Wilderness To Wisdom: 09 Hearing From God

In this episode, we explore what it means to recognize and respond to God’s voice in your life. We discuss the many ways He speaks—through Scripture, the Holy Spirit, and even everyday moments—and how to discern His guidance with confidence and peace. You’ll be encouraged to quiet distractions, open your heart, and trust that God desires to communicate with you personally.

This message invites you to grow in awareness, sensitivity, and obedience to His voice.

Transcript

Welcome back to Wilderness to Wisdom.

In the last episode,

We discussed talking with God through prayer,

And today,

We're taking another step and learning more about hearing from God.

I had originally planned to cover hearing from God and obedience in one episode,

But once again,

God course-corrected and led me to split the two topics.

John 10.

27 says,

My sheep hear my voice,

And I know them,

And they follow me.

And that verse tells us three things.

We can hear God's voice,

He knows us personally,

And when we hear Him,

We are meant to follow.

Hearing from God isn't just for pastors or super-spiritual people.

It's for everyone who belongs to Him.

Remember,

You are a spiritual being having a human experience.

God wants to guide us in our decisions,

Comfort us when we're hurting,

And direct us when we're lost as we navigate this world.

And God speaks to us in many ways,

But first and foremost,

He speaks through His Word,

And this is always the foundation.

He may speak to us through dreams and visions,

Through other people.

Many times they may confirm what He's already showing you.

He may speak to us through circumstances,

And even through peace or lack of peace,

Anytime and anywhere.

I hear from God when I'm in the shower sometimes,

Or I may be awakened in the middle of the night.

But regardless of how it happens,

It's always through the Holy Spirit,

Our helper and guide who leads us to all truth,

Which a lot of times is described as a still,

Small voice,

Or just a knowing that gives you peace.

The more time you spend with God,

The more you'll recognize His voice and the methods He may use to speak with you.

It's just like how you can recognize the voice of a close friend or family member without seeing their face.

And as I mentioned,

God may use other people to speak to you.

And although He may use other people,

Unfortunately,

This is also how a lot of religious manipulation takes place.

And sadly,

Much of it takes place in some churches.

Someone may tell you that God showed them something or told them something about your life.

And some people are sincere and well-meaning,

While others may be under the influence of an oppressing spirit from the devil,

Whether they recognize it or not.

Just as God speaks to us,

The devil wants to try and get our attention as well to lead us down the wrong path.

We'll talk more about oppressing spirits in a future episode.

Sometimes we listen to others and just take what they say as truth without checking in with God for ourselves.

It's kind of like missing class and asking a classmate for their notes instead of talking with the teacher directly.

Now don't get me wrong,

God can absolutely speak to us through other people,

But that's where discernment comes in.

We need to take what we hear back to God because why rely on a classmate when the teacher actually lives within you?

Many times,

By the time you hear something from someone else,

It's something that God has already told you.

And trust that God will always give you confirmation and that comes with true peace.

There is no other person in this world who is any closer to God than you are or can be.

When someone shares something with you,

Talk with God about it if you're unsure and understand that God will never lead you outside of what his word says.

Messages from others should never be used to try and control or manipulate you.

In my experience,

When someone shares something with me that they claim is from God,

If I have peace and it aligns with the word,

I know it's from God.

If someone gives me a message and I don't have peace,

I go to God and ask him what I'm to do with the message.

He may need to work out something in my heart to receive what was said,

And this is part of the renewing of the mind.

At times,

God tells me to disregard the message.

In some situations,

People are merely communicating through their thoughts and opinions,

And it's not always malicious.

It may come from a place of love,

But there are times when that love or concern may be rooted in fear,

And it may lead you away from what God wants to guide you to.

And just as others may sometimes share a message with you,

God may speak to you and have you deliver a message to someone as well.

When I hear from God,

Whether the message is for me or for someone else,

I've learned that when I get the message,

Which I'll call a spiritual download,

I'll type it right away using the notepad on my phone.

I want to keep the message exactly as I received it.

The moment we become conscious of the fact that God just spoke to us,

Our carnal mind may go to work and start overthinking it and adding to or taking away from the message.

So whether the message is for you or for someone else,

You want to keep it pure.

And sometimes we struggle to hear the voice of God because there's so much noise in our lives.

Although we are spiritual beings,

We are navigating a human experience that can sometimes be very difficult because our natural inclination is to gravitate only toward what we can physically see or hear.

Stillness creates a space to hear from God.

If we never slow down,

We may miss what He's saying.

And I've learned that acting on impulse at times can be a trick of the enemy.

Now,

Obviously,

Some situations do require us to respond quickly.

I mean,

If you're driving and you're fast approaching the car in front of you,

Yes,

You should quickly step on your brakes and slow down.

That's not what I'm talking about here.

We live in such a fast-paced society that many times we feel compelled to act or respond to every situation quickly.

We've been programmed by the world to think that it's necessary to act quickly.

If you pause and reflect,

You'll see that most things don't require immediate action.

How many times have you been shopping,

Seen a product that you wanted but didn't necessarily need,

And heard that you needed to act now because the sale ends today?

I've gotten to a point where that type of marketing makes me do the exact opposite if it's not something I really need.

If it is something that I really want,

I trust that the price will be perfect for me when it's time to buy it,

If the time comes for me to buy it.

Psalm 4610 reminds us,

Be still and know that I am God.

I used to mistake my conscience for the Holy Spirit.

My moral compass and integrity made me what I'll call a good person according to the world,

But I wasn't yet listening for God's actual direction.

And if you have a healthy moral compass,

It can be easy to mistake your conscience for the voice of God.

Obedience requires hearing God clearly.

Without learning His voice,

We can't discern whether we're following our conscience or the voice of God.

Here's an example that I used in my book.

I'll read the excerpt.

We all have thoughts such as,

I need to get more exercise and drink more water,

Or I need to do better at keeping in touch with people.

There may be situations where we said something unkind or neglected to help someone we should have and then felt guilty about where we fell short.

When we unknowingly write off everything as our conscience,

We miss understanding what God calls us to do.

It is critical to know the difference.

The more you study God's word,

Talk with Him and learn to hear from Him,

The more you will know the difference.

For example,

The thought of,

I need to get more exercise and drink more water could be a thought from our conscience because we know that we should obviously do those things.

Or it could come from God because He is guiding us to avoid a specific health crisis.

The best way I can explain it from my experience is that when it comes from the Holy Spirit,

There is more depth to it,

And you will genuinely know that it comes from God.

At that point,

It is up to you to acknowledge or ignore that nudge you feel.

If you have lived long enough,

You have probably experienced one of those,

I should visit or give this or that person a call moments,

Ignored it,

Then found out a short time later that the person passed away.

That internal nudge I referred to,

Feeling led to reach out to someone or make a lifestyle change,

When it comes from the Holy Spirit,

There may be a deeper sense of divine urgency and peace,

Not just a moral obligation.

So for example,

When God tells you to drink more water or rest,

It's not just health advice,

It's protection,

Preparation,

Or prevention.

So it's always good to slow down and ask,

God,

Is this you?

When you receive what I call a spiritual download,

It's important to have clarity and understand the difference in the moment when you're hearing the voice of God and when your conscious mind takes over.

Think of it like this,

Imagine that moment right as you're waking up,

You're not fully alert yet,

But you're not completely asleep either.

You're in that in-between space where your mind is quiet and your heart is open.

That's often where you might sense God's voice,

Not necessarily audibly,

But as a gentle knowing or a deep feeling.

That's the moment to pay attention to,

Because once you're fully awake,

Your mind starts to take over.

You begin to analyze what you felt,

Was that really God or was it just me?

Before you know it,

You may start adding to what he said or taking away from it.

And that's when things really start to get muddy.

Here's what's really happening.

The awakening moment is that pure unfiltered space where your spirit is most receptive to God's voice.

The voice of God isn't usually something you hear out loud.

It's that quiet inner knowing that feels settled and true.

Some people have described hearing an audible voice.

I suppose it depends on the person and the situation.

The point is God will speak however he needs to.

Then when you're fully awake is when your conscious mind kicks in and your natural instincts start to analyze and question.

That analysis can quickly cloud what was once clear,

Leading to confusion or doubt.

Then when you start adding or taking away,

You risk losing the purity of what God originally spoke.

The key is learning to recognize and trust that still quiet moment before your thoughts rush in because that's often where God's voice is the clearest.

I considered why I sometimes hear from God while I'm in the shower and I realized it's because I don't have to think about showering.

My mind isn't busy planning or analyzing.

It's just still.

And in that stillness,

I'm open to hearing from God.

Just like in that quiet moment when I'm waking up.

Even when you start to recognize how God speaks to you,

You may still miss it sometimes and that's okay.

It happens to us all.

Navigating life in the flesh isn't easy because hearing God's voice means tuning out the facts of the natural world and choosing instead to trust in what we can't see,

The truth of the spiritual realm.

Remember,

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

If you miss something,

Trust that God will work it out and continually course-correct to lead you to the narrow path.

I want to leave you with some questions to reflect on.

How do you usually hear from God?

When you sense God speaking,

Do you typically respond?

Do you pause to listen,

Write it down,

Or move on quickly?

How often do you dismiss God's voice by labeling it as a passing thought?

And finally,

What distractions or noise might be keeping you from hearing God more clearly in your daily life?

Thank you so much for joining me today on Wilderness to Wisdom.

As you continue spending time with God this week,

Remember that learning to hear His voice is a lifelong journey,

One that deepens as we walk closely with Him.

The more you listen,

The more familiar His voice becomes,

And the easier it is to follow where He leads.

In the next episode,

We'll talk about what comes after hearing,

Obedience.

Hearing God is the invitation,

But obedience is our response,

And there's more to it than you may think.

It's where faith moves from knowing to doing,

And where we experience true transformation.

Until then,

Stay encouraged and get excited about the journey from Wilderness to Wisdom.