SPEAKER_00 0:01

Amen. Copcorn. Hey everyone. If we haven't met, I'm Megan. And I am so glad to be here tonight seeking more together. What a beautiful thing to have a room full of people that all they want is more of God. And I'm so excited to get to do this together. Tonight, we're going to be talking specifically about more communication and more communication with God. What is that like to have communication with God, to talk to him, to hear from him, to have him guide our lives on a daily basis? I don't know about you, but I have met people that have that communication with God and it's a really powerful thing. But how do you get it? How do you communicate with God? It's kind of a tough topic because we're all in different points of being comfortable with approaching God and being comfortable hearing from Him. And I imagine if we set up a scale, like on one side of the room where I'm completely uncomfortable talking to God and I've never ever prayed, and on the other side of the room saying, Yeah, I talk to God all the time. In fact, he's talking to me right now. If we set up that scale, we'd probably all be on different points. I don't think there'd be anybody in the same place. So it can be kind of a tough topic to talk about because everyone's in a different spot. But I don't want that to keep us from jumping in and from diving in. Um, about eight years ago, I had a really cool experience that um impacted how I thought about communicating with God. I was at a dinner with two women that I really, really admire. I admire them professionally, personally, but most of all, I admired them spiritually. They just seemed to have more of God than I did. They seemed to know him better than I did, and I wanted that. And so when they invited me to this dinner, I was like, yes, I'm in, I'll be there. I was sitting at the dinner table and I got to observe a conversation between the two of them. And it was really special. They were talking and they were just talking about the wait staff at the restaurant. Um, we kind of liked to people watch, and they were people watching the waiters and discussing different things about them. And then all of a sudden, one of the women says, You know what? God just told me, and then said something that God told her. And the other one went, Oh my gosh, he just told me the exact same thing. And then they went back to talking about the food and the entrees, and it was it took me back because I thought, there was no lightning, the sky didn't open them up, I didn't hear anything. Did I miss it? Like what just happened? But I realized they were having like two conversations at once. They were talking with God and talking about their salads at the same time. And I thought, how does that happen? How do you have such a close relationship with God that it's like talking to someone over the dinner table? So, what I wanted to do tonight was invite um four people up onto the stage, a panel can come on up. We're gonna have a panel discussion. Um, and these people are awesome, wonderful, normal people that have families and jobs, and they volunteer here at the church, but they all hear from God very clearly, but also very differently. So you guys can come on up and have a seat. So I'll get this out of the way. And we're just gonna spend some time discussing how do you hear from God? Because that is the big question. So you guys can say hi. This is Matt, Cheryl, Lucy, and Tim. Okay. All right, these cool mic stands. You got your own little little mic stand? Okay. So yeah, hello, hello. Okay. Can we hear everybody? Are we good?

SPEAKER_04 3:47

Hello. Hi there.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Oh. Awesome.

SPEAKER_04 3:51

Hello.

unknown 3:52

All right.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

You good? Hello. Can you hear Lucy? You good? Okay. So first we're just gonna jump into the big, big, big question. How do you hear from God? And I want you to answer that personally. How does God speak to you? And whoever wants to go first can go first.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Well, I think the thing for me is it's like a spontaneous. It's not coming from my thoughts, my reasoning. It's like a spontaneous. And it's just there. You're not necessarily thinking about it, and all of a sudden there's a thought which just seems to come and you grab a hold of it. Sometimes it's just an impression, sometimes it can be a picture, sometimes it's just a thought. You know what the scripture says take every thought and captain? Well, sometimes it's just that thought, and you grab a hold of it, and sometimes I'll go, I'll I'll take a thought, and you grab a hold of it, Lord. What is this? Why am I thinking about this? And then He'll give you more information. It gives it starts getting broader, and so you start communicating and getting more. So but it starts with that simple just a thought. Um, I went in, I for uh I had surgery um a couple months ago, several months ago, and when I was walking in the day of the surgery, there was a picture on the wall. And when I saw that picture, it riveted. I just I saw it and I couldn't take my eyes off. And the Lord said, Um, I prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies. So sometimes it's as you go. A lot of times when I'm praying, I don't necessarily I will hear, but sometimes not. Sometimes it's as I go, there will just be this spontaneous thought I prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies. Sometimes people are talking, and all of a sudden someone says something, and you just know that the Lord has just spoken through that person, and uh it connects, there's a connection, and you just oh that's truth. And I always look, I always think of in the Old Testament, it talks about Balaam's ass and how he spoke. I don't know if you know that story, but it was a donkey that spoke. So it's kind of it was an animal, it was an animal. Yeah, yeah. But he spoke. God spoke through this animal. So my perception is God can speak through anything or anyone. And he can speak at any time.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

That's so good. Yeah, that's so true. It can happen any any moment.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Even an enemy, even he can use an enemy to speak. So the thing is, is your heart or are you tuning in? When I first came to know the Lord years ago, there was this there's a Christian classic called Practice the Presence of God. And when I think about listening to God, that to me was one of the keys in my early adventure with the Lord of beginning to practice. He's with me, and he wants to speak to me. Man does not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, I need to hear him. And I'm a sheep and I do hear him, but I gotta tune in.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Yeah, that's so good. That's so good. Um, and I think he speaks to us in a lot of different ways. I've had those moments where it's just like out of the blue, or I don't know if you've ever had this, where someone says something and then later someone completely unrelated says the same thing, and then I'll open my Bible, do a Bible study, and it's the same thing. I'm like, I gotta God, like you're speaking to me. I get it, I get it. Does anybody else have anything to add away that God speaks to you?

SPEAKER_06 7:48

Yeah, I really appreciate it in your opening, Megan, where you talked about how it's so different and unique for all of us the way that God works with us. And I think if even um, you know, we are his hands church, when you read about that, the whole part about his hands is we all have different giftedness, we all have um, you know, different things that he's asking us to do and he's gifted us to do, and I also believe that he speaks to us in different ways.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 8:10

So I know for me, you know, I know like Megan and I'm not gonna steal Tim's thunder, but I know that they have some pretty cool ways that God talks to them. He didn't talk to me that way. And, you know, I'm like, but I I don't dis, you know, it's not for me to desire a different way that he may speak with someone else, expect him to speak with me that way, because it it doesn't work that way. But I would say for me, it really comes down to, and I think you touched on this, Lucy, it's um it really comes back to the Bible for me is I find that the times that he speaks to me the most is really just reading through the scripture and something that really will stand out, and it's like wow, that was that was for me today. So I'll get a lot just that way, and it goes to um Justin touched on this. It's you know, being near to him and and seeking him, he will reveal what his messages are for us. And so another way, again, and it comes back to the Bible and the scripture, is I know we don't um, you know, our our salvation and and our relationship with God is not based on performance. I just don't want to put that out there and you know to get any wrong ideas, but there is something to say for scripture memorization, and so a lot of the verses and things that even I learned as a kid, or those Sunday school songs that we learned as a kid that were all based on Bible verses, I can't tell you as an adult how many times God will bring those to my mind at the right time, whether it's a word for someone else or for me, and it's it's that will just come to my mind, and it but again it goes back to what he's put through in his Bible. So for me, that's where a lot of it comes from. I'm you know, I'm a much more um, I can be a cynical person, but you know, I'm very, you know, logic, analytic, and all that. And so I always like to make sure and test it back to God's word, because even when I do get those times where you might get that that inkling, or like you said, Lucy, when that thought comes into your mind, I always want to kind of go back and and and test it. Okay, is this just me or is this you know God? So for me, it's he really speaks through his word, and and and I can't say how what a blessing that has been. And he talks about, you know, hide your word, hide the word in your heart, you know, and in the in the Old Testament where we talked with the Jews about where they would um you know put it on their arms. I think, didn't we even sing in one of the songs, put the seal on my arm? You know, and they would wear them on their heads and stuff, the actual scriptures. So that's you know a little bit of a of an illustration, but it really is true. He speaks to us, that word is alive. So that's probably been the biggest way for me is just being in his word, seeking him, and he will reveal it.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Yeah, that's so good. I um for a while I carried Bible verses in my pocket. Um, and at random times during the day I would just pull one out and look at it, and I can't tell you how many times the verse that I needed was the card I happened to grab, because God uses his word, it's alive, um, and you don't have to be afraid to jump into his word. So it's it's huge.

SPEAKER_05 11:05

I think the more that you're in his word, the more you're gonna hear him. Because I think God's speaking like pretty much all the time. It's just am I like listening to him type of thing? And I know for me, like the times that I'm if I go like several weeks or a month even or even longer than that, without like really consistently getting in the Bible, then it's like I'm not really listening anymore. I'm kind of like my mind's elsewhere type of thing. But then it's like the second I spend you know time like consecutively with God like in his word and talking to him and stuff, then it's like I start hearing him all the time. It's like I start hearing him like you're saying like throughout my day, like in the things that I'm doing through the processes that I'm going through during the day, and it's like an ongoing thing where you know a little thought will bloop in my head in the morning and then like it'll come back later that night, like you were saying, or something like that. But it all like for me is like if I'm not intentionally spending time with God, I just don't I just stop like hearing him as clearly. You know what I mean? Like it but the second that I start spending time with him again, it's like, oh how much have you said over the past like couple weeks that I just didn't hear because I've my thoughts were elsewhere.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

That's a good point. And what's cool about something that Matt said that I really liked is the moment you get back, he starts speaking again. And it doesn't take this like there's no like hurdle to jump. Um he's right there speaking. Um so there's never like any striving or performance in having to approach God. He's always just right there.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Standing at the door, just knocking them, just open up and I think some of it is you need to have it settled in your heart that he wants to speak to you. And sometimes I find with people as I'm praying with them that what happens is in their heart, they have this, but he speaks to others, but he doesn't speak to me. Or I don't know that I want to hear what he has to say because I might not like what he's gonna ask me to do. Um so sometimes we have barriers and we have to listen to our heart and be real. I love it that that's what we're focusing on now as a church of be real. And one of the ways to me that I learned in my walk to with the Lord about communicating with the Lord was just to look at David's life and and to look at the Psalms. Man, he was up, he was honest, he was real. Kill their kids, wipe them out. I'm thinking, this is Christian. Wait a minute. But you would see him pouring out his heart. It's I I like to look at it, it's like you've got a glass of murky water, and and and you need to pour it all out. And then God puts in refreshing clear water. And if you look at David's Psalms, you'll see that over and over. Then he pours it out, and then he'll come, but then I remembered Lord.

SPEAKER_03 14:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

And he'll come back. So sometimes we're in places where we're overwhelmed, where there's things. So I learned a lot of my understanding of communication with the Lord just by looking at David in the Psalms.

SPEAKER_04 14:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

I mean, sometimes he'd even say, I said to my soul, put your trust in God. He was having so much trouble. If you read before, he was so overwhelmed with what was his enemies and everything. And he had to say, I said to myself, put your trust in God. And you can see the switch and the change. So when we're praying, we're gonna have those things too. And God wants us to be real. He's not surprised at what we have to say to him. So true. Be real with him.

SPEAKER_04 15:08

Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

So I used to not understand at all when somebody said, God told me this. You know, I just didn't understand. It's like, what? Did you hear his voice? You know, um, and I really thought that's probably just their own thoughts. But see, I was stuck in religion trying to be good enough to get to God where I felt like he was pleased with me, where he might talk to me, where he might use me. Uh, but then, you know, thank God for his hands, church, you know, I started to learn that he loved me right where I was at.

SPEAKER_04 15:41

So true. So true.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

And that he wanted a relationship with me right where I was at, that he was going to work with me from where I was at. All I had to do was just press in and seek him. And once I started doing that, I started hearing from God. And and the first time actually was, you know, we were, as before, while this was still under construction, we're meeting where the youth arena is, and we were worshiping. And I was pretty sure that God hated the music because it was too loud. You know, I was pretty sure that he didn't like the people because they weren't dressed right. I wasn't sure about this New Living Translation translation because I thought that the King James Bible was the one that God liked. So, you know, I had all kinds of things going on. Uh but yet during this music, second or third time I'm here, tears are running down my face. And I didn't know why. And I didn't like the music, so I really was confused. So then it happened again. I'm not sure if it happened two or three weeks straight, but I've been praying for a long time. See, me and my wife, we were apart in our worship. She grew up Catholic, I grew up Baptist, I went back to my roots. Um, she stayed at home depressed, but we found his hands. And I told her I would go to any church that taught the Bible and didn't try and twist the word. After we left the first time, I thought that didn't work. She said, I loved it. I said, darn. She didn't say anything against the Bible. But, you know, come, those tears are running down my face. I've been praying that God would show us where we need to be, or she'd come to church with me. And when I said, God, what is happening? And why is this happening? Instantly I heard, I've answered your prayer. And so that's when I decided to stop fighting it all. And uh, but you know what? I don't hear that voice very often. I don't hear that thing. And that's just in my spirit. For those of you who've never heard that, that was just I asked a question and I knew he had answered it immediately.

SPEAKER_04 17:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

Immediately. I didn't have time to think about it. I just heard it. I felt it. Everything within me knew it. And sometimes you ask God something and you pray about something, and you just can't get peace. You're asking him, should I do this, shouldn't I? And you can't get peace. Well, there's your answer.

SPEAKER_04 18:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

You know, because he'll give you peace. Sometimes you ask him and you just overwhelm get overwhelming peace every time you ask him. There's your answer. You heard from God. And so you're probably hearing from God in ways that you haven't even recognized yet if you don't think you hear from God. And uh there's so many different ways. You know, one way after I about a year after I started coming here, I started hearing from him in dreams. And, you know, he started speaking to me, and of course the first dream was just so outrageous with so much symbolism and everything, and and things that I knew, but I didn't know why I knew them. Like, you know, a body of water was the church and this and that and the other. Yeah, because he knew that I wouldn't think it was him. But I woke up and I told my wife, I think God just sent me a dream. And now I recognize dreams that I would have never recognized as being from God. And oftentimes, you know, it's for me, sometimes it's for the church, sometimes it's a warning to me, sometimes it's about my kids. I'm looking at one of them now. So but but he speaks to you in dreams too, some people. So but it's it's varied, you know, there's no formula to how he how you hear from God, you know, because you know, we're all everybody that has children and has multiple children know that one, the way you deal with one is different from another. Well, if you've accepted Jesus as your Savior, you're his child. And you know what? Um he speaks to each one of his children differently. He wants a relationship with each one of us, and he wants it to be a close relationship. And just like you have two children that are totally different and you deal with them differently, you know, that's the way it is with our Father in heaven.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

That's so good, that's so true. I know that God has spoken in dreams to some people. I know that he's spoken in kind of like mind pictures, giving someone a picture in their mind that they then go and pray over, and God shows them the meaning of what they were seeing, um, whether it's a verse jumping off the page or someone coming to you and saying, Hey, I feel like I'm supposed to tell you this. God can speak through other people too. He speaks in a variety of ways. Um but a question I hear a lot that I'd like for us to tackle too is how do you know it's God and not you? Because often we'll go into prayer and ask for an answer, and our minds will race and how do we sort through our thought versus God thought? And if I have an impression, is it me, is it God, how do you tell the difference?

SPEAKER_06 20:38

I think you touched on part of it there. Um, a lot of times it can be confirmation from other people. Um where I had this experience just this past week in the prayer room where a bunch of us were praying, and this thought kept coming to me that, you know, again, I I always I really want to test that, and I don't want to speak anything that may not be right, you know, is it me? Is it God? And so I I didn't I didn't share this thought, but it was still there, and another one of the uh women that was praying with us, you know, called me out or just said my name, and it was like um that was confirmation. It's like she, you know, God talked to her, and and so she knew that this, you know, she didn't know I was having this thought, but God wanted to call me out, and then that was like a confirmation. I mean, not in a bad way, but but it just was like that was that nudge, that that that physical nudge that, okay, yeah, this is real. And so then I shared that thought. Um, but another um way that I think is so cool that that God can interact in our lives, it's not always like that, right? It's not always some you know big spiritual, you know, thing or or word for other people or or healing. Sometimes it's just really cool stuff that God wants to do in our life, and and we'll know that it's Him when He's done some things that are just so wild and way outside that it's like it it it has. To be him because there's no way this could happen. And I had had that experience with a photograph that I took of my son when we were he was sick and we were going through some difficult times, and this photograph ended up being used in a magazine article that ended up getting picked up and put in this gallery thing that I had no idea of. And then a friend of ours happened to be at this gallery and saw this photograph up there, had my name on it, was my son, and so he bought it for me. I had no idea that none of this had happened. So what that was was God was speaking to me in what was probably the most difficult time of my life that I'd ever experienced. He came in and did something and spoke to me. He's like, hey, you know, I'm still here, I'm still speaking to you, I'm still in control. And he did something really cool for me at that time. But I knew it was him because it was so outrageous that, you know, I couldn't have made it happen if he didn't. So sometimes he does those really cool things for you where you know it's him, because there's no way that you, you know, in our own strength or in anyone else's humanly on this planet can make it happen, but but he'll make it known.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Yeah. We always had said, I remember us saying, you can't make this stuff up. Like you couldn't write this if you wanted to when God works. You can't make it up.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Um of the things that when we when you talk about knowing if if if you're really connecting with the Lord. And I look at um in the parables, it talks about the publican and the sinner. And the publican, when he went to pray, it says he was praying thus to himself. And I thought, what is that? How does that look? And the thing that I see is when you are praying and you're going around and around and rehearsing something over and over. You know, all those what ifs, what if this, what if that, but you're not stopping to say, Lord, what are you saying? So you're you're praying thus to yourself. It's like you're he's sitting there waiting for you to be able to speak into it, but you're just going round and round, and the thing is, you go round and round and down and down.

unknown 24:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

And there's no peace, there's no joy. So that's one of the things when you're praying and you're not exp, you should, it's about relationship. It's interesting to me. The first thing he said to Adam is Eve, who told you this? And then when you look at Cain and Abel, he said, Why are you angry? In both places, God's saying, Come on, let's talk. Let's talk. We were created to hear God. No, we were created to hear God. We were created to walk with God and have relationship with God. That's what Jesus paid for, that we could have that back again. We are supposed to have that relationship with God. So sometimes when you're going round and round and round, wait a minute, have you stopped to hear what he has to say? Because he will speak into those things.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Yeah, so when you're praying and you're going, is this me or God, me or God? How about I just stop? And we'll let God speak.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

And sometimes what I do when I'm doing that, because I have a tendency to do that, I will write it down. And like David, who poured out his heart to the Lord, when you're overcome with fear, I will write it out. So I don't have to say it again. It's all written out here. And then I'll say, okay, Lord, what are we doing with this? Okay? And I'll come back to it. Lord, I'm reminding you that we talked about this and I haven't heard anything yet. Because sometimes you don't get an answer right away. Sometimes it's as you go. So you know what? The Lord loves it when we go back and say, Lord, I want to remind you about this. And the one thing that I would encourage you guys is that we don't we pray and ask for something, but we don't necessarily look for the answer. And we're missing marvelous things. We're missing in our relationship with the Lord that when you pray something, date it and look for the answer. Yeah, because when you start seeing that he's actually answering things, because they don't always come right away, but you will begin, your trust will grow because you will see that he answers. The other thing is watch other people, watch in your in your small groups, watch what they're praying for, and sit back and watch. How are you gonna do that? Like, what are you gonna do?

SPEAKER_00 26:35

You can even write down the answers for other people too.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

And you're praying for them, you will learn more about God. That's so true. He astonishes you, he's amazing.

SPEAKER_05 26:47

I think like you know, the Bible says, My sheep know my voice, like Jesus said that. Um, but sheep have to learn, you know, the shepherd's voice or whatever. So like I have to learn what God sounds like, and to me, the best way for me to learn what God sounds like is to like read his word. Like that's like his direct, like he made sure that stuff got written down, recorded, and that's like I think like the greatest gift, you know, aside from Jesus, obviously, but like the greatest gift for us, like on a daily basis. And the more that I read that, the more that I know it, the more I can test thoughts and take those thoughts captive and say, wait a minute, does that line up with what Jesus is like?

SPEAKER_00 27:35

Right.

SPEAKER_05 27:36

Because I'm not gonna really necessarily know what Jesus is like if I don't read about Jesus in the Bible and study that. Like you know, just like I guess an example, like I was I was praying for something, I was asking God, like, what do I do in this situation? type of thing, and I was going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth, and I was like, like I kept asking, I kept asking, I kept asking. I tried to like sit and be still and like listen, I didn't hear anything, I didn't hear anything, and I kept and you know, I'd I'd uh make a decision, I'd be like, okay, I think, I think this is what God is saying. I think he's telling me to do this, and then like a week later I'd be like, ah no, I I think he's telling me to do this, and I kept going back and forth. And what it boiled down to, like I finally, like, you know, it says in the Bible, like, perfect love casts out all fear, and God is love, and I was like, I realized, I know I'm being vague, but like in this in that situation, I realized that my going back and forth was based on fear. And and one of those was based out of a fear. Like, let's say choice B was fear-based, choice A was scary, right? But it but it seemed better. And so then it's like, okay, well, it's obviously not B then, because that's God's not gonna give me something based out of fear. You know, it's good to be like cautious and stuff like that and wise and discerning, but it's not like fear. So it's just the more you know his word that he wrote down for us in the Bible, I think the easier it is to test the thoughts when they come. But for me, it's like I overcomplicate things so much, and I think it's so easy. Like, God is immensely complex, immensely complex. Um so don't take this the wrong way, but I think I overcomplicate things too much with God, like, because like the things that you know Jesus was about, the things that Jesus did and said and taught, like they're so simple. The core of it's so simple. It's so simple, and it's so easy to like think about all the little nitpicky details and be like, oh, like is he saying this, or is he saying this, or is it it's like, well, what is he saying? You know, like it's more often than not, I guess what I'm saying. I think it's simpler than than I make it out to be. Um so not not to overcomplicate it, but just to like test it with scripture, see if it backs it up. What is Jesus like? You know, does that make sense?

SPEAKER_04 30:15

Yeah, that makes sense to me.

SPEAKER_02 30:17

Yeah, and I'm with Matt. Um, you know, if if you you don't know the word, you know, it's hard to understand whether it's you or whether it's God. So being in the word, uh I think it's Romans 12, 12 says that we are to renew our minds, and then the next verse says that we will know the perfect what the perfect will of God is. So you know, without understanding what the word of God says, you know, it's hard to understand what the will of God is for your life. And if um something doesn't line up with the will of God for your life, you know that that's not from him. You know, I had a situation one time where I was working and we had our most important client, and uh we've had them for about 15 years and it's renegotiation time, and you know, if we lose as a client, uh they're taking another bid, it's gonna be bad for us if we lose the client. And they asked if we had the original contract, and we couldn't find it. And if we aren't, we should wish we had that contract. And so one day I found it, and we still were you know in the midst of uh you know this negotiation, and I was so conflicted and you know, I knew what last year was wanted to do. You know, um you know, but uh and I was going to bed one night and I was so surprised because I just heard from nowhere that the Abraham lied. And I'm like, oh my God. And I know what it's about. But that's true. But was that the voice of God telling me to lie about this? No, it wasn't. So in another phone call when this came up, you know, um, I you know, let him know that I did find it. And but if you know Satan uses the same tricks, you know, he used the word again you know with Jesus. You know, when he was in the desert for 40 days uh being tempted by Satan, you know, he used the word to do it, but he twisted it. You know, you know, Abraham lied and he was still blessed by God, but uh, you know, that's not you know what God calls us to do now.

SPEAKER_00 32:32

Yeah, I think too when when I get caught up in is this me or is this God, or if someone comes to me and says, Hey, I feel like I'm supposed to tell you this, and I go, is that God or not? God is always loving, he is never shaming ever. If it ever comes across as shame, it is not God. Um, it always lines up with his word. It's always encouraging, it's always empowering, even if it's things, and I have I've had people come to me and tell me things that I need to correct and have given me corrective words from God, but it is always encouraging and and I feel like okay, I can totally do this. It's not putting me down. I never hear from God and think, now I just want to go hide. When I hear from God, it emboldens me and it gives me the courage to go do whatever he's asking me to do. Um if you ever feel like shame or or this like guilt blanket, it is not God. And I just want to make that super clear. Um God is always loving and he always speaks in a loving way, even in his correction. Um, so you can always test that too and say, is this loving? Is this encouraging? Is this something that is emboldening me to do what's right? And if it's not, it's not God. Um the other question, and this will be our last one, is what do you do when you go to prayer? And let's say there's a decision you're trying to make, kind of like what Matt was talking about. There's a decision I'm trying to make, and I'm seeking God on it, I really want to know what he has to say, and I get nothing. What do you do when you don't hear anything?

SPEAKER_01 34:00

Well, one of the things that I've learned is, and if you take, if you if you go through Psalms and you look up, wait upon the Lord, many, many times it says wait upon the Lord. So sometimes it's a matter of waiting, of reminding him, I'll remind you, Lord, I'm still asking about that, I haven't heard. Okay, but think about what joy and delight it gives to the Lord that we're willing to wait and trust him. So waiting upon the Lord is one of those things that we are instant mash potatoes with people. We don't want to wait and we don't want it to be difficult, we like it easy. But waiting upon the Lord is one of those things that we need to cultivate and we need to be free to do that and to know that sometimes we need to wait. I think of this morning we talked about Deuteronomy when he said, uh, you're gonna go in and you're gonna possess the land, but it's gonna be a year because first I'm going to go in and I'm gonna drive out the wild beasts and I'm gonna prepare the land. Well, let's say we didn't want to wait. We get to fight with the wild beasts then and prepare the land. I think I would rather wait and let him go in and do that. Yeah. So many times, so we need that's one thing we're not used to. Waiting upon the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

Yeah, God is an easy Mac. He's not.

SPEAKER_06 35:36

Yeah, his time is not our time. I mean, and I think a lot of, again, getting back to um, you know, reading in the Bible and looking and seeing how how has he dealt with people over time. And a lot of the the Old Testament stuff you're referring to, Lucy, is think about his his faithfulness and his steadfastness and his promises that he made to the Israelites, right? It took a long time. What was that journey supposed to be like a couple days and it took him 40 years? You know, um, but his he was faithful, right? He he and he's yet he's the same to yesterday, today, and tomorrow. So when we're in that waiting mode, a lot of times it is, it's going back and just again kind of thinking, okay, God, I, you know, I know you're in charge. I know that you know that that you've got this, and that sometimes it's hard, right? In our humanness to to wait. Um, but sometimes we gotta do that. And and then he may come through in in ways that that we don't know, you know, and um when we least expect it. And and I had had that, there was um this is probably five years ago or something. I was having a things were kind of difficult at work a little bit, and I was sensing it might be time to make a change, but didn't know, and just whatever, and you know, I had prayed about it, but you know, just kind of let it go and was just letting things happen, and you know, no change, no, you know, no big lightning bolt, you know, yes, you know, get your resume, nothing like that. But then at that time I was reading through the Proverbs, and you know, you can read through, there's like you could read one each day, and then you get through it in a month. And then this particular day, it's Proverbs 11. I mean, I read this and it was like every question that I was praying about in the decisions that I needed to make at this time that I thought that you know I just didn't know and God didn't care and didn't hear, it was like laid out verse for verse exactly what to do. And so I was full. I literally walked into my boss's office and I kind of closed the door and I, you know, said A, B, and C, and I think this is what's happening, and basically I'm being pushed out, and he looked at me and he's like, Who told you that? You know, I mean it was like so sure, but it came after a time of waiting, but again, it was God's perfect time because if it would have come sooner, what ended up happening, I ended up getting a different position that was the right position that prepared me for the next three years of my life. I went through some major changes that I could never have gone through in the role I was in. So it was the right time. It wasn't my time, it was in God's time, but it actually turned out really cool in that way that it it took waiting and just and getting back to the point too of continuing to be in his word and continuing to draw near. And even though I wasn't getting that answer when I sought it, the times that I'm not hearing from him, a lot of that that's when we pull away. And and that's really when the only time you're not gonna hear from him, right? Because he's he's um who is it, Betty's phrase? He's a gentleman, right? He stands at the door and knocks. We if you seek him, you will find him. So it may take some time, but I, you know, I I at that time I could stay in the Proverbs and read it every day, and eventually it's like, you know, I've read this three months in a row now. Why didn't Proverbs 11 stick out to me the last two months? But it did that day because it was the right time. It was his time, not my time. Yeah, but it ended up, it was the right time.

SPEAKER_00 38:54

Yeah. Sometimes when God is silent, he's doing stuff behind the scenes, and we have to be have enough, I guess, trust in God that if he's not giving us a definitive answer, he will. He's working something out. And if he told me now, I jump into action and start doing things, and he needs me to wait. So sometimes he's just quiet so that I will wait, um, because he knows if I jumped in, I would mess it up. So he's he's he's he's giving me a pause button for my own sake. Um, but yeah, I totally agree with that.

SPEAKER_05 39:26

I think like um you know, if I'm not if I'm not hearing from God and it's like I'm gonna keep asking multiple times a day, multiple times every couple hours, like I'm gonna think about that thing, and I'm gonna ask him while I'm doing whatever, and I'm gonna keep asking, I'm gonna keep asking. But even more than just keep asking, um, like Cheryl said, like, keep on, getting in the word, keep seeking him, keep like, you know, one of my favorite verses of Jeremiah 29, or Jeremiah 29, 13, says, You'll seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart, not part of your heart, or not like, you know, haphazardly like, oh, whatever, like, I guess. No, like when I seek God with everything that I have, then I'll find him. And I think you can apply that to there was a specific scenario that that verse was written for, but I think you can apply that to anything. Like, if I'm seeking a question from God, I'm gonna get the answer to that question when I'm like my whole heart is in it, and I'm just and it's gonna be his timing, not mine. It's not like magic, but when I'm seeking him, you know, and uh makes me think of a you know, it says, don't be anxious about anything, but in everything, through prayer, petition, and thanksgiving, and I forget that part sometimes, the thanksgiving part. Submit your request to God. And then the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. The peace comes after all three of those things, like prayer, petition, and thanksgiving. So when I'm seeking God, and when I'm like, I'm I want to hear from him, I want to hear, like, I'm asking him a question, and I'm just not I'm getting nothing, and it's frustrating and stuff like that. A, keep seeking.

SPEAKER_04 41:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 41:19

And B, start thanking him for everything. Start, you know, start, because it, you know, in those moments, I don't know, I'm probably not speaking just for myself here, but like stressful. It's a you know, it's a you know, a question that I need answers to. It's something, something that's got a timeline or something like that, a deadline to, or whatever. And I it's stressful, and I don't feel peace. Well, how thankful am I being? How like am I going to God? But every time I go to God, it's just like the prayer and petition part, or just the petition part, and I get other people to sign it, and like, you know, like, God, come on now. Am I just doing that or am I doing that, talking to him, praying with him, and then thanking him for all the things that he's already doing and thanking him in advance for answering my prayer and my question and for trusting that. And then the peace, that transcends all understanding, doesn't make sense, will guard me and keep me safe in those moments while I'm in the waiting period, because maybe he wants me to be in the waiting period for a while. Um and I just need that peace.

SPEAKER_01 42:28

That's good. You know, I I think about that too. Sometimes he loves us to ask him questions. He loves the dialogue back and forth. Yeah. And sometimes what we need to do is just say, Lord, what is the block? What is the hindrance? What is the barrier here? Is there something that's in the way? Because he wants us to ask. And you ask him, and then if nothing comes, that's fine. But sometimes he'll show you, and you'll see that in scripture where David something was wrong, and he went to the Lord, Lord, why didn't this work? And the Lord told him that there was a covenant made I don't know how many years before, and it and they weren't honoring it, and so they were, it wasn't going well with them. So God will give you, He will give you the information. You just have to ask, Lord, is there any barrier here? Is there any hindrance? Is there any obstacle that needs to be dealt with? Now reveal that to me. And he will.

SPEAKER_02 43:34

Yeah, and for me it's uh you know, I'm with Matt, you know, it's asking, keep asking, seeking, keep seeking, and knocking, keep knocking. But also, you know, at some point you you have to, you know, think about what you're asking. You know, one time I had a situation going on at work, and every morning I would pray about it. And it was something that I couldn't get any peace about. And I I just kept on asking for God's help with this situation. And then one morning, I kind of frustratedly, I said, God, why can't I get any peace with this? I've been asking for your help on this for so long. And it was one of those few times I hear that instant response in my spirit. He said, You never gave it to me. So it was something I was supposed to give to him. You know, cast your cares on him, for he cares for you. Yeah, I said, I've got this, but I just need your help, Lord. You know, so when you ask that question, sometimes you get the answer. And sometimes it's something you didn't expect. And once I said, All right, that's it. I'm done with this. I give it to you. That instant peace. You know, just overwhelmed me. And, you know, it was a beautiful thing. And all I had to do was ask.

SPEAKER_04 44:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:44

What's going on here? I'm not getting anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 44:47

Yeah. Another thing, too, I was thinking about is that if I'm going to God for something specific and getting nothing, sometimes I need to go to God with it with somebody else and ask somebody else to pray along with me or to pray with somebody else. Because there may be a small part of me that has kind of heard an answer or is kind of uh waffling back and forth between two things and then praying with someone else that you know that loves God and it can be so confirming. Sometimes we just need that extra confirmation. It's not that we're not hearing, it's just we're unsure. And so it's good to always pray with someone else. And we have an awesome prayer team here on any Sunday to go and pray with them and say, hey, this is what I'm seeking God on. I'm getting crickets, I got nothing. And they will pray with you. And you never know what might come out of that. Praying with someone else is also very helpful. God knows we need each other. So yeah.

SPEAKER_06 45:38

Sharing our faith.

SPEAKER_00 45:40

Yes, together, doing it together. Okay. Well, thank you guys so much for doing this. I really appreciate it. Oh, that's well, I really appreciate it. Um, you know, it's funny to be asked to come be on a panel and talk about hearing from God. Um I really appreciate you guys just being real and being yourselves. Because the truth is, God does want to speak to all of us and he wants to have that relationship. I think one of the things that was mentioned most often is that he wants relationship with us. Talking to him is not a business meeting. He wants to talk to us every day in relationship. And before we we move on to more worship, I wanted to go over four truths uh about hearing from God. And I want these truths to really sink into our hearts. I want us to really take them in as we go into a time of hearing from God tonight, throughout the week, throughout the next year. I want these four truths to be something you can hold on to as you grow in hearing from God. Um, and the first one, and I'm very passionate about this, is hearing from God is for all of us. Hearing from God is for every single person. I often have heard, I don't I can't hear from God. God doesn't speak to me. He speaks to other people, and but he doesn't speak to me, and he can't speak to me. And that is a lie. God speaks to every single one of us. He does not play favorites, he has no favorites. He, if he can speak to me, he can speak to you. If he can speak to anybody sitting up on here, he speaks to you and he wants to. So if there's any part of you that says, no, not me, it's a lie. God wants to speak to you, directly to you. Um, I read, I was trying to find a verse on God not having favorites, and I was waffling back and forth between two things, and then I came across Romans 2.11, which says, God does not show favoritism. Okay, it's right there. He doesn't have favorites. It's not some elite group of people that hears from God. It's not some super spiritual group of people that hear from God. Every one of us is designed to hear from God. He longs to speak to us. And if that's something you want, you got it. He will speak to you. And the second point goes along with that. This is a truth. Jesus has already won for you the ability to approach God. You can approach God without shame. There's no shame. There's no, well, God, I want to come to you, but this, this, this, this, and this. That does not exist. Jesus has already won that for you. You can come into God's presence with no shame, no regrets, no barrier. There's nothing you have to do. Jesus has won it for you. Matthew 27, 50 through 54 says, and this is just to set the stage, this is Jesus on the cross. Okay, his last, last moment. Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit. So he has died. At that moment, the curtain in the sanctuary of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. They left the cemetery after Jesus' resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people. The Roman officer and the other soldiers at the crucifixion were terrified, I would say rightly so, by the earthquake and all that had happened. They said, This man truly was the Son of God. When Jesus died on the cross, something divine happened. It wasn't just a physical death. When he died on the cross, he split through the divide between God and man. If you don't think it was divine, people got up out of their tombs and walked around. The earth broke open. Something deep and very, very powerful happened in that moment. And as impressive as people walking around that were dead and earthquakes, one of the most significant things is that curtain splitting. Back in the verse, it says, at that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the temple was torn in two. Which doesn't sound super impressive when you think about people rising from the dead, the curtain being really important. But that curtain was a very special curtain. It wasn't just like shears and drapes that you hang up in your house. It was a wall curtain. It was 60 feet wide, it was 30 feet tall, and the curtain fabric was four inches thick. This was substantial. And this curtain hung between the place where God resided and everybody else. God resided in the Holy of Holies in the temple, and this curtain is what separated that space from the rest of the temple. And there was one person, one man, born to one family, that could go in that room one time a year. And he had to go through all of these rituals to be able to go into that room. And that's the curtain that tore. The curtain that separated people from God's presence. And I love that it tore from top to bottom. Because I picture like God looking down. Jesus has died. He's taken all of our sin, all of our shame, all of our guilt, and God has said, now it's done, and just rips it open. And now we can come into the presence of God with nothing separating us. So don't build your own wall. Don't build an imaginary wall between you and God. Don't try to patch up the curtain. He ripped it. And you can walk into his presence at any time. There's nothing to separate you from his presence. Ephesians 3.12 says, because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God's presence. Boldly and confidently. When we come to God, we don't have to hedge. So often we'll come to God and say, God, I really need your help. But if if you're busy with other things, and we'll back out. And we'll come into God's presence, God, I really, I want to hear you speak to me, but if you can't right now, if I'm, I don't know, maybe something's wrong with me, I don't know. And we back out. We can just come into God's presence and say, I'm here, speak. We can be confident. We can stand there boldly because what Jesus has done for us has won it for us. It's not because of anything we've done. Jesus has given it to us, and all we have to do is step in and stand there and say, I'm here, God, meet with me, speak to me. And we can be bold in it. He's asked us to be bold in it. The third truth that I want to give to you is that God doesn't speak to us the same way every time. Oftentimes I miss God talking to me because I want an answer in a very specific way. I say, Hey, God, I want you to talk to me about whatever the thing is. And then I bring him a little box and say, if you could fit this ant your answer in this little suggestion box, that'd be great. If you could speak to me in a dream, I really want a dream, so I'm gonna wait till you give me a dream. But that's not how God is. He's so much bigger than our box. You gotta get rid of the box. Okay, the box is holding you back. You come to God with one expectation, and the only expectation is that he will meet you. And he will meet you in a variety of ways. God is so big and so varied in all that he does. You don't want to miss part of who God is by expecting him to fit in a little box answer. He likes to blow our box apart. And he will blow your mind if you come to him with that one only one expectation for him to speak. And he will. He might speak to you in an unexpected way. He might speak to you in a way you never even thought of before. But how cool is it that God wants to surprise you. He loves you. He wants to come to you in so many different ways. So don't come to him with one box expectation. I think about um the people of the Bible. He spoke to Joseph in dreams, uh, he spoke to Moses on a mountain that was shaking with earthquake and smoke. Uh he spoke at Jesus' baptism by sending a dove down. He spoke to Paul through a blinding light. He spoke in so many different ways. Um when you approach God and ask him to speak, just come with no other expectation than for him to meet you there. And the fourth truth, since we are on this side of eternity, we are still flesh and spirit. And we have both. Okay, we're we're walking around in a body, we're flesh, but there's a spirit inside of us. And that flesh and that spirit sometimes battle. So we have to give the spirit time to grow. We have to give our spirit time to rise up and hear from God. Romans 8, oh, sorry, Galatians 5, 16 through 17 says, So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, what is just the opposite of what the spirit wants. And the spirit gives us desires that are opposite of the sinful nature. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you're not free to carry out your good intentions. I know how that feels, right? You want to do something and your spirit's saying, do it, do it, but then your flesh is going, oh no, that's scary. Okay? Your flesh and your spirit. And so often our emotions, our flesh, our emotions, our thoughts, um, it could be a lot of different things, our past, they get stirred up inside of us and drown out the voice of our spirits. And it's it's good to give the spirit time to grow. When I was first um wanting to hear from God, actually after that dinner table conversation that I mentioned, um, I talked to one of the ladies and I said, I really want to be filled with the spirit. I want to hear from God. And she gave me some really great advice. She said to just go sit in God's presence and just be there. Don't talk, which is really hard. Don't think, that's even harder. Just sit and be still in the presence of God and let your spirit grow. And so I tried that. Um, we called it soaking, and I would um turn on worship music that was wordless, because if it had words, that would get my mind going. I'd start singing along or thinking about which version I liked better or whatever. So I had to go with wordless, wordless music, um, and I picked worship music because I wanted it to be music that was spiritually set aside for God. I'd turn on wordless worship music, and then I would lay on my living room floor. I couldn't lay in my bed because I'd fall asleep, and I couldn't lay kind of lay on the couch because I'd also fall asleep. So the floor was just uncomfortable enough to keep me awake, but um, not so uncomfortable that I couldn't kind of settle in. So I would lay on the carpeted floor, and then I had found I had to put my head in like the crook of my elbow because I couldn't keep my eyes closed. And I kept looking around the room. So I would lay face down so I couldn't see the laundry pile or the dirty dishes, and then I would put my head in my elbow so if I opened my eyes, it would still be dark. Okay, that's how much I was trying to cancel out all the flesh stuff. Don't think about the laundry, don't think about the dirty dishes, quiet your mind, sit there. And just as a side note, I'm not talking about like meditation, empty your mind stuff. I'm talking about bring your mind to God and let Him fill you stuff. That's the good stuff. Um, so I lay there on the floor, head in my arm, and I would just lay there. And just sit in the presence of God. And I would pray, God, meet me here. And I didn't hear anything. There wasn't like some miracle that happened as I'm laying there on my carpet, but my spirit grew. God's spirit talks to our spirit. Um, it's Romans 8, 15 through 16, and it says, So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him Abba Father, for his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children. And what I was doing in that time of soaking was letting God's spirit talk to my spirit, quieting my mind, quieting my emotions, quieting my to-do list, quieting all that physical stuff that we have to deal with because we live on this earth. And letting my spirit have time to just sit in God's presence, to learn his voice, even if it bypasses my mind, even if it's just his spirit to my spirit, and I didn't get any thoughts in my head, just to let his spirit talk to mine. And my spirit started to grow. And I started to hear God's voice. Not in those moments, mind you, those moments were silent, but in moments later, because what God was doing in that moment was training my spirit to hear his voice, tuning my heart to hear his word. Those moments are so precious to me, even though he said nothing, because that was the time that I was learning his spirit, and my spirit was growing, so that now I can hear my spirit over my flesh. When God tells me to do something, and everything inside of me goes, Oh no, I do not want to do that. That's quieter than God's spirit tugging on my spirit, saying, You got this, you can do it. When that spirit grows, it gets loud, and it's really a beautiful thing. So that was my fourth truth to make sure that you give time for your spirit to grow. But I know us, we're people, and we're busy, so we're gonna do that now. Um, the worship team is gonna come back and they're gonna sing a song, and in that song, they're gonna sing some words, and that's your time to kind of get out your stuff, okay? Like Lucy talked about, you can get out your stuff to God, but after that, it's going to be wordless, and that's your time to hear from God. You may just want to sit in his presence. God just may want your spirit to grow. He may give you a Bible verse, something that you need to look up and write down. There's paper and pens on your tables. He may speak to someone on our prayer team that's here tonight and say, Hey, I want you to go say something. He may give you something just to your heart. He may give you a picture and you go, Whoa, that's weird, that's not me. Write it down. But I have prayed, and I have prayed bold for tonight, that God would speak to every single one of us. And I believe he will. So we're gonna take some time to just hear from God, sit in his presence, and seek more of him together. Because I think he has something really special for us. So we're gonna let the worship team do their thing. And let God do his.