The Bible says God speaks to us, but do we actually believe this? And if so, are we practicing it? On today’s episode of the SALLT Leadership Podcast, we cover how the Lord speaks to us and share why it’s important to make time to hear His voice.
Episode 9 Show Notes:
Hearing God’s Voice
“Before we were even born, he gave us our destiny; that we would fulfill the plan of God who always accomplishes every purpose and plan in his heart.” - Ephesians 1:11 TPT
“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” - Romans 8:14
“The sheep that are My own hear and are listening to My voice; and I know them, and they follow Me.” – Jesus, John 10:27 (AMPC)
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.” - Psalm 19:1
Key Points:
God speaks and communicates. If you’re a follower of Jesus, then you have within you the Holy Spirit – He leads and guides us – including speaking to us.
A part of what makes being a follower of Jesus so amazing is that we not only talk to God but He talks back! God speaks/communicates to us all the time.
Here are some of the ways the Lord speaks to us:
Your next steps:
Additional readings:
00:08: Well, welcome to the SALLT Leadership Podcast, the podcast for men and women who want to grow in their faith, who want to live a purpose filled life and they want to maximize their abilities and influence for the Kingdom of God. I'm Wes Lane. And just in case you have forgotten about the context for this show and for your very life, keep this in mind, you have been designbuilt by a living, loving God who has sent you to a moment of history, to a geographic location, as a part of His overarching strategy to redeem and restore the earth to Himself. Your life matters. It has purpose and God has a vested interest in seeing to your success. And the adventure by the way to keep in mind is... The adventure is something that is all there for you to discover if you'll dare, keep in mind this verse from Ephesians 1:11, “Before we were even born, he gave us our destiny; that we would fulfill the plan of God who always accomplishes every purpose and plan in his heart.”
01:24: So the title of today's show is this: Hearing God's Voice. So years ago I was at a conference. It seemed like a lot of stuff happens sometimes at these conferences, but the luncheon speaker was a guy named John Perkins, who was a remarkable civil rights leader back in the '60s, he's an incredible man. But he gave as the nut to his lunchtime speech at this conference, Psalm 11:3 says, “When the foundations [of society] are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” And then he said, “I'm not going to answer it at the lunch, I'm going to answer it at the dinner tonight.” Well, I thought dadgum, I am not going to be able to be at the dinner. I don't know what he's going to say. And so I missed it. And so there I am the next morning, I'm still at the hotel. And I missed what was going on before. And so it's early in the morning and I am literally, I am so curious. What is the answer to the question?
02:35: And so I did something I really at that time hadn't done before. I just asked God, “What's the answer to the question?” And I heard... And I so I just, I asked and I just closed my eyes and I just was silent. And this very subtle, very small voice said this, “Psalm 60.” And I'm not going to get into the answer and what is the answer all about, because that's not the point of this conversation, but so Psalm 60. So a little bit later, I bump into somebody who had been to the dinner and I said, “Chester,” I told him, “I think I heard the Lord say Psalm 60, what do you think? I mean, you were at the dinner, what did he say?” He says, “Well,” he said, “Wes, you should know you heard the voice of God because the answer to the question was Psalm 60.” And I went, “Wow, wow!” I'll tell you another time. So one time I am writing a book during a period of time... In fact, the reason why I was even writing the book was because I had heard the Lord tell me this, “Write a book about what I've taught you.” So now I'm writing... One evening, Lori's not at home. I'm typing on my laptop, this book. And so there came a moment and it was so subtle, folks. It was just this prompting, this prompting inside. It was just a slight distraction. And the thought was “I needed to pray for my wife right then.”
04:30: And it wasn't like I heard, "You need to pray for your wife right then." No, it was just this little thought. And then it was like, I knew in my... You know in your knower, I knew that I was supposed to do that. Oh, that just didn't happen like that to me much, but okay. I got up, I got on my knees and I literally, I just... It wasn't very long. I just prayed for Lori's protection. I didn't even know what I was supposed to pray for, but I did it and I just sensed, okay, that was good. Get back up. And folks, no joke within 15 minutes, my wife shows up at the door to my room and she is out of breath. She has had the bejeebers scared out of her. And she's just sharing the story, she had just been on the highway, it's pitch dark and on the highway and nearly had a high speed collision with a patrol car lights running just coming right up behind her, she didn't know where to go, she swerves almost into him, he's swerving, they're swerving and I mean, it scared the way out of both of them.
05:52: And then she comes home and shares that and I realize that was the moment that I was praying for her. What was it about that experience that God was wanting me to pray for her? And I knew I had heard Him in that moment. And then last, I'll just give you one more quick deal. And this just happened very recently. This was at a workshop that we did, that SALLT did and actually the subject was hearing God's voice. We'd never done that kind of workshop before, but we did it this time. And one of our workshop presenters was a businessman here in Oklahoma City named Gary Brooks. And so I had just taken folks through a little exercise, requiring them to write some things and to share it and the like and so we have a young lady, a college student named Preslie Horton, who is on our staff and I was asking people, “Okay, raise your hand if you'd like to share what you think you might have heard from the Lord?” And she raises her hand.
07:00: I go to her to give her the mic. And the first thing she says is though, she says, she speaks to the fact that she has dyslexia. Now I would find out later she had been diagnosed with that since third grade. Dyslexia is when you have a real hard time with communicating, where reading, writing, really hard, can't see whole words. It's very difficult. And so but she shares that, so I go back and so we're done. And then she reads what she had and then I go around a little bit. And then, so bottom line is we're kind of finishing up the workshop. Gary comes up to me and he says this, "The Lord told me that He wants to heal Preslie." Oh, he actually, he didn't know Preslie's name. He said, "The girl in the green top," he just said "That girl over there."
07:51: Now what's really interesting is when Preslie had said, talked about her dyslexia, I just had this flash in my head about, you know what, “I need to pray for her.” You know that kind of deal. But I have that a lot, but I'm just kind of thinking, well, maybe that's just me and I tend to do that. So I kinda ignored it right then, because I didn't want to stop what was going on. So we bring Preslie up and we gather around her, Gary lays hands on her and just prays the simplest prayer. And you know what? Preslie Horton was healed of dyslexia. In fact, if you get the SALLT newsletter, that's on the front page of it this month. Is Preslie writing the story down of the remarkable experience and how that has been a ball and chain around her for all of her young life and so but here's the important deal, Gary Brooks heard and responded to God rather than just hearing it and ignoring it.
09:00: In fact, Gary told me this also, he said... And this was kinda funny. He said, God first told him that He wants to heal her. Then when Gary didn't do anything, a couple of minutes later, he then heard God tell him, “Don't let her leave the room until I have healed her.” Now at that point in time, Gary's saying, I don't want to get into a problem here with the Lord. And so that's when we bring her up and that's when it happened. And it was a remarkable deal because why, because Gary over the years had really been working to hear God's voice, God speaks and communicates, folks. I hear this, I hear people all the time, in fact, I read an article not too long ago in which somebody was just so... I mean, he was just pretty dadgum mean, he was like, God doesn't do that. God doesn't speak to us. Well, tell that to Preslie Horton or in the story I shared in a couple of podcasts back, tell that to Steve Fabian, when the Lord gave me his name and told me that I needed to make my relationship right with him again or tell my wife when she almost had the accident with the patrol car on the highway... But I got just the very sense because God speaks all the time.
10:21: And He speaks in many different ways. In fact, if you're a follower of Jesus, remember this, you have a Holy Spirit that's dwelling within you. And the Holy Spirit is not deaf and dumb and mute, He speaks. He leads us and guides us, including speaking to us. Romans 8:14 says, “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” And we are the children of God. If you're followers of Jesus, you're a child of God, or Jesus said this in John 10:27, “The sheep that are My own hear and are listening to My voice; and I know them, and they follow Me.” So many people write off Christianity. And I think about this a lot, especially you hear this about Generation Z and maybe some of you are Gen Z listening to this. And they refer to them, the researchers or the scientists, whatever they call them, they call you guys the none's, N-O-N-E's, because you check the box on assembly, what are you, what religion are you? Christian, Buddhist, whatever else or none.
11:28: And so you all tend to have a high proportion of you check none. And so many of us, even I have had this experience, I fell away from Christ because I just didn't see what's the big deal. What is the distinctive about being a Christian? Well, let me tell you one of the incredible distinctives about being a follower of Jesus is that you can communicate, it is a two way communication with the Creator of the universe. And He is actually interested in having a conversation with us, that is a jaw dropping deal right there. I remember back in the 1990s, I met a lady by the name of Pat Ward. And now folks, to be all honest, I used to scoff at people like this. I used to think, “Oh, it just doesn't happen,” blah, blah, blah. And then I just met too many people and then it started happening to me too and I realized, oh, I guess it does happen. So but Pat Ward was the first person that I ever met that actually took Jesus to the grocery store with her. Now I also knew Pat, I knew she wasn't Looney Tunes although at the time I'd never met anybody that would actually ask God about stuff that would be like so below His pay grade that He would be interested in answering stuff like that.
13:20: Well, I've since been disabused of that notion because He loves us. He is like the perfect father and we are like little kids and He loves to talk to us. He loves to answer simple questions. It doesn't have to be some highfalutin something like that. Because if you think about this, this is just simply being led by the Spirit and discerning His voice. People do this all the time, even if you think, well, I don't hear God's voice but you're wanting to know or some of us are, what's the will of God for my life? Well, how are you going to figure that out if He's not going to talk to you, if He's not going to communicate that to you in some way, or do I take this job or do I marry so and so? On and on and on. But He speaks and communicates to us all the time. First and foremost, we got to realize scripture is the primary way. That is the logos of God. That is the word of God, the written word of God. And that is... In fact, you'll never hear anything, He'll never speak something to you that is ever going to contradict the gold standard, which is the scripture. But He speaks to us through creation, through nature, there's any number of ways, Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.” He speaks to us through others.
14:29: I think about pastors from the pulpit that God has used as a conduit to speak to me about something or parents or family, mentors. I remember after losing my election, I remember four different times... Now this gets really way past coincidence folks, when you have on four different occasions, over a few months, you have somebody... Four different folks who have no clue who you are or your background. And I remember the first time this happened, for example and it always was something like this, be praying with some guy, stranger, be at some meeting and this guy said... He stops and he looks at me and he says, “I think the Lord wants you to know that this is a time of rest for you.” And I thought the first time, “Oh, well, thanks, that's nice,” move on. And then by about the third time, I heard the third time and then a fourth time and then I realized a loving God is reaching out to me in this moment of desolation and difficulty and He's letting me know how much He loves me and He's giving me these people the same message to me, wanting me to know that this is a purposeful moment of rest for me.
15:53: That's the kind of stuff that, I tell you, I have had happen all the time. When I started pursuing God to hear His voice and to recognize this was important. When I went from a guy who was skeptical about that and in fact was a scoffer, made fun of people I had met about that God. Now, when I stopped that and I started just listening and letting Him know, “Father, if you speak, I need to hear from you.” Then what happened? I heard from Him in so many different ways. He would communicate to me in so many different ways. I remember one way He would particularly do it, he would do this in such a way because He knew I was a hard head. And so what would He do? He would set me to weep about something that I'd have no emotion, in fact, it was kind of embarrassing.
16:54: I remember going to talk to a group one time, I was with Lori and she's asking me, we're pulling up, it was the Capitol Hill Church of God here. And there we were, I was pulling up, Lori asked me, she just happened to be with me, and she said, “What are you going to speak about?” And the phrase that the Lord had put on my heart and that's been really, this is my like single sermon, if you will, it's from Malachi 3:6 and says, “For I the LORD do not change…” And I just told her, I said, well, honey I think I was supposed to tell them, God hasn't changed. And I just started boohooing right behind the driver's wheel right there, I mean, really pretty goofy, but He taught me when He's wanting me to know that that's Him speaking, He'll do something like that or He'll speak through our circumstances, as I said, through other people, He might do that through dreams. He just does it. He does it all kinds of ways.
17:53: And I guess the big thing I want you to really come away with is just to ask Him. This is one of the great distinctives or many great distinctives about being part of God's family, the sort of thing that God is willing to do is to recognize that He will speak to you. I've got a friend who is a former Muslim and she has a tremendous ministry to Muslims. And she said this, she said and you might have heard of this before, but so many people who are Muslims are hearing the voice of God. They are seeing Jesus and He is beckoning them. Now explain that. He's speaking to them, He's calling them to Himself. That is the great distinctive, that is the sort of stuff that we should just cry out for. And again, it doesn't have to be anything... It's not going to be something big and serious, because He loves us. Okay, so let me just give you one quick something, I really got to move because I've been spending too much time on this, but fishing.
19:12: One day, I'm in a farm pond and I'm out in a float tube. And this farm pond, I've fished many times. It's always just boom, boom, boom, lots of fish, they are real active, a lot of fun. This morning, I'd been out there for an hour, nothing. Nothing is happening, not anything. I'm not even getting a nibble. It's like I may as well be fishing in a bathtub, it's that blank. And so then I literally, I'm up against one shoreline and I hear this, in my head, I hear this, I hear, "Cast toward the shore." Now, I knew that I was too close to the shore. I knew I was going to have to turn my tube around and cast in the other direction, but I did, I just did it. I heard this in my head, not in an audible voice, but in my head. Just this, "Cast towards the shore." Okay. So I get the tube around and as God as my witness, strike me dead right now if I'm lying. I cast one time and there's not been anything happening all day, I cast one time and boom, a big old bass hits that thing and I am stunned! Stunned! But that's how much our Father loves us. That He would care about something as silly as that just to let me know He loves me.
20:53: That's your Daddy too and He wants to talk to you. So what's your next right step? You got to decide. You got to decide to be that person that understands as a follower of Jesus, as a member of this family, you've got a context that you live in and that context is that there are rights and privileges as being a part of that family and that is, is that your Father loves to talk to you. Jesus loves to talk. The Spirit loves to talk. God loves to communicate and He's willing to share any number of things with you, if you will just pursue Him. God's always been looking for men and women who are salt and light, who want to be change agents to a culture and He's always been looking for cities on a hill, those places that are filled with so many of God's kids that the light is just a beacon to the world and kings and nations are drawn to that, because it's different, it's different than anything else.
22:09: Once you get a taste of this, you don't ever want to go back. The real stuff, not the stuff that gets served up in so many places in which God doesn't look like any... He just looks like you. It's just there's nothing distinctive about it, because we make God just look like our lesser selves and who wants that God? But that's not the God that beckons you. He's willing for this city, this greater Oklahoma City area to be that city on a hill, a spiritual epicenter, a spiritual capital to the nation, if you will. That's what's going on right now. That's what you're living in in this moment right now, that is your context, so rise up, rise up and live a life worth living. He's willing to help you accomplish that if you'll dare. You can do this. I’ll see you next time.