Priscilla Shirer: How to Discern the Voice of God (Full Teaching) | Praise on TBN

it ruins you for church as usual oh hey ruins you yeah that regular old mundane christian rediverse a day to keep the devil away sit in church go because my mama went my grandmother went this is what we do all of that goes away okay because you're hungering for what you know you've experienced before actually sensing the voice of god his presence near you listen sometimes hearing god is less about having a specific word and more about just the nearness of his presence discerning the voice of god today we're going to unpack that so why is this subject matter something that is really important it is important because this facet of our faith is what separates our faith from every other so-called faith on the face of the earth okay that our god lives he's alive and he speaks to us we have an actual relationship with him and that that's so casually thrown around this whole relationship thing but what good is any relationship if nobody's talking to each other if there's no communication if there's not um a connectedness that is ongoing and continual so this issue of discerning the voice of god first of all believing that he does speak but second of all trusting in the fact that as his kids we have the privilege to actually discern and just have a distinction of his voice between all the other voices that also want to get a word in edgewise that's something that really can change and transform the trajectory of your entire christian experience okay let's let's lay a little bit of the ground rule in your in your world we're you're our guest today you and jerry uh jerry jump in anytime you want to you're much bigger than i am you can jump in any time you want yeah you know you're a miracle worker that you got him on the show jerry doesn't want my buddy come on i know y'all are bad you guys you're just going to have a good time we're going to we're going to discern the voice of god let me ask you a question in the priscilla jerry world yeah uh does god speak audibly does he only speak through his word does he speak how how what are the different ways that you certainly know of that god speaks to you um i've never heard the audible voice of god babe have you missed something i have not no no not yet but i think there is something internal yeah in you that you that you feel the presence of god and it lines up with scripture which confirms okay this is what i'm hearing that's right so the holy spirit of god illumines scripture the book is alive and he causes the the old presets of scripture to have a now-ness and a newness that applies and intersects with our personal experience so as jerry mentioned the holy spirit in us confirms and corroborates and connects with the the word of god and causes it to intersect with our experience so that that verse that has something to do with david and goliath all of a sudden it's not about david and goliath it actually applies to what you're facing right then in your life and you understand it as a directive straight straight from god and then there's the conviction you know the conviction of the holy spirit that that green light of ease and peace that says go that that yellow light of warning and uneasiness that says hold up a minute till you get clarity and then that red light that is a straight up no there's no peace there's confusion there's dissension that's the holy spirit's way of telling you no don't go there there's a better yes for you if you'll just wait and be patient have you ever heard the still small voice of the lord in a phrase and an impression what describes some of what is in discerning the voice of god how how the lord speaks or how this conversation unfolds with you yes well most of the time most of the time god speaks to me through his word it is exactly what i described it is reading through a portion of scripture and on that day it's like the holy spirit has taken out a highlighter and has highlighted this verse you have seen a million times before but on that day it leaps up off the page and it grips you that's the only way i can really describe it is that it grips you in the depths of your soul and causes you to pause for a moment because it seems to be literally speaking to something that's happening in your life most of the time that is the voice of god we have discounted i think the power of scripture because if we say we want to hear from god and we never actually read the love letter that he wrote to us we don't want to really hear from god and we rarely will because the canon of scripture is not only it not only provides the boundary into which everything god says to us will fall because he'll never say anything that manipulates the scriptures or his character as revealed in the scriptures so it not only gives us the boundary but it also provides for us the number one mechanism through which we have the privilege to hear them in the first place beautiful okay so start us out on um because i know so many people wonder oh you know how can i hear god's voice for ourselves and i trust it or trust or trust it how can i trust god's voice when i do hear it is that really him is it me is it yeah well let me let me just start by putting a little grace over this entire situation the reality is that sometimes you do not know until hindsight that what you heard was the voice of god there you go and the reality is that there is grace and mercy to cover our missteps and that the lord in his graciousness toward us his knowledge of our frailty and our humanity for the willing heart who desires to do his will even when we make mistakes he allows them to become our greatest teachers for hearing him correctly in the future he does not hold it against us because we've misstepped along the way so um just grace for those of us yes who have ever heard god wrong and um wish we could get it get it right one of the people i sort of interviewed when i was first writing that book many you know over a decade ago uh now i interviewed henry blackaby who wrote experience in god yes and i you know had my notebook out my pen i was going to take a seminary class from henry you know and i said how do you know when you're hearing god and he gave me lots of incredible answers to that question but really he summed it up this way he said the more you know god the more clearly you can hear god there was really nothing for me to write down because it boiled down to priscilla it's simple he said the more you know him the more clearly you can hear him so the reason why we go to the scriptures the reason why we have quiet time the reason why we fellowship with other believers who are going to help us remain encouraged in our faith is because we're just trying to get to know god when you know his character when you know um the nuances of what he does say and what he wouldn't say because of how he spoke to our forefathers because of how he handled circumstances previously with people in the scriptures who were going through some of the same scenarios we're going through now when you see his personality and his character then you know when you hear the voice of fear uh that don't sound like my god when you hear the voice of your ego pride jealousy divisiveness stepping in all of that stuff that in our flesh is also trying to get a word in edgewise we can quickly quickly pinpoint the voice of a stranger because if we know god the more clearly we can discern and just divide his voice from a stranger okay now you talked about seeking god's provision and his blessings on our life and then knowing who what his character is talk about that because i found that fascinating yes so god's blessing um and i believe his provisions are a corroboration of his word to us so in other words while in the old testament there were external means as a primary way for folks to hear god in the new testament and now in this time frame as well we have something they didn't have we have the holy spirit so the primary way he is speak to us that he speaks to us has changed but his goal hasn't his goal is still for his kids to hear his voice so he's chosen the holy spirit of god to be the the way that we uh hear and know what it is that his will is for our life but he still uses external means his provision his blessings his aligning of providence some people would call it luck or coincidence no it's the aligning of god's handiwork in our life to confirm that what we're sensing on the inside is indeed how he's aligning uh the direction for our life to just fb meyer is a great theologian put it this way when a big uh 747 is getting ready to land on a runway well well the plane better not just be looking for one light somewhere to land better not just look for two lights somewhere to land there better be several lights that are that are lining a runway so that that 747 knows exactly where land the bigger the decision that you have to make the more you need to trust in the mercy of god's external confirmation that aligns for you where to land that plane in your life um and and so that's important that we have external blis blessings provision coincidence that really shows us the sovereignty of god aligning i'll give you an example i was just telling you guys before we started um erin that i that i started to to look at this discerning the voice of god book the material that we've been privileged to be able to develop through the years on the topic and i just started you know how the lord puts layers of maturity on a message the more you grow in him aren't we so grateful that he lets us grow and mature and learn from our mistakes and i thought i was just starting to feel like you know it might be time especially with the the video series that we've done in regards to this it was taped 11 years ago so it kind of looks dated now and i thought we might need to do something different with that at some point this was going to be my lazy year where i just kind of sat down and didn't write too much but at the same time i started to sense that on the inside maybe we need to do that at some point one of my publishers called to say you know let's redo the discerning the voice of god bible study then the publisher of this particular book called and said hey you know what maybe we're going to put a re-face this and go ahead and freshen up the material here and the new insights that the lord has given you so there were two things two lights there that kind of corroborated what i was already sensing on the inside and then matt lloyd crouch called and said you know what priscilla we think that we would love to offer this to to people who want to know how to discern god's leading that third light wow was the confirmation for me that what it was i was sensing on the inside the lord was very clear clearly giving me a light bulb to let me know this would be his direction for me a number of years ago when laws were different um today um if we're hiring somebody here at trinity broadcasting we can say by the way you're you know tbn is a christian organization might have noticed are you a christian we can say that that is but there if you wind the hands of clock back about 30 years you couldn't say that you couldn't make somebody tell you whether they were a christian or not in in the application process there's a different rules well my dad uh when he uh in the early days somebody called and trinity broadcasting is you know under the authorization of the federal communications commission we have employees here that make sure we stay in tune with those policies and procedures and rules and all that kind of stuff we have different sets of employees that do lighting and sound and this and that but my dad was of course the general manager and and somebody called and my dad's on the phone uh mr crouch you have to be a christian to work at your channel he had the phone in his hand he went and wanted to say yes and the discerning voice of god at that point was literally he couldn't say the word yes so he went yeah and tried to say yes again and couldn't and he said hold second put the call on hold and said you know just kind of went what you know lord and he clicked the button back and went well sir i suppose you don't have to be a christian to work at our channel but you might want to be uh you know much like if you were applying for a spanish language channel you might want to know how to speak spanish yeah and the guy went hmm well that makes a lot of sense okay i get that uh oh by the way if you'd have said yes i was going to file uh you know against your license at the federal communications commission so my dad's you know hit over the head with a ball-peen hammer from the lord that moment was that was god having a conversation by literally not allowing him to make a mistake and see here's the thing that i love about this story about your dad and the story about your parents at the very beginning of this what i love is their willingness to not push past those moments of restraint when they sense the cat that that warning that conviction to not put the foot call on hold but then pick it back up only to get that yes out that they wanted that he wanted to get out and that's the problem with most of us that rebellious streak that we all have that when we sense that conviction that warning don't say that to your spouse not right now that's not the time to say that to your spouse you had to say the spouse thing the thing is you know when you're in heated fellowship with your spouse and you you know sometimes as wives we get ready because we know what we're gonna see it's gonna shut this whole thing down and we're gonna win this battle we plan to win the battle and then we feel that warning that conviction that's not that's not going to be healthy for the the longevity of your marriage the question is when we sense that will we push past it and say what we want to say anyway or will we submit to the leadership of the holy spirit and the moment it might seem a little bit limited losing yeah it might seem like you're limited you're losing but really the outcome of obedience is always freedom and victory yes and it's hard to see that from this perspective but if you trust god if we trust god then when we sense that conviction of the holy spirit to not say this to not by this to not eat all of this to restrain ourselves it's because there's freedom and victory that he's trying to lead us to why is it important to hear god because it changes you change me why is it that's right it does change you you know what it does you know what it does yeah it ruins you for church as usual oh hey ruins you yeah that regular old mundane christian rediverse a day to keep the devil away sit in church go because my mama went my grandmother went this is what we do all of that goes away okay because you're hungering for what you know you've experienced before actually sensing the voice of god his presence near you listen sometimes hearing god is less about having a specific word and more about just a nearness of his presence just knowing that he's near i'm talking about where your physical body responds to the presence of god there are times when you know he's near because he's only present there are times where he manifests himself in a way where the the hair on the back of your neck stands out kind of fail goosebumps yes and in those moments once you start sensing the nearness of god in that way you're ruined for all just doing stuff because it's what you're supposed to be doing and you want more of that and i think what a lot of people need to understand and he also speaks through his silence very much so you know i'm not saying anything you know think about the years in the world where you know from the old to new testament he was just silent yeah and his silence means stay still don't move i got you yeah does somebody your size ever feel goose bumps that ever happened to you ever you know you know i'm getting have goosebumps right now oh hey hey hey hey hey hey yeah how much time we have left in the show they're needing to get out okay and by the way uh we're going to unpack this so get right back into the subject matter it's an important subject matter even the idea well way the publisher and all that kind of stuff this is this is on the heart of god right now this is the people being dissatisfied with the mundane yeah we are aren't wanting to hear god's voice wanting to know you know i don't i mean you know not what to to eat today yeah necessarily but needing to know to help their kids yeah to their jobs their you know in every area of your life i believe god is speaking or wants to speak or wants to have a say yes and i want to say too that just that sense of dissatisfaction that that someone may be feeling that we all feel when we're going to be launched into the next level in our relationship with god sometimes that dissatisfaction makes us so upset and so frustrated because we just want to know the answer we want to get to the answer but the dissatisfaction itself is a sign of god's spirit working with this absolutely and the satisfaction the journey that it is going to lead you on the lessons that are meant to be learned they're going to be learned because the dissatisfaction sent you on a journey the journey itself is not a waste of time discerning the voice of god is never something you're going to arrive at it is never something you're going to be successful at it is going to be a journey with god as you walk in the rhythms of grace you will be on your deathbed still wanting to know whether or not you have clearly heard the voice of god because we are human wow he's mysterious he is god and aren't we glad that he's not just a big version of us i don't want god to just be about me i want god to be so far beyond my imagination that i can never arrive at the knowledge of him that i have to constantly and consistently be growing well because it takes faith that's how it takes faith to say okay you know what that that's why i always say if we step out in faith kind of no matter what it is but if we walk in faith how can we ever fail in that that's right that's right if we're believing that we're doing what god's called us yeah yeah even when we're when we're unsure and we're unsteady in in the book i list several of these but i'll tell you just a couple of them i believe that he allows us to have the mercy of confirmation i call them the five m's of hearing god when you sense that god is imparting something upon you um impressing conviction um just a a push towards something or away from something ask him for the mercy of confirmation he knows you're just a human he knows that you need to make sure that his fingerprints are on this assignment before you move forward i believe that he honors the sincere request of his children when they say lord would you just do something to confirm not not because it's the primary way you speak i think you're speaking would you confirm that by some external means to point me in the right direction and then one of the other m's is the ministry of eli do you remember the little boy samuel he had an older wiser guy in his life named eli who was the one who pointed out to him that the voice you're hearing is the voice of god you need to have a wiser more mature believer in your life who you admire not the car they drive the house they live on live in the success that they've achieved but the ongoing conversational relationship they have with god the victory you've seen them experience in your life you go to them and you say here's what i think the lord is saying would you pray through this with me listen i've got those people in my life the majority of the things that we have done in ministry as a couple we have not done i'm talking about big things that would have marked our lives in our children's lives we have not done before we have called people that we are submitted to their authority asked them would they pray through and give us their wise counsel before we took a step so we've submitted ourselves to the ministry of eli we've got eli's in our life okay we're talking about discerning the voice of god we're going to be talking about unpacking it with jerry and priscilla all hour long uh this book why don't you uh whine back and go back to the original moment that you started thinking about writing this book what was happening in your life what was going on how did this subject matter start forming books for most people are painful to write except max potato who says it's easy which is not fair he's kind of different that's not even yeah and that's true for me to write books and so most of us would would i've never written a book probably won't but the idea it would be painful because it's hard for me to write a letter so um this this had to be a period of light in your life where you were going to drill down you were going to get into this why this book why this subject matter when you wrote it specifically because of what your wife described a few moments ago as a dissatisfaction with my christian life the way it was wow i grew up in a incredible wonderful um spirit-filled environment where my father who started the church that i still attend to this day when i was one year old they have been faithfully pastoring for 40 years and if anybody can preach the word of god it is tony evans let me tell you he is one of the most gifted communicators of god's word and i was talking to your wife earlier today and telling her that the reality is i had parents that lived the thing i'm so grateful integrity and character that's what my parents had and so i gleaned so much of what the word of god was who it described god to be what he did in the old testament the new testament i knew all that but felt dissatisfied because if he did that for them then why am i not experiencing that for me there was an unrest in my heart i wanted more i wanted to see and experience this god of the bible and it is that dissatisfaction that sent me on a just a personal journey that connected me with people who were in different streams of the faith and instead of closing them out i invited in what it is that god was teaching them and the ways that he had demonstrated himself to them and by just listening and gleaning and inviting from the breadth of the body of christ i began to realize that there is so much more than our little box of our little stream presents to us that there is more that can be that doesn't take away or water down what we have but on the firm foundation of where that god has already laid in our life there are deeper depths and there are higher heights and so i just started walking the journey and i'm so grateful to the lord because he um honored my quest by again not allowing me to be at a place where i've arrived i'm in a place right now here i am at i wrote that book i think when i was 31 or 32 here i am at 42 years old and i'm at a place right now where i'm revisiting this whole concept because i'm needing to say lord i'm at a place right now where i feel like you're silent or either my heart's hardened and i'm not hearing so once again lord i need to retrain my spiritual ears i'm praying and saying lord would you heighten my spiritual senses you know just like we have five physical senses we've got spiritual sentence lord sen says lord i need my radar to be up so that i can detect your presence and hear your voice and i'm going to need you to make my detectors sensitive again lord and i'm entrusting that to your spirit so it's an ongoing um thing that is born out of those moments of unrest in our life with the lord the greatest gift ever it's the greatest gift it means there's a new level he wants to take you to i've been trying to keep myself from getting frustrated by those moments right and just go with god you know so then then at some point though how is your life different how is your life better after you hit that dissatisfaction point started writing this book what has changed in the 10 years for you personally because there could be somebody viewing going you know this is really too deep of a subject for me you know i got kids to raise and i got two jobs and i got this and that i don't have time to put into okay how can we make sure everyone understands this book the contents of this book the subject matter of hearing god's voice is something that will change their life so take your own journey talk to us about that if we feel like our life is too big and too filled with the busyness of kids or business or life right now to be concerned about this topic that just seems so theological theoretical and sort of out there then those very reasons are the reasons why more than anything you need to discern the voice of god okay all the things that you love the most your children your spouse your business your ministry all the things that are closest to you without guidance uh and leading from the holy spirit without knowing what it is that god wants you to do you will not be able to handle those things i won't be able to handle those things correctly we'll miss out on some of the biggest gifts and biggest surprises and biggest miracles that he wants to present to us because most of those hinge on us hearing a word and having faith enough to step out on the journey just like your parents got it let me tell you what i've gained here's what i've gained what i've gained is that now at 42 years old and i say this i say this uh you know i'm stepping carefully when i say it but at 42 years old there are very few things that the lord could ask me to do that i would not quickly and immediately step out to do them because i have i have such a track record with god now even with my mistakes but i have such a track record with god now and i think my husband can attest to this but i'm one of those people that if i sense the holy spirit is calling me to do something because of the track record of seeing his faithfulness time and time again step in for me when i stepped off what i thought was a ledge and it didn't look like it was good but i had a word from the lord and it was confirmed in his word and by leadership in my life so i just went ahead and i did it anyway and i watched him catch me and i watched him take me to a place i never could have gotten in my own giftings or my own talent or my own skill you watch him do that enough times you get to the place that when god asks you to do it again you you can't wait to step off the ledge yeah because you need that another word let's go i'm so excited to see what's next in the journey so i get excited now about hearing a word from god i i don't allow myself to become discouraged when i feel like he's silent i assume that that means the last word i had state stay with the last word stay right there obedient to them do me a favor just uh let's let's for somebody that still is going yeah that's good for you folks that are on television right you don't know what it's like out here you know and all this and and you know you're all up there in your suit and you're all looking good and smelling good and all that kind of stuff it's really rough out here think of the people in you know foreign you know parts of the world of indonesia and and africa that are watching tonight they're just they're struggling to get by okay god talk to them yeah well yeah would it happen think of think of them in in regard to that and if you would look at them and maybe pray for them for so long let me just say this first of all and i want to talk to those people please i'm the youngest of three grew up in a single parent home my mother had to sack groceries work for tips only to put food on the table but i remember nights i couldn't sleep and get up i saw her praying on her knees for her it was how bad she wanted it i tell people all the time how the prayers of one woman change the entire generation wow so yeah and so god speaks to us no matter what ailments we have no matter how devastating those seasons of life are where we feel like we are completely overwhelmed we don't have what it's going to take to sustain our current needs and we're wondering if god hears we're wondering whether or not our prayers matter we're wondering whether or not he is ever going to speak into and change and alter our circumstances but one of the greatest gifts i think from scripture is not his voice it's not what he can give us it's just him yeah seek him he will disclose more and more to you in terms of his will his plans for your life his gifts his blessings those are a benefit of just having him and you need to know that he'll never leave you he will never forsake you no matter how devastating things might become and i know there are some very real practical needs and so i want to pray for those right now i want to pray that the lord will manifest himself to you in a tangible way that will keep you hope filled encouraged and excited to continue your relationship with the lord despite external circumstances lord jesus i pray for my sister and brothers all around the world i'm asking right now in jesus name that you would bring encouragement you would replace discouragement with encouragement lord i'm going to ask right now in jesus name that you would build up somebody's faith today by manifesting yourself in their life lord i'm asking you to speak to them a still small voice lord or let the scriptures fall open to a page of of your word lord that is so evidently so clearly for them that they will never doubt again that they have not heard from you and experienced you lord i'm asking that the church they attend would be on fire with your spirit that every time they and the others that go there would walk through the door they would have a tangible sense of your presence with them lord i pray that your word would be alive i pray that the assignment of the enemy against them against their children against their spouses lord that those assignments would be canceled and that they would see those assignments replaced by your grace your love and your mercy washing over them and their experience lord meet us speak to us lord we need a word from you and so we ask lord that you would bring uh your word to your people and speak clearly so that we can hear thank you lift the veil from our eyes thank you lord cause the veil that is over our ears the hardness of our heart lord to be softened and to be removed so that we have tender sensors that are able to detect your presence we need you lord and so we ask you to speak it is in jesus name that we pray amen amen beautiful wow wow wow i love what you said about your mama you know the need for god so many of us we need something new in our life we need god and and i think that dissatisfaction leads us to a place of seeking you know and i think being a seeker is one of the greatest things that could ever happen to us because there's a lot of people sitting in church that aren't seeking god anymore yeah but there's a lot of people out in the world that haven't found god yet god hasn't found them that are seeking and you seek and you're going to find him that's right you know so i think that's a that's a good thing if you've got um children that are seeking god you need to pray for your kids that god brings that person or something into their lives that that draws them to god because i think that's a very open season of their life was when they're seeking god totally how do you know um so so i know that a lot of um people want to hear god's voice but they won't stop talking [Laughter] right tell us how important my problem just stop talking yeah we have turned prayer into this one-way monologue where we're just you know just feeling like we have to fill in the no of the silence any quiet spaces we've just got to fill them in with our next request or the next thing that we want to say and you're right we don't leave room for god to get a word in edgewise but one of the authors that i remember reading bob sorgay i believe his name is he said nothing happens when i speak but when god speaks worlds come into existence so why in the world wouldn't i want to leave time for him to speak and what that practically looks like is yes vocalize your prayers to him i literally have kind of begun the habit of even writing some down just writing down what it is that i want to say to the lord yes we have the privilege of bringing our needs and our request to him but there ought to be at some point where you just pause and you say okay lord is there anything you want to say to me most of the time he'll speak to us just through his word through whatever you're reading in your bible time that day he knows how to match up what you're going to be reading today with what the needs of your life or your future are that you might not even be aware of yet so in his word that is how most of the time he speaks back to us but oftentimes it's just an impression it's just a bible verse from that you learned in sunday school years ago all of a sudden it comes back to your mind now take that as god speaking to you or the name of a friend you haven't talked to in years take that as god saying pray for this friend right now those little impressions those little inklings you know deuteronomy chapter 30 says god's word is not so hard that you've got to send someone above the heavens to go find it for you or through the seas to go and get it for you god's word is in your own heart it's in your it is as close as your fingers tips all of that stuff that we discount as our own ideas oh that's just coincidence most of the time for the believer for the one who is seeking god's will and his voice most of the time that's god's word take it seriously write it down ask him for confirmation treasure his word and see if he doesn't show you how important and palatable it is in terms of the experience that he has planned for you we are talking with jerry and priscilla shire discerning the voice of god you know what's uh you know it it it couldn't be any more important this subject matter i mean the very fact that the four of us are sitting in a studio doing this broadcast is because discerning the voice of god came to paul and jan crouch 40 something years ago and tbn is his thing this isn't something that the crouch family built uh this is something god did and and the idea um you know that's why it's almost comical when people try to rise up against something that god did it's just kind of kind of funny you know it can be irritating for a season but it's it's almost comical yeah uh because uh if we thought that this ministry and as it is now fully in its second generation were up to us we'd quit it's not up to us it's god's thing and so we have that same firm foundation of understanding and and oftentimes people will say well you know everything's different for you and everything's different for these smiling faces on on television you don't understand what's like you know in the real world and well the problem is is uh the crouch family the shire family and you know the evans family were all just normal people till we heard the voice of the lord and then that's what changed if there is a difference it's because of his voice there couldn't be a more important subject matter for you and jerry i'm circling back to you just for a second because of what you said so it it's not an economic thing it isn't just you know executives that the lord speaks to your mama uh needed the voice of the lord and apparently was struggling in a single family situation so it worked and it worked for your mama yes you're absolutely right i remember her coming home with her tips and and say she made 40 tips that day all right i remember her taking out four dollars yeah you know putting it to the side because that was going to go into the offering plate that's i mean i'm like mom are you kidding me you know the lord would understand goes no it's just she goes it's just simple obedience so it had nothing to do with that and then i remember her like i said getting up early praying i remember there were situations i was in off in college that some of my boys and i would go do something and there was a still this thing in me like you know what jerry don't go you know no that was the time my mom was praying for me so she has kept me out of so much situation through her prayers that's why i said the prayers had the prayers of one woman change the generation i mean still today it's so funny our boys will be like granny's still praying for 30 minutes i'm like yep she's still praying i said she's praying for you guys so she's praying even for this next generation her grandchildren yeah and so it's just great but yeah it is not an economical thing it is it is a it is something that you desire do you really want it like i said she used to get up early in the morning before the kids got up on her knees praying for her children praying for the day praying for whatever so you know you make time for what you want yeah and if you want to hear the voice of god you got to make time for him okay now we we the four of us grew up in an environment where this subject matter is normal yeah this one this this is understood we get this there are people that grew up in the opposite polar opposite of that and they don't get it this book you know it the title is discerning the voice of god how to recognize when god is speaking okay so there could be you know why don't you start with you know just speak to the people that are new christians they didn't grow up they don't have no examples in their life of this happening this isn't normal and it sounds crazy sounds like it's not right that we're not right a little crazy okay so uh just introduce the subject matter if somebody just doesn't quite get it okay so john 10 27 to me is the most concise and comprehensive verse in scripture about hearing god uh it is when jesus says my sheep hear my voice i know them and they follow me he says you got to be my sheep to hear my voice so you said new christians listen that relationship right there is the the connector that allows you access to the voice of god so so to me the first step is actually believing that as an adopted son or daughter grafted into the family of god that you have the capacity innately because you're part of the family to now hear the voice of god it's like um when we were growing up in our house i don't know about you guys but we didn't have access to a whole lot of cable television my parents didn't get cable they didn't get you know whatever directv all that stuff we didn't have any of that stuff right and i i felt a little mad about that i really wanted to have more channels my parents chose that we could really only watch the cosby show on thursdays at seven o'clock and then a different world so it wasn't until we were getting ready to get married i moved out i remember the day i had the cable guy come over hook up the cable and after he did all that hooking up he said here's the remote control push the guide button and i pushed the guide button at i had never seen so many channels in my life on the screen i had no idea all those channels were there now all those channels didn't just get created that day they had always been there it's just i didn't have the right hook up so that i could tap into them and bring them and draw them down into my experience the holy spirit is the hookup when you place faith in jesus christ ephesians chapter one says the moment you believe you receive the hook up the holy spirit now you are able to draw down divine channels it's not that you created them no they were always there god's speaking he wants to reveal himself now you have the the opportunity to hear him so really the first step especially if you grew up in an environment where this concept is sort of um unique and different and new for you it's to believe that as a as a privilege of being a son or a daughter you can hear from god it is the deception of the enemy to cause us to think we have to have a seminary to degree we have to have some special hotline connection with god like somebody we may admire that we as regular men and women can't hear from god that's what the enemy wants you to think he doesn't want you to know it's your birthright and so believing that you can is the first step to hearing god friends no matter what trouble you're facing today god has already provided the wisdom courage and strength you need to stand for your gifts of support in any amount we're going to send you joel osteen's new book you are stronger than you think please go to tbn.org forward slash stronger than and thank you for being a part of this global television ministry

Channel: Praise on TBN

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Keywords: priscilla shirer, priscilla shirer sermons, priscilla shirer 2021, priscilla shirer armor of god, priscilla shirer prayer, priscilla shirer identity in christ, priscilla shirer hearing the voice of god, priscilla shirer movies, hearing the voice of god, hearing god's voice, how to hear from god, hear from god, discerning the voice of god priscilla shirer, discerning the voice of god, discernment, praise tbn, tbn, tbn praise, tbn praise the lord, P7R7A2I7S7E3, 7721473, 8T2B6N, prayer

Id: LUCNvmVxPLI

Length: 39min 55sec (2395 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 16 2021