Ep. 3 Is That You God? How to Hear His Voice in Everyday Life

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Are you ready to build a life, business and legacy that truly lasts? Welcome to Faithfully Invested with Allen and Stacy Jo Thorne, where Faith meets real talk. Biblical wisdom meets everyday life and leadership meets laughter. Together we will uncover God's blueprint for leadership, marriage, and mission, helping faith-driven leaders invest in what matters most. Each episode, we explore biblical wisdom, have real conversations, and of course, have some fun along the way because let's be real. Walking in faith is an adventure. It sure is. So pull up a seat, grab your coffee or your sweet tea, and join us as we steward our callings with intention, because when we invest in his kingdom, he brings the increase. Hi, y'all. Welcome back to Faithfully Invested, where we're walking through God's blueprint for leadership, marriage and mission. One Kingdom Principle at a time. One at a time. That's all we can do, right? That's all we can do right? This season we're diving deep into what it means to build intimacy with God, and today's topic is absolutely essential for any Christ follower. Absolutely. So intimacy. It starts with I and is the first letter of our Acrostic. Acrostic. Yeah. Which is invested. Invested, which is I is going to be our season. This is gonna be, that's it. The season that we're diving into, into the season, it's of God, it's eye season. The eye season. Yep. This is the I of the season. Oh, okay. Whatever. Anyway, but here's the question that we get asked often. And it is, how do I hear God's voice? Hmm. And you know, I used to ask this, how? How do I know it's God's voice and how do I know it's him and not just my own thought or. Or maybe too much caffeine. Much caffeine. Well, yeah, that's, do you like my caffeine? Yeah. Well, that's what we're unpacking today, because hearing God's voice isn't just for pastors or prophets. No. It's for all those who believe. That's right. For all those who believe, that means you. That means me. Mm-hmm. The Lord is so cool. He meets us where we're at. As long as we're open, we open our lives to him. In his presence. Yeah. Um, so whether it's in your quiet space, whether you're driving, uh, maybe chilling at home, conducting business or, or even out and about in the grocery store, his perspective is always available to those who believe. Mm-hmm. Uh, since his perspective is always higher and greater than our own, wouldn't it make sense to give him a say in our every day? We believe so why not? So let's, let's jump into it. Let's jump right into it. You know, I have heard over the years that confession's good for the soul. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So here goes, uh, early, early in my faith walking days, I, I used to think that hearing God's voice was some crazy, supernatural white light moment that his voice would be. Deep and assertive. Like James Earl, James Earl Jones or something like Allen, I am the force. I'd be like, whoa. Yes, yes you are, Lord, you are. You are a spoken, like a true Star Wars fan that I know you are. Yeah. But, but same. I mean, I, I thought it had to be dramatic. I thought that if the clouds didn't part and angels didn't come descending upon the earth, that, you know, maybe I just wasn't spiritual enough. Or religious enough. Yeah. Well, mm-hmm. It's not about, it's not about, uh, how spiritual we are. It's about how, how close we are to our creator. Yes. Now, truth be told. God is always speaking. Mm-hmm. Always, you know, since, literally since the dawn of times, since he created order outta chaos from cover to cover the Bible is God's spoken logos word. Mm-hmm. He's spoken to his creation since the, since the garden in Genesis and all the way through John's entire revelation. Friends for his. Following believers, he's still speaking his rema word today. We just gotta get out of the noise long enough to get tuned in to his perspective. Right? And you know, it's not spooky or weird or anything, it's, it's actually super personal. I mean, some people think it's spooky and weird. They don't really know him. Definitely not spooky or weird, but he knows how to speak to us in a way that we can hear and understand him. Yeah, he does. I mean, honestly, he's a personal God. He is a very personal God. Right. He is a relational God. Mm-hmm. We were created, we as his creations we're created, you know, for relation with him and, and each other. Yeah. Very relational, God. Mm-hmm. So, but uh, honestly, uh, we're, we're pretty honest here. Are faithfully invested. I'd say we're always honest. Always. I wouldn't say pretty honest. I'd say we're always honest. I would say honest is pretty. At Faithfully Invested. How Love that. Right. Ah, there we go. But anyway, moving on. Uh, contrary to my initial expectations, the Lord never has used that whole King James Earl Jones voice with me. Never. Never, never. Okay. What a relief. That'd be kind of, that would be kind of spooky. That would be a little startling, but. But seriously, uh, maybe he'll keep nudging you in a, a certain direction toward a divine appointment. Mm-hmm. Or maybe a certain scripture will, will keep showing up consistently over time. Yeah. Definitely want to pay attention to that. You know, last year was, uh, take my yoke upon you and, and learn from me. I could not get away from, not that I'd want to get away from it. And, uh, this, uh, this year at, at the, um. Sean, uh, Sean Fot at, at the stadium up in Port St. Lucie. It was right out of the gate. New Year's Eve, be still and no. Mm. Every time I turn around it's be still and no. So we're really paying attention. It's a be still and no kind ear that he is God and God alone. So we definitely want to pay attention to how he's speaking to us and, but it might be just something so simple where he's. Shining, shining his light on something or someone, uh, when we're out and about, uh, in the grocery store, maybe. Yeah. You know, I, I think, I think maybe he has spoken to me in the ice cream aisle in the past. Yeah, I bet he said Stacy, Jo, anything but vanilla. Vanilla is not the box you're looking for. Vanilla is always the one I choose. Always the one I choose. Right. I love my vanilla ice cream, but you go. You know, let's be honest, so many believers feel stuck here. Yeah. You. Love God. You wanna follow him, but you're not sure if you're actually hearing him. Yeah. The Lord doesn't want you stuck. No. But the enemy of your soul does. Absolutely. Yeah. You know you have an enemy, y'all know that. We have an enemy Yeah. Of our soul who wants nothing more than to distract us from our God-given purpose. Right. We absolutely have an enemy and he wants. He wants to twist that momentary confusion mm-hmm. That Stacy was talking about. He wants to twist that, that momentary confusion into permanent doubt. He might, he might come at you like, yeah, you don't, you don't really believe that he wants to talk to you. Right, right. Who told you that nonsense? Mm-hmm. You know, God doesn't speak to people like you. Mm. Whatever. Mm. I said, whatever I said, get behind me Satan. Right. I, I, I mean, he's told me before that, you know, he, that that word wasn't for you. Yeah. That's not for you. Yeah. Yeah. And couldn't be any further from the truth. Right.'cause when the Lord gives you a word, whether it's through someone else or whether it's, you know, through the logos word or his rama word, whatever. Right. It. It, it's from him and it is for you. Yeah. So, so friends, we have to shut that lie down. Shut it down because shut it down. Shut down the lie. Shut down because John 10 27 says, my sheep hear my voice. That's what the, the truth said. And I know them. Yeah. And they follow me. Yes. That's not a truth. Jesus is the truths and Right. He's the one who said that and he went on to say, I love that. Mm-hmm. You know, the, the words of Christ himself. He goes on to say in John 10 that, that he gives you eternal life. Yep. That he says that he will, that, that we will never perish. He says that no one, including the enemy, especially the enemy of our soul, he says, no one will snatch you out of his hand. Did you know friends? Did you know that even as the Bible was not written to us, that it was written for us? So Jesus' words to his first century believing followers. We're true for them. Just as they're true for us. Yeah. His 21st century. Yeah. Believing followers. So per his, per per the truth of God's word. When you belong to Jesus, you can hear his voice, period. Yeah, absolutely. So let me paint a little picture for you of how this used to go for me. Um, I'd be praying. I'd be trying so hard, Allen, to be spiritual. Yeah. To be religious. Yeah. To be in with the Lord. Just, you know, trying to soak in his presence. Right. And trying to keep my mind from going rogue. Of course. Maybe trying too hard. Definitely trying too hard. And I'd say, Lord, speak to me. I'm listening. And then I. Crickets. Nothing. Nothing, right? Nothing. Right. Yeah. That's a, I can't say that I have not been there. You know, I think, I think we, we've always been there and in, in my experience and in my total humanness, I put it all back on myself and I start wondering what I was doing wrong. You know? Hey, Chumley, you're doing it wrong. What's the matter with you? Chumley? I. Or worse, I'd go full on kamikaze and I'd say, Lord, I'm gonna flip this Bible open. And the first passage I come to is your word for me today. Yeah. Uhhuh. Yeah. That's not too cool. M uh, not too cool. Mickey at I'll Definitely not a good idea to force your divine interaction. Don't be that guy. Oh, well, you know, I, I have confession again, is good for the soul. So I have to admit that I have done just that in a different way. I mean, I've done it with the Bible, like the. The tangible Bible, but I've also played what I like to call scriptural roulette on my Bible. Yeah. Where I will open the Bible app, I'll close my eyes and I'll go like this on the, on the books of the Bible. Yeah. And then I'll do that on the chapters. Right. And then on the verses and whatever scripture I land on is what I thought the Lord would speak to me until one day. Yeah. Jeremiah 49 32, which said Their camels shall become booty. And I'm like, uh, nope. I don't think that's the word for me. That's not it. It's not from the Lord. That was a swing. And Aus camels. Booty is definitely not the word for any day. But seriously, we've, we've all been there. Yeah, sure. The pressure of hearing something big can keep us from noticing what he wants to speak to us in the small. Yeah. Remember the Lord's in the Lord's word, you know, his voice is recognized as still and small. It's this still small voice that spoke to Elijah in One Kings. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know, for me learning to hear God's word, and we kind of touched on this last, the last episode didn't come from doing more. I mean, we talked about that. I tried that. I tried doing all the things, hashtag all the things. Yeah. But it came from learning to be still. Which still can sometimes be a challenge for me sometimes, and I have to remind myself from time to time to be still right and pause you too, and, and recognize that he speaks to me in so many ways. He does. He does. So we don't just come with funny stories and challenges. No, we come with, we don't just come with camel Booty. We definitely don't just come with Camel Booty, not the word. What does that even mean? Huh? I don't know. You have to look that up. But anyway, moving on to solutions. Yes. So Love solutions. We got, we got practical ways this week. We got five practical ways that you can begin to hear God's. Voice more clearly. Starting today. Today, today, number one is create daily silence and solitude. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Silence and soli. It says we gotta create it. We gotta make time for it. Mm-hmm. We gotta find a quiet space away from distractions. We gotta get out of the noise. We gotta quiet our mind. Yeah. We gotta leave that phone over there. Oh, ouch. Out of our reach, out of the room on the other side of the door. Quiet our mind through prayer and prepare to listen with great expectancy. Yes. This is our sacred time. This is our quiet time to meet with the Holy Spirit. Yeah. I love that coming with expectancy. We, expectancy should always expectancy come to the Lord with expectancy for what he wants to tell us, for what he wants to show us. Right. And yeah, I love, I love the word expectancy, what his plan is, not necessarily around. That's right. That's it. But number two is listen and see with your heart. Mm-hmm. Not just your mind. The eyes of your heart are so important. That's, and you have to. Tune in to his still small voice that that is in your spirit rather than relying solely and I would say relying at all on logic. Yeah. Because, you know, we have to trust that God's ways are always higher and greater than our mindful reasoning. Right.'cause our mindful reasoning can lead us astray. It can. And, and there's, there's a place for logic, but not necessarily in a secret place. Right. You know, his, his faith doesn't always make sense. That's it, you know? Yeah. So, and we get, we gotta, sometimes we gotta dismiss logic.'cause something he's, he's throwing at us, something he's tossing out there might not make sense to us, but that's his plan. Mm-hmm. And we wanna see how that, uh, not how that fits in our lives. He wouldn't give us the plan if it wasn't, you know, his plan for us. That's right. So. But, um, anyway, we gotta cross reference that and all of that good stuff. Yes. We'll get to that later. We will. Alright, so, but number three, Allen, give us three. Number three is recognize spontaneous, peaceful thoughts. Ah, the Holy Spirit often speaks. Through spontaneous impressions. Mm-hmm. And that brings peace. It brings love, encouragement, and clarity. You're looking for some clarity. Get quiet with the Holy Spirit. Mm-hmm. Yeah. He, he provides clarity. It's important to be attentive to what he says. Be attentive to his spon, spontaneous creativity. That's from the Holy Spirit. But we also got the enemy, we talked about him earlier. Mm-hmm. The enemy of our soul. Oh, Hesty. He will, he'll try to stick his nose in. And the difference. There. If, if you're hearing something that's not spontaneously creative, maybe it's, maybe it's chaos or condemnation. That's the adversary, uh, that's the enemy of our soul. We want, we want to cast that out and in the name of Jesus, and he's gotta flee. That's, that's right. The name of Jesus. He say, get on outta here. Get behind me. Satan. Yeah. Holy Spirit. Yeah, what's your perspective? What's your piece? What's your encouragement? What's your creativity? What's your spontaneous word for me today? Yeah. Yes. Yes. So what about number four? Well, number four is record everything you sense. So write down everything you feel. Write it down, you hear. You see in your heart, remember, we're using the eyes of our heart, so even if it doesn't make sense yet, and then later you can cross reference your journaling. Yeah. Because you know it's so important to cross reference the scripture, which is the logo's word to confirm the spirit's guidance through the RAM Award. Right. And. I can't tell you how many times I've walked away with clarity, like something I've been struggling with or, um, you know, a thought that the enemy has lied to me about, and I have taken it to the Lord in journaling. And what he has said to me at times has been so beautiful. Yeah. So beautiful. Yeah. And so reaffirming and encouraging, right? Absolutely. Yeah. That's what he does. It is he affirms. Mm-hmm. And he encourages. He does. So moving into number five, number five, share wisely within a trusted community. Mm-hmm. So it's important to share our insights that we gain from the Lord with mature and trusted Christians, uh, for confirmation and encouragement. So it's, we gotta remember that healing and growth happened best in a spirit led community. Absolutely not in isolation. We weren't created for isolation, were created. Definitely not created for isolation to be in community. Yep, absolutely. You, you'll see that the last five letters of community mm-hmm. Is unity. You're right. It absolutely is. And we have created a community right here, and we would love for you to be a part of it. And we have communities that we are also a part of. You know, Allen's in a. In a community of men, I'm in a community of women. It's important that we are surrounded by like-minded people, right. That we can share those things with. Absolutely. Yeah. Shouting out forged. Woo. Yeah. Anyway, a ccb w woo. Right. But like Allen said before, God's voice is not reserved for pastors or prophets. That's just not true. He delights in speaking to you? To me, because he delights in relationship with us. Yeah. And that's, I mean, that's really what intimacy with him is all about. That is we gotta have that relationship. Absolutely. It's so important to get out and away from the whole religious thing. Mm-hmm. And simply seek a relationship with our creator, a relationship with our savior, and a relationship with the Holy Spirit of truth. Yeah. It's not about hearing voices. It's about knowing and listening to his voice, being able to discern his voice. I like what Jesus says in Matthew chapter seven, when he tells his people that whoever hears his words and acts upon them, who hears his words and applies them to their lives. Yeah. He says, whoever hears my words and acts upon them, they may be compared to the wise man who built his house on the rock. Now that Jesus's words the truth, he doesn't just speak the truth, he is the truth. He's the capital T truth. Yeah. His words are a great firm foundation to build our life upon. Wouldn't you agree? Totally. And I certainly would not wanna build my house upon the sand because only the foolish man does that. Right. And so yeah, when the waves come and they toss and they, yeah, you know. Bye-Bye. Bye. Bye-bye. So here is your faithfully invested challenge for this week.'cause you know, we love to give you challenges. We love for you to be held accountable and we wanna hear all about it. But take five minutes a day. Just five minutes to simply be still and ask God. Start with five, five minutes. Yeah, start with five. Who knows where he'll lead you. But ask him this one question. I'm even gonna give you the question. Lord, what do you want me to know today? Yeah, what do you want me to know today? Not, what does my spouse want me to know today? Not what does my children, what do my children want me to know today? But Lord, what do you want me to know? Yeah. And then write down whatever you sense. Don't filter it. Don't, don't say, well, that doesn't make sense, right? Because remember, we're not going with logic. Yeah. Just write it down. Just write it down. And you'll be amazed when you go back and you look at what you wrote down. That's right. Maybe it. Whether it's a few minutes after you're done or whether sometimes a week or two after I'm done a month, it'll continue. Yeah. To be continued. Sometimes it's to be continued. It's very cool. Absolutely. We'll probably get into that in later episodes as well. I'm sure we will. I'm sure we will. So we're gonna put the five guidelines in the show notes. Mm-hmm. And we encourage you to pull them out and use them during your daily time. With the Lord this week, and when you do, we'd love to hear from you. DM us or tag us on at, uh, hash at, um. Faithfully invested. Uh, and let us know what the Lord is showing you. Yeah. And don't miss next week because we're talking about something E that might step on some toes. It might hurt a little, but it's cool. But it's okay because even when your toe gets stepped on, you know it heals. But performance versus presence, uhoh. So we're coming after your hustle. Why hustle culture has no place in the kingdom and how to live led instead of driven. We don't wanna drive. We want to be following him and be led by him every time. We don't wanna be in the driver's seat. Right on. That's good stuff, babe. Thanks honey. So friends, if this, if this episode encouraged you, do us a favor and share it with a friend and let us know your thoughts by leaving us a five star review. Yeah. Uh, keep seeking him. Keep seeking your creator with great expectancy. And remember, when you are faithfully invested, God brings the increase. See you next time. Take care. Thanks for joining us on Faithfully Invested with Allen and Stacy. Jo, if today's conversation encouraged you, challenged you, or helped you see your calling more clearly, don't keep it to yourself. That's right. Share it with a friend. Leave a five star review and keep leaning into God's blueprint for your life, your leadership, and your legacy. So until next time, remember, when you invest in his kingdom, he brings the increase.