Thinking Faith

Is it REALLY "God's Voice" Speaking to You? How to hear from God.

• Knok Studio • Season 1 • Episode 10

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0:00 | 42:21

Christians often say, “I feel like God is telling me…”

But how do you actually know if it’s God?

Is it a feeling? A thought? A voice?
 Or could it be something else entirely?

In this episode, we open the Bible and take a closer look at one of the most important and often confusing questions for believers:

How can you tell if it’s really God’s voice speaking to you?

We’re not trying to create fear or make this overly complicated. And we’re not dismissing the fact that God can lead and guide His people. But we are asking a crucial question:

How do we discern His voice correctly?

As we discuss in our notes, not every impression, feeling, or thought comes from God — which is why Scripture calls us to test what we hear.

So what does that actually look like?

And how can Christians grow in confidence without being misled?

In this episode, we cover:

Why your first filter should always be Scripture — not feelings
 How prayer helps clarify, not replace, God’s Word
 Why seeking wise counsel from other believers matters
 What it means to “test the spirits” and why it’s necessary
 The danger of relying 100% on internal impressions
 How God’s voice will never contradict His written Word
 Why obedience (action) is a key part of discernment
 How to move forward wisely when you believe God is leading

Some key passages we explore:

2 Timothy 3:16–17 — Scripture as the foundation for truth and guidance
 1 John 4:1 — “Test the spirits”
 Proverbs 11:14 — Safety in a multitude of counselors
 James 1:5 — Asking God for wisdom
 John 10:27 — “My sheep hear my voice”

One key idea we keep coming back to in this conversation:

God’s voice is never disconnected from God’s Word.

If something contradicts Scripture — it’s not from Him.
 If it bypasses wisdom and counsel — it should be questioned.

Jerry brings us back again and again to a simple, practical process:

Start with the Bible.
 Bring it to God in prayer.
 Seek wise counsel.
 Then take action.

This isn’t about chasing feelings.
 It’s about developing discernment.

If you’ve ever wondered, “Is this really God… or just me?” — this episode will help bring clarity.

The goal isn’t to doubt everything.
 The goal is to test everything.

And to follow God with confidence, not confusion.

#ThinkingFaithBroadcast #Bible #Apologetics #BiblicalTruth #GodsVoice #Discernment #ChristianFaith #Scripture

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SPEAKER_01

There you are, French men of high school hopping into your college course, and your biology professor says, How do you know that giant skydity is actually talking to you?

SPEAKER_03

Uh the topic is hearing God's voice.

SPEAKER_00

Pressure testing Christianity with real-world questions. We take modern issues, sourced directly from you, our audience, and we see if these ancient books within the Bible have any answers. Conversational and thought-provoking? We're here for deep thinkers and natural-born skeptics. Welcome to the Thinking Faith broadcast.

SPEAKER_03

And here's the question that was specifically asked by the teens, and that's what this podcast is all about. Is uh we were given a whole bunch of questions from ages 13 to 18. And this is the question: How do we hear God's voice or discern it? How do I know if God is telling me to do something? How do I know if God is talking to me? How can you tell if a path is made by God and not Satan?

SPEAKER_01

What a great question. That really good question. And really, you could ask this of any of the faiths out there. I was just looking at some statistics this morning on the world's most popular religions. And there's Christianity, of course, at about 2.1, 2.4, uh, 2.2 uh billion, close behind Islam at 2 billion. And they would say the very same thing. Well, God, the divine, however you define him, God spoke to me. Well, they're two very, very different messages. How do we know that the God of Christianity is actually speaking the truth or Allah is speaking the truth? Right. Or all of the gods of Hinduism or Mormonism. How do we discern this?

SPEAKER_03

Well, here's some, we're gonna go over three or four uh steps that people can take when they're asking themselves, you know, is this message from God? I need a decision in my life. So what do I do? Do I just write it on a piece of paper and throw it up in the air?

SPEAKER_01

Uh-huh. Do I cast lots? Yeah, which is the equivalent of dice. I mean, that's that's what some of the Jews did way, way back in the day. And and they needed a decision. Yeah. And they cast dice. You get a magic eight ball. Exactly. God is real, and if he truly is talking to us, how do we know what he's saying is actually true?

SPEAKER_03

Here are some real concrete steps that that Christians can take. We first and foremost are blessed with the word of God. We have the New Testament, we have the Old Testament, and I think that's a good place to start. Um, 2 Timothy 3.16 says, all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, rebuking, and for training in righteousness. Okay, so we can start with that. And to be uh an open book here, that was uh came out of 2 Timothy 3.16. And in reality, 2 Timothy was not written until the later portion of Paul's life. And so when it says all scripture is inspired by God, the New Testament was still in the process of being put together. And so when Paul says all scripture, obviously he's he's pointing towards the Old Testament, but in reality also, Paul's letters were referred to as scripture. Peter refers to Paul's letters as scripture. So I don't think it's too much of a stretch for us to be able to say that we could take 2 Timothy 3.16 as as being the New Testament. We Christians recognize that as canon and the Word of God. So start there. If you are struggling with a decision that you need to make and uh it's not supported by Scripture, uh let's see, for instance, um, let's see, my my girlfriend is an atheist and she's really hot. This is a critical thing. Should I start dating her? Right. And you go to scripture and it says, don't be unequally yoked and don't fornicate, then you know what? The chances are you probably shouldn't because it's it's going against scripture. Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_01

That's step number one. Absolutely. Go to the Bible. Go to the Bible. But the proof is in the pudding. The Bible has withstood thousands upon thousands of years of moral direction, and it has been the impetus for every every good thing that's come out on earth, from the eradication of slavery to to women's rights, you can trace it back to a Christian who is going into scripture. Yep. And so, even scientifically, even if you don't believe that it is quote, the inspired word of God, it has proof throughout history that this moral book, if you go to this, it will not steer you wrong. Absolutely. And so, how often do you hear someone saying, Well, uh, me, uh uh, you know, my boyfriend and my girlfriend together, we got the hots for each other. She's really cute. And so, you know what? We don't really need to get married, even though the Bible says so. Let's just have sex together because that's what true love is. Yeah. And they might be feeling a very, very deep desire that this is true, this is right. The world is telling me this is what love is. Yeah. And yet, step number one, if you go into the Bible, Jesus is like, no, don't have sex outside of marriage. And when you do get married, only have sex with that one uh person, your spouse. Yeah. And stay committed to that person. Exactly. So step number one. Yeah, step number one. Go to the Bible.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, absolutely. And your your example there of uh a hot girlfriend. I I have to quote Mark Griskl. I was listening to him the other day, and he said, uh, but my girlfriend's hot. Yeah, well, so is hell.

SPEAKER_01

He doesn't pull any punches. He really doesn't. He really does. That's that's that's amazing. Well, well, thanks. Well, there goes that. Yeah, yeah. But in all seriousness, when when you look at a lot of the uh the the wacko religions that have been created over the years, step number one, they divert from scripture, they divert from the Bible. And even Paul himself talks about how there are many Jesuses, there are many gospels. There are yeah, there are many spirits. So even Paul himself acknowledges that there are many different variations of what another religion might perceive as Jesus. And uh, but what's difficult is that some of these religions, they're very, very um, they're very sincere.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Like they feel that this is the truth, to bring up the obvious example. A good friend of mine is a Latter-day Saint, a Mormon, and he says that we should go to James. Great, he's going to the Bible and ask uh basically if you lack wisdom, ask the Lord for that wisdom. Yeah, and he will give you that wisdom.

SPEAKER_03

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

And how do they interpret that? Well, I feel a conviction in my heart that the Book of Mormon is true. Joseph Smith is a prophet, that Jesus is actually the spirit brother of Satan, and he's not really God Himself. That was just kind of a misconception. But what would you say to those who are very, very sincere? They're sincerely wrong.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, they maybe maybe I'm thinking too much. I mean, uh seriously, their their since the sincerity uh does not equate with truth. You can be sincere all you want, you can have that warm burning feeling in your bosom, and yet uh in in the example of the uh the Latter-day Saint doctrine, it diverges from historic Christianity, it diverges from from the Bible. They need to take that into account when they subjectively feel that God is speaking to them. Uh going back to Joseph Smith himself. He he thought God was speaking to them. Right. Uh, and he did not test the spirits, he did not assume or like the Bereans, he did not dig into scripture and to find out if this message that I'm receiving diverges from what was taught by the apostles. Wait, wait, wait. You said Bereans? Who are they Bereans? Uh they're talked about in the book of Acts, and uh Paul complimented them because they were uh a body of new believers, uh Jews that were becoming uh interested in this Messiah, uh, and he complimented them and he said that they the Bereans dug into the scriptures to prove, to look, to see what I was saying, whether it was right or wrong. They didn't even believe Paul. No, well, yeah, they they listened to him, but they they questioned him. And Paul said, Good for you, good on you for doing that.

SPEAKER_01

So this is in Acts. That's cool. Just a little aside of the Bereans were known to search the scriptures daily as to determine whether or not what I was saying was true or false. Yeah, we should all be Bereans.

SPEAKER_03

Awesome. We should, absolutely. So let's move on to number two. Uh, the obvious one that's uh that's kind of facing at us is that we need to pray. We Christians have been born again, and we have the Holy Spirit as our helper to help us through life. And we can ask God, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us uh decisions that we are faced in our lives. Philippians chapter four, verses six through seven is a great two verses that kind of unpacks what a good prayer should look like and what the results should be. It says, Do not be anxious about anything, first and foremost, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And then the result of that would be and peace of God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. So you start with that. You're speaking to the creator of the universe, that who is who our God is. We present our request to God, and then after we do that, we leave it with Him. And He will give us that peace, which Paul says you really can't understand it. I don't know if you've ever experienced that before. You just kind of inhale and think, okay, it's in God's hands. This peace of God will guard your heart and your mind, your thinking mind, because this is a thinking faith uh in Christ Jesus. You turn it over to God. And then that at that time you might say, Well, hey, hold on a second, Jerry. I obviously I've prayed about this, you know, to seek God's decision, uh, you know, seek an answer from God in my life, and I'm not hearing anything. I got you. God is silent. That's the point of this, is it how do I know when when he's talking? And what if he doesn't? Okay. So God will answer your prayer in one of three ways: yes, no, or wait. Ah, think about that. So there I was praying to God about a uh a career move in my life, and I prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed, and I went through the interviews, and I was I was just so qualified for this job. It was an internal uh internal promotion uh to open uh a store in New York, and I prayed and prayed and prayed. I was the right guy. And the decision came for the vice presidents to pick the person, and they picked somebody else. And I was devastated. I thought, Lord, I did everything. I prayed and I prepared for it, and I was the most qualified, and and basically it didn't happen. Well, God answered my prayer, he said no. Oh, and I thought, well, that's not fair. Uh come to find out, about a little less than a year after that, the store that opened in New York was closed for lack of business. Whoa. And the manager was unemployed, and I don't know what he did, I can't remember back. Uh, but it was a total disaster. And only at that time, only at that time did I say, Oh, thank you, God, for answering my prayer and saying no, you knucklehead. Fascinating. Yeah, and I, you know, you could you could have been raised in New York. You weren't.

SPEAKER_01

Well, okay.

SPEAKER_03

Exactly. Uh, I look back on that and I I uh initially the the first thought is that, well, God is not answering my prayer, obviously. I gotcha. Absolutely, he's answering it. He just he just didn't want me to go there. It just said no. Interesting, and so that is an answer to prayer. If you're praying to God, really trying to hear his voice, uh, be open to a yes, of course, be open to a no, and really important, be open to a wait.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_03

Not right, not now, yeah, not now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Uh one thing that I learned recently with prayer is I hear a lot of people say if you don't hear an answer, then you keep petitioning and you keep praying, you keep going and going and going, and almost to uh, well, to use Christ's example, uh, be persistent. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Uh, because wasn't there a woman that kept bugging him? Right. And woman?

SPEAKER_01

Kind of being that that squeaky wheel. Exactly. Right, right, right. Now, unfortunately, a lot of uh Christians interpret that as well, I can force God's hand. All I need to do is just keep rubbing that lamp, and then eventually that genie will pop out and grant my wishes. And that's not the point of this scripture. The point is to be persistent, but I don't know if you've ever heard the old timers, the prayer warriors of old saying, pray through to assurance. Oh, I like that. Pray through to assurance and then stop. Make sure that it's given to God. Yep. As I heard one old timer prayer warrior say, if if your prayer journal keeps at you keep adding more and more and more, and nothing is coming off of that prayer journal, then you're not praying in faith, but also you're not praying through to that assurance. Some things will stay in that prayer journal and they might might be in there for the rest of your life. But the vast majority of those things should be coming off that list. Yeah. So uh the point is faith. Move forward. Once you give it to God and you feel that you truly have been heard by God, then all right, move forward. Now that begs the question, how do you know that God has actually heard you? And unfortunately, there's no formula to that.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

There's no like, okay, well, um, five Hail Marys and uh three our fathers, and then that's the formula for God hearing you, and then you can move on with with with your life. And then not necessarily. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. And that's purposeful. Yes. God does not make a mistake by not giving us a formula, he wants every individual to follow him based off of their own convictions, their own faith.

SPEAKER_03

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

Uh, which is so, so difficult. That's the challenging part of the Christian faith, is that it can be kind of subjective and and wishy-washy. Uh-huh. Like, come on, Lord, just give me a formula for how many prayers I should say.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. And just because you find or you feel that you see that God is silent doesn't mean he's not listening. Oh, that's wise. Does not. I mean, you could read through, do a study on the book of Esther, and that is a fantastic book on the silence of God. God's name is not mentioned in the book of Esther.

unknown

Wow.

SPEAKER_03

But he's listening. And clearly he's working. Absolutely. Wow. Wow. So pray, pray, pray. And let me slip this in as as well. Resist, please, resist the temptation of throwing out a fleece. It's uh that phrase is uh this used to be really big in the 70s and 80s when I first became a Christian. Uh, and it's we won't get into it too much, but it's from the book of uh it's from the story of Gideon, and he threw a fleece on the ground to basically test God. Prayer should not be a test for God. Uh, it's not a magical little formula that is that if uh, let's see, if if uh uh if the I'm gonna call this girl and if it rings three times, then she's the one for me. You know, and a lot of times young young Christians will come up with some mathematical formula to try to see the hand of God by testing him. And you don't want to do that. That's not a part of part of prayer, should not be a part of a Christian's prayer to throw out fleeces. And that could be controversial because I know some Christians believe in throwing out a fleece. It's not to say that you could ask God that, hey, you know what, I I want to I want to do this venture and I need a thousand dollars, so I'm gonna pray, Lord, that that you will supply me with this thousand dollars uh and I will move forward. That is legit, but you don't want to say, I need the thousand dollars by 12 noon or else forget it. Interesting. So you're on thin ice when you start throwing out these proposals, business proposals.

SPEAKER_01

Business proposals, exactly. It becomes more contractual and more like God is this mathematical formula, and you just need to crack that formula and boom, I get my heart's desire. Yeah, it takes all of that faith out, takes all that trust. And that's ultimately what God wants from us exactly trust. He doesn't want us to treat him like a little mathematical piggy bang. Yeah, a little vending machine. It's like, oh well, if I only get three cherries in a row, then I'm gonna hit the jackpot, I just have to hit the button 47 more times. Yeah, exactly. No, that's not what God wants with us. He wants us to come before him, petition him in faith, and then once you give God your your prayer requests, is that it? Read the Bible, pray, and then does that give you all you need to know whether God or not?

SPEAKER_03

Here's a third piece speaking to you. Third piece of really practical advice. Yes, seek the counsel of mature Christians. Oh it's a good, good thing to do, especially if you're a teen, if you're a young person, uh, I would and your your parents are believers, I'd start with them. Start with mom and dad. Start with a Christian who's been a Christian longer than you. And it's because they've gone through life together, they've they've uh walked with God longer than you have, and so there's some wisdom to be had. Proverbs 15, 22 says, plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed. Um and and another translation, the good news translation, uh has it says it very nicely. Get all the advice you can and you will succeed. Without it, you will fail. Okay. So ask ask strong believers, your your your pastor, your youth pastor, uh, someone who has been uh you know a mentor to you, and ask them what they think about your decision. And you'll be opening up a treasure trove of wisdom there that you could obtain from people who have lived longer than you have.

SPEAKER_01

Right. And God speaks through his church, through his people. Yep. And uh they, we, use the Holy Spirit within us and all our gifts coming together, all the body, many different body parts to help guide each other. Yeah, there I was when I was 13 years old, laying in bed, listening to audio adrenalines. I want to be your hands, I want to be your feet. And I've heard the song many times before, but this particular night, it hit me so hard, and I was in tears just laying there, and I saw this vision come before my eyes, and I saw a very, very vivid vision of myself going out into the mission field grown up, and I was preaching the gospel, and I knew at that moment that God was speaking to me without a shadow of a doubt, He was saying, You need to go into the mission field. I just went, Okay, Lord, I'll do that. And what went through my mind was, well, first of all, is this in alignment with the Bible? Or is this vision actually uh go out and score some heroin, uh, get some meth, you know, get hopped up on crystal meth. No, no, no, no. That that is contrary to what the Bible will teach. You know, the Bible says, hey, take care of your body. That's bad. But this vision, first of all, it aligned with the Bible. Second of all, I gave it to God. I said, Okay, God, is this truly what you want me to do? Very, very clear. But then the third thing, seek counsel. I remember waking up, well, not waking up. Up, I was wide awake. I remember actually going out in the hallway because I thought you were out there. You were not out there. There was another voice. For some reason, God wanted me to get up out of bed. And so I went out there to seek counsel, and no one was out there. Like, okay, well, I guess God spoke to me. But I still needed to seek that counsel. So I went to uh my pastor, Don Waite. Yep. And I and I had a uh conversation with him, and I said, I don't get a lot of visions. This is this is kind of creepy. Like this is, I I prefer this didn't happen again because this was I was an emotional basket case. Right. But I told him, I said, Don, I I think it's in alignment with scripture. I don't think it's sin. I I gave it to God. What do you think? And he said, Well, based off of my experience, my counsel, my influence within, you know, leading the church uh body for many, many years and preaching. He said, I believe God is speaking to you. Cool. Say, Wow. Yeah, and so that fulfills number three. Now, granted, it wasn't easy. I would much rather just go out into the mission field. Um, but it took some humility on my part to come to my pastor and say, I saw this vision. Right. Because I didn't know if he was gonna say, You're a wacko. You gotta you gotta get on some anti-psychotics ASAP. I didn't know what he was gonna say. Right. So it takes some humility to go to the church because some of these people are messed up weirdos. Yeah, we're we're weird. Yeah, exactly. And God is using other weirdos to confirm whether or not he's speaking to you. Yes, yes, he is.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, if if you had had a vision that Bo, you should go rob the Chase Bank uh to be able to afford to buy a new car. Uh, I'm sure Pastor Don would have said, I don't think so. Maybe not.

SPEAKER_01

Now, spoiler alert, years later, I'm glad I did seek that counsel because it was such a monumentous decision. Like, this is my career, this is my future, this is going to guide every relationship, every career choice that I'm going to make for the rest of my life. At some point, I'm gonna have doubt whether or not God really did speak to me when I was 13 years old. Right. Maybe it was just a fever dream, or maybe I had a bad piece of pudding, figment of my imagination. Ebenezer Scrooge. Undone potato. An undone potato bit of mustard. Maybe, maybe it's a figment of my imagination. Right. But to get that confirmation from an outside source saying, no, bo, I feel that this is right. Yeah, that has thank goodness I had that confirmation.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So if anybody out there is like, I feel God speaking to me, seek counsel in the church because you will do your future self a favor.

SPEAKER_03

Exactly. And please don't seek counsel. This is kind of obvious, but don't seek counsel from people who are gonna tell you what you want to hear. Oh, you know, and uh just you know, and you know what those are, you know. Uh it just is uh you're gonna you're gonna hear what you're gonna you're you'll want to hear if you seek people who are not gonna be honest with you. Right, right, right. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I went to to this church that was welcoming, and they said that I should follow my heart because that's what Disney says. No, bad counsel, wrong counsel. Exactly. We can go back to the scripture. Does that counsel align with scripture? Yeah, exactly. It's this cyclical checks and balance things that God has given us all these tools.

SPEAKER_03

Exactly. So the the final piece of advice, and by the way, these these are not uh one is uh more important than the other, you know. Do you start with the word of God? Do you start with prayer? You do them all simultaneously. I love it. And and in the end, though, this is the chronological one. Uh the the final fourth piece of advice is move. Do something. Do something. Uh the great example is uh a young person coming to me saying, hey, you know what? I I really need a job. I was I was asking God for a job, and I've been I've been asking for like two months. And the question is, well, how many times have you been interviewed? Well, none. Well what do you mean? Well, I'm just waiting for God to give me a job. Interesting. Move so many times. Christians don't take action. I'm that the the picture I have in my head is of a sail ship, uh, a jack sparrow on a on a ship, and he's behind the wheel, and the sails are tied to the mast. Yeah and he's in a 40 mile per hour wind, the boat's not gonna go anywhere.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I see, because they're strapped down, they're not unfurled.

SPEAKER_03

Unfurl your sails and let God guide you and move. Well, I'm I'm too afraid to move, I'm too afraid to make a decision. If you've done all these things, God will honor you in that decision. Interesting. It may be the wrong decision, and you'll you'll know right away. That's true. But but do something, move, right, trust in God. Uh Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he'll make your paths straight. Okay. Those paths could be could be rough sometimes, but do something, right?

SPEAKER_01

Move. Right, right. It goes back to that example in scripture that says, What good is me walking by someone who needs help, and you just say, Peace be on you, go and be well. Yeah, you didn't do anything about it. Exactly. There was no action tied to it. No action tied to it. If you believe it, do something about it. That's the whole point of the book of James. If you believe it, do it. Now, I want to be careful because there may be some pushback with people saying, So you're saying, no matter what answer you hear, whether it's yes, no, or not now, you just do something. Uh, you just just stay active, like Jojo the Circus Indian boy, and you just start have to walk in one direction. Well, you're lost out in the woods. Well, do I sit here and I wait and I collect my thoughts, or do I just start walking in a certain direction? You know, having been out in the wilderness, that you're not supposed to do that. You're not just supposed to walk in a certain direction willy-nilly. However, the opposite extreme is it if a blizzard starts setting in, you're not supposed to sit there and not build a shelter. Right. Even building a shelter and staying pushed.

SPEAKER_03

Because it's doing something.

SPEAKER_01

It's still doing something.

SPEAKER_03

Lord, Lord, I I don't know what university I should go to. I don't know what my major should be, right? You know, and I I have come to find that it's not as important whether you are a dentist or a pilot or a videographer. It's secondarily important. What God is concerned with is that you are a Christian dentist. You are a Christian pilot. You are a Christian videographer. And he's more interested in what you become rather than what you do in life. Right. When you make it with so that's so freeing. That takes so much anxiety out of life. It is totally freeing.

SPEAKER_01

That's awesome. It is.

SPEAKER_03

Wow. He's not, you're not gonna make it up to heaven and God's gonna look at you and say, a dentist? Really? I wanted you to be a car mechanic, you dope. No, no, no. So you were either a Christian car command mechanic or a Christian dentist.

SPEAKER_01

Right, right, right. So what you're saying here is is uh reading the Bible, praying, seeking counsel, all of these things is not an excuse for pacifism.

SPEAKER_03

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

You we can still be patient, we can still wait, but even the decision of waiting is active.

SPEAKER_03

It is uh very much so.

SPEAKER_01

Fasting might seem very passive, you know, a refraining from eating to an attempt to try to align yourself with with uh what God wants for you. Yep. Fasting can bring a lot of clarity. Uh, but even fasting is very active. You're not gonna sit there and not do anything. No, no, no. You are actively avoiding food. You are actively for the purpose of drawing you closer to God. Exactly, exactly. So the point is that don't use these as an excuse to be passive, um, but move forward in faith. And where the scripture is silent on something, that is not a mistake. You've probably heard me say this before, but God did not make a mistake uh saying, I don't know whether or not you want to be a dentist or a pilot. I'm just gonna be quiet here. His silence is not a mistake. Oftentimes, as I have found, that's actually permission for freedom for us to make our decision based off of faith. Oh, yeah. And God is up there, you know, kind of leaning back, you know, poking the angels on his left and right, being like, I wonder what decision there he Jerry's gonna make here. This is gonna be really fun for him.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, I have an example for you. That's cool. There I was praying, praying, praying for direction. And it was in my career, praying for direction. And the scripture that popped into my head was Colossians 3 17. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. And when I when that scripture popped into my head, I thought just what you said a few minutes ago, it was so free. It was like, oh God, I could do any of these, right? Honor you, right, right, right. If I do it in your name and giving glory to you, it's not that God doesn't care, right? He cares that you're seeking him and that you're honoring him in whatever you do. That's that it's so, so nice.

SPEAKER_01

Now, I remember another example here. I asked mom, I don't know if she's ever told you this before. I said, Mom, do you believe in soulmates? I was a kid because you know, I was getting all worried about getting a girlfriend someday and maybe a spouse. And I'm just getting a little anxious because the rest of the world is like, there is one person out there for you, and you are compatible with that one person. Out of these millions upon millions of people, good luck finding this person. And for a lot of these people listening to this, they might be single and might have that anxiety because it's been planted in their brain by the world that there is one soulmate out there for you. My mom hurt. What did she say? This is interesting. Well, I thought she was gonna say was I the soulmate. I hope I was. I thought she was gonna say that. Be like, yes, there's one person because me and your dad, you know, we are thick as thieves, and it's wonderful. She's like, she said, no, no, there's a lot of messed up people out there, but the most important thing is finding a person who is a Christian and loving that person, sacrificing yourself uh for that person, and you will be could probably compati be compatible, Bo, with hundreds, if not thousands, of people out there, uh, and to be this a spouse to one of these women.

SPEAKER_03

Wow.

SPEAKER_01

And that's fantastic, right? Right. Well, it kind of took the romanticism out of it because I was like, wow, I thought there was gonna be one person, but that makes so much sense, and and there's more grace now towards Liz, who I've been happily married to for 18 years, because I recognize that she does have failures, and that there's there's no grass is greener on the other side. There's no woman out there who's, quote, better than her. Right. I could be compatible with a lot of different spouses out there, but at this point, God has chosen this woman to be in my life, and I will forgive her for all her faults. She has forgiven me for all of mine. Absolutely. Thank goodness. And I will continue to adapt and roll with the punches. Both of us will. And so that's going back to well, is this one woman? Is this one man? Is this my soulmate? God's up there going, pursue this person in faith. Yep. And honor me. Honor me. Keep your eyes fixed on me. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03

Uh what did Keith Green once say? Do your best. Do your best, God will take care of the rest.

SPEAKER_01

Right. And I know that's that's such a kitschy thing right there. It's like, oh, that's scripture. It's from this amazing song, and he says it just offhand. He says, Do your best and God will take care of the rest. Like, that's so wise.

SPEAKER_03

We we uh our God is a loving father.

SPEAKER_01

Do you think you're gonna come to him and he's gonna say, bad decision to wrong you drop the ball and you're gonna be reaping?

SPEAKER_03

Exactly. And you look at God and say, Well, I did my best. Of course. Yeah, he's a loving father. He's gonna say, he's gonna hug you and say, Well done. Right, right. Good for you.

SPEAKER_01

There's another song where I don't know who who uh uh sung it, but I remember a a young child coming up to his father uh with a bunch of dandelions and giving this bouquet to the father. And the father's reaction is not gonna be, bro, that's a bunch of weeds. Yeah. No, he's gonna say, You I love this bouquet, these flowers, these are beautiful. Absolutely, man. You dropped the ball. Those are a bunch of noxious weeds. Get out of here. Get out of here, you stupid child. No, we have a loving, loving father who gives us that freedom. And if we pursue him in faith, he will honor that.

SPEAKER_03

So true. Um, let's wrap this up with uh the last point I want to make, and this is probably not gonna be the most uh favored uh piece of advice. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01

Um, but I think we haven't offended people yet. So let's do it.

SPEAKER_03

Let's finish off with a good offense. Knowing God's will or hearing his voice is related to obedience. Oh no, what are you saying, Jerry? Wait a minute. You mean I need to be good before I can hear God's voice? No, not necessarily. We are we are uh disobedient children all the time. But I I want to I want to unpack this one uh verse for you and and see what you think of it. Romans 12, 2. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. So if you think there's there it let's break it down to an if and then. Basically it's saying, don't conform. If you don't conform to the pattern of this world, right, and you transform your mind and you give your life to God, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is. So hearing God's voice is not a mathematical formula, it's not step one, two, three, and four, and bam, I'm gonna get the answer. It's a relationship with God. If you are living your life in habitual all-out sin, or that you are a you are a deathbed prayer. I gotcha. Um you're you're you're gonna have a hard time hearing God's voice in your life. Right.

SPEAKER_01

Because there's all this background noise, this static. Totally. It's the equivalent of being in your vehicle and you're trying to catch a certain radio station, trying to hear the voice of the commentator, but you keep swiveling the dial back and forth, getting all this static. Right. That swiveling is sin. Stop swiveling.

SPEAKER_02

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

It becomes much more clear to hear the other person or to hear God when you don't have all this static. And I would I personally would say that's how I define sin in my own imperfect in vernacular is distractions, something that distracts you from God. Exactly. So at the beginning of this podcast, uh, I don't know if you can tell, but there's a little beeping noise going on in the background right there. Now it's driving me absolutely crazy. And I can't hear it. It's it's off it's off of my frequency. We're in a coffee shop. Sometimes people are coming in and there's this noise. Uh, but hopefully, these microphones and our dialogue right here are clear enough uh so that people aren't distracted by that in the same way. That the more the more you're sinning in your life, well, no wonder you can't hear from God. Yeah, you've got all this static.

SPEAKER_03

Exactly. And I don't want to minimize sin, but sin really is a distraction from your focus on God, right? Right? Uh I'm gonna close with this. Uh John 14, 21 says, uh, he who has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. Is that awesome? Think about that. Somebody once told me, you know, Jerry, why why isn't God more obvious? Why doesn't he just like shout at me uh when I when I'm seeking direction and trying to hear his voice? Uh and my response was, well, obedience has a lot to do with it. God said that he would show himself to you if you obey his commands and love him. And I guess the opposite could be true. If uh again, as you as we talked about, if your life is filled with just flagrant sin, it's gonna be really hard for God to show himself to you, right? Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I can you talk with any mature Christian uh when they grew the closest to God, it's when they kick their addictions, when I kicked my addiction. It's like, hey, I am I have finally kicked this addiction to pornography and masturbation, and I am done with this, and I've got this accountability from other guys in my life, and they can hook me up to a polygraph machine and ask me anything. They like check my internet browsing history, right? I am freed from this addiction. You won't believe how clear God's voice and direction became in my life. It was almost kind of one of those things where I double face pawn myself, like I should have done this years ago. I've been complaining this whole time how quiet God's voice is in my life, and he's just up there going, Well, that's because you're dinking around, buddy. Yeah, get your life in order and start obeying me. Exactly. And you'll be able to hear me with a lot less static in your life. Right. Oh, okay. I take full ownership of that.

SPEAKER_03

And somebody might say, Well, Bo, do you need to be perfect then in order to hear God's voice? No, we sin. We Paul says, I die daily. We have sin in our lives, but we confess it and we move on and we keep our eyes focused on God. You know, God's hearing God's voice is based on a relationship. Yes, it's not a formula.