How to Hear God’s Voice in a Noisy World

Have you ever wondered if God is speaking to you—or questioned whether you're hearing Him correctly?

In this powerful conversation, Jeffrey Paul sits down with Rachel and Randy from the Renewing You team to discuss practical, real-life ways God speaks to His people. From gentle nudges and timely songs to Scripture, journaling, stillness, and spiritual discipline, you'll discover how to recognize God's voice amidst life's constant distractions.

In this episode, you'll learn:

✅ How God often speaks through confirmation, Scripture, and circumstances
✅ Why stillness is essential for hearing God's voice
✅ The role of journaling in spiritual growth
✅ Practical ways to reduce distractions and create space for God
✅ How worship, prayer, exercise, and boundaries can improve spiritual clarity
✅ Real-life testimonies of hearing God's direction and encouragement

Whether you're new to faith or have been walking with God for years, this conversation will help you develop a deeper relationship with Him and gain confidence in recognizing His voice.

📖 Key Scriptures:

Psalm 46:10-11
Habakkuk 2:2
John 14:26
Matthew 3

💬 We'd love to hear from you:
How has God spoken to you recently? Share your experience in the comments below.

📚 Interested in a Hearing God's Voice Workshop?
Let us know in the comments if you'd like Jeffrey Paul and the Renewing You team to host a practical workshop on journaling, discernment, and hearing God's voice.

🔔 Subscribe for more faith, wellness, beauty, and transformation content.

Remember, Beauty and change begin within.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Today our discussion is going to be on hearing God's voice. And I have two of my buddies from the team at Renewing U to really share some, you know, everyday life experiences. Hearing God's voice. I mean, it's probably most talked about. In fact, when I've done my search on YouTube, uh, it is high on the in the spiritual realm, but it's also very low on the clarity, the how-to, and the understanding of God's voice speaking to us. Rachel, you hear God's voice, you've been walking as a Christian for a long time. What what is it that you hear? How do you hear it? Does the audible voice come from your bathroom windows and speak to you? What what is it that you would call and give us the actual example of God speaking to you?

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Um, no, I wouldn't say it's an audible voice. Sometimes it's just a gentle nudging that I feel to go one way or the other, or like I hear it through a song if I turn on the radio. Like one time I turned on the radio, I was in deep distress, and um there was a song that came on, and it was like everything's gonna be all right. And I just started crying because I knew God heard me at that moment. Or like we'll be in church, and one time my husband was struggling with doubt, and we went to church, and the theme was doubting, and that that's okay to doubt God, because he can handle your doubt. And just little moments like that, that I know he's there and I know he's listening.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

That's beautiful. Let's unwrap that just a little bit because that's really beautiful. Because of circumstances, and we've talked about in previous programming open doors, closed doors. If we're not tuned in, if we're not listening to God's voice, and again, I'm glad you said what you said because as soon as you say hearing God's voice, people think audible. We know he's done that. We know in Matthew 3, God speaks after 400 years and says, This is my son who I'm well pleased with. Okay. He also did that in the manifestation, but the truth of it is, is his common communication comes from a series of issues. You just gave an example. That I pray, and then an opportunity, if I'm listening, if I'm not distracted, the song comes up and gives me that effervescence inside of us. You know, you just know that you know that you know. Confirmation. Confirmation. Good. And then I always recommend then that somebody would go back, journal that, write it down like it talks about Habakkuk II, write these things down so they remind you. And if you don't look it up right then, that I am almost positive how God has worked with me, that He will bring a scripture if you don't search it in your concrete, He'll bring the scripture that like goes tongue and groove into the the AMN to that prayer. How about you, Randy? I mean, you've been praying a long time.

SPEAKER_03 2:43

I'll tell you what, I had one of these moments yesterday.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Um, this is currently. This is current current.

SPEAKER_03 2:47

So my mind has just been dealing with so much lately, like personally, professionally, everything, and I just can't clear my head sometimes. So I know I'm gonna be here today, you know, recording with Jeffrey, and I I'm like, I'm going to bed early, I'm going to bed early. I'm not going to stay up late. I'm going to get good sleep. So I fell asleep about probably 11 o'clock. And I'm like, oh, this is great. I'm all rested, ready to go. I took the melatonin, feeling good. Woke up at like 12:30, just wide awake, just fully wide awake. And I'm like, this is very strange for me. Try to go to sleep, couldn't go to sleep. Put some music on, ended up getting up every hour until like probably 5 o'clock when I just fully got up. And I said, This is driving me crazy. I can't sleep. Tossing and turning. Tried to get up. I'm like, am I hungry? What's going on? So got in the car today, I'm driving here. And I'm like, okay, like, what was this about last night? And I really like talking about not you don't audibly hear, but I really felt like in my spirit, he was saying, You weren't yet, you can't you haven't been listening to me during the day because your mind's so busy. You want to rest? This that's the only time I can actually talk to you because you're not thinking about anything else. And I was just like in that moment, I think I like got more energy. I don't know how to describe it, but yeah, it was very current. Like well, you know and it got me in my place. I'm like, uh oh.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

And and you you you persevered. You persevered to hear that voice, even through the transcript. And and you know, not opening your life to everybody, but last couple weeks has been pretty major for you, the battles and the deaths and everything else. So I wanted the audience to hear something that's really important. Before you go to bed, you know, God has spoken in dreams incredibly. And when we wake up, we can wake up and hit the wall, or we can hit the open door to our inspiration. Before we go to bed, a number of things that I recommend in our workshops is this that you stop, really stop, practice that becoming still, be still and know that I am God, you know, Psalms 46, 10 and 11. And then read your journal. Read what you heard this morning from the Lord if your practice is to be journaling. Even Dave, even it's just one sentence, uh, your friend, the quote. Uh Jesus, I don't know what it was, Jesus help, thanks, I'm out of here. Oh, yeah. All right, the quote. But in turn, to put that down and read that, then to at least either put spiritual music, or what I do is I listen to John Eldritch uh in his pause uh meditations and listen to a lesson that's 15 to 20 minutes that I actually I fall asleep to. I mean, I fall asleep.

SPEAKER_03 5:28

That's how I fell back asleep last night when I had like the instrumental music plan.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

And because you're wired for music because you're a worship leader. So in turn, if you don't set the table for success, like if I'm in a hurry, got to get the kids out, got to make them lunches or something, and get them dressed, and then I gotta get myself over to, you know, renew. Then it's hard to even pause because even if you do take the time and not practice stillness, then you're getting very little, very little. And we already said there's a lot of distractions that go on. Tell me some of the pra tell everybody some of the practices that you do, Rachel, to still your life. I mean, you're young, you've got kids, you've got husbands, you've got family, you got do you have a dog? No, thank goodness.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

I would not mine? Sorry, I would like my life. Too much right now for all you dog lovers.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

But in turn, there's a lot going on. Yeah. And now you got social media, you got a trip coming up, and all those things that are running through our minds and our hearts, and we talked about the inside out animation that that movie portrays that we don't realize how many things, how many voices are going on besides the enemy. Besides we're gonna put the enemy for a moment here, who comes to ride.

SPEAKER_03 6:46

It's distractions.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Distractions, okay? What practices have you found that have you know, probably not perfect? I'm not gonna ask you to be perfect, but just give us a couple tips and how have you stilled your inner soul to prepare to hear God's voice.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Um honestly the big one is saying no. Saying no to people and things that I just because when I'm overloaded, I just it's it's too much. I get frazzled and I mean to everyone. And just never a good situation. Or I don't do a I spread myself so thin that I don't do anything right. Like I'm just giving bits to me to all these different directions, and it's just it's not good. So I've learned to say no. That's that's the number one thing. And then well also um on the ride to school we listen to devotion and then put on the armor of God, which I've already talked about, but that helps us all to be still for a moment, even if it's just for five minutes, and then we pray together and just I guess dedicate the day to God. So that that helps a lot too.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

And see, that's in scripture to say no in Thessalonians, to say no. Now you're talking about something that people have made workshops, books, and everything else out of to be able to say no to control your time. Here's the other byproduct exhaustion. Yeah, real quick. Yeah, oh yeah. I mean you can only listen to so much, and it's like watching too much music, and you just get exhausted of all the music. You want to just turn it on.

SPEAKER_03 8:14

Ask me that next week when I come back. From the concert, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:18

But in turn, that's really necessity because when we become exhausted, we're a mess. We're a hot mess, aren't we? We may look on the outside okay, but we're a hot mess in the aspect of hearing God's voice. So saying no is a really good discipline just to know you need you need the medicine of hearing God's voice. Yeah. How about you? Do you have any tips for anybody who's trying to silence that? You know, and in fact, I want to ask a specific question. You get ready to go on stage to do worship, and you know, technical, and we know that thing that happened last week, the technical went on. But what do you do to help silence that so that you can get into worship and you really can minister the people you're ministering to?

SPEAKER_03 8:59

Especially like being at church, everyone tries to talk to you and all this stuff. And number one, it's like I don't like to in between services or even before or during, try not to talk just number one for my voice so that I don't, you know, lose my voice. But I found if people are talking to me and telling me problems or all this, not not that it's bad, but that gets in your head. So at least if I'm on a Sunday morning at church, I'll try to go and kind of be away for like 10 or 15 minutes before the service and you know, read a scripture, just kind of just sit there and kind of calm myself. And it's the same kind of thing too. Like if I'm working during the day, you know, your phone's getting blown up all the time from everybody. That that little like five seconds looking is gonna deter you. And it's the same kind of thing like when I'm you know leading on a Sunday, because if I have you know 50 people, even people on the team, like not that it's rude to tell them, hey, don't talk to me, but I have to stay in my lane because this is my responsibility to get up there on Sunday. This is what I have to do. And you have to protect yourself, you have to protect your spirit, your mind, your soul, or else you're gonna go up there and you're gonna lead from a place that's improper and it's impure and it's not exactly where you need to be.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

And doesn't say in scripture, guard your heart and your mind. Because all of this rolls into the best for you, individually, you. If we prepare ourselves to hear God's voice, and then we hear God's voice, and we put it into practice the best we can, that Holy Spirit gives us energy. Have you had energy when you really were exhausted and then you had a. Yes. Well, here's something that for the morning session, we talked about the night session, morning session. If you were journaling and you took Psalms 46, 10, and 11, and you wrote it out in your journal in first person that I must be still. And you write it out. It just takes two minutes, if less, okay? And then you put your pen down and you read it, but you allow what's promised in the scriptures that it will open up and reveal, that the Holy Spirit will give you revelation, knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and reminder through the day in John 14, 26, then all of a sudden, that scripture that you probably know by heart, uh, you can, you know, recite it and even teach a Bible study on it, but now it becomes life. It really becomes life. And that starts to change. And it's what, 10 minutes? So when somebody says they don't have time, it's not that they don't have time, it's probably taken them longer to connect with God because they haven't done no. They haven't become silent. That's a big, that's a big ministry level of teaching of how to be silent. There's some people who go in the silence for a whole week. My son did a week fast of speaking. And it was like, I can you do that? But he did, and he said, Dad, you cannot believe how clear my head got. How clear my head got, and the ability to truly be able to, in our case, hear God's voice at that point. That's neat. Yeah, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

That's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Well, any closing thoughts of how to still us our voice, still our voices in our head, still the voices of the enemy who is trying to rob, kill, destroy, and our busy schedules. What other things that you've learned or you're trying to learn, because we're all in work in process, but we're finished work by God's grace. Any other final tips that either one of you have?

SPEAKER_01 12:23

Um I turn my notifications off on my phone because it's I limit them because it's too much. It's too insane. Because I want to go check my phone every time it chimes, and when I turn that off, I just feel more peaceful and more not as distracted and like I'm running in different directions all the time. Cyber aware. Yeah, that's something that I can control.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

So how about with that thought, putting a limitation on your social media?

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Oh, definitely. I mean, we've talked about this, but yeah. I I need to do I done it, but I need to do it more. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

And you don't know how much value it is. You can hear it and maybe listen and say, oh, oh yeah, yeah, I'll do that. But when you do it, I mean it's in my daytime. When you do it, wow, the reward. The reward is like, wow.

SPEAKER_03 13:07

But don't tell our views or stop watching network with Jeffrey Paul because that's how they're watching us for the right. They have to have it scheduled.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

You know, schedule it, schedule it. You're right. How about you? Any other things?

SPEAKER_03 13:16

Um for like me, it's exercise. I have to like physically exercise because my mind will be racing so much if I'm not, you know, working out or doing something. I I did it this morning, even not sleeping, because I know if I didn't do that, like my body wouldn't be able to that's true.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

You know, uh Greg Graschell. I happened to come into the studio. Uh I didn't watch him yesterday. I usually kind of try to hit him during Sunday, and I hit Facebook, and the first thing that comes up was him teaching on guess what? Be still. Wow. Huh? But he's very, if you know him, he's a very transparent. I hope we have him on our program one of these days because he's got some great books out. But in turn, he talked about his fault, his mistakes, his shortcomings, his mistakes of being too much, too fast, too many, uh, as you've seen me continue to recite to each other. But in turn, he is no different than us. And I think that where we look at somebody who's on a pinnacle that they're perfect doesn't happen on this side of heaven. But if we take these hacks, we take these ideas, we take the principles from the Word of God and put them into practice, even if it's like exercise, you're not doing everything right every time you exercise, but in turn, little by little, day by day, we really become that person that comes in intimate relationship with Christ and hear his voice, man, life becomes a different game. Just a completely game. You become more than a conqueror. Absolutely. Well, for you that have been listening, I hoped intently, I hope you've actually written this down. If not, we'll have down below some of the hacks we talked about and some of the links that we talk about. And I want to know something from you. Would you be interested in a workshop? A workshop that would give you with us the real applications of journaling and hearing God's voice based on my book, The Abundant Life of Learning to Hear God's Voice. If you have an interest in that, let me know in the comments down below, and we will set up on our calendar the ability to put together a wonderful couple hour session of real life experience and things that it has proven to be the ability to really come in intimacy with Christ and to be able to transform your life by the renewing of your mind. We look forward to seeing you in the next episode, and surely don't forget to subscribe to Renewing You with Jeffrey Paul on YouTube. And remember this one thing, if nothing else. Remember that beauty and change begins within