Priscilla Shirer: How to Discern the Voice of God (Full Teaching) | Praise on TBN

Priscilla and Jerry Shirer join Matt and Laurie Crouch on TBN’s Praise to discuss discerning the voice of God in our daily lives. Listen as Priscilla Shirer unpacks how knowing more of God, His word, and His character, leads to being able to discern His voice.

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it ruins you for church as usual oh hey

ruins you yeah that regular old mundane

christian rediverse a 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

discerning

the voice of god

today we’re going to unpack that so why

is this subject matter

something that is

really important it is important because

this facet of our faith is what

separates our faith from every other

so-called faith on the face of the earth

okay that our god lives 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 if there’s no communication if

there’s not um 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 just have a distinction of

his voice between all the other voices

that also want to 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 we’re 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

jump in any time you want yeah you know

you’re a miracle worker that you got him

on the show jerry doesn’t want my buddy

come on i know y’all are bad you guys

you’re just going to have a good time

we’re going to we’re going to discern

the voice of god 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 god

speaks to you

um i’ve never heard the audible voice of

god babe have you missed something i

have not

no

no not yet but i think there is

something internal yeah

in you that you that you feel the

presence of god and it lines up with

scripture which confirms okay

this is what i’m hearing that’s right so

the holy spirit of god illumines

scripture the book is alive and he

causes the the old presets of scripture

to have a now-ness 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 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 a phrase and an

impression what describes some of what

is in

discerning the voice of god how how the

lord speaks or how this conversation

unfolds with you yes well most of the

time most of the time god speaks to me

through his word it is exactly what i

described it is reading through a

portion of scripture

and on that day it’s like the holy

spirit has taken out a highlighter and

has highlighted this verse you have seen

a million times before but on that day

it leaps up off the page and it grips

you that’s the only way i can really

describe it is that it grips you in the

depths of your soul and causes you to

pause for a moment because it seems to

be literally speaking to something

that’s happening in your life most of

the time that is the voice of god we

have discounted i think the power of

scripture because if we say we want to

hear from god and we never actually read

the love letter that he wrote to us we

don’t want to 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 them in the

first place beautiful 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 ourselves and i trust it or

trust or trust it how can i trust god’s

voice when i do hear it is that really

him is it me is it yeah

well let me let me just start by putting

a little grace over this entire

situation the reality is that sometimes

you do not know until hindsight that

what you heard was the voice of god

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 us his knowledge of

our frailty and our humanity for the

willing heart who desires to do his will

even when we make mistakes he allows

them to become our greatest teachers for

hearing him correctly in the future he

does not hold it against us because

we’ve misstepped along the way so um

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 first writing that book many

you know over a decade ago uh now i

interviewed henry blackaby

who wrote experience in god yes and i

you know had my notebook out my pen i

was going to take a seminary class from

henry you know and i said how do you

know when you’re hearing god and he gave

me lots of incredible answers to that

question but really he summed it up this

way

he said the more you know god the more

clearly you can hear god

there was really nothing for me to write

down because it boiled down to priscilla

it’s simple he said the more you know

him the more clearly you can hear him so

the reason why we go to the scriptures

the reason why we have quiet time the

reason why we fellowship with other

believers who are going to help us

remain encouraged in our faith is

because we’re just trying to get to know

god 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

and 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 of that

stuff that in our flesh is also trying

to get a word in edgewise we can quickly

quickly pinpoint the voice of a stranger

because if we know god the more clearly

we can discern and just 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 what his character

is talk about that because i found that

fascinating yes

so

god’s blessing um and i believe his

provisions are a 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 is 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 handiwork in our life to confirm

that what we’re sensing on the inside is

indeed how he’s aligning uh the

direction for our life to just fb meyer

is a great theologian put it this way

when a big uh 747 is getting ready to

land on a runway well well the plane

better not just be looking for one light

somewhere to land better not just look

for two lights somewhere to land there

better be several lights that are that

are lining a runway so that that 747

knows exactly where land 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 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

discerning the voice of god book the

material that we’ve

been privileged to be able to develop

through the years on the topic

and i just started you know how the lord

puts layers of maturity on a message the

more you grow in him aren’t we so

grateful that he lets us grow and mature

and learn from our mistakes and i

thought i 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 kind of looks dated now

and i thought we might need to do

something different with that at some

point this was going to be my lazy year

where i just kind of 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 going to put 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 two things two lights there that

kind of corroborated what i was already

sensing on the inside and then matt

lloyd crouch 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 a number of years ago

when laws were different

um

today um

if we’re hiring somebody here at trinity

broadcasting we can say by the way

you’re 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 a different rules

well

my dad

uh when he uh 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 mr 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 kind of went what you know

lord

and he clicked the button back and went

well sir i suppose you don’t have to be

a christian to work at our channel but

you might want to be

uh you know much like if you were

applying for a spanish language channel

you might want to know how to speak

spanish yeah

and the guy went

hmm well that makes a lot of sense okay

i get that uh oh by the way if you’d

have said yes i was going to file uh 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 the very beginning of this

what i love is their willingness to not

push past those moments of restraint

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 that he wanted to get out and

that’s the problem with most of us that

rebellious streak that we all have

that when we sense that conviction that

warning don’t say that to your spouse

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 know when you’re in

heated fellowship with your spouse and

you you know sometimes as wives we get

ready because we know what we’re gonna

see 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 will we push past it and say what

we want to say anyway

or will we

submit to the leadership of the holy

spirit

and the moment it might seem a little

bit

limited losing yeah it might seem like

you’re limited you’re losing but really

the outcome of obedience is always

freedom and victory yes 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 by 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

why is it important to hear god because

it changes you

change me

why is it that’s right

it does change you you know what it does

you know what it does yeah it ruins you

for church as usual oh hey

ruins you yeah that regular old mundane

christian rediverse a 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 a

nearness of his presence

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

only present there are times where he

manifests himself in a way where the the

hair on the back of your neck stands out

kind of fail 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

and 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 in the

world 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 goose bumps that ever

happened to you ever

you know you know i’m getting have

goosebumps right now oh hey hey hey

hey hey hey yeah how much time we have

left in the show they’re needing to get

out okay

and by the way uh we’re going to unpack

this so get right back into the subject

matter it’s an important subject matter

even the idea well way the publisher and

all that kind of stuff this is this is

on the heart of god right now this is

the people being 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 their jobs their 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 i

want to say too that just that sense of

dissatisfaction that that someone may be

feeling that we all feel when we’re

going to be launched into the next level

in our relationship with god sometimes

that dissatisfaction makes us so upset

and so frustrated because we just want

to know the answer we want to get to the

answer but the dissatisfaction itself is

a sign of god’s spirit working with this

absolutely and the 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 itself 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 is god and aren’t we glad

that he’s not just a big version of us i

don’t want god to just be about me 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 how

it takes faith to say okay you know what

that that’s why i always say if we step

out in faith kind of

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

called us

yeah yeah even when we’re when we’re

unsure and we’re unsteady

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

five m’s of hearing god when you sense

that god is imparting something upon you

um impressing conviction um 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 that 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 in the 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

listen i’ve got those people in my life

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 in 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 ourselves

to the ministry of eli we’ve got eli’s

in our life okay we’re talking about

discerning the voice of god we’re going

to be talking about unpacking it with

jerry and priscilla

all

hour long

uh this book

why don’t you uh whine 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 except max potato who says it’s

easy which is not fair he’s kind of

different that’s not even yeah

and

that’s true for me to write books

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 period of light in your

life where you were going to drill down

you were going to 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 let me tell you

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 gleaned so much of what the word of

god was who it described god to be what

he did in the old testament 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 this 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 himself to them and by just

listening and gleaning and inviting from

the breadth 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 the 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 um

honored my quest

by again not allowing me to be at a

place where i’ve arrived i’m in a place

right now here i am at i wrote that book

i think when i was 31 or 32 here i am at

42 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 five

physical senses we’ve got spiritual

sentence lord sen says lord i need my

radar to be up so that i can detect your

presence and hear your voice and i’m

going to need you to make my detectors

sensitive again lord and i’m entrusting

that to your spirit so it’s an ongoing

um thing that is born out of those

moments of unrest in our life with the

lord the greatest gift ever it’s the

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 then

then

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

two jobs and i got this and that i don’t

have time to put into okay 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 about this topic that just

seems so theological theoretical and

sort of out there

then those very reasons are the reasons

why 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

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 42 years

old

and i say this i say this uh

you know i’m stepping carefully when i

say it but at 42 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 to this 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 good but i had a word from

the lord and it was 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 ledge yeah because you need

that another word 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 state stay

with the last word stay right there

obedient to them do me a favor

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 of indonesia and

and africa that are watching tonight

they’re just

they’re struggling to get by

okay

god

talk to them yeah 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 for so long

let me just say this first of all and i

want to talk to those people please

i’m the youngest of three

grew up in a single parent home

my mother had to sack groceries work for

tips only to put food on the table

but i remember nights i couldn’t sleep

and get up

i saw her praying on her knees

for her it was how bad she wanted it

i tell people all the time how the

prayers of one woman change the 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

going to 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

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 and i know there are some very

real practical needs and so i want to

pray for those right now i want to 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

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 going to 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

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 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 you lift the veil from our eyes

thank you lord

cause the veil that is over our ears the

hardness of our heart lord to be

softened and to be removed so 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 in jesus name that we pray

amen amen beautiful 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 our 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 but there’s a

lot of people out in the world that

haven’t found god yet god hasn’t found

them that are seeking and

you seek and you’re going to find him

that’s right you know so i think that’s

a 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 um

so so

i know that a lot of um

people want to hear god’s voice but they

won’t stop talking

[Laughter]

right tell us how important my 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 got

to 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

nothing happens when i speak but when

god speaks worlds come into existence

so why in the world wouldn’t i want to

leave time for him to speak and what

that practically looks like is yes

vocalize your prayers to him i literally

have kind of begun the habit of even

writing some down just writing down what

it is that i want to 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 want to 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 going to 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 bible verse from that you

learned in sunday school years ago all

of a sudden it comes back to 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 saying pray for this

friend right now those little

impressions those little inklings you

know deuteronomy chapter 30 says

god’s word is not so hard that you’ve

got to 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 fingers tips 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 what’s uh

you know it it it couldn’t be

any more important this subject matter i

mean the very fact that the four 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

um 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 uh because

uh if we thought that this ministry and

as it is now fully in its second

generation were up to us we’d 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

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 uh 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 tips that day

all right i remember her taking out four

dollars yeah you know putting it to the

side because that was going to go into

the offering plate that’s i mean i’m

like mom are you kidding me you know the

lord would understand

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

this thing in me like you know what

jerry don’t go you know

no

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 the

prayers of one woman change the

generation i mean still today it’s so

funny our boys

will be like granny’s still praying

for 30 minutes i’m like yep she’s still

praying i said she’s praying for you

guys so she’s praying even for this next

generation her grandchildren yeah and so

it’s just great but yeah it is not an

economical thing it is it is

a it is something that you desire do you

really want it like i said she used 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

yeah and if you want to hear the voice

of god you got to make time for him okay

now we

we the four of us

grew up in an environment where this

subject matter is normal yeah this one

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 god how to recognize when god

is speaking okay

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 it sounds crazy sounds like it’s not

right that we’re not right

a little crazy

okay so uh just

introduce the subject matter if somebody

just doesn’t quite get it okay

so john 10 27 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 got to 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 access to a whole lot of cable

television 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 my parents chose

that we could really only watch the

cosby show on thursdays at seven o’clock

and then a different world so it wasn’t

until we were getting ready to get

married i moved out

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 at 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 hook up so that i

could tap into them and bring them and

draw them down into my experience the

holy spirit is the hookup

when you place faith in jesus christ

ephesians chapter one says the moment

you believe you receive the hook up the

holy spirit now you are able to draw

down divine channels it’s not that you

created them no they were always there

god’s 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 um 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

to degree we have to have some special

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 he doesn’t want you to know it’s

your birthright and so believing that

you can is the first step to hearing god

friends no matter what trouble you’re

facing today god has already provided

the wisdom courage and strength you need

to stand for your gifts of support in

any amount we’re going to send you joel

osteen’s new book you are stronger than

you think please go to tbn.org forward

slash stronger than and thank you for

being a part of this global television

ministry