Priscilla Shirer: How to Hear the Voice of God | Praise on TBN
Priscilla Shirer: How to Hear the Voice of God | Praise on TBN
Priscilla Shirer shares an inspiring message on TBN’s Praise about hearing the voice of God, and how we can trust His direction in our lives!
On the air since 1973, TBN’s flagship ministry and talk show Praise is one of the most recognizable — and most watched — Christian programs in the world. Taped before a live audience and hosted by TBN’s own Matt and Laurie Crouch along with other popular personalities, Praise features the best in contemporary Christian music and worship, fresh and impacting ministry voices, engaging interviews from a wide variety of guests, and a fast-moving hour of relevant talk you won’t want to miss!
You can hear from god. It is the deception of the enemy to cause us to think we have to have a hotline connection with god like somebody we may admire that we as regular men and women can’t hear from god.
That’s what the enemy wants you to think. Right. He doesn’t want you to know it’s your birthright.
And so believing that you can is the first step to hearing god.
If we feel like our life is too big and too filled with the busyness of kids or business or life right now to be concerned about this topic that this seems so theoretical sort of out there.
That those very reasons are the reasons why more than anything you need to discern the voice of god.
This facet of our faith is what separates our faith from every other so called faith on the face of the earth
k.
That our god lives. Yeah. He’s alive and he speaks to us. We have an actual relationship with him.
And that that’s so casually thrown around this whole relationship thing.
But what good is any relationship if nobody’s talking to each other? Right.
If there’s no communication, if there’s not a a connectedness that is ongoing and continual.
So this issue of discerning the voice of god, first of all, believing that he does speak But second of all, trusting in the fact that as his kids, we have the privilege to actually discern and dis have a distinction of his voice between all the other voices that also wanna get a word in edgewise.
That’s something that really can change and transform the trajectory of your entire Christian experience.
Okay. Let’s let’s lay a little bit of the ground rule in your in your world where you’re our guest today, you and Jerry.
Uh, Jerry, jump in anytime you want to. You’re much bigger than I am. You can do that.
Jump in any time you want
to. Yeah. And so you’re a miracle worker you got him on the show. Jerry doesn’t want
my buddy.
Come on, man. All y’all are fine.
You guys, you’re just gonna have a good time now. We’re gonna we’re gonna discern the voice about it.
Let me ask you a question. In the Priscilla, Jerry World.
Yeah.
Uh, 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 cloud 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.
And 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 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 nounness 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 intersect 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 what 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 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 it 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 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. You know, we’re discussing, uh, with Priscilla Shar and and her not often seen husband, Jerry.
Jerry, thank you for being on, by the way. Give me a little.
Here you go, man. Bam.
Alright. Glad you’re here. Alright. Now let me let me tell you, a little bit about the way a I believe the way the lord has communicated to me.
I have been sitting or standing in a place before.
And from one moment to the next, you know, I I hate to be so secular, but remember that remember that that moment in on TV back when we were kids, do you remember remember, the I dream of Jeannie where she’d kinda do like that.
You know? Totally. Okay. So, uh, I have from one moment to the next.
I mean, this is, one heartbeat to the next heartbeat, I’m remembering some kind of conversation that was a longer conversation, for instance.
And I felt like that was something that got communicated to me, a big subject matter communicated to me in a blink.
Yeah.
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. 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.
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.
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 just 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, like, okay. When is this gonna be over?
You realize you’re making fun of a TD Jake service.
That’s a go.
No. It was a fantastic service, but kids in church for 3 hours.
They were were glad Matt was saying uncle Matt was right. That’s right.
And just so that they wouldn’t freak out, I gave him a little money to, you know,
to kind
of bribe them. Okay. Anyway, Uh, so
work for me. 1 okay.
So one of the the things that I think is pretty interesting about discerning the voice of god, again, it’s our love gift, uh, this month.
Gift offer this month, is 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 Make sure that somebody on the back seat.
Yep.
But they were in their car, and my dad didn’t call 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 had to say these words somehow because my dad heard Call Angel Lerma.
He was a gentleman that owned a TV station here in Soquel.
He called And he said, uh, 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.
Channel’s 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.
Mhmm. 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 god 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 with an instant.
Um, and and one of those things happened when we were married for our very first of marriage.
Very frustrating. What happened? We were at 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 in Brazil 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.
We have nothing but boys. And I remember when our first son was born, Jackson, Aboy.
Uh, the second son, Jerry Junior, Aboy. And it was so funny.
The 3rd child, everybody, you know, oh, the way she’s carrying it, it’s a girl that I did.
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 of Shireman.
Wow. And, uh, I remember being in the delivery room, And, uh, uh, when when when Jude was coming out and his head was out, uh, I said, oh,
I bet you a $1000 a
That’s a boy. The doctor said, we haven’t seen everything yet.
Uh, 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 um, 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.
I’m going to I’m going to change what it means to be a Shireman
Wow.
Through this legacy. And he looked at me just barely into our 1st year of marriage and said, we don’t have boys.
God’s doing this on purpose.
Alright.
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.
She does.
Um, and
And you
don’t have any plan for any more kids.
We actually do not. She says,
you know, she always says she always says from this stage, our youngest is jude because that’s as close as she can get the revelation because it is finished.
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 it?
Or 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?
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. There
you go.
And the reality is that there is grace and mercy to cover our missteps
and
that the lord in his graciousness toward a 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 was 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 community. 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 could 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 of how he 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 in his character, then you know when you hear the voice of fear, Uh, that don’t sound like my god.
When you hear the voice of your ego pride, jealousy, divisiveness stepping in, all 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, 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 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 FB 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, but or 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.
Um, 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 just earning 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, was 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 Lortcrouch 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 direction for me.
Which ultimately means
that discerning the voice of god is a is on the heart of god. K?
So I didn’t call your publisher. Your didn’t call us. We didn’t, you know Yeah.
There was no pejard. It it yeah.
There was no person kinda trying to stir that, you know, soup there.
A number of years ago, um, when laws were different, um, today, if we’re hiring somebody here at Trinity Broadcasting, we can say, by the way, your, you know, TBN is a Christian organization, might have noticed, Are you a Christian?
We can say that. That is but there if you wind the hands of clock back about 30 years, you couldn’t say that.
You couldn’t make somebody tell you whether they were a Christian or not in in the application process.
There’s different rules. Well, my dad, uh, when he or in the early days, somebody called and Trinity Broadcasting is you know, under the authorization of the Federal Communications Commission, we have employees here that make sure we stay in tune with those policies and procedures and rules and all that kind of stuff.
We have different sets of employees that do lighting and sound and this and that, but my dad was of course, the general manager.
And and somebody called and my dad’s on the phone.
Uh, Mister Crouch, you have to be a Christian to work at your channel.
He had the phone in his hand.
He went, and wanted to say, yes, and the discerning voice of god at that point was literally he couldn’t say the word yes.
So he went, yeah. And tried to say yes again and couldn’t.
And he said, hold second, put the call on hold and said, you know, just kinda went, what, you know, lord?
And he clicked the button back and went, well, sir, I suppose you don’t have be a Christian to work at our channel, but you might wanna be.
Uh, you know, much like if you were applying for a Spanish language channel, you might wanna know how to speak Spanish.
Yeah.
And the guy went. Well, that makes a lot of sense. Okay. I get that.
Uh, oh, by the way, if he’d have said yes, I was gonna file, you know, against your license at the Federal Communications Commission.
So my dad’s, you know, hit over the head with a ball peen hammer from the lord that moment was that was god having a conversation by literally not allowing him to make a mistake.
And see, here’s the thing that I love about this story about your dad and the story about your parents at at the very beginning of this.
What I love is their willingness to not push past those moments of shrink when they sense the cat that that warning, that conviction to not put the foot call on hold, but then pick it back up only to get that yes out that they wanted to that he wanted to get And that’s the problem with most of us, that rebellious streak that we all have.
Yeah. That when we sense that conviction, that warning, don’t say that to your spouse, not not right now.
That’s not the time to say that to your spouse.
You had to say the spouse thing.
The thing is, you don’t want her in heat and cell with your spouse.
And you you know, sometimes it’s wives we get ready because we know what we’re gonna say.
It’s gonna shut this whole thing down, and we’re gonna win this battle. We plan to win the battle.
And then we feel that warning, that conviction.
That’s not that’s not going to be healthy for the the longevity of your marriage.
The question is when we sense that, Well, we push past it and say what we wanna say anyway.
Yeah. Wow.
Or will we submit to the leadership of the Holy Spirit?
And the moment it might seem a little bit, uh, limited. You’re losing. Yeah.
It might seem like you’re you’re losing, but, really, the outcome of obedience is always freedom and Wow.
And it’s hard to see that from this perspective, but if you trust god, if we trust god, then when we sense that conviction of the Holy Spirit to not say this, to not buy this, to not eat all of this to restrain ourselves.
It’s because there’s freedom and victory that he’s trying to lead us to.
Okay. So I’m gonna personally hold you to that when the butter cake is is served a little bit later.
So there’s this thing called butter cake that both of people both of you talked about. Okay.
We ain’t
gonna be talking about the Holy Spirit, which butter cake is on the field.
So When it comes to this kind of discerning the voice of god, we’re unpacking this all hour with Jerry and Priscilla Shire.
Um I have a question.
Let let me let me just let me let me say this one thing when it pertains because I wanna jump off of something you’re saying about marriage.
I was running one day, and the lord said I didn’t call you.
Seem to be pointing at me. Okay. This is like a daydream.
This isn’t like, you know, I mean, this is like,
You’re just trying not to sound weird.
I’m not sounding weird because I don’t want it sound weird.
Uh, but the it felt like the lord was pointing at me with one finger.
You know,
I didn’t call you. I called you.
And then he had two fingers pointing, and Lori was next to me in this kind of daydream.
Yeah.
And I knew I was running, and I was on the side of the road and all that.
Came home and told her, and and let me tell you something.
That got more important the years later that this happened 20 years ago, because I’ve always loved her, but the idea that he didn’t call me, he called me.
I didn’t call you. I called you. Mhmm. And she’s there.
So I wouldn’t be the me that god sees without her. Come on, Rory.
That’s a good man right there today.
So old team.
You have to remind him of that on it.
No. Honestly, you you got I I don’t. I don’t. She doesn’t.
I’ve always known that, you know, so let me tell you bickering in marriage pales to comparison of just making this one statement.
If the lord said that to me and he did, or I thought, you know, again, it wasn’t this conversation.
Then if I divorced her, I wouldn’t be divorcing her. I’d be divorcing my destiny. Yes.
Now when in in in light of that, who cares? You know? Yeah.
What you look like?
What kind of what kind
of what kind of oh my god.
Yeah. Yeah. Let’s go there immediately.
So so the I the idea that, um, you know, the voice of the lord change my dynamic about what marriage was 20 years ago or so.
Uh, I’m different.
Yeah.
You know, I’m different
about that. Why is it important to hear god? Cause it changes you. Praselle because
me. Why is it? That’s right. It does change you. You don’t get it, guys.
You know what it does? Yeah. It ruins you for church as usual.
Oh, hey.
It ruins you. Yeah. That regular old, mundane, Christian, rediversa day to keep the devil away, sit in church, go because my mama went.
My grandmother went, this is what we do. All of that goes away.
Okay.
Because you’re hungering for what you know you’ve experienced before actually sensing the voice of god, his presence near you.
Listen, sometimes hearing god is less about having a specific word and more about just the nearness of his presence.
Yeah.
Just knowing that he’s near. I’m talking about where your physical body responds to the presence of god.
There are times when you know he’s near because he’s omnipresent, there are times where he manifests himself in a way where the the hair on the back of your to
kind of feel.
Goosebumps. Yes. And in those moments, once you start sensing the nearness of god in that way, you’re ruined for all just doing stuff because it’s what you’re supposed to be doing.
You want more of that.
And I
think what a lot of people need to understand, and he also speaks through his silence.
Very much so.
You know, I’m not saying anything.
You know, think about the years and the one who went where, you know, from the old to new testament, he was just silent.
Yeah. And his silence means stay still. Don’t move. I got you.
Yeah. Does somebody your size ever feel goosebumps that ever happened to you ever.
Uh, it it does. It did. You know, you know, I’m I’m get have goosebumps right now, Seth.
Oh, hey.
Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey.
Yeah. How much time we have left in this show? They’re they’re needing to get out. Okay.
Um, and by the way, uh, we’re gonna unpack this So get right back into subject matter.
It’s an important subject matter. Even the idea Well,
I think
the publisher and all that kind of stuff. This is a this is on the heart of god. Right now.
This is the most part.
Dissatisfied with the mundane. Yeah. We are.
Aren’t wanting to hear god’s voice, wanting to know you know, I don’t I mean, you know, not what to to eat today Yeah.
Necessarily, but needing to know to help their kids Yeah.
To to their jobs there, you know, in every area of your life, I believe god is speaking or wants to speak or wants to have a say.
Yes. And, you know, I wanna say too, that just that sense of dissatisfaction that that someone may be feeling that we all feel when we’re gonna be launched into the next level in our relationship with god Sometimes that dissatisfaction makes us so upset and so frustrated because we just wanna know the answer.
We wanna get to the answer, but the dissatisfaction itself is a sign of god’s spirit working within you.
And then satisfaction, the journey that it is going to lead you on, the lessons that are meant to be learned, they’re going to be learned because the dissatisfaction sent you on a journey.
The journey it self is not a waste of time.
Discerning the voice of god is never something you’re going to arrive at.
It is never something you’re going to be successful at.
It is going to be a journey with god as you walk in the rhythms of grace.
You will be on your deathbed still wanting to know whether or not you have clearly heard the voice of god because we are human.
Wow. He’s mysterious. He’s got an art we glad that he’s not just a big version of us.
I don’t want god to just be a big meat. No.
I want god to be so far beyond my imagination that I can never arrive at the knowledge of him.
That I have to constantly and consistently be growing?
Well, because it takes faith. That’s what it takes faith to say. Okay. You know what?
That That’s why I always say if we step out in faith, kinda no matter what it is, but if we walk in faith, how can we ever fail in that?
That’s right. That’s right.
If we’re believing that we’re doing what god’s
call this and keep in our yeah. Yeah.
Even when we’re when we’re unsure and we’re unsteady, in in in the book, I list several of these, but I’ll tell you just a couple of them.
I believe that he allows us to have the mercy of confirmation.
I call them the 5 m’s of hearing god.
When you sense that god is imparting something upon you, um, impressing conviction,
um, uh,
just a a push towards something or away from something, Ask him for the mercy of confirmation.
He knows you’re just a human.
He knows that you need to make sure that his fingerprints are on this assignment before you move forward.
I believe he honors the sincere request of his children.
When they say, lord, would you just do something to confirm? Not not because it’s the primary way you speak.
I think you’re speaking. Would you confirm that by some external means to point me in the right direction?
And then one of the other m’s is the ministry of Eli Do you remember the little boy Samuel?
He had an older, wiser guy in his life named Eli, who was the one who pointed out to him, that the voice you’re hearing is the voice of god.
You need to have a wiser, more mature believer in your life, who you admire, not the car they drive, the house they live on live live in this success that they’ve achieved.
But the ongoing, conversational relationship they have with god, the victory you’ve seen them experience in your life, you go to them and you say, here’s what I think the lord is saying.
Would you pray through this with me? I listen. I’ve got those people in my life. Yeah.
The majority of the things that we have done in ministry as a couple, we have not done I’m talking about big things that would have marked our lives and our children’s lives.
We have not done before we have called people that we are submitted to their authority.
Asked them would they pray through and give us their wise counsel before we took a step.
So we’ve submitted ourself to the ministry of Eli. We’ve got Eli’s in our lives.
Okay. We’re talking about discerning the voice of god.
We’re gonna be talking about unpacking it with Jerry and Priscilla over all hour long.
This book, why don’t you, uh, wind back and go back to the original moment that you started thinking about writing this book, what was happening in your life, what was going on, how did this subject matter start forming, books for most people are painful to write, uh, except Max Ocado who says it’s easy, which is, you know, not fair.
It’s kinda
different, though. Yeah. And Well, that’s very easy for me to
write books. I’m not here. And so most of us would would I’ve never written a book probably won’t, but the idea, it would be painful because it’s hard for me to write a letter.
So, um, this this had to be a a period of lie in your life where you were gonna drill down, you were gonna get into this, why this book, why this subject matter when you wrote it?
Specifically because of what your wife described a few moments ago as a dissatisfaction with my Christian life the way it was.
Wow.
I grew up in a incredible, wonderful, um, spirit filled environment where my father who started the church that I still attend to this day when I was one year old, they have been faithfully pastoring for 40 years.
And if anybody can preach the word of god, it is Tony Evans.
He is one of the most gifted communicators of god’s word.
And I was talking to your wife earlier today and telling her that The reality is I had parents that lived the thing.
I’m so grateful. Integrity and character. That’s what my parents had.
And so I glean so much of what the word of god was who had described god to be what he did in the Old Testament and the new testament.
I knew all that, but felt dissatisfied because if he did that for them, Then why am I not experiencing that for me?
There was an unrest in my heart. I wanted more.
I wanted to see and experience the god of the Bible.
And it is that dissatisfaction that sent me on a just a personal journey that connected me with people who were in different streams of the faith.
And instead of closing them out, I invited in what it is that god was teaching them and the ways that he had demonstrated it himself listening and gleaning and inviting from the breath of the body of Christ, I began to realize that there is so much more than our little box of our little stream presents to us that there is more that can be that doesn’t take away or water down what we have, but on firm foundation of where that god has already laid in our life.
There are deeper depths, and there are higher heights.
And so I just started walking the journey, and I’m so grateful to the lord because he honored my quest by, again, not allowing me to be at a place where I’ve arrived.
I I’m in a a place right now.
Here I am I wrote that book, I think, when I was 31 or 32.
Here I am at forty two years old, and I’m at a place right now where I’m revisiting this whole concept.
Because I’m needing to say, lord, I’m at a place right now where I feel like you’re silent or either my heart’s hardened and I’m not hearing.
So once again, lord, I need to retrain my spiritual ears.
I’m praying and saying, lord, would you heighten my spiritual senses? You know, just like we have 5 physical senses.
We’ve got spiritual sentence, lord, senses. Lord, I need my radar to be up. Yeah.
So that I can detect your presence and hear your voice, and I’m gonna need you to make my detector sensitive again, lord.
And I’m entrusting that to your spirit.
So it’s an ongoing thing that is born out of those moments of unrest in our life which is the greatest gift ever.
It’s a greatest gift. It means there’s a new level he wants to take you to.
I’ve been trying to keep myself from getting frustrated by those moments Right. And just go with god. You know?
So good.
So good. At at some point, though, how is your life different? How is your life better?
After you hit that dissatisfaction point, started writing this book, what has changed in the 10 years for you personally, because there could be somebody viewing going, you know, this is really too deep of a subject for me.
You know, I got kids to raise, and I got 2 jobs, and I got this, and that I I don’t have time to put into the k.
How can we make sure everyone understands this book the contents of this book, the subject matter of hearing god’s voice is something that will change their life.
So take your own journey. Talk to us about that.
If we feel like our life is too big and too filled with the busyness of kids or business or life right now to be concerned this topic that just seems so theoretical and sort of out there, then those very reasons are the reasons why I’m more than anything you need to discern the voice of god.
Okay. All the things that you love the most, your children, your spouse, your business, your ministry, all the things that are closest to you without guidance uh, and leading from the Holy Spirit without knowing what it is that god wants you to do.
You will not be able to handle those things. I won’t be able to handle those things correctly.
We’ll miss out on some of the biggest gifts and biggest surprises and big biggest miracles that he wants to present to us because most of those hinge on us hearing a word and having faith enough to step out on the journey just like your parents.
Got it. Let me tell you what I’ve gained. Here’s what I’ve gained.
What I’ve gained is that now at forty two years old, and I say this I say this, uh, you know, I’m stepping carefully when I say it.
But at forty two years old, there are very few things that the lord could ask me to do that I would not quickly and immediately step out to do them.
Because I have I have such a track record with god now even with my mistakes, but I have such a track record with god now.
And I think my husband can attest But I’m one of those people that if I sense the Holy Spirit is calling me to do something because of the track record of seeing his faithfulness time and time again, step in for me when I stepped off what I thought was a ledge, and it didn’t look like it was getting by.
I had a word from the lord, and it comes confirmed in his word.
And by leadership in my life, So I just went ahead and I did it anyway, and I watched him catch me, and I watched him take me to a place I never could have gotten in my own giftings or my own talent or my own skill You watch him do that enough times.
You get to the place that when god asks you to do it again, you you can’t wait to step off the list.
Yeah.
Because you’re so
I need that another word. Yeah. Let’s go
I’m so excited to see what’s next in the journey.
So I get excited now about hearing a word from god.
I I don’t allow myself to become discouraged when I feel like he’s silent I assume that that means the last word I had.
Stay stay with the last word. Stay right there. They’ll do the obedient to the assignment.
Do me a favor. Good. Just Uh, let’s let’s for somebody that still is going, yeah, that’s good for you folks.
That are on television.
Right. You don’t
know what it’s like out here, you know, and all this.
And and, you know, you’re all up there in your suit and you’re all looking good and smelling good and all that kind of stuff.
It’s really rough out here. Think of the people in, you know, foreign you know, parts of the world and and and Africa that are watching tonight, they’re just they’re struggling to get by.
Mhmm.
K? And, god, talk to
them too. Well, yeah, would it happen? Think of think of them in in regard to that.
And if you would look at them, and maybe pray for them personally.
Let me just say this first
of all, and
I wanna talk to those people. Please. I’m the Youngs of 3. K.
We’re up in a single parent home.
My mother had to sat groceries work for tips only to put food on the table.
But I remember nice I couldn’t sleep and get up. I saw her praying on her knees.
For her, it was how bad she wanted it. Mhmm.
I tell people all the time how the prayers of one woman change entire generation.
Wow. So
Yeah. And so god speaks to us no matter what ailments we have no matter how devastating those seasons of life are where we feel like we are completely overwhelmed.
We don’t have what it’s gonna take to sustain our current needs, and we’re wondering If god hears, we’re wondering whether or not our prayers matter.
We’re wondering whether or not he is ever going to speak into and change and alter our circumstances.
But one of the greatest gifts, I think, from scripture is not his voice.
It’s not what he can give us. It’s just him. Yeah. Mhmm. Seek him.
He will disclose more and more to you in terms of his will, his plans for your life, his gifts, his blessings, Those are a benefit of just having him.
And you need to know that he’ll never leave you.
He will never forsake you no matter how devastating things might become.
Um, and I know there are some very real practical needs. And so I wanna pray for those right now.
I wanna pray that the lord will manifest himself to you in a tangible way that will keep you hope filled, encouraged, and excited to continue your relationship with the lord, uh, despite external circumstances.
Lord Jesus, I pray for my sister and brothers all around the world.
I’m asking right now in Jesus’ name that you would bring encouragement. You would replace discouragement with encouragement.
Lord, I’m gonna ask right now in Jesus’ name that you would build up somebody’s faith today by manifesting yourself in their life, lord.
I’m asking you to speak to them a still small voice lord or let the scriptures fall open to a page of of of your word lord that is so evidently so clearly for them that they will never doubt again that they have not heard from you and experienced you.
Lord, I’m asking that the church they attend would be on fire with your spirit.
That every time they and the others that go there would walk through the door, they would have a tangible sense of your presence with them.
Lord, I pray that your word would be alive.
I pray that the assignment of the enemy against them, against their children, against their spouses, lord that those assignments would be canceled and that they would see those assignments replaced by, um, your grace, your love, and your mercy washing over them and their experience.
Lord, meet us speak to us, lord. We need a word from you.
And so we ask lord that you would bring, uh, your word to your people and speak clearly so that we can hear.
Thank lift the veil from our eyes.
Thank you, Nora.
Cause the veil that is over our ears, the hardness of our heart lord to be softened and to be removed that we have tender sensors that are able to detect your presence.
We need you, lord, and so we ask you to speak. It is a Jesus name that we pray.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Beautiful. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.
I love what you said about your mama. You know, the need for god.
So many of us, we need something new in life.
We need god and And I think that dissatisfaction leads us to a place of seeking.
You know? And I think being a seeker is one of the greatest things that could ever happen to us because there’s a lot of people sitting in church that aren’t seeking god anymore.
Yeah. There’s a lot of people out in the world that haven’t found god yet, and god hasn’t found them that are seeking.
And you’re seeking, you’re gonna find them.
Right.
You know, so I think that’s a, uh, that’s a good thing.
If you’ve got, um, children that are seeking God, you need to pray for your kids that God brings that person or something into their lives that that draws them to God, because I think that’s a very open season of their life was when they’re seeking God.
Totally. How do you know, So so I know that a lot of, um, people wanna hear god’s voice, but they won’t stop talking.
Right? Tell us how important
it is. Problem. Just stop talking. Yeah.
We have turned prayer into this one way monologue where we’re just, you know, just feeling like we have to fill in the no of the silence.
Any quiet spaces, we’ve just gotta fill them in with our next request or the next thing that we want to say And you’re right.
We don’t leave room for god to get a word in edgewise, but one of the authors that I remember reading, Bob Sorgay, I believe his name is.
He said, uh, nothing happens when I speak, but when god speaks worlds come into existence.
So why in the world wouldn’t my I wanna leave time for him to speak.
And what that practically looks like is, yes, vocalize your prayers to him.
I literally have kinda begun the habit of even writing some down.
Writing down what it is that I wanna say to the lord. Yes.
We have the privilege of bringing our needs and our request to him, but there ought to be at some point where you just pause.
And you say, okay, lord, is there anything you wanna say to me?
Most of the time, he’ll speak to us just through his word, through whatever you’re reading in your bible time that day, He knows how to match up what you’re gonna be reading today with what the needs of your life or your future are that you might not even be aware of yet.
So in his word. That is how most of the time he speaks back to us.
But oftentimes, it’s just an impression.
It’s just a a Bible verse from that you learned in Sunday school years ago, all of a sudden, it comes back to your your mind now.
Take that as god speaking to you or the name of a friend you haven’t talked to in years.
Take that as god’s saying, pray for this friend right now.
Those little impressions, those little inklings, you know, due to Romney chapter 30 says, God’s word is not so hard that you’ve gotta send someone above the heavens to go find it for you or through the seas to go and get it for you.
God’s word is in your own heart. It’s in your it is as close as your fingertips.
All of that stuff that we discount as our own ideas. Oh, that’s just coincidence.
Most of the time, For the believer, for the one who is seeking god’s will and his voice, most of the time that’s god’s word, take it seriously, write it down, ask him for confirmation, treasure his word and see if he doesn’t show you how important and palatable it is in terms of the experience that he has planned for you.
We are talking with Jerry and Priscilla Shire discerning the voice of god.
You know, it’s, um, you know, it it it couldn’t be any more important this subject matter.
I mean, the very fact that the 4 of us are sitting in a studio doing this broadcast is because discerning the voice of god came to Paul and Jan Crouch 40 something years ago, and TBN is his thing.
This isn’t something that the Crouch family built.
Uh, this is something god
did, and and the idea you know, that’s why it’s almost comical when people try to rise up against something that god did.
It’s just kind of kind of funny.
You know, it can be irritating for a season, but it’s it’s almost comical. Yeah.
Because, uh, if we thought that this ministry and as it is now fully in its 2nd generation, we’re up to us.
We quit. It’s not up to us. It’s god’s thing. And so we have that same firm foundation of understanding.
And and oftentimes, people will say, well, you know, everything’s different for you, and everything’s different for these smiling faces on on television.
You don’t understand what’s like you know, in the real world.
And, well, the problem is is, uh, the Crouch family, the Shire family, and, you know, the Evans family were all just normal people till we heard the voice of the lord, and then that’s what changed.
If there is a difference, it’s because of his voice. There couldn’t be a more important subject matter for you.
Uh, and, Jerry, I’m circling back to you just for a second because of what you said So it it’s not an economic thing.
It isn’t just, you know, executives that the lord speaks to.
Your mama needed the voice of the lord and apparently was struggling in a single family situation.
So it worked, and it worked for your mama. Yes?
You’re absolutely right. I remember her coming home with her tips and and say she made $40 in tips that day.
Alright? I remember her taking out $4.
Yep.
You know, putting it to the side because that was gonna go into the offering plate.
That’s an I mean, I’m like, mom, are you kidding me? Whip, you know, the lord would understand.
She said, she goes, no. It’s just she goes, it’s just simple obedience.
So it had nothing to do with that. And then I remember her, like I said, getting up early, praying.
I remember there were situations I was in off in college that some of my boys and I would go do something and there was a still the the thing in me, like, you know what, Jerry?
Don’t go. You know what? And now, and that was the time my mom was praying for me.
So she has kept me out of so much situation through her prayers.
That’s why I said the prayers had a prayers of one woman change the generation.
I mean, still today, it’s so funny our boys we’ll be like, is Granny still prancing?
She’ll be in there praying for 30 minutes. I’m like, yep. She’s still in there praying.
I said she’s praying for you guys. So she’s praying even for this next generation, her grandchildren.
Yeah. So
And so it’s just great. But, yeah, it is not an economical thing.
It is it is a a it is something that you desire. Do you really want it?
Like I said, she’s to get up early in the morning before the kids got up on her knees, praying for her children, praying for the day, praying for whatever.
So, you know, you make time for what you want.
And
if you wanna hear the voice of god, you gotta make time for
him. Okay. Now we we, the 4 of us, grew up in an environment where this subject matter is normal.
Yeah.
This on this this is understood.
We get this there are people that grew up in the opposite polar opposite of that, and they don’t get it.
This book you know, it the title is discerning the voice of guard, how to recognize when god is speaking.
K? So there could be, you know, why don’t you start with, you know, just speak to the people that are new Christians.
They didn’t grow up. They don’t have no examples in their life of this happening. This isn’t normal.
And sounds sounds like it’s not right that we’re not right.
Okay. So, uh, just introduce
the subject matter if somebody just Didn’t quite get it. K.
So John 1027 to me is the most concise and comprehensive verse in scripture about hearing god.
Uh, it is when Jesus says my sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.
He says, you gotta be my sheep to hear my voice. So you said new Christians. Listen.
That relationship right there is the the connector that allows you access to the voice of god.
So so to me, the first step is actually believing that as an adopted son or daughter grafted into the family of god, that you have the capacity innately because you’re part of the family to now hear the voice of god.
It’s like, um, when we were growing up in our house, I don’t know about you guys, but we didn’t have to a whole lot of cable.
Tell them my parents didn’t get cable. They didn’t get, you know, whatever DirecTV, all that stuff.
We didn’t have any of that stuff. Right. And I I felt a little mad about that.
I really wanted to have more channels when my parents chose that we could really only watch the cosby show on Thursdays at 7 o’clock and then a different world.
So it wasn’t until we were we were getting ready to get married. I moved out.
Um, I remember the day I had the cable guy come over, hook up the cable.
And after he did all that hooking up, He said, here’s the remote control.
Push the guide button, and I pushed the guide button.
And I had never seen so many channels in my life on the screen.
I had no idea all those channels were there.
Now all those channels didn’t just get created that day. They had always been there.
It’s just I didn’t have the right hookup so that could tap into them and bring them and draw them down into my experience.
The Holy Spirit is the hookup. Yeah.
When you place faith in Jesus Christ, If he just chapter 1 says the moment you believe you receive the hookup, the Holy Spirit.
Now you are able to draw down divine channels It’s not that you created him. No. They were always there.
God speaking. He wants to reveal himself. Now you have the the opportunity to hear him.
So really the first step especially if you grew up in an environment where this concept is sort of unique and different and new for you, it’s to believe that as a as a privilege of being a son or a daughter, you can hear from god.
It is the deception of the enemy to cause us to think we have to have a seminary degree.
We have to have some special hotline connection with god somebody we may admire that we as regular men and women can’t hear from god.
That’s what the enemy wants you to think. Right. He doesn’t want you to know it’s your birthright.
And so believing that you can is the first step to hearing god.
Uh, why don’t why don’t you kind of don’t get up from the set without saying something that is in this book that are gonna help people.
Uh, and so just kinda start giving your final thoughts in regard to the subject matter and the fact that this book is available right here right now.
Well, this is one of the most beautiful things about hearing god that I enjoy, um, reminding myself of.
And that is that sometimes we we wanna know the will of god we wanna hear his voice, but we’re a little bit nervous about that because he might actually call us to do something we don’t wanna do.
You know? He might actually send us somewhere.
We’d be that we don’t wanna be sent or you might actually call us to a season that we don’t wanna we don’t really wanna be single anymore.
We don’t even we don’t really wanna be married anymore.
You might impressed upon us something we don’t want, and we’re nervous about that.
So, um, one of the things I love about the Holy Spirit’s work in us, and this is in regards to hearing god.
But his work in us is to sanctify us.
Sanctification is the process by which we are molded into the image of Jesus Christ.
It is the process by which our mind changes, our ambitions change, our desires.
We start wanting stuff we’d never thought we want. We stop wanting things.
We never thought we’d ever not wanna want to to separate ourselves from.
All of a sudden, we find self unnerved by jokes that we used to laugh at or company we used to keep.
It just doesn’t work for us anymore. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit.
So in regards to just starting the voice of god, if anybody’s ever concerned or afraid, like, I have been that, oh, god might say to me something I don’t want.
The holy spirit, what he does, is turn your desires so that they are in alignment with god’s will.
So you actually want what it is that god wants you to want. Yeah.
That’s what I believe the psalmist meant when he said that he gives you the desires of your heart.
He didn’t give you what you want.
He actually puts his desire in your heart so that you want what he wants.
Let me tell you, uh, a practical application of that, uh, when we were first married, And before we had children, we lived in Orange County, California.
I grew up in Newport Beach, California. So LA County was more like enemy territory.
We, you know, we we didn’t really understand the big city of Los Angeles if you live in a suburb of Orange County, LA County
Valley. It’s
it’s real different because it’s a real different environment. And and then the lord called us to Hollywood.
So we packed up our little kids and we went to Los Angeles, bought a home in LA, and lived there for 15 years.
Laurie told me that I’m so used to Orange County when I need grocery shopping, I’m gonna get my kids, put them in my car.
I’m gonna drive down to Orange County.
How far a drive was that?
3540 miles. K.
Yeah.
And I’ll do my grocery shopping and then come back. We had planned that.
So we bought a house that felt like this kind of sanctuary up on the side of a hill and And we were very protected, and it felt really good when we were at home, but we just were very, you know, the the surrounding was not gonna work for us.
Within days, the changing of our attitude and the Holy Spirit that we fell in love with this area we started, it was when god called us to Hollywood, he changed the very inside of who
we were. Yes.
So the idea of when he’s going to call you If you don’t like it now, you’ll you’ll you’ll immediately like it.
You’ll you’ll immediately love it. We lived up there, raised our boys, for 15 years in LA County and only recently have come back to serve this ministry TBN as my parents were in their retirement age and now are in heaven.
