How Do We Hear God's Voice?

Making room to hear God's voice can be tough. We are always needed and there are so many things to do. But hearing God's voice is a way we can connect with God, receive direction, and more. This episode starts by going over what God's voice is and is not. Then, I give ways we can make room to hear God's voice in our lives. Finally, I'll go over some of the ways God can speak to us. Here's the transcript for this weeks episode. The points are in bold. Denea (00:01)Hello, hello, it's Denea, your host of the Faith Fills Mom podcast. I hope that wherever you are today, I hope you know that I'm thankful that you're listening. I really am. I so appreciate the fact that you are listening to this podcast. And I hope that you're able to do just one nice thing for yourself today. I'm not talking about going on a shopping spree. I'm not talking about going to a spa or anything like that. I'm talking about, can you drink some water? Can you take three deep breaths? Can you maybe go for a walk, move your body, sit outside? Can you nourish your body with a piece of fruit, with a vegetable? Can you say something nice to yourself, about yourself? What is one nice thing? Minimum -That you can do for yourself today because you are so deserving of it. Today's episode, we are going to be talking about God's voice, what it's not, what it is, how can we make room to hear God's voice? What are some ways that God speaks to us? I'm gonna open us up in prayer. Father, thank you that you are always speaking to us. You don't sleep or slumber. You are mighty. You are always present. You are always attentive to us, Father. When we talk to you, you listen. You are always speaking to us and we want to hear more of your voice. We want to make room for more of your voice, Holy Spirit. Help us as we're studying how to hear more of God's voice, what it might sound like, what it doesn't sound like. Remind us of God's character, help us learn more about who God is. We love you, Father, in Jesus' name, amen. Examples of What God's Voice Is Not I thought it was good to start with what God's voice is not. God's voice is not harsh. It is not shameful. It is not critical. It is not mean. It is not judgmental. God's voice will not go against His word. I think it is really important to know that so that we can distinguish that like we can distinguish some of the thoughts that we have. Personally speaking, I know that I sometimes have like a negative thought track will just play on repeat all day. And then I will have to practice self-awareness and be like, ooh, God would not speak to me like that. So why am I speaking to myself like that? Like, why am I being so harsh talking to myself right now? Examples of What God's Voice Is It is good for us to know what God's voice is not. Now, what God's voice is. I think it's important to know that God's voice will sound like you. How you talk. That is how God's voice is going to sound. It's going to sound familiar. Now, God's voice is loving. It is compassionate. It is just. It convicts out of love. Peaceful and quiet. Now to go back to that convicts out of love. Conviction is out of love. The Holy Spirit draws us in. He alerts us to and he convicts us of something that we need to ask forgiveness for and we need to repent from because he knows that sin tends to make us separate ourselves from God. God has not moved. Right, like as his child, God is close. But sin tends to make us kind of like hide and separate ourselves from God. And of course we're not really hidden from God, right? But we start to have this mentality of hiding, trying to hide certain things from God. And that very quickly turns to shame. And sin also is destructive, we know this. And so the Holy Spirit, It's like, hey, whoa, kind of acting as that like alert, like that light, right? Like, whoa, hey, hey, hey, there's something going on here. You need to pay attention. Bring it to God. That is the beautiful thing about conviction. God is not like,