REPLAY: 5 Keys to Hearing the Voice of God

Prayer was meant to be a two-way conversation.  But in today's noisy world, hearing God voice can feel impossible. How do we recognize when our Heavenly Father is speaking?

In this episode I share five keys to hearing God's voice. First, we must believe that God actually wants to speak to us. Jesus himself said, "My sheep know my voice."

Whether you're struggling to hear God through life's noise or seeking deeper intimacy with Him, these five keys will help you grow in confidence that you can hear your Father's voice. Subscribe now to continue this journey of growing in relationship with the God who loves to communicate with His children.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome Back to Grace From My Home
• 5:36 Announcement of Replay Series and Updates
• 5:59 Key 1: Believing God Wants to Speak
• 12:30 Key 2: Spending Time in Prayer
• 14:43 Key 3: Asking God Specific Questions
• 19:53 Key 4: Spending Time in His Word
• 23:21 Key 5: Listening for His Voice
• 25:57 Closing Prayer and Encouragement

Transcript

Audrey: 1:13

Hi friend, welcome back to Grace From my Home. I'm Audrey McCracken and I'm so glad to be back with you again this week. I hope that you're doing well. I hope that you're gearing up for a fun summer. We are making plans today for what we're going to do with our summer.

Audrey: 1:30

My kids always amaze me. The things I think they're going to want to do for summer they don't. They want to do things that, honestly, are to me, just aren't as exciting. They want to visit cousins that live far away. They want to visit, they want to go to amusement parks, which doesn't surprise me, but they're really not into big, exciting things like I think they'd want to do. You know, I mentioned let's go on a cruise, let's see if we can get a good deal on a family cruise, and they weren't interested in that at all. So I'm trying to find some things, some fun things, for us to do this summer, because our oldest will be in college next year and I want to enjoy some one-on-one time with him and family time with him. And then my next one is right on his heels. He'll be a. He'll be a senior next year in high school, and so I know my time is short with them. Not that they're going away forever, but it changes, you know. It's just a different. It's a different dynamic. So, but, looking forward to the summer and I hope you are too I've found sometimes that just making plans makes me excited more excited than the actual plans like just sitting down thinking about what we're going to do. Sometimes that's more fun for me than actually doing it, and I'm one of those people who love to plan. I love to plan. It's just putting the plan into action sometimes is where I stumble. So I've got great plans.

Audrey: 2:56

But here at Grace For my Home, we're in the middle of a five-week replay series where I'm revisiting some of my most downloaded and listened to episodes from the podcast, and these are the messages that have reached the most women. And today is one of my personal favorites. While these episodes are airing, I'm working on things. I'm working on things for you. I'm taking some focused behind the scenes time to finish writing my new book, to get prepared for launching my second podcast. I'm going to start a daily devotional podcast that's going to air Monday through Friday. Just a short five, 10 minute podcast to help you start your day. But this week I'm returning to a podcast episode that aired in May of 2023, and it's called Hearing the Voice of God and, like I said, it's been one of the most popular podcast episodes that I've done, and I went back through and listened to it and I think you'll enjoy it too. It was a good reminder for me and I think that you'll be blessed by it too. If you've ever wondered how do I hear the voice of the Lord, or if you've ever struggled with hearing God clearly in the middle of a busy life, then I pray that this episode speaks to you and that it reminds you that he still speaks and that he loves to speak to you because you're his child, and that if we listen, then we'll hear him. So enjoy Hope. You have a great week. See you back here again next week. Hello friends, welcome back to Grace From A Home.

Audrey: 4:30

I am so thankful to be back here with you guys this week and I am looking forward to summer. We have about one more month and our summer will officially begin. My boys will be out of school I won't be homeschooling and we are already planning've already. We're already planning our, our summer vacation together, and sometimes I think that's more fun than the actual vacation. You know I enjoy finding the rooms and we know where we're going to stay and buying the tickets, and you know, just thinking through how are we going to do this. That's fun for me, and sometimes I enjoy that more than actually going on vacation, but we're excited about that. Looking forward to that, we're planning on going to Williamsburg, virginia, this year and we haven't been there in several years, so we're excited about that.

Audrey: 5:24

I also wanted to share with you some not so good news. Share with you some not so good news because I've mentioned her on my podcast before. I wanted to tell you guys that this week we had to say goodbye to Bella. Bella was a lab retriever mix and we've had her for 12 years, but she was not doing well at all. She had arthritis and we were giving her medicine and then more medicine, and she'd gotten to the point where she could. She was not mobile, and so it was just cruel to to let her go on that way, and I had actually canceled two, two vet appointments before. Finally, you know, talking with everybody and saying you know we've got to do this, and so we had a rough few days and it's still. We still miss her very much. We're still having a hard time adjusting, especially when we come home and she's not there wagging her tail and begging for treats. But my boys have never known life without Bella. She's just always been there and I'm thankful to the Lord for her. She was a gift from God for our family.

Audrey: 6:38

But last week I had mentioned to you I wanted to talk with you about hearing the voice of the Lord and just encourage you in that, and I think it's so important that we, as God's daughters, as mothers that are raising children in the world we live in today, that we have ears to hear the voice of the Lord, that we know how to hear what our Father is saying, because we live in a time when there is so much being thrown at us all the time and you know what I mean. I mean from the news to social media, to you know, just going to Walmart. There is so much, so much information all the time. You know so much that is bombarding us, so much that is bombarding us, and it's so important that we have a line of communication with our Father, that we can hear what he is saying to us and that he knows what we need. So I just want to share with you today my thoughts on hearing the Lord's voice. So today I'm going to share with you five keys for learning how to hear the Lord's voice and recognizing when he is speaking to you. And my hope, my prayer, is that this will build your confidence and faith that not only does he want to speak to you, but that you can hear him when he does.

Audrey: 8:10

And the first key is believing that God wants to speak to you. Now that may seem very simplistic, that may just be like really did you have to even mention that? But I do, because, see, I found that a lot of people, they have a belief that it is wrong to ask to hear from the Lord or to ask the Lord to speak to them. There are whole books that are written about how God does not speak today. And if you believe that, then not only would it be hard for you to hear from the Lord, but you would even feel guilty for wanting to. And you were redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus so that you could be in relationship with God, so that your relationship with God could be restored. Your relationship with God could be restored. God sent Jesus because we no longer could have a relationship with him and he greatly desires us to be in fellowship with him, to be his family. We are adopted into his family and so I believe, since now we are part of the family of God, that he wants to speak to us. He wants to communicate with us. You know that's part of having a relationship is that you communicate with each other. Jesus said my sheep know my voice, and I believe that God wants to communicate with us.

Audrey: 9:48

Now, when I say hear the voice of the Lord, I'm not talking about an audible voice. I have never heard that, not sure I want to. Don't know if I could handle that. I'm talking about communicating with heaven. I'm talking about when I pray and I need an answer on a decision, that I can get that answer from my father. I'm talking about when I'm going through a particular situation and I need wisdom that I know how to receive that wisdom from above. And to me, that is talking to God is when I know my father has given me what I need, when I know that he has communicated to me his heart, and I think we all need that. So I believe the first key to hearing God speak is believing that he wants to, because otherwise we won't ask or we'll feel guilty for asking. And we need to know that it's right, that it's good, that it's natural that we hear from our father. And so that's the first key.

Audrey: 11:08

The second key is spending time in prayer, because prayer is a two-way communication. It is not just us going to God and giving Him our wish list, or us telling Him what we want Him to do in our lives or telling Him what we need. It's not even just us going to Him and thanking Him for all he's done, or us going to Him and quoting Scripture. All those things can be a part of prayer. We can bring Him our requests, we can give Him praise, we can thank Him, but that's just a part of the communication, and communication is two way.

Audrey: 11:53

So the more we go to the Lord in prayer, you know, the more we communicate with heaven, I believe, the more sensitive we become to his voice, to what he's saying to us. You know there are times in prayer when we just need to be quiet. That's hard for me. I'm a talker and sometimes I'll go to God and I'm trying to plead my case. I'm trying to get it all out, and sometimes we have to plead our case we have to do that, but then we have to stop and listen, and that gives the Lord an opportunity to speak.

Audrey: 12:31

We've all had conversations with people where we know that person doesn't really care what I have to say. Have you ever been in I know you have Like you're talking to somebody and they're talking, and they're talking and talking, and the only time they stop is just to ask you if you're in agreement with them. You know they don't really care what you have to say, and so sometimes we go to the Lord and it can be like that we're telling God everything we need and what we want, what we think, but we don't pause to say what do you think, lord? Lord, I'm listening. And so the first key is talking to him. When we talk to him, we learn how to listen to him, we open up the line of communication. So the second key is to spend time with God in prayer. We must draw near to hear. We must keep the lines of communication open.

Audrey: 13:31

The third is asking God specific questions. Now, this is kind of ties into prayer, I know, but I've found in my prayer time or anytime when I'm talking to God driving down the road in my car that when something is bothering me, if I can ask him Lord, can you explain this to me? I remember hearing people say that it's wrong to question God. But I don't believe that, because I believe God is big enough to handle our big questions and that when we can ask him a question to me, it's like healing, because I know, even if I don't get the answer right then, that I've put it in his hands. I've said, lord, I don't understand this, but I ask you to show me. And when I do that, it's like there's a piece that, okay, it's in his hands now.

Audrey: 14:33

And I do this about a lot of things, even in reading the Bible. Sometimes I'll read through the Bible and I'll come to a scripture or passage and I'll be like I have no idea what God is saying in this. I don't understand. And I'll say, lord, I don't understand this. Can you give me an understanding of what you're saying here? And sometimes it may be a long time before I get it, so we can ask him about that. Lord, what do you mean in this scripture? What are you saying in this scripture? That's asking him a question, that's putting the ball in his court, so to speak.

Audrey: 15:13

Other things. There are really tough questions that I think we need to ask God. There are things that happened to me that I just really struggled with as a new Christian, wondering, okay, if God allowed this to happen, how can I believe he loves me? That I just really struggled with as a new Christian, wondering, okay, if God allowed this to happen, how can I believe he loves me? And so I have had to take those things to the Lord in prayer and say, lord, I need you to show me why. And you know, the thing about asking the Lord question is usually you're not going to get an immediate answer, but, like I said, you're putting the ball in his court. And number two is it's never the answer you think you're going to get.

Audrey: 16:31

You know, sometimes we go to the Lord and we ask him questions, but we think we already know the answer. But see, the beautiful thing about having a relationship with God is that he doesn't fit in our box and he can bring an answer that brings peace and healing to our hearts like nobody else. And so when we ask Him questions, we're allowing Him to be God, we're admitting we don't know everything and we're opening ourself up to hear how he sees it, he sees it from above, he sees the whole thing at one time and we're just seeing a little piece. And so I've found that to hear from God one of the best ways for me is in prayer and in asking Him specific questions. And, guys, there are a lot of questions I've asked that I haven't got the answer to, and there are a lot of those questions I may not get the answer to till I see him face to face. You know, when I get to heaven I have a lot of questions. Now, when I get there, they may not matter, you know, they may melt away, I may just know them or they may not matter anymore. But I believe that he does not mind and actually wants to answer the questions that are burning in our hearts and we can trust them with him. And it opens up the door of communication with heaven when we do that.

Audrey: 17:58

Number four spending time in his word. God will never speak, contrary to what the word of God says. God's word is infallible and it's inspired. It's his holy word, and so when we get in that word, I think of it almost as the language of heaven. When we get into his word, we learn what he's done for us. We learn who we are, we learn who he is, and it's almost like the language that he uses to speak to us. You know, when Jesus was preparing his disciples for his soon coming departure. In John, chapter 14, he tells his disciples in verse 26,. But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. So when we're born again, the Holy Spirit comes, he lives inside of us, he resides inside of us and he brings to our remembrance God's word when we need it, the words of Jesus when we need them, and so we have to put that word in there to give him something to bring to our remembrance. Right, if we've not heard it, how is he going to remind us of it? So when we get in God's word and we learn what God has said and what he has done, and and we commit those things to memory, then we're giving the Holy Spirit something to bring back when we need it.

Audrey: 19:39

How many situations, how many times have I been in a situation where I didn't know what to do and I would just pray under my breath Lord, help me. I don't know what to do, and a scripture would pop up. You know, sometimes I've been in a situation where I've been fearful and a scripture will pop up Fear thou not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will help you, I will strengthen you. That's one of my favorites, in case you can't tell. And so the Holy Spirit will quicken it. He'll bring it back to your remembrance and give you something to rest on. And to me, that is God speaking to me. He's speaking to me through his word when I need it. And so when we get into the word of God, we learn the language of heaven and he can pull it up when we need it. So by reading the Bible, by meditating on scripture and hiding his words in our hearts, then it gives us that line of communication with heaven where he can speak to us in his word.

Audrey: 20:44

And this also goes for when you're sitting down reading the Bible. I'm sure many of you have had that experience. Where you're sitting there, you're reading the Bible. Maybe it's something you've read over many, many times, but for some reason a particular scripture just stands off the page and it's like you've never read that scripture before. But you know you have. But today it's like illuminated and see, that's the Lord speaking through his word to you, that's the Holy Spirit and they're saying pay attention to this. And so just sitting down reading the word gives God an opportunity to speak to our hearts.

Audrey: 21:26

Number five is listening for his voice, and what I mean by that is tuning our ears to heaven. To hear Starts with that number one, believing he wants to speak. But this is more of listening, quieting our hearts, our minds, putting our ear to heaven, saying Lord, do you have anything today that you need me to know? I think about Paul. He said you know, pray without ceasing. Well, we can't pray without ceasing. Right, we'd be number one. We would be really odd in this world if we're always talking. But it's not that kind of prayer. It's having an attitude of prayer, it's being in a state of prayer, especially when I've prayed, and I need an answer.

Audrey: 22:08

Sometimes I'll find myself throughout the day I've tried to put my ear to heaven. Lord, what are you saying? I even pray that scripture in Samuel, where the Lord spoke to Samuel and he kept thinking it was Eli, but finally he realized it's God speaking to me. And so he goes and he says Lord speak, for your servant is listening. And we have to get in that posture to hear Lord speak, because your daughter's listening. And when we can tune into heaven, say Lord, give me ears to hear what you're saying. You know, help me to be sensitive to what you're saying today. Then we open up our ears to hear what he has to say and it's then that we can receive it, because if we're so busy with everything else that we're not listening, then we won't be able to hear.

Audrey: 23:03

So listening for his voice is number five. Let's do a quick recap Believing that God wants to speak to you, that is the first. Number two spending time in prayer. Number three asking God specific questions. Right, that's like putting the ball in his court. Okay, lord, it's your turn. Number four spending time in his word. His word is the language that he uses to speak to us. Number five listening for his voice, having an ear to hear. You know, tuning in to what is my father saying.

Audrey: 23:49

So those are the five keys that I wanted to share with you today, and my hope is that they will build your confidence that God wants to speak to you and that you can hear what he has to say. You know, in the Garden of Eden it says that the Spirit of the Lord came down in the cool of the day and fellowshiped with Adam and Eve in the garden, and after the fall, after sin entered the picture, that fellowship was broken. And so one of the wonderful things about what we have received in Christ is that, once again, we can enjoy fellowship with God, we can know Him and we can share our heart with Him and we can hear from Him. And so I just encourage you today to ask God to speak to you, to ask him to answer the questions that you need answered, to show you what is on his mind. Because, guys, we need that. We need a real, true, living relationship with Jesus, where he is not a creed on the wall but he is alive and well and living in our hearts. And before you go today, I'd like to just pray for you and cover you in prayer.

Audrey: 25:12

Father, I thank you for my sisters who are listening today. They are about your business. They are doing the work that you've given them to do, and I ask you today for strength in the work. I ask you that you'd strengthen their hands, that, lord, you would give them a heart that believes and, lord, that you'd give them understanding in their minds. I pray, god, that you would help us to grow and, lord, to mature and to love you. God, I ask you to speak to us, lord, you are our greatest desire and need and I ask you, lord, god, to be real to us and help us to learn how to hear your voice so that, lord, when you communicate to us, lord, we know that that was my father, that he has a plan and I can hear what he is saying and, lord, I just thank you for it. I thank you for your grace. It's always more than enough. In Jesus' name, amen.