45. How Christian Physicians Can Hear God’s Voice in a Noisy World (and Why It Matters Now)

Are you struggling to hear God’s voice in the middle of medicine?
Have you ever wondered if that nudge was truly from Him—or just your own thoughts?

Tune In: Hear the Voice of God in a Chaotic World

Hey there, friends! In this episode of Heal the Healers, I speak directly to one of the most common struggles I hear from Christian physicians: discerning God’s voice in a noisy, demanding world. Medicine trains us to rely on logic, data, and speed, but hearing God often requires stillness, trust, and spiritual attentiveness.

In a world full of confusion, deception, and scary events unfolding, it’s more important than ever to hear from God clearly. 

How do we do that? That's what we're diving into today. I’ll preview the transformative Heal the Healers Physician Retreat, where we focus on hearing from God directly, planning intentionally for the year ahead, and how to be Kingdom physicians. We’ll talk about why it's essential to hear God’s voice not just for your practice, but for your life. I explore hearing God through daily actions, long-term planning, and share practical tips and spiritual insights on how the Lord communicates. I’m also covering details of what you can expect at the retreat, from worship and personal reflection to prophetic activations. Join me as we prioritize pause, refocus on Him, and equip ourselves for the year ahead. Let's make space for God's direction together. See you there!

👉 Learn more about the retreat and reserve your spot. Early Bird saves 100 until 12/24/25:
https://www.ingahofmann.com/retreat

00:00 Introduction: Navigating a Confusing World
01:23 Welcome and Personal Introduction
01:55 The Importance of Hearing from God
04:34 Setting Intentions for the New Year
05:48 Heal the Healers Physician Retreat Overview
06:24 Equipping to Hear from the Lord
28:09 Retreat Logistics and Final Thoughts
32:40 Closing Prayer and Blessings

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Transcript

0:00

In a world of increasing confusion. Deception and challenges, and quite frankly, really scary things happening right now in the world. It is more important than ever that we really can hear from God clearly. But how do we actually do that? And, how we lean into that is so important. So that's what I will be covering. I'm gonna give you a little bit of a preview for the Heal the Healers Physician Retreat so that you understand the power and importance of really hearing from God directly and knowing how to do that and leaning and growing into that. So stay tuned for after the music and I will be right back. Hello there, friends. I'm so happy to be back with you and welcome to another episode of this podcast. I'm your host, Inga Hoffman. A physician just like you that is just madly in love with Jesus and loves to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and teaching others how to do the same so that you can walk through your life. Just guided by the Lord. And that is something that I know so many of you are struggling with because I've spoken to many of you. I have been there myself, and let's be real in a world that is right now. In a really shaky place with increasing deception and confusion where it's hard to know what is right and what is wrong, what media sources cannot trust what is real out there, and what is maybe a facade or a deception. It is so massively important to really hear from the Lord at the time of this recording, we are going through increasing hardships as well in just the world with increasing antisemitism, increasing hatred senseless killing. I'm just reminded that it's pretty much exactly a year ago where we had a massive school shooting here in my city in a church that I. So often visit and attend. And it is just a reminder how fragile our world is, how desperately it needs Jesus, and how much we need to hear from the Lord to walk through these seasons. And that is not just only true for our personal life. Of course, we all love some personal direction, right? We wanna know what things we should be doing and what things we should maybe let go of our never ending to-do list. It comes down to these daily actions where we are like, whoa. It would be amazing if God would just tell me. What I should be doing today and what I should let go of. And actually that's a great practice. We should probably talk more about that at some point. But then it's also of course, how do you plan for your year. 2026 is up on us and you might really want to have some direction from the Lord, time is fleeting very fast. The older I get, the more I realize that my kids are no teenagers. And it seems like yesterday when there were little babes and I missed those little snuggle days. So we appreciate the fast pace of time the. Limited resource of time and to be highly intentional. I've been wire like that for a number of years as a coach, as a person who has spent a lot of time in leadership and personal development and coaching physicians, I'm quite intentional with my time and also helping and equipping other physicians through my coaching practice to do the same because there's so many competing demands of us. Yes, so that is important to know what is God saying about how to use our time wisely? All these things matter, and these are actually some, we will look at the retreat, but more so I believe it is important to really set our focus on the Lord and for this upcoming year to really be very intentional to ask the Lord, what do you actually. Want for this coming year for me, for my personal life, for my family? What's my spiritual journey gonna look like, as well as what's my professional journey gonna look like? What do you. Want me to focus on this coming year, because let's face it, a lot of us are on autopilot and we cruise along in a system that doesn't necessarily make. Obvious opportunities for pause. You have to be intentional and do that yourself. Otherwise you're gonna cruise down the river and might end up in a place you actually never intended to be. So pausing and intentionality with your time, with refocusing on the Lord is very important and that's really what this retreat will be enlarged about. That is one part that this retreat will. Serve for you to actually force yourself into a space, provide a space and opportunity and environment to pause, to reflect, to spend time with the Lord, reflecting and with your fellow Christian physicians to actually make space for that reflection and set intention for the new year. But more so also to really equip you. To personally hear from the Lord. I believe every person has the ability because we have the Holy Spirit. Every Christian has the ability to hear from the Lord through the Holy Spirit, and there's a number of different ways we can hear from him. Of course through scripture. We never throw that out of the window, but there is other ways the Holy Spirit speaks as well. We need all of them. I want every avenue that is biblically. Solid and sound that the Lord provides for us to hear from him. I just was reading this morning. I was starting numbers, so I started my next trip through the Bible, I dunno, about a month ago or so. So I'm in numbers right now and it has this little couple verses. Where it talks about where Moses went into the tent meeting and then he heard, the voice of God coming from the mercy seat. It was amazing to me. Just to visualize and imagine like Moses spoke to God or God spoke to Moses face-to-face as a friend, it says hey, if that's a benchmark I'm gonna aim for it. I'm. And Moses was a man just like us. And so I think we should be aiming for those things and don't think that's just reserved hearing from God for some very special people. No, the Lord requires. Relationship. He longs for relationship. And relationship is a big part in communication, how he engages with us. Having said all that, I really wanna bless you that you can hear from the Lord, but I wanna invite you if this is striking a chord, if you are feeling the steering and the spirit and say, I do wanna hear from him. I'm not sure I can. But I do wanna lean into this and I also need a break. I need a time to, to be with other like-minded physicians and a break from all the chaos and from all the clinical care, from all the distractions. Then I invite you come to the Heal the Healers physician Retreat January 16th, 17th in the Madison, Wisconsin area. It will be a marvelous time and it will be a time set apart and set aside. For you and I to intentionally sit with the Lord and actually set our intention and make the sacrifice to actually be there and get into his presence, I know it will be a sacrifice for many of you. It's a time sacrifice. It is a financial sacrifice, although the investment in this retreat's actually quite small, considering. That you will have one and a half days at this beautiful venue. All your meals are covered. Only you have to come. I cannot make it any cheaper. I'm not gonna make a penny out of this. So don't think I'm advertising this to make some money out of it. I won't. Usually those retreats, cost retreat host usually pay much money into it to make this happen. And that's fine with me. But I want you to be there because I know. This actually will be crucial, but you have to make an investment in saying this is important. And maybe even let some things go that you already have on the schedule. I know sometimes people are, oh, I have already this or that scheduled and these fun things, but we are talking about getting in the presence of the Lord. It's not a retreat for, doing yoga on a bunch of nonsense. By the way, don't do that, but that's a different conversation. It's not a wellness retreat. Okay? Let me be clear. There's plenty of physician wellness or woo stuff out there that personally I wouldn't attend as a Christian. But that's a whole different discussion. This is really a retreat. To make time be intentional, to get in the presence of the Lord. That's what that is for. This is not because I'm so great, it's because I'm trusting the Lord will show up. And he has done that over and over again. I know I'm now excited and rambling about this retreat. But actually let me get into the specifics because you might say, okay, what are we gonna actually talk about? What can I expect? How will this look like? So in the big strokes the theme is here, the voice of God. I know that's a big topic and that's a big claim, but my prayer is that you will. Either walk in greater clarity towards being able to, or gain confidence in hearing God's voice through the Holy Spirit and various ways he speaks. And if you already Hey, I hear from God regularly, not just through the Bible. I have dreams, I have visions, I have encounters, I have revelation. Wonderful. This is still for you because we are still creating intentional time to sit together as a company of Christian physicians and actually also listen to the Lord is, what are you saying? Especially to the medical community for 2026. And I'm sensing that this will be a very important year. There is a lot different prophetic people are speaking. I am starting to put my own words out there, but I want to say this as questioned physicians, we have to, I know I preach this all the time, but I'm feeling this so strongly. We have to stop doing business as usual. We have to stop being in our own little camp and worrying about the little things that the system is doing that's dragging us down. To be honest, yes, these are difficult. I know there's a lot of challenges going on, but do not be deceived. These are distractions to get us off track. We have to be able to hear from the Lord and we have to able to move as a company. probably gonna be just a remnant. As always in the Bible, there's always a remnant that is moving. Not every Christian physician will get on board with this. I understand this. But my mission and my task and what I feel steward by the Lord to do and pushed by the Lord to do is equip those Christian physicians that are feeling the stirring of the Lord to say we need to go deeper and we need to be equipped. We need to be prophetically equipped. There's many of you that will be strategically equipped to march ahead in this hour when kingdom physicians are needed more than ever. And it's not about you, your family, your clinic, and your day to day. We are part of the kingdom and it's time to actually display that in all love, in our power in authority, but it also in the love of Jesus. Oh me, I'm getting stirred up and totally in the wrong direction. So let me tell you specifically what we will be doing at the retreat so that you have a better sense of what's gonna happen and to make sure that Hey, is this for me? And I would say yes, this is for any Christian physician that is eager to grow in the Lord and just wants to spend time in his presence and a company of other believers as well. This is basically, we're starting Friday afternoon. We are gonna go through Friday evening and then start again Saturday morning, all the way through Saturday night. So basically a one and a half day retreat. In general, the. I will do teaching and equipping on hearing the voice of God. And there will be different sessions. I'm gonna talk about them in a moment. We have some worship time, we have time for prayer, whether that's corporate, whether that's part of how the Holy Spirit is leading and worship. There might be times that we burst out an intercession for the medical community of maybe for each other. So there's plenty of room for the holy. Spirit to move. But there will also be time for you to personally spend time in prayer as well as in reflection. I will give you journaling prompts to really pray and sit with the Lord of what he is speaking to you for the next year, as well as getting a sense of what is the lifestyle that is required of me from the Lord to for this coming year to steward the year well. To steward the gifts that he has given you. So there will be definitely time for you to reflect, to journal, to pray, to sit in stillness, to take a walk. But this is not a rest. And get a spa in all sorts of treatments. Retreat either. I don't wanna fall. Paint a false picture. There will be plenty of time for you to reflect, so that's important. Through the teaching and equipping, there will be prophetic activations, which, what does that mean if you're not in charismatic circles? I totally get it. I'm in a church that is Evangelical Baptist and background. I have been as conservative as Mennonites and brethren churches. So I get the whole gamut of things. But what that actually means is that we are really taking a practical application to what I will be teaching on so that you can see. In a very safe environment. Oh, there is some practice I could take to actually hear from God. I know this sounds odd. We often have this false concept that everything just magically drops and that's, we'll talk more about that at the retreat, but there's really. A holy pursuit of the Lord. And there is ways to safely practice with him and the Holy Spirit. And by the way, the Holy Spirit is not practicing. You are. But for you to really actually have some environment where you can do that safely and get some feedback. How awesome is that? Because this is what it will do for you. It will raise your level of confidence and will also maybe give your first clue how you're hearing. If you are like, Hey, I'm a totally prophetic person. I'm prophet to the nations. I do this all the time. Wonderful, you're still welcome. And tell you what, there's always new levels we can encounter and learn and that will be a wonderful practice no matter at what level you are. This is great for those people that have never really practiced those kind of things or maybe have dabbled. But this is also for people that feel pretty solid. I can regularly hear from the Lord, but I wanna be sharpened further. So there will be some exercises we're gonna do and it will be fun. Yes. I will stretch you and that's good. The same was true for your medical training and you wouldn't be here where you are today, the doctor you are without going through medical school and residency and presenting a patient for the first time on rounds and getting sweaty palms and all those things. So this will be really super fun. If you are introverted by the way and you're like, this is really a super awkward, I don't wanna talk to anybody. Actually even more so important. You have something to bring to the table because you might have a very unique introspection. So please this doesn't matter what personality type you are welcome and this is for you and it will greatly help you. And again, I will be in a safe, very small group environment. This is why I'm capping the retreat at 20 people because Sure. Could we do this in a much larger group? Could we do this with a hundred? Yes. It will be a lot more chaotic. And I think the small group environment lends itself well to really feeling safe, having time to reflect, making connections, making new friends. So we will have practices and then we have in the evening where we'll really focus on a traditional more service times where there might be ministry time. Surely we'll build ministry time in and I will be really led by the Holy Spirit. But there will be times where we might just pray for certain things. I will be praying over you if I feel that by the spirit to share something, encourage you in a certain way, I certainly will do that. Just know that you basically get the whole package, you will get training, you get equipping, you get practical application. You get of course worship and prayer time and community. You get time a little bit by yourself to reflect quietly what the Lord. And there will be ministry time and encouragement and prayer and activation and importation at the end. So please. See this is a full rich experience. Somebody said from last year's retreat, this was a whole body experience. The only thing that was missing is a massage. And that's pretty much how this will be. Again this year. Very briefly, I wanna give you an overview of the session so you get a little bit of sense. So we have a session. I will give an introduction when we meet on Friday afternoon. Why I feel steward by the Lord to bring you this topic. I alluded to it a little bit, but I will make this a little bit more elaborate a little bit. Deeper and set some goals for the retreat and time together. And then we have a formal session. On that afternoon, we also talk about basically an introductory session. Like how do we hear from God, number one, why does he speak, how does he speak, and how do we hear and. These are two different things. How we hear and how he speaks is very two different things, and you will understand more deeply why that is when you listen to the session. But the bottom line is how you here has more to say about you than about God. And we'll dive deep into that. Then in the evening, we will have a worship service. I will release a prophetic word that the Lord has given me that I have processed over the last two months. I've started to send it out in the very shorter format of basically with some graphic illustration and images, but I will release that full word that evening if the Lord still says the same, and actually teach on that. And then we'll have some ministry time I wanna say. Just even that word. I hope I get through it without actually breaking down because it's a very weighty, important word to the body of Christ to equip us for the days ahead. And it's not an easy one to carry, but in a very important one. So I don't want you to hear. Fear. I also wanna let you know there is so much encouragement and I break down each time by feeling the love of the Lord on that word. That's what we were covering. Friday night and then Saturday we have basically a morning section where we have some worship. We're talking about the lifestyle of Revelation, how you position yourself to here. This will be short and practical and then followed by a time for you to actually reflect on that. And then we are gonna listen into what's the Lord saying to you personally for 2026. And again, time for reflection and discussion. We might do some small group or partner work here, and some activations we're gonna have a lunch together. Meals, by the way, are all included so you don't have to worry about the thing. Saturday afternoon. We then are gonna shift gears and we really looking to the Lord to do, I will do some teaching of the role of the prophetic revelation, hearing from God, et cetera in medicine. So basically how can I hear from God where the healing actually happens? How can I be a conduit? How can I be helpful? How can I be a Kingdom physician? That actually makes a difference with my boots on the ground, with the people in front and around of me. By partnering with the Lord, which is why he put you in this place in the first place. Except that most of us don't know how to partner with him. We might be praying for a patient, but we don't know actually how to partner, and I'm telling you right now. This is absolutely crucial for the time to come. If you don't know how to partner with the Lord as a kingdom physician in the years to come, we will be in trouble. You will be in trouble. Your patients will be in trouble. Your healthcare system will be in trouble. The Lord has placed you there to actually be a conduit of His power, of his love. Of healing, and you need to find strategies. From Heaven to actually deploy them where you are at. Woo. I'm getting all, this was not in my notes. In fact, today I don't really have notes other than the schedule. But I'm feeling this so strong and this is actually even becoming more and more unfolding in front of my eyes. So we are gonna do some demonstration and activation after that session as well. But, whew, you need this we all need this. And let me tell you, your patients and your colleagues, I'm getting very emotional about this. They don't know that they need this, but haven't relied on you partnering with the Lord where you are at. And if we do business as usual, that's what I'm talking about earlier is not gonna go well, it will be well as we cling to the Lord. Hear me by the Spirit. Please, you need to know how to partner with the Lord in your healthcare setting. You cannot just live in medicine over here and go and warm up here on Sunday. I'm gonna be very blunt, and if you're offended. Take it to the Lord. But what I'm saying is I know many of you so long to have a deeper relationship, but you're so dragged away from the Lord, from the source, from his voice because there's so much dragging us away. And it's not necessarily your fault because that's the enemy's plan to get you wor out, distracted, tired, exhausted in a broken, demonic, humanistic, bad system. You said demonic? Madison's demonic. It's not from the any system that is not built on the kingdom of God and from the Lord is not of his kingdom. Everything that we build by our human hands is not of his kingdom. Now we can submit it to the Lord and we can build it with him partnership. But usually that's not how medicine works. Give you a clue if it's really broken and crumbling. It's probably not from Jesus because I think he's tearing it down massively right now. Over the last few years actually. Oh my, I'm getting already into teaching mode and prophesy mode. So let me, talk myself off the ledge. So you need that session is what I'm saying. And then we're gonna finish in the evening really with a worship and evening service and lots of ministry time. And we will see how the Holy Spirit leads for that even session. Whether there will be a different word. I'm gonna be sharing it all. I'm sitting with the Lord at the moment. I'm believing for him to show up. My biggest prayer for this in the past retreat is Jesus, let us encounter you. Holy Spirit, let us meet you. Let us be introduced to you. Let us hear your voice. Father that sense your love and God, we wanna encounter your presence. Let the glory of the Lord really fill that place so that you will leave there transformed. Never be the same because the world around you, not just your family and your close loved ones, they too, they're very important. Take care of them. But if you. Don't know how to hear from the Lord. It will be very hard to do that. Ask me how I know because it's so easy for us to run after medicine, after our careers or just follow the well track path or stuck in the real, and you feel like just a clock on the wheel and just not being able to break out. And that's where many of you find yourselves right now. And this retreat is your opportunity to say No more. I'm ready to break out. I'm ready to minister to the Lord and have him minister to me and have 2026 be radically different. And I believe that it's possible. I believe that's why the Lord set us up to meet at the head of the year. To say this is the new start. We start the year right in the presence of the Lord and we see what he has for us individually, us as the representation of kingdom physicians and also Lord, what is gonna happen in 2026 and how can we partner with you to stand firm, to be solid, to be steadfast? So that's my prayer for you. Whew. Alright. This is my invitation, and if you feel the nudge, it's the Lord's invitation. And if you are like, I don't know how to make this work. I have already other things planned that weekend, I would bring it to the Lord. And I would really ask myself, is this just a fun thing I had planned that I can actually move? There are many things that I have moved over time or where I just went out on a limb. I have to say, anytime I traveled with a sacrifice, which it always is when you leave family behind when you leave your husband to take care of the kids and those kind of things it is always a sacrifice, but it's always worth it. And every time I did such a thing. Even it was uncomfortable, it was inconvenient. It was a time and financial investment. It has paid itself multiple faults, and I'm still reaping rewards. From that today and into the future. So that's my invitation for you when you sign up. So a couple practical logistical things. One and a half days again, Friday, we're starting in the afternoon, goes all the way through Saturday evening. If you're traveling from further away, you probably want to stay overnight. I'm almost sold out of the onsite. Rooms. We are renting a whole place called Dodi's Ranch. It's a beautiful retreat space. It's actually designed by an interior designer. And while it has this rustic, beautiful feel, it's actually very high end. So don't think church retreat. Plastic mattress and bunk beds. Think you are going to a really nice place except it's actually a Christian space versus some new age resort. Okay? So one and a half days, everything is included in your registration, not just the sessions and some goodies and treats but all the meals are included, so you don't need to. Worry about any of that. And of course there will be plenty of coffee and refreshments. Any materials you need, we will provide. Bring your Bible, bring your pen, bring your personal items, clothing, et cetera. As I mentioned, the onsite rooms to stay overnight. I almost sold out at this point. I think I only have one left. There are regional hotels. Some within 10, 15 minutes in the local town. There are some in Madison. If you wanna stay in, in Madison downtown, you can certainly do that too. That's about a 25 minute drive. Probably all very doable. Traffic is not a problem around here that will be wonderful. The closest airport, Dane County Airport. The code is MSN. People have asked me about that. Can I bring my spouse? Might be a question. The answer is absolutely yes. Even if they are not in medicine or a physician. Absolutely, yes. Because let's face this, medicine is a family of. Free. Will they be blessed and enriched by that and get something out of it? Of course. You bet. Again, yes, there's basically one session where we are tuning and was this Lord saying in terms of. Partnering with him in medicine and in our care. But that very easily can be translated to whatever your spouse's profession is. So I wouldn't worry about that. And all the other session is essentially applicable to any believer. So they will be ritually blessed by coming. So please bring them along if that's what is right for you. All the logistics, all the details, the airport the schedule, everything is on the website. Sign up under inga homan.com. That is I-N-G-A-H-O-F. MANN. So one f two ns.com/retreat. It has all the information on there. If you still have questions after that, just email me at inga@ingahoman.com. Also on the website. Claim your ticket early bird registration, meaning a hundred dollars off. So the tickets are actually only 2 97 for all the meals included. I'm not gonna feed you junk food, by the way. And this is really as cheap as I can make it. Early board registration runs out on Christmas Eve, so December 24th. So sign up today. If you still want a room, you better do it now because I don't know if I have one. You have to register first. I cannot hold rooms for people that may gonna show up. Once you registered, you want a room, email me. It's all on the website and you can have your room. They're actually very cheap. I'm charging you just what the venue charges me, which is$50 per person per night. If you are a trainee or no trainee or wanna sponsor trainee, their tickets are at a reduced rate. And then you can still register after Christmas. It is just a hundred dollars more registration closes a week before the retreat because of catering and the venue contracts and all those things. So please do me a favor because this is actually this is if you ever had put on an event, you will realize this is a substantial amount of work. But I love to do it because I love. To serve you, but please don't wait until the last second registration will close January 9th and that's it. Or when we sell out of the spots which is limited to 20 people total. Alright? So I think that's all there is to it. That was longer than I had planned, but I got on a preachy tangent, but I say. Jesus, bless everyone listening to the sound of my voice. If they feel the stirring in their heart, holy Spirit, thank you for nudging them to be at that place. And Lord, I pray that any obstacle right now laying in the way where it's as family schedules, whether it's kicks activities, whether it's a call schedule, thank you Lord, that you make a way and give them strategy and. Boldness to move forward in doing the right actions to be in the room. Thank you for providing, in terms of provision for what is needed to be attending and to make travel plans also for everybody traveling. I pray over the weather. I know it is winter in Wisconsin, but you, lord. Hold the snow in the clouds and hold them away. And so that everybody will have a safe travel through the retreat. And we pray for a massive encounter. Thank you Jesus, for showing up and for having laid out plans already for your Kingdom Physicians of 2026. And we praise you and we thank you, and we give you all the glory. Amen. Alright, see you.