How to Hear God’s Voice | Hope & Healing for Grandfamilies

Are you a grandparent raising your grandchildren and searching for hope, purpose, and peace?

In this episode of It’s a Grand Life, Craig Nash sits down with Joshua Hutto, author of To Know His Voice, to explore how connecting with your higher power can bring healing—not just for you, but for your entire family.

With over 2.3 million grandparents raising grandchildren in the U.S., many families face emotional, financial, and behavioral challenges. This conversation offers a powerful perspective on overcoming those struggles through faith, identity, and purpose.

🔑 In This Episode:
How to hear God’s voice in everyday life
Why identity and purpose are critical for caregivers
Healing emotional struggles through faith
Helping grandchildren find peace and confidence
Moving from fear to faith in difficult seasons

📘 Want a copy of To Know His Voice?
Email: cNash@itsagrandlife.com
 (first 5 requests)

#HearGodsVoice #FaithOverFear #PurposeDrivenLife #ChristianPodcast #SpiritualGrowth

0:00 Introduction & Mission
1:00 Meet Josh Hutto
2:30 His Story & Hearing God’s Voice
5:00 Why People Are Searching for Purpose
7:30 Religion vs Relationship
10:00 Grandfamilies & Behavioral Health Challenges
13:00 How to Start Connecting with God
16:00 Identity, Fear vs Faith
19:00 Impact on Children
22:00 Powerful Granddaughter Story
24:30 Transforming the Whole Family
26:00 About the Book
27:00 Final Thoughts

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome to It's a Grand Life, where our mission is to be a voice for grandfamilies and kinship caregivers everywhere. Did you know that in the United States alone, there are 2.3 million grandparents raising their grandchildren? 2.3 million. It's a Grand Life is committed to making a difference for those kids. That's why we have the podcast, a Facebook group, and the grand fund. The Grand Fund, which is a 501c3 which was launched in June of 2024, provides financial assistance to grand families, including shelter, food, clothing, and household needs. Grand families are in every neighborhood, in every city, every tribe, and territory nationwide. If this is you or someone you love, we're here for you. And we welcome you to join us on this mission. Our goal is to offer hope and resources to help you. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us wherever you get your podcast and leave a review. You can also join our Facebook group, just search for it under It's a Grand Life. And your reviews, comments, and sharing of our podcasts helped us to reach others that need assistance. Welcome to another episode of It's a Grand Life. Hi, this is Craig Nash, and I'd like to welcome you to another It's a Grand Life. And I think we are going to have a grand time today. Just one of my dear friends who I spent a week with last week, a bunch of guys on a spiritual sabbatical, Joshua Hutto, is joining us from Atlanta, just outside Atlanta. And Josh has written a phenomenal book called To Know His Voice. I don't know if you can see this out there, but I will put it at the bottom of the screen. But it's it's all about getting acquainted with your higher power, hearing from him, and having your fears, guilt, and all that shame taken away because of this phenomenal relationship with your higher power. And Josh has really put the cookies on the lower shelf. And I think you would absolutely love it. In fact, if you want to copy this book, we're gonna for the first five folks to write to me at cNash at it'sagrandlife.com. I will send you a copy. Josh, welcome to It's a Grand Life. We're just so glad to have you here, and you've got an amazing story. And what led you to write to know his voice?

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Man, well, it's grand to be here to stay on tone. And uh I I found myself the beneficiary of a kind of intimacy that I didn't frequently see anywhere. And it was an intimacy with my higher powers, the intimacy with you know, I think everyone has rules, everyone's trying to do right, uh, they have a conscience, and I I had the same things, but I just found myself in relationship with God. And it's because of great influences, great teaching, but I just kind of had pieced together, I had a huge lack of a father in my life. But really early on, I think because of there were some grandparents actually I had a grandma who was praying furiously for me, Abu Lita, she's incredible. And so even though I had this huge lack and an abusive stepfather, I heard very early on, and I think this is in the book, I heard very early on from God, and I just knew it was him, middle school, early age. And that sort of was the foundation before I was even like I wasn't allowed to go to church, so this was just me kind of in my room, and my relationship kind of grew from there, and when I finally did plug into Christian scream streams, I I almost it almost felt like I was always jarring against something. Because if I'm talking about any other stuff, I would be saying, Yeah, I feel like you know, God's really speaking to me about this or through that, and I'd always get this kind of one of these, you know, oh God's speaking to you? Are you allowed to say that? And I'm like, Are you not allowed to say that? It in my mind, everyone in the Bible said, God was speaking to me and this happened, and we were encouraged to live the same kind of life. And so after, you know, eight years of that sort of tension, I really began to feel a tug on my heart. I need to write as simply as possible an invitation and a practical first step into all of these streams I experience God's voice regularly.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

So I did. Well, you absolutely did, and uh, you know, this whole idea that everyone, not just people of faith, but everybody are they're hearing from God, and and there's a voice whispering. Now, sometimes there's a negative voice whispering, and that is not God. That's someone trying to put you on the wrong path. But uh, why is everyone talking about this? It seems like everywhere I go, like all last week, folks are talking about hearing from God and how that impacts their life and knowing your identity. Why is that important, Josh?

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Well, I think it's almost like the conversation we've been waiting to have for 70 years. We we kind of everyone became materialistic and science and all this stuff, and we took a couple decades to really explore that, and it never filled that hole. I mean, I think we uniquely as biological beings have this purpose hole in our in our soul, right? We can we can procreate, we can make money, we can do all this stuff, and it never fills that hole that everyone has. And you have to go somewhere, it's external, but not necessarily external in the world, somewhere outside the world where this hole could be spoken to meaningfully and filled. And people get close if they have an extraordinary parent or a great mentor. They get close, it's but it's still never quite enough. And so I think people have kind of even culture, I've experienced a lot of young people too. They're like, I know I'm I'm not playing games anymore. The rap music's not enough, the high finance isn't enough, the cultural like identity magazine, uh, influencer, and none of it's enough. Where do I go to get what's missing filled? And then those filled people are standing out like blazing torches in a dark night. The people who are overflowing instead of kind of sucking from their environment, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:29

Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

And they're connected to something, their purpose, their identity. So I think that's the shift we're seeing.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

And would you say, Josh, that it's also a shift away from religion onto relationship?

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Well, yeah, I think you can call it religion, but any list of this is how you're supposed to do it, and this is what you're supposed to do, and if you don't, you better watch out. Um I think that's uh I think lots of religions end up looking a lot like that. I think lots of jobs end up, lots of families end up, and what no matter what, it's like form without substance. So maybe I follow some rules, right? I'm you're not gonna hear me scream cuss words on the street, but I don't follow that rule because it's one of the rules, and if I mess it up, blah blah blah, the substance in me kind of has made it so that it's easy to perform the outward form of whatever I'm doing. And I think a lot of people are trying to have that form that look, we're trying to be good people, but out of this kind of emptiness, this substanceless life. And so, yes, relationship, I really believe, is at the core of substance. We are made for relationship with something, with each other intimately, but I would say that's impossible without that relationship with the higher power.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

I think you're 100% right on. And you know, in the world that I'm in, we talked about this a lot last week, but you know, there are 2.5 now million grandparents raising their grandkids. And if you talk to the experts, and I I often quote a lady from uh Loveland, Colorado, who had an organization called the Grand Family Coalition, and Gail Engel, when I asked her, What's the number one challenge for grandfamilies, grandparents raising their grandkids? She said, Well, it's it's behavior health, you know, and we've got behavior health challenges, and and and the fact that uh most of the grand children being raised in this country by grandparents qualify for Medicaid, so they don't have the best insurance to qualify for the best therapists. We've got a real gap there, Josh. And but does your work at helping folks connect with their higher power and deal with the negative junk that's inside of us and getting that out and so getting rid of that darkness so we could walk in the light? Do you think that would impact grandparents who are raising their grandkids?

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Uh yeah, I was I was a firefighter for seven years. So I was in the medical field. Okay, and so I was on the streets interacting with behavior health all the time. And I would say it's the same as anything else. Doctors are incredible at maybe stopping the bleeding or you know, cutting out the tumor, but no doctor has ever healed anyone. The healing comes from somewhere else, and same with therapists. Maybe they can help with your behavior, even the best therapists, maybe they can mitigate some of the damage being caused by psychological issues or whatever, but they none of them can ever heal. But there is a healer, an extraordinary one. So the healing, the one who heals our bodies and our souls, is this higher power, and any strengthening connection with that higher power just comes with the bad stuff falling off and the good stuff being built up inside of us. So, yeah, I mean, it's nice that I'm not in charge because I can't and I don't and I don't know how, but we see it. I mean, I've seen it with firefighter coworkers, I've seen it on the streets, I've seen it in my own family, I've seen it in my own heart. So I would be a huge advocate for yes to that question. Connecting with the higher power, building that inner spiritual life. It it always brings the only, it's the only way to get, I would say, true healing.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Well, well, uh, I know you live close to the Atlanta area, and let's say that uh we were gonna meet with one of my friends' grandparent groups. There's a uh Deborah Suzette Brown, she's got an organization that is called Each One Teach One Together. She's a phenomenal lady, great leader. And I'm sure she would agree with you about the need for folks to connect with their higher power and deal with this stuff that's in them. But how would you start with a group like that? Let's say we you had a room full of grandmas in uh in Atlanta, maybe near the airport or somewhere near, and then and they wanted to find out, hey, you know, I'm I'm not only concerned about myself, Josh, but I'm concerned about my granddaughter, my grandson, and and or they may be raising two or three grandkids, you know. And the other thing about that is that 80% of the grandparents who are raising their grandkids are either uh 20% are below the poverty line, and the next 60%, they're not below the poverty line, but they do not have enough resources to really provide for their um their grandkids, and that's why, of course, we started It's a Grand Life. But how would you launch an initiative to give these folks the love, joy, and peace that you're talking about?

SPEAKER_01 11:31

I well, I I I've I've experienced it's not about a long explanation teaching. I would probably spend two minutes and very quickly challenge the idea that there are prerequisites for this connection. Well, I have to behave good first, or I haven't been to church in a long time. Oh, I still do a little too much drinking. None of those affect, in my tradition, Christianity, all of the prerequisites are handled on the cross, and we just get to connect through the blood of Jesus. And so I would just say, whoever you are and wherever you're coming from, just assume, just try this with me once. The prerequisites are all met and God is here and ready to talk to you. That would be my whole introduction teaching, and then we would give it a go. I like people closing their eyes, not because you need to, but just to help them focus. And then I would as little as possible just dive in and see what happens. Some people are gonna experience more things than others, some people are in different places, but as the momentum starts to build, we hit Roblox, we handle them as we're moving into connection, and so that's that's what I've done at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Josh, we don't need a a two-hour introductory class on on how to hear from God or you know, interact with you have to have the Bible memorized, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

Unless you do the Bible, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

At least the New Testament, you know, then yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Yeah, well, I mean, the the reality is the vast majority of people in the Bible didn't have any prerequisites met, and they encountered God, and that's the Bible. So, we who aren't in the Bible, we're not Bible heroes, we at least that's the access we get to have. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

What uh was so amazing to me when I started to research this whole idea of hearing from God was when I read the Bible and I just saw how God talked to everybody, talked to everybody, and you know, and they did not have a book to reference. They didn't, they you know, they didn't they didn't have the old, what we call the old testament or the new testament, and it was just God interacting with his people, especially someone like Abraham in Genesis. I mean, if this guy's not the hero from how how he walked with God and how he he he really left his home and his father and and everything and and went uh you know several miles away to uh this land that he was called to, and he obeyed what God was telling him. And that that's really the secret of a happy and productive life, obeying what you hear, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:08

Well, I I think we want, especially in this country, we feel like, and I think grands are especially close to this idea I'm about to say, we feel like the ultimate happiness is unlimited freedom. I will be most happy if I could just do whatever I want every day. But I meet those people all the time. They've got they're spending on their credit cards, they're buying whatever, and they're on this little hamster wheel slowly buying up their own slavery, and with that endless freedom, they're actually completely trapped. They're not happy, they don't feel that purpose. Counterintuitively, if you surrender all your freedom, like a grand now, they're raising a grandkid, suddenly they don't have they're not playing golf, right? They're not they're not retired, they have a such a huge limiter, suddenly. But I would say, I would hazard a guess that so many grands are finding a deeper and more renewed purpose in life, even though it's hard. And so, similarly, yes, like you said, is obedience a big part of it? Once you find your purpose, who you were made to be, and you sort of start figuring out how to say no to the things you aren't. Oh my goodness. I mean, joy, peace, happiness becomes abounding because we begin to do what we were made to do and really stop saying yes to the things we weren't made to do that don't fill us up. And I'm not secretly referencing a very cookie-cutter list. You could be made to paint and an artist, you could be made to be an accountant, you could be made to be a bank teller, but once you connect with that inner identity, it becomes so fulfilling. You're free from the J O B, you're free from the obligations, and you're just someone who's ready to give and overflow into life in those categories you were made to.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

But you hit on something that is so critical. Knowing your identity, knowing what you're called. And do you find identity clarity the the better connection you have to God or your higher power?

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Oh my goodness. Yes. I well, it's constantly being challenged, right? Any, there's there's for me, I think there's two real energies that can motivate behavior: fear or faith. And one of my favorite verses in the Bible is Romans 8:15. You are no longer a slave to fear. Instead, by the spirit of adoption, shout out to the grands, by the spirit of adoption, we cry out, Abba Father. So we have this old energy, fear. You're messing up, people think you're failing, you're gonna die soon. And that little voice and energy will motivate all kinds of action. But all that action leads to is death. There's another energy partnered with another voice. It's the spirit of adoption, according to the Bible, and it's saying something totally different. I'm proud of you. Keep going, have courage. And those things, which I need to hear every day because the world is trying to beat up against my identity, those are the that's the voice and the energy that motivates an incredible life. I mean, the things I've gotten to see at my age, with my setbacks. I mean, I was on food stamps with a single mom. Uh it's just extraordinary. It's unreasonable, it's miraculous. And it's because there's so many times where I could have chosen to do what I want to do, or I was stuck and I didn't have an answer to my problem.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

But through that connection, I get this insight, idea, whatever. And then I also get the energy to actually pursue it, the courage, the hope. And then it's like, is this working out? Was this a huge mistake? And when you look back six months later, you're like, wow, God really had me. That was extraordinary. And so I am such, I'm a I'm an evangelist for this connection where people the Bible says the Holy Spirit's gonna come to teach you all things. How to grandparent, how to free, how to budget, how to help. What are you supposed to do with your car? Like, it'll teach you all things. And if we open ourselves to that connection, we will go where the Holy Spirit would like to lead us, which is the abundant life.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

I love that. And uh, I love the uh instead of all the rules and regulations, we have to believe and receive.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Yes, I can.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

I I just absolutely love that. Uh, it's it's not uh Josh or Craig pushing the agenda, it's where are we going today? Open the right doors, close the wrong ones. And it that's very freeing, isn't it? Just so let's talk about the little ones for a minute. Yeah you know, we we got you you addressed grandma and grandpa, you know, the importance of however old you are. You know, I I mean it I'm in my late 60s, and I really started hearing from God maybe four years ago. So by but he was always talking to me and I just didn't recognize it. But let's talk about the uh the the kids at home, the the the the granddaughters and the grandsons. And have you seen any impact of having this incredible relationship with the higher power or with God? Have you seen that transform any kids' lives?

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Oh my goodness. Uh I like doing this with adults. I love doing this with children. So much less baggage, so much more quick faith, and the results are so much faster because they're just ready. They were made for this, and they can more quickly get into not like not good behavior. I think we always want to rush. Where's the good behavior? They can more quickly get into a secure place in their identity, and so I don't know. I have a bunch of stories. One of my favorites is my youngest sister. I have a 14-year-old gap between me and my sister. And she was, I had gone to college and she was still being raised by the stepfather who had been so abusive to all of us. So for me, it was so hard. I'm now free, but she's still in it. And she's now gotten older, so she's experiencing more and more of that pressure and that pain. So just we just sat down on a bed one day when I was back home visiting, and I just said, I think we let's can we play a game with Jesus? And she's like, Oh, yes, she's five, four. We close her eyes and we just imagine playing a game with Jesus, right? And then we just if I said uh her name is uh Braylon. Braylon, if Jesus was an animal, what animal would he be? And she said, I think he'd be a giraffe. And I was like, Wow, okay, giraffe! Why do you say that? Well, he likes a really long neck to eat the leaves on the tree. I was like, what tree? The tree that is over the river that has leaves that has medicine for all the countries in the world. And I said, Excuse me. She's quoting Revelations. Right. This girl's she can't even read. And we're not telling her this stuff. She's experiencing something fun and childlike, and there's some sort of hope there for her that she needs essentially. And I'm blown away. Obviously, you see the questions I'm starting with. They're not religious questions, they're not high-powered, and I'm not driving her to a point. We're just seeing what God would be willing to do with her. And I'm happy to say now that girl is 20, thriving, fully free, following, connected with her higher power, and I like to believe that there were some of those early encounters with his voice that helped set her up for a life with him, a life that was fulfilled instead of really bent and broken by the bitterness that that pain so often produces.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

That is a phenomenal story, and it it uh reminds me of my granddaughter. You know, one one day I was in and putting her to bed and and I had just gotten a I had a conversation with my wife about my daughter relapsing and going back on the streets. And it was it was not a good day. And so I'm in uh praying for my granddaughter, and uh and uh uh I was praying that uh Jesus would talk to her and that he would be close to her. And she she's lying down, she turns to me and she says, You know, Jesus is here and he's right across from you, and he's telling me that you need a hug. I hadn't told her about her mom being on the street. And she said, He and he uh he he wants to give you a hug. So she got up and gave me a hug. And it's and that type of relationship. I mean, well, first of all, that just broke me. Like, I mean, and and I there's a little bit of uh jealousy because these young ones, there's their connection is way better. They they've got like uh like uh what did they call those VPN lines or something, you know. You know, I've got like dial up, you know, and it's it's uh uh just uh just absolutely amazing. But uh um so if you were working with a group of grandparents and even they're bringing their grandkids, you would be excited about the opportunity for healing in the lives of the young ones as a in addition to the grandparents.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

Well, that's what when when this connection enters into a home, it's it's very you more much more is caught than taught. I like a person who's a mess and in process and being changed by their connection with their higher power. They're gonna do more for their environment than someone who's behaving great, got it all buttoned up and looks good. That person will talk all day. But the grandma who's in process, the granddaughter who your br your granddaughter probably has plenty of challenges, but her hearing from God in that way in that moment undid you because she had the perfect words, the perfect behavior, perfect insight. No, no, no. She was just open to the healing we all need. And so I just every bit of chance I get, I can open that valve to healing a little more in anyone's life. Four-year-old to 400-year-old, uh, it's gonna bring transformation to the whole family. It's not about let's get everybody to go to this one place, let's get them in church, let's get them behaving this way. It's about connecting them with their destiny, who they were made to be. That whole filling connection. I I want it for everybody.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

I just uh just love all that you're sharing. Thank you. Thank you so much for being our guest today. And I on It's a Grand Life. I hope you'll come back and continue to walk us through this, and and uh maybe we'll set up a uh time where we can present to one of our grandparent organizations, maybe our friends in Atlanta there, and and um I really think you're onto something, and I I absolutely love your book. I've I've told you that. And it's called To Know His Voice. You can get it on Amazon, and uh he walks you through this whole idea of connecting to God and having a uh an invitation into conversation, is the subtitle, and which I absolutely love. And do you have any final thoughts for our audience before I let you go?

SPEAKER_01 25:06

Uh yeah, I would say to talk about the book, if you had me in a room for four hours and you can ask me every question, every confusion you had, it would be this book. So I like it as a tool. We talk about everything from does God speak in dreams still today?

SPEAKER_00 25:23

Right. I saw that.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

What do we do with that? What how do we start that? Um to what does it look like to interact with a community and believe this? And so there's so much in there, but it's only 90 pages. I kept it, it's not the authoritative every do and don't. It's just a starting point. So anyone who wants to get started in any aspect of this, I would say the book should and could can't help. And it was written not I kept the style super simple. So even teenagers I've seen just really get blown away, or younger. I had my nine-year-old sister, she read it. So uh I think whatever, whatever, however, you could use it, um, please do. It's it exists to facilitate this connection.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Well, absolutely, my friend. I can't wait to see where uh the good Lord leads us next. And uh, you have been such a blessing to me as well as uh everyone I'm sure you interact with in the greater Georgia area. But um thank you for sharing this today, and we look forward to having you on again. Have a wonderful sabbatical time with your family. And uh um just uh Josh can't thank you enough for uh all you're doing for all of us out here with this wonderful book to know his voice. Thanks for being on It's a Grand Life. Yeah, thank you. And y'all, we'll see you next time for another It's a Grand Life. But if you get a second and you want this book, don't forget to send me a note at cNash at it'sagrandlife.com. And if you're in the first five folks that send me that quick email, give me your address, I'll get it right out to you. Have a great weekend. We'll see you next time on It's a Grand Life. Thank you for joining us today for It's a Grand Life. It's a Grand Life provides vital content, regulatory updates, and subject matter experts that are committed to supporting the 2.4 million kids and their caregivers from every neighborhood, every city, every tribe and territory nationwide. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel or wherever you get your podcast and leave a review. Every new subscriber and review helps us reach others that need assistance. As caregivers, we are united in purpose. We are driven by hope while providing strength for today and hope for tomorrow. We are truly making a difference in while living the grand life. If you have a suggestion for a future episode, please reach out to us. But we'll see you next time for another It's a Grand Life. Thank you for joining us.