44. When God Speaks: Learning to Recognize His Voice Through Nudges, Encounters, and Confirmation

Have you ever wondered if that quiet nudge was from God or just your own thoughts? 

Hey, physician healers! In this episode, we dive deep into recognizing God's voice through gentle nudges, encounters, and confirmations in our lives. We'll explore how to hear God more clearly, growing in intimacy with Him, and I'll share some personal experiences that transformed my own spiritual journey. 

I'll share three ways how God speaks and how you can hear Him in fresh ways. You will be super encouraged!

Plus, I'll give you a sneak peek into the upcoming Heal the Healers Physician Retreat happening on January 16-17 in Madison, Wisconsin—an event designed to equip you in hearing the voice of God. Stick around for practical tips and actionable steps to deepen your relationship with the Lord. Mark your calendars, sign up, and get ready for an intimate time of worship, teaching, and fellowship. God bless you, and I hope to see you at the retreat!

✝️ Register for the retreat HERE 👉 https://www.ingahofmann.com/retreat

Spots are very limited. Early bird discount ends 12/24.🎄 

00:00 Introduction: Recognizing God's Voice

00:31 Welcome and Episode Overview

01:33 Upcoming Heal the Healers Retreat

03:10 Personal Experiences with Hearing God

03:51 Practical Tips for Hearing God

15:09 Different Ways God Speaks

23:08 Invitation to the Retreat

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Transcript

0:00

Have you ever felt that quiet notch from God and wondered is this me the Holy Spirit? Or is this the enemy talking to me? You feel like maybe it's God, but you're not entirely sure and so often you really long to listening to what the Lord has to say, but you're not entirely sure is he really speaking to me or cannot even hear him. So if this is you, then you really wanna stay tuned for this episode and stay for after the music and we'll be right back. Hey, physician healers. I am so excited to be back with you on another podcast episode, and today we'll be talking about when God speaks and learning to recognize his voice through the. quite nudges, encounters, and different confirmations in life. Because let's face it, we all long to hear God more clearly, don't you? Even I love to listen to his voice. I love learning from the Lord through the Holy Spirit. I just love the sound of his voice and the different revelation and all these different things, but let me tell you, I still want more because who doesn't want to know more about God and what God thinks about our lives our situation and how he wants to direct and help us. What better partner to have walking through life than God? Your creator the creator of the universe himself, Jesus who knows you inside out what can be better? So that's what we will be talking about today. And incidentally, this is actually also the theme of the upcoming Heal the Healers retreat for January 16th and 17th in the Madison, Wisconsin area. You will be hearing more about this, but I really want you to, number one, mark your calendar. January 16th. 17th. It's a Friday, Saturday, it will be a one and a half day where there will be. Immersive teaching ministry time for retreat and journaling, and quiet time. For you to be really equipped in hearing the voice of God better, whether you are a novice, you're like, I've never heard from God other than reading the scripture, or whether you are like a super prophetic person or anything in between. You will love it because it will be a special time for physicians to gather in the presence of God. Registration is open and, there are very few limited spots, so if you are at all interested, I would snack a ticket and actually make your way here because this is gonna be a small, intimate retreat. So registration is Inga. wolfman.com/retreat. I will put that in the show notes as well. But as I said, space is limited and a few of you get to stay on site at a beautiful retreat space. It's really gorgeous. And you will love it. I didn't mean to dive right into this, but I wanna make sure you also know. So mark your calendars, sign up. I will talk more about this in this episode towards the end as well as in upcoming episodes. But for today, I really wanna give you a little bit of a teaser, so to speak. I have talked to so many physicians and one thing I heard very clearly from many physicians that I talked to or that I mentor in spiritual ways, they all. Want to hear from God more clearly. And obviously that is a desire we should all have because how we relate to the Lord and how clearly we hear from him often relates to the level of intimacy in our relationship with him. So the closer we go and be with the Lord, the closer of a relationship we have, the more time we spend, the more clearly we can hear. And that's whole. Teaching right there. And I didn't even have that in my notes. Thank you there, holy Spirit. In this episode I wanna share a little bit, some just practical tips, maybe some different perspective how hearing from the Lord has shown up and lie live and how it can help you too. And now the funny part is I had recorded a whole entire podcast episode on actually a slightly different topic. It was all centered around protecting your mind, guarding your mind, and I have no idea what happened but basically it didn't record and I just discovered it when I was ready to edit. So I'm recording a fresh new episode here before I actually go to rest. But I will rerecord that episode for you because. I think that is really important. That's just a side note to tell you, Hey, I'm human. I make mistakes and I totally screw up, but I'm just gonna, make up for it. And sometimes it's fun to go on a journey with the Lord and through life and just not get so stressed out about stuff anymore, which wasn't always the case for me. But now I go in a totally different direction. So let me go back to the topic in terms of. Hearing from. God, how do hear from God? I have to say that not every season in my life, I will actually say not until the last few years, especially last couple years, that I felt I do really hear clearly from the Lord. I think in hindsight, looking back, I can recognize moments where I felt, yeah, that was an answer. Prayer or felt the nudge or direction. But growing really in hearing from God more clearly is something that rapidly expanded over the last two years. And there was a whole different story behind it. Maybe I share another time, but about a year ago, and this is a perfect example of how I hear from the Lord I had. I finished the first Heal the Healers retreat in November of 2024. And it was a beautiful experience and I didn't see a reason why not to repeat it, but I wanted to sit with the Lord and see what he actually had to say. And it turned out that I put a little bit of the pass button on it because. The original venue we had wasn't available in the same way, with the same flexibility as easily as the first time. And that gave me pause and hesitation and actually was a good thing because it allowed me to remain flexible and moldable versus just do a rinse and repeat kind of situation and. Have maybe less need to go back to God and ask him for specific direction. So I sense that, yeah, there should be another retreat. So that was this nudge in me. I didn't hear a no, don't do this anymore from the Lord. And clearly there was feedback from you guys, those that were there. Thank you so much by the way, for trusting me and coming to that first retreat where we. Talked about healing ministry and healing and restoration and healing. Pray ministry. I said I was beautiful. So you gave me the feedback of oh, I would love to do this again. And everybody resoundingly really was passionate about doing this again. And certainly I felt like when the Lord called me to do this the first time that this. Is probably a theme that is evolving and emerging of the calling and the mandate the Lord has put on my life and ministering to you as physicians. But so it was this nudge, but then a lot of questions in my mind when we are, how and what's the theme? And also wanna make sure do you really want this now? It was all gentle nudges. But the longer you sometimes sit on the nudges, a couple things can happen. Number one, they get quiet. If you ignore direction from the Lord. Sometimes he doesn't speak anymore. That's not exactly what happened. The other times not just get louder. And that's probably more what happened to me. Hearing about this retreat I sat with it for the first few months and I wasn't sure if this was a repeat. And I think then I was at a conference in January, couple months later after the retreat. And actually felt or heard pretty clearly. The stirring again, yes, gather the physician, gather them around the country, gather them in small hubs in small groups, and also a very specific direction for a bigger conference that I will tell you when it's time that will hopefully happen maybe in over the next year. What I'm saying here is the direction for this upcoming retreat wasn't this huge angelic recitation or this huge encounter. It was the steady, gentle nudges that I. Wasn't sure was that me or God's voice until about two months in where I felt like, yeah, I wrote it in my journal. This happened at a Christian conference, so I was in environment where I was receiving a lot from the Lord and I had some specifics, but it wasn't as concrete. For example, as the very first retreat, I can tell you and pinpoint exactly. The day I heard the instructions and all the specifics, call it Heal the Healers. That's why this is called Heal the Healers. Who to invite, where to host it down to the agenda. It was one divine download in a revelatory type of encounter in a worship service. That's a really hard wandering Noah. And praise the Lord for that because I had. Marching orders that then I executed on because I really knew this was from the Lord. This was a little bit more subtle but nevertheless. God spoke, but it was more subtle and it was this persistent nudge. So I want you to hear the subtle differences. So God can speak in a very clear directive way in a revelatory encounter, in a download, and you start journaling and it just flows and it's clearly right there and you don't even have to think about it. Retreat number one, or God speaks in these gentle nudges, you should host another retreat. Should I host another retreat? And you ask, oh, was that just me thinking that or did he actually say that? And I said this other times, journaling for this so important. So ultimately for this retreat that is coming in January it was a build up I kept on having this come back to my mind over the summer. I didn't think about as much I held off on planning anything, but then I came back and then eventually that sort of, that pressure or that sense or those not just became more frequent and origin. And then there were actually people in my life, I felt like suddenly I knew the topic. Hearing the voice of God was so important and certainly something that I'm so passionate about. But then I also got confirmation as I was talking to people that were sharing with me. Inga, I'm really. Struggling with the direction from the Lord. I'm struggling to hear from him Clearly. I'm struggling with my position and medicine. I feel like medicine was my calling, my mission field, but I'm really struggling. Is that still his will? I'm trying my best. I show up every day. But I don't see anything special happening and my work is over here and my faith life is over here and this tension builds up. So this is probably true for the vast majority of physicians that are believers that I have encountered. That was very true for me. So it was very clear to me, this is a real need. And also I have a deep passion for others to experience. Just the sound of the voice of the Holy Spirit, the encounters with the Lord the amazing just revelation from scripture on so much of a deeper level than in inductive kind of Bible study, although these are great. Don't get me wrong, these are very good. But to really grasp in the word that is written and. Oh, I could go on and on that, but this is really my passion for people to experience the Lord on a whole new level so that you are so steadfast, unwavering. And that's just my passion. I know that's the call upon my life that the Lord placed. And to me, to minister to you as physicians, to encourage you to equip you as kingdom physicians because it is so bitterly needed. That's just my encouragement to you. So this is really how this came about. That's just my personal background story. And this actually illustrates this little example between the two retreats, right? Same person, same mission, but it illustrates very clearly that God rarely speaks the same way twice. So the first one was very directive. Loud and in your face. Not audible loud, but it was so clear I could not dismiss it. Versus the next one became as a contemplation, as a nudge, as a whisper. Then it became a louder, more persistent nudge. That's my story to illustrate this. So here's my mini. Mini teaching for you. There are different ways that God speaks into your life personally as well as how he speaks to you in the medical profession, which is actually very important. Can I tell you how important it is to have Kingdom physicians positioned in healthcare that can hear the voice of God? It is critically important and maybe I share a little bit more on another podcast. This is definitely a bigger word. I will be releasing at the retreat that I'm preparing and sitting with God. But I cannot impress on you the importance you really gotta Get into the intimacy with the Lord because the need in this hour for physicians can hear from him. Not just for your own life, but for your patients, for your medical system is so important. So that's my passion. That's my hope for you. That's my prayer for you that you will be equipped in this way. And let's face it I needed people to. I got ignition in some ways, right? I got the fire on me at a conference a couple years ago, and I had encounters of praying and intercession and kind of prophetic intercession for one of my patients. These were encounters that transformed me, but nevertheless, I needed. People in my life that could hold my hand and be spiritual mentors to me. And I would say we all need that. Iron sharpens iron, right? We need other people around us. So let me give you. Basically three ways that that God might speak. There are many different ways he can speak, of course, through the word, through the Holy Spirit, through gentle notches, through visions, dreams, revelation, encounters, all sorts of things. Something we will actually dive. Into deeply at the retreat. That will be a special teaching. How does God speak and how do we hear? But I don't wanna give way too much, but, so I wanna give you just three nuggets for today, how he might speak. And it's actually exactly my testimony. So the first one is basically the first nudge, and that is often e. A very subtle impression. Maybe it is the ever so quiet voice in your head where you're like, is that me or is that God? And it's something that's often easy to dismiss. It could be a fleeting thought. And actually the word fleeting is very important here. We tend to dismiss and not recognize them. If we are not attuned, and I wanna just, this sounds like a downer. I wanna encourage you that you will be able to recognize those subtle notches. Holy Spirit impressions, quiet, subtle voices from him. The more you spend time with him. And actually it sounds odd, but it is very true. The more you practice and the more you are in intimacy with a Lord, but practice and listening and pausing is a key part of that, and that takes time. It does take time, and it takes intentionality. And that's just this beautiful dance with the Lord and his pursuit for us and our chasing after him. I love it. So that's the first one. It's basically number one, the first kind of the gentle notch, the little subtle impression, the ever so quiet voice of the Holy Spirit. Again, that is easy to dismiss. So that's the first one. So I want you to pay attention to those. Number two, you could call it the ongoing nudge. It's essentially a thought a, an ongoing kind of, not either in intensity, in persistence that keeps on coming back to you. So the retreat this time around this planning for the second retreat was probably actually more like this, right? I already had this thought in my head. I feel the impression from the Lord that this is not the one and done and never do one again. That there will be follow ups to the first retreat I did, but it was the ongoing notches that came in cyclical seasons. They weren't like. A linear curve. They were somewhat cyclical in nature in intensity and frequency, how it came up. And that in part has to do with how the Lord speaks. In part, it might be also my receptivity or the season in life that you find yourself in because just because the Lord speaks this is a side note, doesn't mean it is a now. Issue. There were many other things going on, for example, over the summer that I didn't have the bandwidth or the flexibility to probably even devote time. Even now I'm putting it together in a very compressed effort, but I now feel like the push to it. But earlier this year. Even though it came to me on occasion, it wasn't the right season and timing probably. So this is another good part to think about. So the ongoing notch is increasing in intensity. Perhaps frequency might have this cyclical up and down nature how much you hear about it or not. And that might be confirmed even through then in this sense, there might be confirmation in scriptures. Sermons conversations with others where you feel like, oh, it's interesting. This keeps on showing up for me. Maybe I should pay attention to it. Basically think about it as different signposts the Lord is placing in your life to. Show that nudge to you. So it's not just an inner voice in your head where you're questioning, is that just my head or is that the Holy Spirit? Or is that just my sanctified imagination or something. But it is a confirmation Other ways that you're like, oh, it's interesting this person brings this up because this is something I have been contemplating over. At that stage, you really want to press in, in a partnership with prayer. You should always pray, and even at the first stage you should pray. But it should bring a peace and perhaps even a conviction to you and to your heart to confirm in your spirit, what the Holy Spirit is saying Your spirit is different from the Holy Spirit, whole other teaching, but it is in scripture. This is very much what happened to me and what I described in my testimony in the beginning, right? It was this ongoing nudge that happened over time and then there were confirmations and those kind of things. So the third one is. Divine encounters or revelatory moments. This is the snapshot moment that you know that it's so unquestionable. Sometimes we wanna say, oh, wish the Lord would write it in clouds in the sky where the angels would come down with a sign or something. That typically does not happen, but divine encounters certainly can, and that could be. Like I described for my first retreat, I was sitting in a worship service. I was worshiping, I wasn't thinking about anything particular, and in a moment, the Lord really arrested me in that worship service. Basically, in an instant, I had this divine download. You, I cannot really describe it any better. I just knew it's like this flood of information. That comes in a split second without you going on a kind of logical thinking tangent in your head. So it just came. I wrote it down as fast as I could. I had actually a visceral and emotional response to it because it was like, here comes the burden of the Lord on me to do this. This is probably a pretty good description. So I wrote it down. And from that, then I was like, wow. And I was very emotional. I cried, I prayed, I worshiped, but I had a very clear sense of direction and. There was no question in my mind that happened. And also, of course, I wrote it in a journal, which is a really important clue for you. Please, when you have with any of these, I actually encourage you to write these down. This is how you can process and steward information. I think I talked about this on a recent podcast. At that point when you have these type of encounters or revelation that you know, that, it all comes down to. Capture it and be obedient as quickly as possible and ask, follow up for information and clarification from the Lord as you need it, and as you take steps in obedience, he will put it all together for you. That's definitely exactly what happened last time. So three stages or. Ways the Lord might communicate. These are not necessarily progressive, first would be a gentle nudge quiet impressions of the Holy Spirit. Easily fleeing thoughts that you could miss if you don't pay attention. Number two, the ongoing nudge that increases in frequency intensity maybe brings additional confirmation, et cetera. And number three is divine encounters in revelation moments. So pay attention to these in your life. If you say oh goodness, Inga, this sounds amazing. I wish I could do this. That's exactly why I'm hosting this retreat because this should be our everyday Christian life. I totally believe that. I didn't always believe that. I thought hearing from God is rare. I would say if I look at the Bible, hearing from God for me is pretty common. At least that is something I want to be excited and striving and venturing towards. However, I wanna be very clear, it does not replace your scriptural reading. I think I said that on a prior podcast as well. And you hear me on this podcast a lot about. You have to read your Bible. You have to study it like with all your mind, with all your being. You have to make time for it. There is no substitute because that is the word of God. That is God's world, his character. Everything you need to know is in that book. But how do you make it come alive in your life and. Bring in the practical application for your situation. That's where you need the Holy Spirit and you need to partner with the Holy Spirit so he can reveal the word through his word. I'll give you additional instructions based on his scripture. They cannot contradict each other. Okay? So that's really why I'm so passionate, and that's why I'm so passionate to teach that to you, because believe it or not, I would argue and venture to say this is something that can be learned. It's not an a, b, C framework skill. I can give you some practical tips. I can share what I've learned and what I wouldn't encourage. I can give you different tips and processes and experiences. So I don't want you to hear, oh, I just need to do A, B, C and then I can hear from God. It is just like with everything else, it's a relationship building activity I have found that most people don't know where to start with that, and I didn't know either, and that's why I have mentors in my life and I'm so grateful for them. I'm so grateful that Lord has placed some really strong leaders and voices in my life that have been able to help me grow. To stay grounded in the word, to have a spiritual, mature leadership sounding board that is biblical and certainly knows how to hear from God. And I want that for you too. I want you to be able to really hear from the Lord and not make it so mysterious. And there is a level of application and skill and practice that can be learned. But not out of a procedural handbook, but rather out of the intimacy with the Lord. But it can be sometimes hard to do that on your own because you don't know what you don't know. That's just it. So this is exactly what the word retreat will be about. And so there will be things that we gonna go and have time to worship. There will be lots of teaching, there will be practical applications. So we are gonna do some prophetic ministry. We're going to actually prophesy over each other. Don't be scared. We will do it together. You will be amazed. I've done this in house sessions. I have participated in some of those things myself and. I cannot tell you how life transforming those activities are, and you will walk away with more confidence and clarity that you too can hear from God and actually will be ignited with fire too long after that to run after Jesus and befriend the Holy Spirit more closely to actually be able to incorporate that as a lifestyle. That's really what I want for you. Please, I encourage you if this stir anything in your heart, you're like, oh, sounds amazing. I would love that. Then this is probably your gentle notch no pun intended here from the Holy Spirit to. Maybe you need to be in the room, maybe you need to be there. And not only will there be teaching and worship and prayer and ministry time and activations, and I will pray over you and all these different things, but what better to do this in a community of like-minded question physicians, number one, and also will be at a. Beautiful secluded retreat place where you actually can find some quiet time. And I will leave room for quiet time and reflection for you to journal, to pray, to sit with the Lord and do that. If that grabbed your attention, please. Block your calendar already. If you're on call, try to switch your call. There's always a way of switch calls around for last minute things that were far less important than this and certainly have traded with people many times when they had a little whatever outing with their kids. Do not think, oh, I'm a car. I cannot make it. Find a way if you feel like you need to be in the room. Give it to the Lord, pray over it, and he will make a way. But you will have to take some actionable steps with him and not just say hopefully somebody will just drop something from this sky that won't happen. So if you're feeling the notch, pay attention to it. Block your calendar slots are very limited. I cap this probably at 20 people to keep it intimate and small and really very practical and not overly crowded. It will be a very special time. So don't sit on this because I don't want you to miss out. And also the venue actually only holds so many people. There's a small number of, bedrooms available at this beautiful house that we are renting which is a Christian retreat space. One out of the five rooms is already gone, so you have to be quick. If you registered, you wanna room on site then you can do, certainly do. So it's first come, first serve. Once you registered, you want a room, it's all on the website. How to do it. But then you register and to email me and re lock your room. And and it will be extremely affordable too, not just the rooms. They will be very affordable. Also, the ticket to the retreat will be very affordable. And all your meals are included. You have to worry about nothing other than showing up. Bring your personal belongings close and your Bible on a pen, and that's it. So I hope this blessed you. I encourage you, lean in. To the voice of God, read the scriptures, spend time with him, and he will be so richly blessed. So with that, I say God bless you. I hope to see you at the retreat and talk to you soon.