Discerning God’s Voice | Best of Priscilla Shirer

Hearing the voice of God is a subject that many believers want to know about. In this video, author and motivational speaker Priscilla Shirer breaks down the many ways we can hear God’s voice. Join us as we explore the transformative power of faith and God’s love in overcoming life’s challenges. Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more inspiring content!

While in the old testament, there were external means as a primary way for folks to hear god.
In the new testament, and now in this time frame, as well, we have something made in hell.
We have the holy spirit. We are actually clothing ourselves in the promises of god.
Um, it’s almost like it becomes a fortified shelter against the attacks of the enemy because god watches over his word to perform it.
I have to have a heart
that is filled with expectation that I am one of the sheep of god’s fold, and I can hear the voice of god.
Does god speak audibly? Does he only speak through his word?
Does he speak how how what are the different ways that you certainly know of that god speaks to you.
Um, I’ve never heard the audible voice of god babe. Have you
ever missed something?
I have not. No. Not yet. No. Not yet. But I think there is something internal
Yeah.
In you that you that you feel the presence of god, and it lines up with scripture, which confirms Okay.
This is what I’m hearing.
That’s right. So the Holy Spirit of God, a Lumen scripture.
The book is alive, and he causes the the old presets of scripture to have a nouness and a newness that applies and intersects with our personal experience.
So as Jerry mentioned, the Holy Spirit in us confirms and corroborates and connects with the the the word of god and causes it to inter with our experience.
So that that verse that has something to do with David and Goliath, all of a sudden, it’s not about David and Goliath.
It actually applies to you’re facing right then in your life, and you understand it as a directive straight straight from god.
And then there’s the conviction. You know, the conviction of the Holy Spirit that that green light of ease and peace that says go, that that yellow light of warning and uneasiness that says, hold up a minute till you get clarity.
And then that red light that is a straight up no. There’s no peace. There’s confusion. There’s dissension.
That’s the Holy spirit’s way of telling you, no. Don’t go there.
There’s a better yes for you if you’ll just wait and be patient.
Have you ever heard the still small voice of the lord in a phrase and an impression.
How what describes some of what is in discerning the voice of god.
How how the lord speaks or how this conversation unfolds with you?
Yes. Well, most of the time, most of the time, god speaks to me through his word.
It is exactly what I described. It is reading through a portion of scripture.
And on that day, it’s like the Holy Spirit has taken out a highlighter and has highlighted this verse.
You have seen a million times before, but on that day, it leaps up off the page and it grips you.
That’s the only way I can really describe it, is that it grips you in the depths of your soul and causes you to pause for a moment.
Because it it seems to be literally speaking to something that’s happening in your life.
Most of the time, that is the voice of god.
We have discounted, I think, the power of scripture because if we say we wanna hear from god and we never actually read the love letter that he wrote to us, we don’t wanna really hear from god, and we rarely will.
Because the canon of scripture is not only it not only provides the boundary into which everything god says to us will fall, because he’ll never say anything that manipulates the scriptures or his character as revealed in the scriptures, so it not only gives us the boundary but it also provides for us the number one mechanism through which we have the privilege to hear him in the first place.
Beautiful. So what the voice of the lord sometimes feels like to me is like I’m remembering a conversation.
Mhmm.
Not like I’m talking and and going, hello, lord. And he says, Well, hello, Matthew.
It’s nice to have you here with me today.
Been a long time.
Yeah. It’s been, you know okay. So I’ve never had any kind of an experience like that at all.
Every time I felt like volumes of information get communicated in a in a in a snap of a finger.
And then it just feels like you’re remembering When we’re done with this conversation today and we’re out of this studio, we’ll be able to remember this conversation.
And we will be able to ultimately think back on it.
That’s that is a way that the lord has communicated.
I have heard the still small voice say one word to me or 2 words one time, Hillsong
channel. Mhmm.
6 months later, The hillsong channel was on the air. Yeah. K. Uh, we’re sitting here today.
Laurie and I, um, you know, have often heard the story, but just just because of what we’re talking about, and I wanted to set a little bit of the stage.
And by the way, what a thrill to have you guys. Seriously. I mean, it’s I know.
It’s like I’ve known your parents, and I was like, what’s the matter with us, man?
I mean, so we met, actually, at TD Jake’s church not long ago.
You sat behind us and made us laugh through the whole process.
I I’m sorry for that. I was cutting up. And, you know, the kids were kids and
thank you for that because they were like, okay. When is this gonna you’re
you realize you’re making fun of a TD Jake service. That’s okay.
No. It was a fantastic
service, but kids in church for 3 hours. They were
they were glad Matt was sitting. The uncle Matt was right.
And just so that they wouldn’t freak out gave him a little money to,
you know,
to kinda bribe him. Okay. Anyway, uh,
so work for me.
My mom and dad were working for somebody else in the sixties.
It was a TV station.
And after one very successful night, they were leaving the parking lot, and the lord said, I’ve released you from your work here.
Now my parents believe it was almost like one of these moments where you look in the back seat.
Make sure there’s somebody not in the back seat.
Yep.
But they were in their car, and my dad didn’t recall it as being an audible voice, but it might as well have been because he looked at my mom and said, you’re not gonna believe what the lord just said to me.
And she said, no, I will. He said the same thing to me. He’s released us from our work here.
Very, very unique thing. They quit that job. I’m eleven years old.
My dad doesn’t go to work anymore.
This is, you know, here in Southern California in the early seventies, And then, uh, a few months later, praying the lord said had to say these words somehow because My dad heard Call Angel Lerma.
It was a gentleman that owned a TV station here in Soquel.
He called And he said, uh, to to he said to Angel, he said, uh, I’m just calling you today, checking on your channel.
And there was a long pause on the phone. Paul, I just came from the boardroom.
We just had a board meeting just now. We just voted to sell this channel. Did you know that?
And he said, no, sir. I didn’t know that, but based on that, I’d like to come see you.
Mhmm.
By the end of that day, there was a deal worked out, which was the birth of TVN, which was this channel here in Los Angeles, channel 40.
Channels actually changed now because of digital, but that was channel 40 back in the day.
So here’s the here’s the thing.
We’re sitting here today because of a couple of moments that the lord was wanting to communicate to someone to see if they would respond to it.
K? So now 40 something years later, we’re sitting here.
There’s 31 television networks on the air in 13 or 14 different languages, and we are literally, ultimately, uh, now communicating to the globe as we’re sitting here.
Okay?
Yeah. So if everyone can realize it’s kind of an important subject that we’re talking about. K? K?
And so
Well, if everybody moved on something that got spoke to them.
There it is.
You know, take another generation. What would that become?
What god had done if we would have obeyed at that point.
And we and we’ve had that. We’ve had that in all.
I’m thinking about when we first got married, babe, where you’ve had these these moments where, like you said, there is almost like huge conversation that has already happened and the wealth of it.
Yeah. Download. It just downloads to you in an instant.
Um, and and one of those things happened when we were married for our very 1st year of marriage.
Very 1st year. What happened? We were at a a a family reunion on my father’s side of the family.
And, uh, I remember one of my cousins said, Jerry, do you realize that if you still don’t have any boys, the Shining will die with you?
I’m like, and I looked around. I’m like, wow.
And at that moment, I felt like Laura said to me, Jared, you have nothing but boys.
Wow. And so I looked at Priscilla, and I told her what I said is you have nothing but boys or have nothing but boys.
And Uh, I remember when our first son was born, Jackson, a boy.
Uh, the second son, Jared Junior, a boy. And it was so funny.
The 3rd child, everybody, you know, oh, the way she’s carrying it, it’s a girl that I it’s a girl.
I’m like, no, it’s not. It’s a boy.
Everybody asked me how confident was I that I knew that it was a boy. Wow.
And I told him years ago, the lord told me I had nothing but boys because what he’s doing is starting a new generation Wow.
Of Shireman.
Wow.
And, uh, I remember being in the delivery room and, when when when Jude was coming out and his head was out, uh, I said,
oh, I bet you a $1000.
That’s a boy.
That’s a boy. The doctor said, we haven’t seen everything yet.
I said, if that’s a girl, she’s gonna be with me for the rest of her life. That’s a boy.
But
you know what? And and some of the details of that that you have to know, is that some of the well, most of the men in Jerry’s legacy did not live well.
They didn’t honor god. They didn’t stay with their wives. They didn’t honor their kids. Nothing.
And so in that moment where he felt like the lord said that to him, he really felt like the lord was saying, I’m doing this on purpose.
Wow. I’m going to change what it means to be a shire man
Wow.
Through this legacy. And he looked at me just barely into our 1st year of marriage and said, we don’t have voice.
God’s doing this on purpose. And here we are 18 years later with our 3 boys.
And so we have high expectations that god’s got a plan for them. Yes.
He does.
And you
don’t have any plan for any more kids.
We actually do not.
Oh, she says, you know, she always says she always says from this stage, our youngest is jude.
Because that’s the closest she can get the revelation because it is finished.
It it is finished. That’s the end of the line right there.
Oh, gosh. Uh.
Okay. So start us out on, um, because I know so many people wonder, oh, you know, how can I hear god’s voice for herself?
And I know or trust or trust it. How can I trust god’s voice when I do hear it?
Is that really him? Is it me? Is it Yeah.
Well, let me let me just start by putting a little grace over this entire situation.
The reality is that sometimes you do not know until hindsight.
That what you heard was the voice of god.
Yeah. Yeah.
And the reality is that there is grace and mercy to cover our missteps and that the lord in his graciousness toward us his knowledge of our frailty and our humanity for the willing heart who desires to do his will, even when we make mistakes He allows them to become our greatest teachers for hearing him correctly in the future.
He does not hold it against us because we’ve misstepped along the way.
So just grace for those of us. Yes. Who have ever heard god wrong?
And, um, wish we could get it get it right.
One of the people I sort of interviewed when I first writing that book many, you know, over a decade ago, uh, now I interviewed Henry Blackabee who wrote experience in God.
And I, you know, had my notebook out, my pen.
I was gonna take a seminary class from every black one to, you know, and I said, how do you know when you’re hearing god?
And he gave me lots of incredible answers to that question, but, really, he summed it up this way.
He said the more you know god, the more clearly you can hear god.
There was really nothing for me to write down because it boiled down to. Priscilla, it’s simple, he said.
The more you know him, the more clearly you can hear him.
So the reason why we go to the scriptures, the reason why we have quiet time, the reason why we fellowship with other believers who are gonna help us remain encouraged in our faith is because we’re just trying to get to know god.
Yeah. When you know his character, when you know, um, the nuances of what he does say and what he wouldn’t say because he’s how spoke to our forefathers because of how he handled circumstances previously with people in the scriptures who were going through some of the same scenarios we’re going through now.
When you see his personality and his character, then you know when you hear the voice of fear, uh-uh, that don’t sound like my god.
When you hear the voice of your ego pride, jealousy, divisiveness stepping in, all of that stuff that in our flesh is also trying to get a word in edgewise.
We can quickly quickly pinpoint the voice of a stranger because if we know god, the more clearly we can discern and dis divide his voice from a stranger.
Okay. Now you talked about seeking god’s provision and his blessings on our life, and then knowing who who what his character is, talk about that because I found that fascinating.
Yes. So god’s blessing, um, and
I believe his provisions are corroboration of his word to us.
So in other words, While in the old testament, there were external means as a primary way for folks to hear god in the new testament.
And now in this time frame as well, we have something they didn’t have. We have the Holy Spirit.
So the primary way he has speak to us is that he speaks to us has changed, but his goal hasn’t.
His goal is still for his kids to hear his voice.
So he’s chosen the Holy Spirit of God to be the the way that we, uh, hear and know what it is that his will is for our life, but he still uses external means his provision, his blessings, his aligning of providence.
Some people would call it luck or coincidence. No. It’s the aligning of god’s handy work in our life.
To confirm that what we’re sensing on the inside is indeed how he’s aligning the direction for our life to just F.
B. Myers, a great theologian put it this way.
When a big, uh, 747 is getting ready to land on a runway, well, well, the plane better not just be looking for one light somewhere to land.
Better not just look for 2 lights somewhere to to land.
There better be several lights that are that are lining a runway so that that 747 knows exactly to relent.
The bigger the decision that you have to make, the more you need to trust in the mercy of god’s external confirmation that aligns for you where to land that plane in your life.
Beautiful. And and so that’s important that we have external blis blessings, provision, coincidence that really shows us the sovereignty of god aligning.
I’ll give you an example. I was just telling you guys before we started, um, Erin, that I that I started to to look at this discerning the voice of god book, the material that we’ve been privileged to be able to develop through the years on the topic, And I just started, you know, how the lord puts layers of maturity on a message, the more you grow in him, aren’t we so great?
Sure.
That he
lets us grow and mature and learn from our mistakes.
And I thought just starting to feel like, you know, it might be time, especially with the the video series that we’ve done in regards to this.
It was taped 11 years ago.
So it kinda looks dated now and I thought we might need to do something different with that at some point.
This was gonna be my lazy year where I just kinda sat down and didn’t write too much.
But at the same time, I started to sense that on the inside, maybe we need to do that at some point.
One of my publishers called to say, you know, let’s redo the discerning the voice of god bible study.
Then the publisher of this particular book called and said, hey. You know what?
Maybe we’re gonna put in a a re face this and go ahead and freshen up the material here and the new insights that the lord has given you.
So there were 2 things, 2 lights there that kind of corroborated what I was already sensing on the inside.
And then Matt Loydcrouch called and said, you know what, Priscilla?
We think that we would love to offer this to to people who want to know how to discern god’s leading.
That third light Wow. Was the confirmation for me.
That what it was I was sensing on the inside, the lord was very clear clearly giving me a light bulb to let me know this would be his for me.
Hearing the voice of god, you know, and discerning, um, the voice of god. It starts first with listening.
It does. It starts with listening. And to be listening to the scriptures.
I think we’re listening to everybody and everything else hoping to find the voice of god elsewhere when we are really turning our our noses up at and ignoring the main means of communication that we have access to straight from the hand of god himself.
And that’s the the Bible. If you
wanna hear from god and you don’t never read the Bible,
then you don’t really wanna hear from
god. Right.
Because that’s the primary way he speaks.
Steve will wanna you know, skywriting and, you know, smoke signals. It’s like, no. Open the Bible.
God will speak to you.
That’s exactly right. And think about this.
You know, we look at the people in the Old Testament who had some of those things that we desire, you know, the the the fiery pillar by night and the cloud, you know, in the day and and all of these different things, and we the dreams and the visions and donkey speaking and all this stuff.
And we’re like, lord, if you could just do that, we’d appreciate that.
You know, if the lightning would flag at noon tomorrow if you want me to take the job or not.
We want that, but think about the fact that the saw mist prayed and said, Lord, please do not take your spirit from me.
They wanted in the old testament what we have access to.
That’s right. Yeah.
The reason they needed all of that and not that god can’t still do that because he can’t be choosest to, but the reason they needed those things is because they did not have the gift that we had Yep.
And that is the Holy Spirit that is
loving every single one
of us.
That’s exactly right.
Yeah. We were just actually, um, at church recently, talking about the Holy Spirit and who he is, and and it, um, one of the, you know, the paraclete is the word that would be used to translate him.
And that’s actually a battle term, which you’re probably aware of. You’re so deep, Holly. You’re so deep.
You’re so, so deeply spiritual. Um, and it’s, you know, so it’s an ancient battle term.
And so the Greeks, when they would go out to battle, you know, they would go in pairs, and you would fight back to back protecting each other’s back.
Well, your battle partner was called Juppericle.
So the Holy Spirit Hey, girl. That’ll preach right there.
Right?
Yes. It does.
And it so did. Yes. It did. So he’s your battle partner.
Yeah. And but if you
don’t if you actually don’t connect and build this relationship with him, right, then how how are you going to hear?
Mhmm. And you’re right so many times, we spend so much time flipping through social media and getting on Facebook, and we spend all that time looking for information to make decisions.
And he is our guide.
That’s right.
Right? It’s his voice. He’s Yeah. He’s wants to guide and direct us.
Yeah. And I think there’s a misconception that the enemy sort of pushes on individual believers, that there is some special hotline connection that god has with some of us that he does not also offer to everyone.
That if you haven’t been to Seminary, that if you’re not in ministry, that if you don’t have this religious devoted, elevated life of spirituality, that you don’t also have the opportunity to hear from god, but I’m so grateful that it’s just that hearing god is for regular women.
You know what I mean?
Just housewives and people to pull the laundry
and cook for their kids and figure out
new ways to cook chicken for dinner. It’s for us.
You know, I’m so I’m so grateful.
Um, that it’s not just reserved for certain people at certain times, but by god’s spirit, we all have access to hear
the word. Because I think I’d be gooned.
That right.
That wasn’t if that wasn’t vacation. Yeah.
I think that’s probably one of my most, if any, but if I could open my mouth and say anything, is that god loves you and that god is there and that god is with you and that holy spirit never leaves you, never you know, that’s my passion if I if I ever tell anybody that is that it’s not just for the guy that’s up on the pull bit,
you know,
or preach in, or then it’s just for us no matter where we are, no matter for all no matter what,
for each
of us.
But, okay, how did you start doing the kids stuff. When did that take place?
You know what? It started about 6 years ago now.
I was making scrambled eggs in the morning as you do. As you do. That’s right.
Uh, my four year old at the time was already sitting down eating his plate.
I was finishing up another plate.
And my four year old said, while my back was turned to him, he said, Mom, will I ever be in a battle?
And I just said, what babe? He said, will I ever be in a battle like with Satan?
And I it’s one of those questions where you kinda turn around and go now, what And what what were you dreaming about last night?
You know what? Where’d that come from?
And so it startled me, but I just kinda turned around and he had this this innocent wide eyed um, looked that he was very serious.
He wanted to know the answer to that question.
So I took the opportunity after after praying really quickly and say, how do I answer this, Lord?
I just said, you know, actually, babe, you you are in a battle with the enemy every single day, you know, that tug that you feel on the inside to engage in something.
Maybe you shouldn’t to say something to be mean to and then you feel that pull back and forth about whether or not to do it.
That’s the the war. And then by this time it year old brother comes around.
The baby at the time was in the crib. I mean, he’s like little teeny bitty.
And I said, guys, you do know you have invisible armor, right?
And to a four year old and a six year old boy, hearing that they have they’ve got a sword, what?
There’s a helmet available. Oh, no. So I just started, and we started memorizing Ephesians chapter 6. Wow.
And so as I was looking at how engaged they were in this idea that there’s a spiritual battle and that they’re engaged in it every single day, as a mom who’s hoping her boys will love to read.
I
thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great if there was an adventure series that really was all about fiction all about some kids who discover that there is an invisible realm and that in this invisible realm, they meet a guide.
This guide shows them and gives them access to the armor that they they have available to them to defeat the enemy there and that the victories they experienced there in aortos, which is which is a Greek word for invisible, that the they experience their translates to their experiences on earth.
If they can just learn how to get victory there, they’ll experience victory here.
And so I just started crafting these chapters for my boys, and I would read it to them before bed and and craft these characters.
And I sort of base the characters off of my boys and nieces and nephews and I didn’t intend to write them for publishing.
I was just writing them to read to my voice Wow. So that we’d have something to read together.
And so here 6 years later, We have the Prince Warrior series, and it’s for prince and princesses alike So good.
Who just want to to learn how to arm themselves to stand firm against the schemes of the enemy.
Wow. So good. I I actually can’t wait to read those to Jordan. Oh, no. Thirty year old Jordan.
Probably not. But I really do my
myself. Yeah.
You’re like, oh,
you never know. But I just have so many young people in my world.
And I I just think it’s Well, personally, I love, um, it’s like why I love CS Lewis because he could fiction that actually could make the point Right.
I
just feel like I learned so much from that.
Yes. Almost more than somebody teach you. That’s right. To know,
I tell him who’s telling the story.
And the goal was to give organic a opportunity for there to be a conversation between a, you know, a ten year old and their mom or a ten year old and their dad about something they read, and it just hinted at something that caused a spiritual interest to be piqued that opens the door for this conversation about spiritual things.
Way Jesus told stories. That’s right. Or just right.
That’s right.
That’s right.
So the the theological principles are just all tucked in there somewhere. Great. We actually decided on, um, the princewarriors.com.
What we did is we have this little button called sear secrets so that a parent or kid can click on secrets and actually see what the theological secrets are that are tucked in each chapter.
Wow. So if a parent hadn’t read the whole thing, but they just wanna go in there.
They know their kids on chapter 2, book 2, can go in there and see what the secrets are and then bring it up at dinner and say, hey.
When you read this, what do you think that meant?
So we just start trying to stir the conversation a little bit. That’s so cool.
That’s awesome. Okay. So, um, a few months ago, we were at Bishop Jake’s church. Yeah.
And you got the the big
Uh, beautiful award. They’re beautiful people. Aren’t they?
Aren’t they amazing? And my mother-in-law got the lifetime achievement.
Yes. She did.
And, So you had your kids with you.
Your boys. All three boys.
3 beautiful boys,
by the way. They are
giant. Giant boys.
They are giant. I mean, I number them from being little.
Giant girl every day. But you, um, something that touched me so much during that is that you started uh, telling the the audience what you speak over your kids.
And so just talk about that. Did your did your parents do that to you?
Like that, or was it just something, um, that you
I I’m trying to think of exactly why I started doing that, what the specific reason was.
I don’t know that I can remember.
I just thought this is my opportunity to get something stuck in their head. Mhmm.
Get a message stuck in their head.
I was
right. This is my opportunity, you know, while I
have an audience while they’re here and messing with me. That’s I’m
gonna get this this soundtrack stuck in their head because I know the enemies coming after them.
I know that he’s gonna try to make them feel insecure and discouraged and overwhelming frustrated and like they’re ill equipped to do whatever god has for them.
So I have literally said nearly the same thing to them for years years every morning they know what’s coming.
I say, boys look at mama in the eyes, and they all go, ugh.
And they love it. They just
don’t, you know Is that what’s happening? Oh, yeah.
Yes. Oh, okay.
I will tell.
They’ll tell this story 40 years from now.
They’ll be sitting here on this set. Because they’re talking about that. Same thing. They better
rise up and call
me less than that, sir. They better do. And that part of it.
You will you will rise up and come together.
And I do I just look at them and I say you are men of integrity and character and honesty.
You will be a blessing to your teacher today. You will be a blessing to your friends.
You will love the lord your god with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength you will put on the full armor of god so that you can stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
You will have the praises of the lord in your mouth all day long so that you can speak well over those who are near you.
You are the head. You are not the tail. You are above. You are not beneath. You are a leader.
You are not a follower, and you will love the lord your god all of your days.
And about halfway through that, they start going, you will love, Lauren Garcia. Uh, well, you’re so good.
So they’re they’re moaning about it, but the fact that they can repeat it back to me, Yes.
That is correct. That it’s getting in.
Absolutely. You know?
I remember one time when, um, just with Paris, what she would hear from me off in in the phrase I would use is you’re the love beyond measured daughter of the king.
That’s okay.
And so I talk about that.
And so and, you know, put that in the middle of sentences all And then one time I overheard her on the phone with a little friend, and there was this emotional thing happening.
She goes, no. You you’re you are the love beyond measured daughter of a Kate, so you know that. Awesome.
So I was just
like, yes.
Yeah. That’s right. That’s those are small little victories aren’t there. Were you?
Because there’s a lot of stuff you go through, and so we have to celebrate the victory
That’s right. I know. Oh, yeah. So now that they’re, you know, they’re older now.
And so I’ve just printed it up, actually.
I printed up unique ones start to see little ways that the enemy might wanna take advantage of a vulnerability here or a fear here or an insecurity there.
So I just wrote up a little list for each one and I have them posted on the art.
Our house is really tiny, so they’re right there in the hallway posted on the little closet door.
And every morning, I still say my part to them, but they have to go read their own.
Out loud, um, so that I can hear it, but also so that they can hear it.
And so they read their own every single day. I’m like, this is my this is my chance
to put as much in them as I can.
Do you have that posted on your website or anything that people Do
you know what? I wrote
a blog post about it a while back. I’ll have to so it’s there.
It is there, but I’ll repost it again.
Jerry, could you get on?
Did that happen?
We’ll repost that so that it Yeah.
People could print that out. Write that and
say that It’s
a great idea.
I love that.
Yeah. I love that actually that they you have them say some things because Yeah. Right?
You know, faith comes by hearing.
That’s right. And
you have to hear sometimes from your own mouth.
I I actually remember when I was um, dealing with cancer that I could read the the healing scriptures, but there’s something about saying them
out loud. That right.
And saying them louder than the fear in my own head. Mhmm. Right?
Because the fear in my head was big. Yeah. And so saying it louder.
And so there’s just something about finding a promise. Mhmm.
And I know there are people watching and you’re in the middle of your own situation.
And so it’s worth it to do the work to find the promise that speaks to your situation.
And underline it certainly, but take a moment and shout it. Mhmm. Shout it.
Shout it loud because fear fear can over you know, can try to overtake it, but you just speak his truth louder.
So I love the fact that you Yeah. Have your voice.
And not to mention the fact, Holly, that the enemy does not know what we are thinking but he’s sure enough.
We’ll hear what you’re saying. Right.
That’s So when we speak god’s word into the atmosphere, we’re actually clothing ourselves in the promises of god.
Um, it’s almost like it becomes a fortified shelter against the attacks of the enemy because god watches over his word to perform it.
Yes. So we can either give the enemy ammunition with negativity and complaining and speaking, um, basically collaborating with his attempts to drag us down.
Or we can go ahead and just speak the promises of god and let the enemy know.
We’re not just gonna let him just Waltz in here and take advantage of us.
We’re gonna put up a fight because we’re gonna stand firm. On what our god says.
But but to it’s so it’s good that you put it, though, because to be honest, there are times when it’s so much easier to complain.
Oh, I mean, come on. Right? Yeah.
Follow in it.
Woah. And I I was I have a pity party and
a bike friend Right? Come and join you.
I’ll bring the coffee. You bring the chocolate. David said, you know, I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed.
Right? So we get overwhelmed because we play. Yes. But it’s complaining is so easy.
Oh, our oh,
how much interest does it say it?
Easier just to focus on me and the bed and and the more we do, the bigger the problems become.
Whatever you give your attention to. Fine.
Just just
And then you’re talking to other people. You want other people to join. You’re complaining it. Yeah.
It doesn’t actually help anything.
So and
then we get mad at the friends who won’t join us. Right.
We don’t
even wanna be their friends. No. Exactly. You’re not gonna feel bad for me.
Right? Goodbye. Well, you know, I it’s like a marriage.
I, uh, uh, a marriage that was actually close to us for a while.
One one day, the girl said to me, she said, you know, it’s really hard being around other good marriages.
Mhmm. Because ours is so bad. And I was like, Hello? You need to be around good marriages.
Isn’t that interesting? Yeah. It was easier for her to be around bad marriages.
So we had to break felic.
Yeah. Sure. I think she felt a lot just like a lot of judgment.
I think some of that was part of it, but maybe a lot of jealousy.
Yeah. Yeah.
That’s good. Because you had a good one, and and we don’t have, so it’s really hard to be around.
The good ones.
Right.
You know, I don’t get I don’t even get that. Yeah.
And marriage takes work, doesn’t it? Yeah. And Anybody here at this table have a perfect marriage?
Anybody married to perfect men? You’re you’re not? Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah.
Priscilla and I are not. I’m pretty sure, but actually, I know your husband is not perfect.
Not perfect for you.
You’re a hummus. But it does take work. Right? It takes speaking the truth.
It takes persevering through the Talking over him every day. You will.
And surrounding yourself, like, you just said, surrounding yourself with people who are gonna hold you accountable to covering the work of marriage.
Yes. And we have this older I say older couple, they’re really not. They’re 10 years down the road.
So they’re 10 years down the road and raising kids in marriage and ministry, and that’s all you really do need someone where there’s a little bit of a gap.
Yes.
That they can look back on the season you’re in and give wise input.
But we’ve really submitted ourselves to their authority in the sense that if they look at our schedule, And they’re like, when is the last time y’all been on a date?
When’s the last time you guys have actually had a really good conversation that wasn’t about business or wasn’t about ministry?
Just about the 2 of you.
And if we have not done that and they say, get your butts on a plane and get to us right now.
Mhmm. We have a commitment to them that if there’s something they see, we need to realign we will get on a plane and we will get there because they care more about the state of our souls Yeah.
Than they do the state of our our ministry.
Yeah. That
meet people like that that are gonna charge you up and keep everything in
the mail. Sometimes I think people the people will say that.
You know, I can need accountability, but then to do the work of than actually being
accountable, yielding
yourself to somebody else’s voice.
Especially for a guy. Yeah. I feel like it’s easier for us as women because we’re relational beings.
We like that feeling of protectedness and being covered. Mhmm. Um, there’s safety and security.
So it’s at least easier for us.
But for for sometimes for our husbands, They’re not they’re like, I’m the leader in this house, and I’m not trying to submit to anybody else.
The best husband in the world, I think, are those who are willing to submit to the authority of their pastor or spiritual leader in their life to humble themselves to know that I need guidance and direction.
And so we to pray for our husbands in that regard. Yes.
Listen to me more now than ever before as our culture continues to be increasingly godless.
You and I are gonna have to know how to do what the psalmist said.
I hide god’s word in my heart so that I might not sin against him.
We gotta use god’s word. It’s not enough for us to just have, um, the Bible around our home because, you know, you got the big pretty one that’s up on the mantle.
You’ve got the little small one that sits on your nightstand.
You’ve got the one that’s just for decor that might be like a coffee table book.
And then, you know, you have that one that one that’s got all the dog ears and it’s got all the underlines and all the post it notes.
That’s the one that you take to church with you so you can actually look, you know, holy like you used the Bible.
We have all of these bibles available to us, but the Bible don’t do us no good.
Just sitting there looking pretty. It only does us good if we know how to actually take advantage of the truths of god, the fresh breath of god that is available to us through the scriptures.
So I wanna talk to you, to me, to us, challenge us about utilizing god’s word.
Truth everyone is saying is so relative.
No one has a re reverence anymore for the truth of god as declared in his word now more than ever.
We’re gonna be unapologetic about our faith.
If we’re gonna be able to stand firm against the schemes of the enemy, if we’re going to be able high school student and university student and mother and father, wife, husband, single woman, single man, entrepreneur, ministry, president, if we’re going to be having the opportunity to stand firm, then we gotta know the truth of god’s word.
And we’ve gotta be able to live off of every word that god speaks to us.
We’ve gotta be found on our knees in prayer and prioritizing our time in God’s word.
I wanna tell you this before I share with you some principles that actually have transformed the way I spend time in the word of god.
The enemy wants to convince you.
He wants to convince me that god has some sort of hotline connection between he and certain people that it’s just our spiritual leaders, our pastors, our bible study teachers, the folks that are on staff, The people that are in full time ministry, the folks that have, you know, a microphone on their jacket, the people that are in the spotlight, the folks who we go past their Instagram feed and we are, um, admonished or encouraged because they are teaching and preaching to masses.
The enemy wants you that it’s a seminary degree that is required before you can actually have a fervent ongoing relationship with god where you yourself can open up the word of god and know that the Holy Spirit can illuminate the scriptures and give you guidance and direction and insight and clarity and encouragement and comfort.
He wants you to think that that kind of fervent friendship with god is only for certain people because he knows that as long as you and I are not convinced that we can hear a fresh word from god for ourselves then at best, we’ll be handicapped in our faith because we’ll always be waiting on somebody else to spoon feed us the word of god instead of knowing that we can have confidence in our friendship, in our relationship with god.
That person who you admire rightfully so.
There are people that I admire, their faith, their stability, their strength, their peace in the midst of the storm.
There are people I admire their crare life.
I admire how they are concrete in their faith and their beliefs. No matter what happens, in culture.
There are people I admire their ministry.
I admire the fervency in which I see the presence of god operating in their life.
So, yeah, there are folks that we can admire, but just as quickly as we admire them, we have to be careful and guard ourselves against thinking that what they have access to is not also something that we have access to.
The same holy spirit of god that lives in that person you admire is the same presence and power of god that lives on the inside of you to guide you into all truth to illuminate the scriptures so that you too can hear the voice of god.
And so I wanna encourage you to not wait until Sunday morning time your bible study group can get together again in person before you engage in hearing the voice of god for yourself from the scriptures.
I wanna encourage you to not depend upon someone else to spoon feed you god’s truths.
I wanna remind you that you can hear god and we need to have a daily relationship with god through his word.
Your stability is counting on it.
Your peace, my peace of mind, particularly in the craziness and chaos of the culture that we’re living in right now.
If we don’t have a relationship with god, where we are prioritizing coming to him in his word, then we will find that we are not stable.
We don’t have peace of mind.
We don’t have clarity, revelation, direction, insight, and encouragement to keep on putting one foot in front of the other.
And not be discouraged by what we see happening around us.
So I wanna encourage you to have a relationship with god through his word.
I wanna share with you what I call the 5 piece of bible study, like the letter p.
So, you know, if you like to take notes, I want you to get the notes out app on your phone or get a pen or a pencil.
I want you to write these 5 peas down.
These peas have changed the way that I relate to god through his word.
And I say the word relate specifically. Because it’s not just about reading a book.
Y’all this this just ain’t no book.
It’s not just a regular, um, book filled with pages and papers and bound by leather.
It’s so much more than that. This book is alive.
The holy spirit makes it so that he shines a spotlight in the place where we most need to be fed, where we need guidance and direction so that god’s present word leaps up off the page and gives us exactly what we need for the circumstances that we are facing right now.
Don’t know regular book. Do that. This book is alive.
And so as we engage in it, we can relate to god through it.
Because he speaks to us through his work.
So these 5 beasts have transformed my relationship with the Bible and with the with god himself.
And I wanna share them with you because what this means is that after today, on a regular Monday, regular Tuesday, on a regular old Wednesday or Thursday or Friday or Saturday.
You’re not sitting around twiddling your thumbs waiting until the next time a pastor preaches to you or a spiritual mentor, um, helps to, uh, give you opportunity to rightly divide the word of truth.
You thank god for those Shepherds, but you’re not twiddling your thumbs waiting on them.
You know that you can have the privilege to go to god in his word and hear him for yourself.
The first p of bible study is to position yourself to hear from god. Real simple.
In fact, all five p’s are position yourself to hear from god. I’m gonna say it again.
Position yourself to hear from god.
There is power in your positioning, in your posture. Okay.
I mean this in a spiritual sense, but I also mean it in a physical sense.
I wanna tell you about both.
When you come to god, through his word that you’re gonna meet with him through the pages of scripture.
So this is your own personal quiet time.
You know, you maybe have just sat up in bed and you’re gonna have 10 or 15 minutes that you’re spending with the lord or you’re gonna come out of your room and to the kitchen table, maybe in the quietness of the morning or in the quietness of the evening when all the activity in your house has died down just a little bit You’re gonna position yourself over a portion of scripture.
And I’ll tell you in just a few moments how you can choose a portion of scripture to dive into.
But when you make that commitment to posture yourself, to position yourself, I mean that in a spiritual way, meaning the position of your heart has to be in a perspective and a frame of reference that is eager to hear and specs to hear the voice of god speaking to you.
It’s AW Tozier, a great theologian that put it this way.
The person that does not expect to hear god won’t because every single time god speaks, they’ll just discount it as their own idea.
They’ll think that it was just a coincidence.
They will attribute it to anything and anybody else except what it is.
God’s breathed word coming to life through the power of the Holy Spirit.
To speak to you, to give you guidance and direction in your own personal life.
And so you have to have a heart.
I have to have
a heart. That is filled with expectation that I am one of the sheep of god’s fold, and I can hear the voice of god.
John chapter 10, Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice. Listen to that again.
He basically says, the default position for anybody who’s a part of the fold, the flock, the family of god, what my sheep do is hear my voice.
It’s one of the schemes of the enemy to get you to think that you need to be something more, be something else.
Have a different perspective or a different personality, or be someone other than you are, to have excelled in some way, to not have made the mistakes that you’ve made, It’s the scheme of the enemy to get us to think that we have to be anything other than a son or daughter to have this right this privilege to hear god speaking to us through the word.
So we have to pray and say, lord, would you carve away anything in my heart that is a roadblock that keeping me from having an expectation that in my own regular quiet time while I’m in my pajamas or in my jogging suit, while I’m in my house shoes, whatever I’m doing and no matter what I look like, I have the privilege to keep company with you that you want to cultivate lord Jesus.
Thank you. A friendship with me, that you want to speak with me, that you gave me a love letter so that I can hear your voice and know you and know who you are Thank you, lord, for that privilege.
And if my heart doesn’t expect it, would you begin to mold in me a holy expectation that desires and anticipates that I have the privilege to hear the voice of god.
Pasture your heart with expectation. The Psalm has put it this way in Psalm 27.
It’s one of my favorite verses, verse 1314.
He says, I would have despaired unless I believed that I would see the hand of the lord and the land of the living.
Did you see that expectation there? He says I would have despaired I would have been hopeless.
I would have been down. My continents would have been downcast, man, except that.
I expect that I’m gonna see god.
I expect that I’m gonna hear god so I can wait patiently on him because I have an anticipation an expectation that god is going to come through on my behalf.
The prophet habakkuk spoke to this as well, If you look at his little book that is named after him in the Old Testament, you’ll see that the entire first chapter of tobacco is habakkah calling out to god, mostly him calling out to god and saying, lord, how long are you gonna let this go on?
He’s looking around him. At the destruction that he is seeing happening in his culture, in his nation.
Man, if that don’t speak to us right now, I don’t know what is.
You and I can’t flip past all that’s happening on our Twitter feeds, our Instagram feeds, the news channels that we’re watching, and not see the vortex of chaos that is swirling all all around us.
Habakkuk knows exactly how you feel, and he calls out to god and says, how long lord It seems like you’re just sitting back idly letting all this go on.
And so lord, I’m going to vocalize my concerns to you, my cares to you, I’m gonna be authentic.
I’m not gonna hold back, and that’s the privilege we have in relationship with god.
He lets us ask our questions. Voice or concern.
He knows that in our humanity, we have some worries and some issues and some fears and He lets us come to hear him and bear it all.
But after habakkuk bears it all, chapter 2 He says, now I’m going to climb up on the watch tower, and I’m gonna wait to see what it is that my king is going to say to me, how god is gonna respond to me.
Do you see that? He positions himself to hear from god.
He says, I’m gonna climb up on a watchtower.
Back in biblical days, there was a stronghold or a citadel that would sit at the front of a of a city.
And it was designed so that a soldier or a watchman could climb up to the top of this watch tower, position himself above ground level circumstances.
In other words, he was saying there’s too much chaos swirling around down here.
I’m gonna be distracted if I keep myself positioned here.
So I’m gonna climb up on the watch tower where I’m up above ground level distractions.
And I’m gonna position myself here because from this vantage point, I’ll have a clear view to the horizon, and I expect that god is coming.
I have expectation that there is someone coming who’s going to deliver an answer for me.
And so because of that expectation, I’m gonna position myself in a place and in a posture where I can hear god.
Where I can see his hand, where I have clear view, and there’s nothing to distract me. Position yourself.
Spiritual expectation and anticipation, but not just spiritually.
Like a backup, position yourself physically Do you see that? He climbed up somewhere.
He went to a place where there was some silence and some solitude.
There’s a whole lot of noise in life, isn’t it?
You’ve got your to do list, and I’ve got mine.
We’re trying to check the things off that we gotta do on our list when it comes to our kids and our marriage and what we’re cooking for dinner tonight and the demands of the job that we have and the ministry assignments that are before us and all of the things that we have to do that go into the regular rhythms of a 24 hour day.
There are so many ground level circumstances that aren’t unnecessary. They’re critical.
We gotta keep going from day to day, but there’s gotta be a moment of time where you decide I’m gonna climb up on the watch tower and have some space where there’s silence and solitude.
So that for just a few moments, there is nothing standing in the way of me seeing the king who is coming to respond to me.
Of me hearing clearly what it is that god has to say to me.