speaker A: Well, thank you so much for spending some time with us. We just bless you to have the best week yet and we will see you next week.
• 24:24
  Speaker B: Bye. 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?
• 24:40
  Speaker A: Then rate and review this podcast. Help us spread the message of transformation far and wide.
• 24:45
  Speaker B: All right, time to walk back into the noise with peace, purpose, and maybe a tiny bit of caffeine.
• 24:50
  Speaker A: We'll meet you back next Thursday for another episode. Bye.