How To Hear God Clearly In Chaos

When everything is collapsing, most people wait for a dramatic sign. I did something smaller and far more repeatable: I asked God a question, opened the Living Bible to a random page, and read. I call it my “Magic 8 Ball” system, and yes, I mean that seriously, because it kept meeting me with direction that felt personal, specific, and timed for the moment.

You’ll hear why I lean on the Living Bible (a plain English paraphrase) when my brain is overloaded and my life is on fire. I share how this practice guided me through seasons that did not look like tidy, peaceful faith: building a law practice from nothing, watching everything collapse after I tried to do the right thing, and making big decisions when I had no margin for confusion. We also talk about what faith through chaos actually looks like, including moving fast when the timing matters and listening even when the answer is not what you want.

If you’ve been asking how to hear God clearly, how to trust God in hard times, or how to read the Bible when you’re anxious, this conversation is your nudge to try a simple, honest approach. Listen, share it with someone who needs steadiness, and leave a review if Surviving Changes helps you stay grounded. What’s your system for hearing God when life gets loud?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Well, hello there. Welcome back to Surviving Changes. I am Heidi, and if you're new here, former lawyer, former Van Dweller, Hurricane Survivor, Accidental Tour Guide, Terrace Watch List alumni. You know, the usual. Today we are talking about faith. Specifically, we're talking about how God talks to you when everything is falling apart. And I

Welcome And The Big Claim

SPEAKER_00 0:39

want to be very clear right up front. God was talking to me the entire time. I was not wandering around lost and alone hoping for a sign. I had a system. It was unconventional, sure. But it was a system. It involved my living Bible, which, if you've never heard of it, it's the paraphrased version of the Bible. It's just written in plain everyday English. You should, I think I have a couple podcasts on here about it, and you should um listen to them. They matter. I call it the Stoner Bible, the Stoner version of the Bible, because that's kind of how it's written. Um I also call it my Magic 8 Ball, and I am completely serious about that. Uh, we're gonna get into all of that today. Stick with me. Okay, so let me explain how this works because I know some of you just heard Magic 8 Ball and either laughed out loud or clutched your pearls. Both reactions are valid. The Living Bible is a paraphrase, meaning it takes the scripture and puts it in plain conventional language. No these thous, no trying to decode what on earth a passage

The Living Bible Method Explained

SPEAKER_00 1:45

means at 11 o'clock at night when your life is on fire. It just talks to you like a person. And what I started doing in the middle of some of the most chaotic seasons of my life was this: I would get still, ask God a question, open the Bible to a completely random page and read. That was it. That was my system. I know. I know. If you want to know specifics, you're gonna have to find those um episodes because it's a full episode to explain exactly how that worked and how it came about. But I know that some of you are concerned right now. Here's what I can tell you it worked every single time. Not in a vague, oh that's kind of relevant way, but in a how did you know that was exactly what I needed to know kind of way over and over again, every single time. And it makes sense, doesn't it? The word of God is living and active, it doesn't expire, it doesn't get outdated. Whether you open it to a page about someone wandering in the desert or a king losing his kingdom, or a woman who wasn't sure what to do next, there's something in there, and it just so happened that he would turn me to that page every single time. So God wrote a big enough book to cover every situation, including mine and including yours. So let me give you some context for why I needed the system in the first place. I opened my law practice May 16th, 2003, still on food stamps, had clawed my way through law school, no books, by the way. I went to the law library and um printed out the cases, and I didn't have books through

Why Heidi Needed A System

SPEAKER_00 3:23

law school. Uh I was, however, picked for national trial team in law school by Speedy Rice, Judy Clark, and that kind of changed things. Then I passed the bar and um was still, you know, there. There were nights where I'd open the Bible and just say, God, am I on the right track? Um, and then I'd get an answer. Uh, not always the one I wanted. Many times it was not the one I wanted. But it was an answer. Man, I was so mad when he told me to fall on my sword on this whole deal. I was at my cousin Nikki's house. We were getting ready to go to a party. That's a whole story I'll tell you about at some point. Um, but I opened it up, I was getting ready to fuck all of these people up hard and ask them what to do, and he said, fall on your sword. That was the hardest one to follow ever. But so what I did was I ended up building a real practice. I was licensed all the way up to the Ninth Circuit, had a team, and I was doing meaningful work. I was helping people, and man, they hated that. I was helping people for a reasonable price. They really hated that. Um, but then I saw some things that I shouldn't have seen, and I tried to do the right thing, and then everything collapsed. I'm talking being poisoned, chased around the world, set up, terrace watch list, the whole thing. And every single step of the way, when I didn't know where to go next, I opened that Bible. Should I leave Washington? Open, read, move. Is Perth Warry where I'm supposed to go? Open, read, go. God, what am I doing in a van driving to Mexico? Open, read, keep driving. He was never silent. I just had to ask. So let me kind of explain what I mean that's faith through chaos, right? That's true faith. Um, and here's what I want to push back on a little. Because I think we've been sold a version of faith that looks very neat and calm and peaceful. Like face, faith means you're never scared, like trusting God means you have it all figured out. That has not

Faith Looks Messy In Real Life

SPEAKER_00 5:26

been my experience. My faith looked like opening a Bible in a foreign country at two in the morning, terrified, and letting God point me to the page and the direction. My faith looked like hopping in a thousand dollar van with my little rescue sato, not knowing exactly where I was going, but knowing where I'd been told to go. My faith looked like leaving Puerto Rico right before Maria. Everyone thought I was crazy for banning my stuff, but something in me, confirmed by that book, said, not yet, not here. So I got off the island, I was here for Irma, I was not here for Maria. Because the Bible said leave. There was only a couple week time period between there. Um, that's how quick you need to listen when he tells you, by the way. But faith you're caught, chaos is not the absence of chaos at all. It's having a conversation with God in the middle of it. It's staying in a relationship with him, even when, and especially when, nothing makes sense. And here's the beautiful thing um about the living Bible specifically. Thank you, Carla Cut, for giving it to me. When you're panicking, you don't um have the bandwidth for ancient language, right? And complex theology. You need God to speak to you plainly. And I found when I use the Living Bible, he does. And he absolutely will. You just have to ask and then actually read what he says. So let me ask you something. When things get hard, and they always get hard, they will get hard. That's life. What's your system? How do you hear from God? Because I think a lot of people are walking around in chaos, waiting for like a burning bush, waiting for something dramatic and undeniable. And meanwhile, God is sitting there

Build Your Way To Hear God

SPEAKER_00 7:15

going, I've been trying to talk to you. Did you even open the book? Did you ask? I'll answer if you ask. And you don't need a fancy method, you don't need to be in any specific four walls, you don't need a theology degree. I am a reverend, but you don't need to be. Um, what you need is a Bible that you can actually understand. So get the living Bible if that helps. Zero judgment here. And you need to be willing to ask and then actually read what you land on. That's it. That's the whole system. We occasionally land on a passage about agriculture practices in ancient Israel. Yes, yes, you will, that happens. Um, but if you look far enough and hard enough, you'll understand. That's probably there for a reason. Or check the the paragraph right above it or right below it. Um, because way more often than not, way more often than not, for me 99% of the time, you're gonna land on exactly what you needed. And you'll know it when you see it, because that's how God works. He's personal and he's specific. He has never once been too busy for my question, and he'll never be too busy for yours. So I have a whole episode, probably more, dedicated to specific stories for my living Bible journey. Uh, the exact moments, the exact passages, what happened um after I followed them. So if you want to hear that, just let me know in the comments. Um, because there's good ones.

What To Try Tonight

SPEAKER_00 8:46

I can keep going with that. But for today, for today, I just want you to sit with this. God is not confused about your situation. He's not silent, he's not waiting for you to figure it out on your own. He's been trying to get a word in. Maybe tonight, before you go to sleep, just ask and open the book and then see what he says. Couldn't hurt. I'm Heidi. This is surviving changes. Thanks for being here. And remember, you are still standing. That's not an accident.