Hearing God’s voice is vital to sustaining a life-giving relationship with Him, but so many Christians have trouble knowing how and what God is speaking.
[Music]
welcome to today’s episode of
conversations i am
lisa and i’m joined by my husband john
today and
this is something you may not or may
know about conversations it’s actually
part of the messenger network which
includes the godmother
with yours truly let’s talk about it
with sons and daughters
and the messenger podcast today we’re
going to unpack a topic
that we’ve been asked about a lot in
recent years
and that is hearing god’s voice
how do you know if you’re hearing god’s
voice how to hear god’s voice
but before we do that i want to remind
you if you haven’t already
you can subscribe and rate the show this
really actually helps us get the message
out there
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we even
read it on the show today i’m going to
read a review from
andrew williams that’s what he has to
say i find your podcast
extremely helpful with my relationships
with everyone i love that not just
not just husband and wife but with
everyone it is nice to hear stories that
help us to navigate this dark world my
wife and i
hope to have as strong a relationship as
you two have
when we’re your age honey your
age that’s that’s coming up a lot babe i
i
still see myself as a young man but i do
know
physically i have a 62nd birthday coming
up here june 2nd
so um i know and so and so anyway
i want to yeah because i already know
what that side says you’re amazing no
i i was just gonna say lisa this is like
you know
the perfect the perfect um answer to two
situations yeah as you said we have
heard over and over again
please we want to know how to hear the
voice of god
and i know i have had this question
asked by our sons quite a bit
and then to follow it up from the
podcast on the prophetic it’s just so
perfect right because god
is speaking yes he’s speaking i mean
paul made a statement to the corinthian
church he said
you have not followed after these dumb
idols in following the living god and
that of course
is the king james version but the word
dumb didn’t mean
stupid it meant they had no ability to
talk
and so what paul was saying the major
difference between the idols and god is
our god does speak and the idols don’t
and jesus said so clearly my sheep
hear my voice and the voice of a
stranger they will not
follow we are told that the holy spirit
will lead and guide us
we are told over and over god said i
will give you direction
so this is something our own children
asked us this is something
is probably the first question people
ask us when we’re ministering and
opening up for questions
i don’t care if it’s a marriage
conference i don’t care what it is so
it’s real important that we don’t rush
through this and it’s real important if
it takes two podcasts we’re gonna do it
but
this is important so i’m going to ask
you a question yep
does god speak to everyone does god
speak to everyone that is an excellent
question
if you are his child absolutely
see i would disagree with you on that
okay i believe he speaks to everyone
whether they’re his children or not
because romans once i agree now
you’re going there you’re going there
existence of god so god is
always speaking folks i stand corrected
and i just want you to know so excited
that my wife was 100
right so god is god is always speaking
he is but i love what you always say
like he’s always speaking but about that
radio dial can you talk about that
so you know back in the old days when i
was a teenager
we had fm and am radio and that’s it we
didn’t have smartphones we didn’t have
computers
so the only way to really hear from the
outside world was through television or
radio
and you know if i had my radio
on in the car as a teenager and the
station just
wasn’t coming through i didn’t get on
the phone and call the station say don’t
you guys realize your broadcast isn’t
coming through
i would usually find out that if i just
turned the knob a little
i would pick up the station loud and
clear tune in and so
god god is like the radio station he’s
he’s not
he never shuts down he’s never on off
he is always wanting to speak to his
children so the question is
are is our heart tuned in correctly
and does our heart know how to hear him
correctly so i think that’s where you
start
and again i want to say 100 god is
speaking to everyone because romans 1
does make it so clear but in this in
this podcast
i think it’s really important we talk
about his children because these are the
ones that are asking us the question
right so i’m gonna now ask you what does
god’s voice
sound like wow okay so i i know a lot of
people are like is it audible
is it audible and you know i’ve talked
to people that
have experienced an audible i’ve never
experienced an
auto out about what i have experienced
is
a very strong impression
sometimes he’ll actually give me a
scripture like the location of a
scripture
where i don’t even know what it’s going
to say and when i
open it up i find an answer there but
usually it isn’t the exact answer that
i’m looking for
but it’s the assurance that he is the
god who hears and he is the god who
answers and so i think a lot of times
people like god’s not talking
and work sometimes just giving him
multiple choice questions like god
is it true or false or god do i stay or
do i go
you know we we we have the audience with
the creator of the universe
and we’re saying i’m giving you two
options and sometimes he’s like
i’m not i’m not even answering according
to your two parameters
i will answer and you know what we one
of my favorite verses
is the promise in jeremiah that if you
call unto me i will
answer you and show you great and mighty
things what does it say
that you know not of so sometimes we
want god to answer us
according to what we know and he’s like
hey i got something bigger
it’s an answer that’s going to actually
include something that you know
not of which i think a lot of us coming
through are coming
in where it’s still in the pandemic
there was a lot of questions
that we would have been looking for
answers from that maybe god was quiet
about because he knew something was
coming up that
we didn’t we knew not of and and you
know lisa
that’s so true and um i think i think
one thing we’ve got to initially say
is that god wants to have a personal
relationship with us
right so why is that we want to put him
in a box
or why would he want to put us in a box
so i look at the scripture
when god said to mariam and aaron in the
old testament
if there’s a prophet among you i speak
to him in a vision a dream
not so with my servant moses i look at
samuel who’s a young boy
and god calls him and he says samuel
and he they thought he was the voice of
his pastor at the time who was eli so he
goes running and saying yes sir
it’s in the middle of the night eli goes
i was sound asleep you just woke me up
why are you calling for me
so sammy goes back god comes the second
time says samuel
watch as samuel run to eli again
he goes quit bugging me i’m trying to
get a good night’s sleep here
he goes back to his bed god says samuel
one more time
now that way i want to pause a second
just just be nice to eli for a moment he
did
tell him he did yeah but yeah but i
don’t want to get there yet i want
i want i want to i’m dealing with god i
want to deal with god what he’s doing
here sure
why doesn’t god on the second time say
sam you see him you know this is the
lord your god speaking to you
why does he continue to let him keep
going to eli
what that’s what i want to say is
because god wants
us as children to understand how he
speaks to us individually
so in other words because we have a
personal relationship
god speaks to me different than he
speaks to lisa god speaks to lisa and i
both different than he may speak to you
and that’s where i really wanted to
create a foundation is first of all
he wants us to learn how
he speaks to us and so
this is something that i think took me
years decades to learn i was frustrated
and i know a lot of people are
frustrated right now well i hear my
pastor say that he had a dream or i hear
my pastor say he heard the voice of god
why don’t i hear the voice of you you
know to teach on the series or something
like that
right right and so they are now trying
to have
god speak to them the way their pastor
talked about it when reality god may say
no i want to speak to you in a different
way because i want to keep our our
relationship i’m going to take a lease
up of your quote i want to keep it
unique
i want to keep it to where we you’re not
just a number
but you’re i’m going to call you by name
yeah i love that
well and so john going back to eli once
once he figured out
that god was talking to the boy samuel
you told him
speak just stay in your place right and
say
speak lord for your servant is listening
correct and i think that
that posture is something that we all
have to adopt whether we hear god
speaking and calling us out by name we
can
take that posture of say speak lord for
your your
daughter your son your servant we’re
listening
and we can open up the word of god and
sometimes god
speaks through that word through a
scripture that just
whoa it’s right there speaking to our
situation
or we get an impression that wow
okay i i don’t feel good about this
anymore you know i thought it might be a
good idea but
after just pausing and pondering i just
don’t feel good about it can i read this
quote by george mueller because i would
love to hear i think it’s
powerful it says the spirit of the holy
spirit
and the word must be combined if i look
to the spirit alone so i’m just
listening
spirit what are you saying alone without
the word
i lay myself open to great
delusions also if the holy ghost
guides us at all he will do it according
to the scriptures
and never contrary to them so
it will have like it will have the same
tone the same uh you know what i was
thinking about today we were talking
about this i thought how
you know jesus was you know pulling uh
grain during the sabbath and his he and
his disciples were like
rubbing it between their hands and
eating it and the people were like what
are you doing
you know you’re harvesting grain you
know and jesus was like
i’m the lord of the harvest i mean like
he knew who he was
and so yes that would seem like maybe it
was a contradiction to the word but it
wasn’t
because he was a lord well then he gave
he gave scripture he said david
went in and it took the bread that was
only allowed to be for the priests
right so i i because even satan came and
used scripture with jesus but jesus
properly applied the scripture he said
hey throw yourself from the temple
because his angels will give charge over
you but jesus said no you shall not
tempt the lord your god.
so this is what i believe the bible
means when you rightly divide the holy
spirit being our teacher will always
help us to walk through the bible and
understand that he’s not going to
speak to us contrary to the overall
counsel of god’s word
and just pull out one perspec particular
scripture that would go against that
now wait before we go further so
uh to samuel the voice of god sounded
like eli
it sounds like a father figure that was
very good and and so i think
that was an important thing to say um
for other people
the voice of god sounds there i mean
hannah hannah samuel’s mommy
the voice of god was eli you know what
what what do you what
put away your wine woman oh wait i’m not
drunk i’m distraught and so
okay god bless you whatever you’re
asking for so here’s the thing
i when i pray yeah and i hear from the
holy spirit
the voice sounds like my voice
in my head yeah it doesn’t sound like a
man voice
it doesn’t sound like james earl jones
which i would like it to sound like that
it just sounds like like a whisper
inside of me yeah inside of my heart
inside of my head
and uh what does it sound like for you
so does it sound like your mom
just exactly what you just said it
sounds a lot to me like my own voice
and i you know i think it’d be a good
place to really
go to scripture and say what is the
primary way the holy spirit leads us
and i think that is for sure found from
a couple scriptures you put together
where it says the spirit of man is kind
is the candle of the lord that’s
proverbs 20 27. so in other words god
god speaks to our spirit our heart okay
and then you look at the fact that paul
says
in romans chapter 8 for as many as are
led
by the spirit of god so to be led by
someone means you need to know how he
communicates
for as many as are led by the spirit of
god these are the sons and daughters of
god
the spirit then he goes on to say the
spirit himself bears witness with our
spirit now
this is one that has kept me out of
trouble for years and years
what does it mean to bear witness well
if you go over to colossians 3 16
excuse me 3 15 paul said let the peace
of christ
rule as an umpire in your heart
now an umpire is someone who makes a
decision on a call
so in other words the way the spirit of
god
primarily speaks to us is by a witness
now let me give an example of this
let’s say i’m considering leaving a city
and going and living somewhere else but
in my heart
i have just this gnawing itching
scratching feeling
i have no peace in my heart about it
that
you’re not sleeping you’re feeling well
even i wouldn’t even say not sleeping
yes you’re restless that that’s a good
way of saying
he’s trying to say this yes there would
be different expressions because when
you just say an itchy
thing i think people are like what are
you talking about and that’s a good
point babe
so if i don’t have that overwhelming
peace
either something is wrong i haven’t put
it in place i haven’t given it in prayer
the holy spirit is trying to say you are
planning something or you are moving on
something
that you need to do something else first
and that’s when i start searching and
seeking
and i will tell you this many times i’ve
stayed up at night looking for that
like where is that peace okay just
recently i was in a situation where i
didn’t have peace
and it wasn’t that i was actually doing
something wrong i really believe
now is because i hadn’t properly prayed
it through
and hadn’t really and then when i did
because paul goes on to say in
philippians if you do everything by
prayer
and petition which is a specific request
the peace of christ
will garrison up like an army and guard
your heart
and your mind so this is where a
christian needs to learn to live
you live in the peace of god you can
have turmoil all around you
you can have fighting around you you can
have neighbors that are
like like threatening around you but if
you have that
inward peace that’s the witness of the
spirit that says
keep going the direction you’re going
you’re doing the right thing
you know john i really feel like it’s
important can you share
the first time that you i mean you and i
both raised catholic
when was the first time that you
actually
knew the spirit of god spoke something
to you
that’s a really good question um i would
actually say
can you recount the story yeah um
wow that’s a tough one i
i’m i’m having to go way back if you
don’t yeah would you start because i’m
trying to get the first time
and i’m tripping over the first time
because i can think of a lot of times
sure yeah sure and i think i think this
is a really important topic so i think
we need to do
two for sure but here here was the first
time okay and this is
this is the crazy crazy crazy moment i
was not born again
i was wow in my sorority
and i was miserable i had
packed everything up and a ring
that was really important to me had been
stolen
but i didn’t know what was stolen until
i packed everything up you know i’m a
little bit messy
so i thought perhaps perhaps i just
you know when i pack everything up i’ll
find it but there had been a lot of
thefts in our sorority house
and i had packed everything up and i was
so sad john
it was gone it was gone and so i was
sleeping
in my last night in the sorority i was
sleeping in the
sleeping loft and i just prayed i did a
dare to god
i said god if you’re so powerful
you know where that ring is if you’re
really real
you can make that ring come back to me
if you’re
like if like that’s like nothing for you
that’s like a flick of your eyelash
like what why can’t you just do that for
me make
if you really want me to believe in you
why don’t you just show me
and i and i was in my bed kind of
almost being sarcastic kind of being
like i don’t believe in you god yeah no
way yeah
and and i said i had probably been
laying in there for about a half an hour
45 minutes
and i just felt i need to i’m just going
to get up and go to the bathroom
and when i went up to the bathroom i
felt like i need to walk into my room
and i walked into my room and i had
lifted up the glass that was on top of
my dresser to get all the photos off of
it
and in the center of my dresser
was the ring and i flipped
out because in my mind i thought an
angel had a beard and
grabbed the ring and put it there but
really what had happened was
god had touched the person that had
stolen it and i mean
i’m guessing i don’t think god had an
angel pickpocket somebody
gotta touch that the person that had
stolen and and they put it on there
between the time i prayed and it freaked
me out because then i knew
that god was real and now i had to
answer to the fact that i had mocked god
and discovered he was real and it was
impressions
impressions you told me the story one
time years ago but i forgot it and that
was that is very powerful you’ve never
been able to forget
that we’re actually out of time and lisa
we haven’t
cause there’s so many different ways god
speaks we haven’t even talked about it
right
yeah so why don’t we pick it up on the
on the very next podcast yeah and i’m
super excited because i
i want people to continue to tune in i
hope you’re encouraged
that god not only speaks but he wants
to speak to you and i want i want to
just
leave you with this sentiment god wants
to speak to you more than you want to
hear from him
i couldn’t agree that is the beauty of
our god but i want to thank you for
tuning in we’re gonna
we’re definitely doing another session
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wow you know what i want to hear from
god
and i know two of my friends that i want
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push a share button
send it to two of your friends and say
how about we do this together
it’s that easy and it’s no cost to them
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want people
confident that they can hear the voice
of god
until next time this has been
conversations with john and
lisa bouvier
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