EncouragHER
We are a God-given, purpose-driven ministry. At EncouragHER, our mission is simple, to spread encouragement to women. Join us every Monday as we encourage YOU. Our hope and prayer is that by encouraging you, you’ll be inspired to encouragHER today. We'd love to connect with you.
If you are local to South Jersey connect with us in person at Fellowship Comunity Church in Mt.Laurel, NJ
Contact encouragHER at: jsharp@fellowshipsj.org
EncouragHER
Listening for Divine Guidance: Embracing Faith and Encouragement
Reach out! I’d love to hear from you!
After a surprising encounter with the quirky voice settings in Microsoft Word, I found myself reflecting on the nature of recognizing and following God's guidance. This amusing moment became a reminder of John 10:27, urging me and, hopefully, all of you to discern God’s voice amidst the clamor of daily life. Join me as I share updates from my journey through seminary at Denver Seminary, exploring how scripture, the Holy Spirit, and our community of believers can illuminate the path God has set for us. Together, let's contemplate how we can stay connected to divine wisdom and love, ensuring that it shapes our choices and actions.
As I continue this walk of faith, I feel inspired to encourage women to embrace their roles as beacons of positivity. Drawing inspiration from Chris Tomlin's uplifting track "All the Way My Savior Leads Me," we'll delve into how faith can empower us to face life's challenges with grace and strength. The divine presence offers us love, protection, and mercy, and it’s our joyous duty to extend these blessings to those around us. Let’s explore how we can become sources of encouragement, spreading light and goodness within our communities and beyond.
Now get out into the world and be a woman who intentionally encourages another!
#women #podcast
Good morning Encouragers. It's Jo. Welcome back to the Encourage Her Community podcast. For those of you who've been listening for a while, my tried and true Encourage Her Community. Thank you for being patient and I'm excited to be able to have some allowance of time today just to record my thoughts and hopefully encourage you.
Speaker 1:I can't promise that I'll be on every Monday as I used to be. My life has shifted a bit and become quite busy. I've entered my seminary experience. I'm actually hoping to attain my master's, so I'm taking classes and part of that is to become better at doing what I was already doing. So I want to be more solid in the word of God and when I bring you encouragements, I want to be more secure in my confidence that they are true and good words for you. So today I feel such peace and, like I said, god allowed just a little time here to record, so I'm just taking advantage of it. I can't promise you where it will go or how often I will get to do this, but I'm going to pop on whenever the Lord feels that I should. So here I am today. I hope you're having a great Monday. Whether you're listening on Monday or not, I hope that you're having a great day and I really appreciate you popping on. It tells me something about you. It leads me to believe that you need encouragement or you want to be someone who spreads it in the world. So either way, I'm just glad you showed up. So, as I said, I'm in seminary classes.
Speaker 1:I have enrolled in Denver Seminary in a cohort full of women who all identify themselves as leaders and we are pursuing together our master's degree in biblical studies and theology and it's heady and amazing and challenging and encouraging and pretty much every adjective I could use to describe it is what it feels like right now. Use to describe it is what it feels like right now. So, as I adjust to seminary and taking classes again, part of that is writing papers and we're currently writing a six-page paper on Exodus 34, a deep dive right into Exodus, and I have my paper pretty much finished. I've been rereading it and editing and I did this thing today which I never noticed on word before. But you can have your paper read back to you or your document. So I was doing that. It was kind of helpful to hear my document read back to me and because of that I made a few more adjustments.
Speaker 1:But then I noticed this little gear box which you know, on computers the gear button usually means settings. I went in and you can actually choose the voice that you hear your paper through. So there's all these voices grandma, grandpa, ed, samantha and they all have different tones. There's like a robot voice. It's quite funny actually. And I noticed one that said jester. So you can actually choose like a jester personality to read your paper back to you.
Speaker 1:And I was just kind of like what, what in the world does that sound like? So I clicked on it and I want to give you just a little taste of what a really small portion of my paper and what it sounds like in jester form. So listen in for his day, right, did that sound crazy? It's basically someone laughing at my paper over and over and over again and this, if I listened to it, would go on for eight pages worth of words. Obviously, I didn't do that. I didn't go on listening to eight pages worth of words. Obviously, I didn't do that. I didn't go on listening to eight pages worth of laughing, but it really got me thinking.
Speaker 1:Obviously it was disturbing, kind of comical, but it really reminded me truly in that moment of a scripture that I'd heard before, and this particular scripture is John 10, verse 27. My sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me. That's the ESV version version. The NLT version says my sheep listen to my voice, I know them and they follow me. I love the message version, which is not a version I recommend for studying, but it's a good version to go to when you're kind of just wanting to hear other words said similarly. And here it says in the message my sheep recognize my voice.
Speaker 1:So this whole beautiful idea, ladies, of the Lord being our shepherd, our protector, our defender, our leader, the one who leads us, that's what a shepherd does, right, he leads his sheep to safety, maybe to water for refreshment, maybe to open space for rest, maybe away from a certain path which may have led to destruction. Our shepherd guides us and leads us, and he's done this in many ways. He's provided many ways for us to connect to him. Number one through his word, meaning the Bible. We have his word. The Bible is a book of inspired words from God. They give us direction, wisdom, comfort, guidance, knowledge. They help us discern what to do. Then he's provided a helper, an assist, a Holy Spirit which dwells inside of us, then he's provided a helper, an assist, a Holy Spirit which dwells inside of us.
Speaker 1:The Holy Spirit comes in the forms of whispers or conviction, or feelings and emotion that you can get. That may just feel like almost intuition, feeling Like I just get this sense, I feel like I should do this, and you go to God's word and you get confirmation. The Lord can also use other people, other believers. He can speak through people and help guide you. So I just thought this was really neat the way that the Lord uses his voice to guide and lead his shepherds, and this reminder in scripture that when we hear his voice, he knows us and we can follow him. When we hear his voice, we know it's his voice that we're hearing. Therefore we can follow him, which led me just to thinking about this jester voice, which was so horrendous, almost traumatizing, and thinking what other voices come into our lane and how do we discern and how do we figure out who is God, which voice to follow, what is the truth?
Speaker 1:I think it can be tricky but at the same time easy. It can be tricky because the world is really loud. It's really loud, everybody has an opinion and especially now with social media, all you have to do is turn on Instagram or Facebook, tiktok, whatever, and you get lots of voices Voices of condemnation, voices of judgment. I mean you can have voices of fun and joy and peace. I mean there can be good, happy, positive voices, but they're still not the voice of God.
Speaker 1:So how do we discern between the two? And I just want to encourage you today to number one always seek peace. God doesn't come without peace. He is peace. Are you feeling peace about this voice that you're hearing? Is it bringing peace into your life? That's a big one, seeking peace. And then confusion is another one. Do you feel confused? Because god is not a god of confusion. Now, that's not to say there will be times in your life for sure.
Speaker 1:We'll have you think through things and process things. That's that process of discernment that might take a little time. It might not be clear right away, all of the time, what God wants us to do. Wouldn't that be great? Which job should I take? And he comes down quickly and just says take the job in South Jersey. That would be amazing if he worked that way. He doesn't always work that way. It's not this audible voice that we hear from above. Instead, it's a process. Right, he's a gardener, he wants to tend and help and mend and dig things up. He uses people, as we said, and time to get you there. He likes the process, he likes your dependence on him during that process. He likes the wait, because he wants you clinging to that vine, but he's not confusing and he doesn't bring a lack of peace. So those are two things to think about.
Speaker 1:And then I thought about this visual that I'd seen a while ago. It's kind of like a chart showing God's voice versus the enemy's voice or the voice of evil, and there's a few things we can think about. Does this voice comfort you or cause worry? Does it tell the truth or is it a lie? Does it come with love or is it full of hate? Does it inspire you or confuse you? Does it reassure or does it frighten? And does it encourage or discourage? And, lastly, does it give you freedom or does it condemn? We know the voice of God is not a voice of condemnation. It's a voice wisdom, knowledge, faithfulness. So when we're getting overloaded with voices, pause when you hear something that sounds off, when you feel that voice of combination, the condemnation that might feel like a jester laughing at you. It could be the enemy, confusing you.
Speaker 1:Stay in the word of God, which is alive and active and will speak into your life. Connect with the Holy Spirit, pray, have stillness, have times of quiet where you can hear him more clearly. The voice of God is often this quiet voice that you have to lean into. He wants you to lean into him like a father and a child Like. Lean in, get a hug, lean into his warmth and comfort and seek him when you're seeking a voice.
Speaker 1:He never forsakes us. He never leaves us. He's literally just waiting for you to ask he's jealous of time with us. He never leaves us. He's literally just waiting for you to ask he's jealous of time with us. He wants to spend time with you. He wants to lead you and guide you to that still water. Fill you with life. He is love. He is peace. Seek him today and remember which voice you're following him today and remember which voice you're following. Ladies, I hope you have a fantastic day. I hope you are able to be encouraged by this and turn around and get into the world and pour out some encouragement on someone else. Join our community in being a woman who chooses to encourage. I'm going to leave you a song by Chris Tomlin that you can listen to to be reminded of all of the ways that our Savior leads me.
Speaker 2:Who have I to ask beside? How could I doubt His tender mercy? Who, through life, has been my guide All the way my Savior leads me and cheers each winding path I tread, gives me grace for every trial, feeds me with the living breath. You lead me and keep me from falling. You carry me Close to your heart and surely your goodness and mercy will follow me All the way my Savior leads me. All the fullness of His love, all the sureness of His promise In the triumph of His blood, and then my spirit clothed in mortal Wings that fly to realms of death. This my song through endless ages. Jesus led me all the way. Jesus led me all the way. You lead me. Keep me from falling. You carry me Close to your heart and surely your goodness and mercy will follow me. You lead me, keep me from falling. You carry me close to your heart, and surely your goodness and mercy will follow me, will follow me All the way my Savior leads me. All the way my Savior leads me.
