Questions For Discussion

1. Have you ever experienced peace accompanying
direction from God? Describe it.
2. Do you use peace as a compass for internal
confirmation regarding both the everyday details of your
life and the larger decisions you face? How? And if not,
why?
3. Is there something God is prompting you to do by an
inner nudging? What is it? Have you noticed the inner
prompt growing stronger as time passed?
4. Have you ever experienced God putting a desire in your
heart for something? If so, did you pray about it? Did you
then receive it? How was this edifying?
5. How do you determine if a desire you possess is from
the Spirit or from your flesh? Do you act upon a desire
before clearly knowing where it came from?
6. What are some of the ways you or others you know
have heard from God?
7. What do you believe God is leading you to in response
to this chapter?

GOD SPEAKS THROUGH A
VOICE WE KNOW AND TRUST

In the Old Testament, when God started calling to Samuel,
Samuel thought that his master, Eli, was calling him.
Twice God called, and twice Samuel went to Eli asking
what he wanted.
Both times Eli said to Samuel, “I am not calling you.” So
both times Samuel returned to his room. Then he heard
the voice again. “Here I am, Eli, what do you want?” he
asked. Finally Eli said, “It must be God calling you” (see 1
Samuel 3:1-10).
God spoke to Samuel in a voice that was familiar to him so
that he wouldn’t be frightened. God wants us to listen, so
He speaks to us through a voice that we will recognize.
Sometimes it may sound like our own voice, sometimes it
may sound like the voice of someone we know. But the
point is that the voice will always bring peace when God
speaks to us.
People who listen to my teaching tapes a lot tell me that
frequently when they are about to make a decision or do
something they are not sure about, they will hear me say
something that gives them direction or correction. What
they are really hearing is God speaking through His Word,
but they have heard my voice speaking it to them for so
long, it sounds like me when it comes to them. Samuel
was accustomed to hearing Eli; therefore, when God
called him, it sounded to him like Eli.

Above all, remember that we are to be led by peace.
A woman told me at a meeting, “I was in this situation
with my husband that was getting intense. God spoke to
me, telling me what to do by reminding me of something
you said on one of your tapes. All of a sudden I heard
your voice from one of the tapes saying just what it was I
needed to remember. God reminded me of it as a ‘word in
due season.’” Even though it was my voice she heard that
was recorded in her memory bank, it was the Holy Spirit
who called forth that memory when she needed it.
When God speaks to us, it doesn’t sound like a loud voice
booming out of heaven. Often He speaks to us through our
own inner voice. We may think that we are talking to
ourselves, but God’s words in our spirit are always filled
with a wisdom that we could never have on our own.
People have said to me, “You’re always saying ‘God said.’
You sound like you have a conversation with God all the
time.” God is trying to talk to them all the time, too. They
would hear Him if they would simply ask Him to speak to
them, then listen to their inner man or conscience, and
wait for Him to speak.
There are many different ways that God speaks to us.
Many people think they don’t hear from God because they
are looking for some supernatural manifestation that
simply won’t happen. Most of the time, God speaks
through a still, small voice within that sounds quite
natural. God says that we are His sheep and that He is our
Shepherd, and that His sheep know His voice (see John
10:1-5).

He may speak to us through nature, as He did with me a
few days after I had received the baptism of the Holy
Spirit. I drove past a field full of weeds, and in the middle
of those weeds there were two or three patches of pretty
flowers. I received an entire message from God about how
flowers can grow in the middle of the weeds, and how
good things are in our lives even in the midst of struggles
and trials.
In all the years I have been listening for God’s voice, I
have had one open vision, and maybe four or five
prophetic dreams. I am not making light of the fact that
God speaks to some people through many dreams and
visions, but most of the time He just fills my thoughts with
His thoughts and confirms them with His written Word.
He gives me peace, and I try to follow wisdom.
We need to discern the Lord’s voice carefully, but we
needn’t over-spiritualize hearing from God. It is not as
difficult as some may think. If God has something to say,
He knows how to get His point across. It is our
responsibility just to listen with expectancy and test what
we hear against internal peace.
God has something to say about most everything that
happens to us each day. It is such a shame for people to be
lonely when God is eagerly waiting to talk to them and
fellowship with them anytime they are willing to listen.

GOD SPEAKS THROUGH
OUR HEART’S DESIRES

God speaks to us through the sanctified desires of our
heart. I’m not saying that everything on our “want list” is
from God, but when we long in our heart for the works of
the Spirit to operate in our lives, we know God is leading
us in His plan for us. Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself
also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and
secret petitions of your heart.” This works two ways: yes,
He gives us what we long for, but He also puts a longing in
our heart for things He wants us to have.
We need to ask God to give us sanctified, or holy, desires.
The Word says we are to eagerly pursue and seek to
acquire love, and earnestly desire and cultivate spiritual
endowments (see 1 Corinthians 14:1). We are to yearn for
sanctified desires—not carnal desires!
The desires of the flesh are opposed to the desires of the
Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are opposed to the
godless human nature (see Galatians 5:17). God puts a
desire in us for something that will bring His
righteousness, peace, and joy to situations in our lives (see
Romans 14:17).
When God leads us to do something, there is growing zeal
in us to see it achieved. Thinking about doing it motivates
us. It is extremely different from desires of the flesh,
because lusting for selfish pleasures leaves us tormented.
But the inner drive for God’s desires exhilarates us with
enthusiasm.

Therefore, we see that even in waiting we need balance.
We also sense a deep peace if the desire we have is truly
from God and not merely a fleshly desire. I know God
often leads us by desire, and yet I was hesitant to add this
section about desires in the book because I do not want
people to think that everything they desire is something
they should have.
There are desires of the Spirit, and there are fleshly,
carnal desires—right and wrong desires. We can desire
something that isn’t necessarily wrong in and of itself,
and yet, it may be wrong for us.
I have asked God on several occasions what He wanted
me to do about a specific thing, and He has responded in
my heart, “Do what you want to do.” The first time I heard
Him say that, I almost rebuked it as being from Satan. I
was afraid to believe God would give me that kind of
liberty, but I know now that He gives more and more
liberty as people grow spiritually into a state of maturity.
All I needed to do was think of my own children. When
they were young and inexperienced, I made all their
decisions for them. As they got older and more mature, I
let them do more of what they wanted to do. They had
been around Dave and me for a long time and were
beginning to know our heart. Now all four of our children
are grown, and most of the time they do what they want
to do and rarely ever offend us because they know our
heart and act accordingly.
After we walk with God for a number of years, we get to
know His heart, His character, and His ways. If we are
committed to following them, He can give us a greater
liberty because we start acting as though we are “one
with Him.” Our spirit becomes filled with His Spirit, and
our desires begin to merge with His. In John 10:30 Jesus
said, “I and the Father are One.” In John 8:28, He said, “I
do nothing of Myself (of My own accord or on My own
authority), but I say [exactly] what My Father has taught
me.”

In 1 Chronicles 17:2 we see that Nathan the prophet told
King David to do all that was in his heart, for God was
with him. At the time he said this, David was making
preparations to build a tabernacle for God to dwell in. In
verse 4 the prophet delivered a direct word from God
saying that David was not to build the tabernacle, because
God had assigned that task to another.
The thing that has always interested me about this
particular situation is that it appears that the “normal”
method of operation between David and God was for
David to do what was in his heart, and God would be with
him. Then obviously in this situation we see that God had
another plan, and so He interrupted David’s plan to build
a house for Him. He even told David later that it was good
that he had it in his heart, but that it was not His will for
him to build it. He had chosen David’s son Solomon to do
it.

When I was learning how to hear from God and desiring
with all my heart to be led by the Spirit, these verses
really helped me to realize that we can move about with
some degree of freedom following our sanctified desires,
as long as we are ready to immediately go in another
direction if God shows us we need to do so. It is not wrong
to have a plan and follow it… if we are willing to give up
our plan when God does not approve of it.
In John 15:7 Jesus said, “If you live in Me [abide vitally
united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue
to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall
be done for you.” How can this be possible unless there
really is a merging of our desires with God’s as we mature
in Him?
The goal of every true believer is to be one with God.
The goal of every true believer is to be one with God. It
happens spiritually when we are born again, and it occurs
in mind, will, and emotion as we grow and mature
spiritually. In Ephesians 4:15 the apostle Paul urges us,
“Let us grow up in every way and in all things into Him
Who is the Head.” As we do so, our desires become His
desires, and we are safe in following them.

The call that Dave and I have to our ministry is a good
example of how God has led us by the desires of our
heart. We couldn’t travel every weekend, stay in hotels,
and be gone from our family if our desire was not God
given. God has put such a strong desire in us that we are
motivated to make any sacrifice necessary or overcome
any opposition that may come against us in order to
accomplish God’s will for us.
Sometimes simple desires come to us from God, because
He likes to bless us. He sometimes puts desires in us for
the things He wants to give us. His Word says, “What
things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye
receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:24 KJV).
Several years ago God was dealing with me about being
sweet and kind. I had been going through a rough time,
and the Lord said to me, “Now just be a sweetheart; just
be a sweetheart.”
Later, in a meeting, a lady came up to me and gave me a
bangle bracelet, saying, “This is my favorite bracelet, but I
believe God told me to give it to you.” It had a word
written on it in what looked like a foreign language. I
asked, “What does this word mean?”
She said “Well, I got this bracelet in Hawaii, and this is the
Hawaiian word for ‘sweetheart.’” I knew then that God
was giving me the bracelet as confirmation that He was
dealing with my attitude.

I wore the bracelet for many years. It was a little bit small
for me, and once I got it on, it was difficult, even
inconvenient, to get it off. I really had no release from
God to stop wearing it. Sometimes I wanted other
bracelets, but there was just no peace in me to buy
something else when I knew God had specifically given
me that bracelet as a reminder of His direction in my life.
When the carnal part of us wants something, but our
spiritual side is opposed, we need to wait for peace. When
God is moving us to do something, there is agreement in
both our carnal and spiritual desires. We should never
override our spiritual desires for something that only our
flesh demands.
After a few years I mentioned occasionally to Dave, “I
would like to get another bracelet.”
He would always say something like, “No, I like that
bracelet; it’s beautiful on you.” Or, “You don’t need
another one; you couldn’t find a prettier one than that.”
Then one day I was shopping, and a desire stirred within
me for a new bracelet. I hadn’t been thinking about
jewelry, and this desire was so sudden I felt it was from
the Lord. I said, “Well, Lord, if this desire is really from
You, I am just going to pray about it.” Spiritual desires will
motivate us to pray. I said, “God, I don’t want anything
except what You want for me. I don’t need a new bracelet
to be happy, but if You want me to have other bracelets,
then I pray that You will give them to me, in Jesus’ name.”
Then I went about my business.

I came home from that trip, and a couple of days later my
close friend Roxane and I were spending some time
together. She said to me, “I’ve got a present for you; it’s
something that I felt God told me to give you.”
I opened her gift to find a new bracelet.
She continued, “It probably doesn’t make sense to you
why I would buy a bracelet. I know how you feel about
the bracelet that you always wear. But I really believe that
God spoke to me to get this for you. So I ordered it some
time ago, and it just arrived.”
It is interesting that God spoke to Roxane, telling her to get
the bracelet, and while it was on its way, He put a desire
in my heart to receive it. We wouldn’t enjoy receiving
something if we didn’t desire it. Many times, God has put
a desire in my heart for something that He wanted to give
me.
The Bible says that God puts in us the desire both to will
and to work for His good pleasure (see Philippians 2:13).
We should pray for sanctified, holy desires. God puts
desires in us to lead us in the way He wants us to go. If we
desire to read the Word, then God is inviting us to read
the Word. If we desire to pray when we are watching
television, then God is speaking to us about the need to
pray.

As we read in John 15, we know that if we abide in Christ,
if we continue our relationship with the Lord and dwell
with Him over a period of time, His Word will abide in us.
Then we can ask whatever we desire, and He has
promised to give it to us.
To abide with Him is to “hang out” with Him, to live with
Him, to become like Him, and to nurture the desires He
puts in our heart, because that is His will for us. He puts
desires in our heart so we will pray and ask for those
things He wants us to have. Without prayer, God has no
vehicle through which to work.
If you sense that God has put certain desires in your
heart, then it’s important to pray and ask for those things
you desire. If you’re not sure whether your desires are
from Him, then say, “Lord, I believe You have put this
desire in my heart, and so I am asking You for it. But I can
be happy without it, because I am happy with You. Now it
is up to You to do whatever You want to do.”
Above all, remember that we are to be led by peace. No
matter how much we may desire something, if we don’t
have peace deep in our heart about it, then it is not right
for us.

GOD SPEAKS THROUGH
PERSISTENT PROMPTINGS

The Apostle Paul said his inner conscience was
enlightened and prompted by the Holy Spirit bearing
witness with him (see Romans 9:1). We can know if we
are doing right, because our conscience will sense the
evidence of truth. My conscience becomes more sensitive
the more I grow in the Lord and the more responsibility
He gives to me.
If I drop a piece of paper in the street and keep walking,
my conscience convicts me, so I have learned to quickly
turn myself around and pick up whatever I have dropped.
It may sound extreme, but God is very involved with my
conscience. Being faithful in little things is important to
God. According to Song of Solomon 2:15, it is the “little
foxes” that spoil the vineyard. When we are willing to be
faithful and obedient in little things, then God can trust us
to be faithful over much greater things (see Matthew
25:14-23). I also believe being faithful to the small things
God requires gives us faith for the greater things because
our conscience is entirely clear. Obedience to our inner
conscience brings the power of God into our life.

If we don’t feel right about something like littering, we
shouldn’t just go ahead and do it anyway. It doesn’t work
to use the excuse that everyone else does what we’re
convicted not to do. Many of God’s people are powerless
because they continually do things their conscience tells
them not to do. When we don’t pay heed to our
conscience, we lose our peace. The Word teaches us to be
true to our convictions; if we do something we feel uneasy
about, we stand condemned because we are not acting
from faith (see Romans 14:23).
Sometimes God even prompts me to pick up somebody
else’s trash. I don’t hear the audible voice of the Holy
Spirit, but I feel an inner nudge to leave a place better
than I found it. The Lord uses my obedience to teach me
more about His character. He says to me, “When you
make messes, would you like somebody else to clean after
you? Everything you do in life is an act of sowing seeds
that will return to you. You will reap whatever you sow. If
you leave a mess for somebody else, someday someone
will leave messes for you.”
Quite often, Dave and I are led of the Lord to do
something for someone who has demonstrated a valid
need and a right heart before the Lord. We knew a man
who needed a financial blessing. He had worked hard,
and we had noticed his faithfulness over a long period of
time. But, God had not led us to contribute to him in any
specific way.

Then one day, I suddenly felt a prompting to do something
for him. I let it rest and didn’t act on it, but a few days
later, I felt an inner prompting to give him a gift of money.
Over a period of days, that prompting became stronger
and stronger until I finally mentioned it to Dave. We were
in agreement that the Lord was leading us to do
something extra to help this man with his debt so he
could move on in God.
If God is leading us by an inner prompting, that nudge
will become stronger until it is obeyed. The fruit of our
obedience will prove the prompting was truly from God.
If we wait too long to respond to that prompting, God may
have to move on to someone else in order to get His will
accomplished. Therefore, we see that even in waiting we
need balance. Don’t move so fast that you don’t even
know if you have peace, and don’t wait so long that God
must choose someone else to use.

God Speaks Through Internal Peace

When God speaks, He gives us a deep sense of internal
peace to confirm that the message is truly from Him. Even
if He speaks to chastise us, the companion of truth leaves
a calming sense of comfort in our soul. Jesus said, “Peace I
leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath
to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let
your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John
14:27).
When the deceiver speaks to us, he cannot give peace.
When we try to solve things with our own reasoning, we
cannot get peace, because “the mind of the flesh [which is
sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death
that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here
and hereafter]. But the mind of the Abraham Munuve Spirit is life and
Terhile Avindigh peace [both now and forever]” (Romans 8:6).
Lay your decision on the scale with peace; don’t proceed if
peace cannot hold its weight against the guidance you
have heard. You don’t have to explain to others why you
don’t have peace about it; sometimes you won’t know why
yourself. You can say simply, “It’s not wisdom for me to do
this, because I don’t have peace about it.”

Even when you believe God has spoken to you, you should
wait until peace fills your soul to do what He has
instructed you to do. In this way you are assured your
timing is right—plus peace is true confirmation that you
are hearing from God. If you wait for peace, you will be
able to be obedient with faith. Seek peace; there’s power
in having peace. Once you know that God has instructed
you, You must do what you can to keep your peace and
not become fearful.
I run my life by finding peace. If I am shopping, I don’t
buy something if I don’t have peace about it. If I get into a
conversation and start losing my peace, I become quiet. I
have learned that it’s important to keep peace in order to
maintain power.
We should never act without peace. One might say that
peace is an “internal confirmation” that action being
taken is approved of by God: “And let the peace (soul
harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire
continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with
finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that
peaceful state] to which as [members of Christ’s] one body
you were also called [to live]. And be thankful
(appreciative), [giving praise to God always]” (Colossians
3:15).

God leads us by peace. The Bible says that peace is like an
umpire that decides what is “safe” or what is “out.” No
peace? It’s “out”! We are to let the inner harmony in our
minds and souls rule and act as an umpire continually in
our hearts, deciding and settling with finality all
questions that arise in our minds. We are called to live in
a peaceful state as members of one body in Christ.
We must learn to obey our own sense of right and wrong
and resist doing things our inner conscience is
uncomfortable doing. God gives or takes peace from our
conscience to let us know whether we are on track.
We shouldn’t look for unrealistic methods of
communication from God. The majority of Christians
never have a face-to-face encounter with Jesus as Paul did
on his way to Damascus. Even Paul didn’t always
experience the heavens opening up, angels appearing, or
trumpets blasting every time God spoke to him. We can be
led of the Spirit through internal peace every day of our
lives.

We shouldn’t look for unrealistic methods of
communication from God.
Beware of false peace. When we have a strong desire to
do something, it can produce a false peace that actually
comes only from our excitement. As time passes, this false
peace disappears, and God’s true will emerges for our
lives. For this reason we should never move too quickly
on important decisions. A little time of waiting is always
wise and prudent. The Bible tells us not to be rash in what
we say or hasty in the commitments we make (see
Ecclesiastes 5:2-5). Here is an example that may help you
better understand this point.
Someone Dave and I love very much was in need, and we
wanted to meet that need. Doing so would have provided
great joy for the individual with the need. It actually
would have provided something this person had desired
for a long time. I got excited about meeting this person’s
need and went to Dave, who agreed we should help. We
proceeded with our plan, but the longer we went on with
it, the more I lost my peace. This created a problem
because I felt we had made a commitment—we had given
our word, and I didn’t want to go to the person and say I
had changed my mind. I didn’t mind saying I had made a
mistake, but I didn’t want to disappoint the person who
by now was very excited.

A couple more weeks went by, and I just kept praying,
“God, if what we are doing is not right, please make the
entire thing fall through. Cause something to happen to
let us know for sure what we are supposed to do.”
I became more and more troubled inside and finally went
to the individual and said, “Something is wrong with our
plan; I have absolutely no peace about it.” To my great
relief the person felt the same way. Both of us had lost our
peace, and neither one of us wanted to tell the other.
I highly respect the principle of “following peace.” It has
kept me out of trouble many times. Had I waited awhile
after getting the “bright idea” to help this person, I am
sure I would have sensed the lack of peace; but in my zeal
and excitement to be a blessing, I had interpreted what I
felt as peace, when in reality it was not. False peace can
be dangerous, so be wise in these areas. Don’t make
serious decisions and commitments without doing an
“inner check” to see if true peace abides within you.

Questions For Discussion

1. How does nature testify to the reality of God? Give some
personal examples.
2. What parts of creation do you most enjoy? What parts
of creation most speak to you of the wonder and existence
of God?
3. Do you know your calling in life? If not, what do you
enjoying doing? What are your natural abilities and
desires? Do you find that you derive pleasure from these
things? Could this be your calling?
4. If you know your calling, has it been confirmed? How
so?
5. Do you find yourself seeking man’s opinion over God’s
opinion? How will you go about disciplining yourself to
seek God first and foremost?
6. Have you ever experienced a situation where you felt
the Lord speak something to you, and then it was
confirmed by someone else? If so, describe. How did this
help you?
7. What do you believe God is leading you to in response
to this chapter?

GOD SPEAKS TO US
THROUGH CORRECTION

When we need correction—and there are times when we
all need it—I believe it is the Lord’s first desire to correct
us Himself. Whom the Lord loves, He chastens (see
Hebrews 12:6). God’s correction or chastisement is not a
bad thing; it is always and ultimately only for our good.
The fact that it works toward our good does not mean it
always feels good or that it is something we enjoy
immediately:
For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems
grievous and painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable
fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it
[a harvest of fruit which consists in righteousness—in
conformity to God’s will in purpose, thought, and action,
resulting in right living and right standing with God].
(Hebrews 12:11)

In the example about the preacher whom I had judged,
God used Dave to bring a word of correction to me as well
as a word of revelation. I needed revelation to know why I
felt so miserable, but to be honest, I was not expecting a
correction about my behavior.
Correction is probably one of the most difficult things for
most of us to receive, especially when it comes through
another person. Even if we have problems, we don’t want
others to know we have them. I believe God prefers to
correct us privately, but if we won’t accept His correction,
or if we don’t know how to allow Him to correct us
privately, He will correct us publicly, using whatever
source He needs to use. In Balaam’s case, God used his
donkey.

Recently we were ministering in a foreign country, and
the food was very unpleasant to us. We were not
accustomed to the type of food served or the spices used
in its preparation. I was in a restaurant where I was
trying to convey to the waiter what I would like to have.
He did not speak English very well, and I did not speak his
language at all. Several people got involved, each of them
trying to help me; but as it turned out, four different
people ordered food for me.
I became frustrated, and my frustration was evident in
my attitude and voice tone. I was behaving poorly in front
of people who knew I had come to minister, and of course,
my example to them was important. I already knew that
my behavior was not very good, but the Lord wanted me
to “really know.” So when we got back to our room, Dave
said, “You really must be careful about how you talk to
people in situations like the one at lunch; your example
wasn’t very good.”
Although I knew he was right, and I also knew God was
using him to drive the point home and make sure I fully
realized how important it was, my inclination was to say
to Dave, “Well, I’ve seen you do the same thing.” Had I
done that, I would not have received the word, and God
would have just tried to reach me another way—possibly
one that would have been even more embarrassing or
painful.

Often our first impulse upon being corrected by someone
is to find fault with him or her. Satan tempts us to do this
so we will divert the conversation away from the real
issue. Being corrected by God through people in authority,
such as the government, employers, parents, and
teachers, is something each of us will encounter
throughout life. We may not always like the source God
chooses to use, but it is wisdom to accept correction in
order to avoid “going around the mountain one more
time” (see Deuteronomy 2:3).
Many think that hearing from God will always be
supremely spiritual, but we can see from these examples
that God uses natural things to reveal Himself to us as
well as spiritual ones. Begin listening and watching for
God to speak or show Himself strongly everywhere (see 2
Chronicles 16:9). You just never know when—or how—He
may show up!

GOD SPEAKS TO US OUT
OF OUR OWN MOUTHS

Proverbs 16:1 says, “The plans of the mind and orderly
thinking belong to man, but from the Lord comes the
Wise Basharat answer of the tongue.” Many times God speaks to
me out of my own mouth. I learned this when I was in a
situation where I didn’t know what to do. My own
thoughts left me confused. God gave us rationalization to
sort things out, but we can get weary from meditating on
something if we’re not on track with His wisdom. I wasn’t
getting anywhere with my circumstance until I took a
walk with a friend.
I was facing a major decision that needed a godly answer,
but I couldn’t seem to find God’s leading. My friend and I
discussed a certain issue for about an hour as we walked
together, enjoying the fresh air and each other’s company.
That’s when I learned that sometimes wisdom comes out
of our own mouth as we begin to talk to someone about a
situation.

We talked about the situation and discussed several
different possible solutions and their potential outcome.
We talked about how good it might be if we handled the
situation one way and how bad it might be if we handled
it another way. Suddenly one particular answer settled in
my heart.
What I decided I needed to do wasn’t something I
naturally wanted to do. A stubborn mindset is a great
enemy of peace. Some of my struggle was because I
wanted to convince God my situation should be dealt with
differently from the way He was leading me. His voice
was difficult to discern because my mind was already set
against His plan.

We have to be willing to lay aside our own desires or we
may miss a clear word from God. Our natural inclination
is to manipulate things to work the way we want them to
work. Some of our best childhood toys taught us that
square pegs won’t fit into round holes, and we must
remember our plans don’t always fit God’s ways—no
matter how violent we may become trying to make the
two work together.
While my friend and I reasoned together, a wise answer
came out of my mouth that I knew was from the Lord. It
didn’t come from my mind, but it rose from my inner
being. God promises that if we seek Him, He will fill our
mouth (see Psalm 81:10). Jesus promises to give us words
and wisdom that none of our adversaries will be able to
resist or contradict (see Luke 21:15).
I have learned not to discount anything, because God can
and does speak through a variety of ways—and not all of
them are something we would consider to be particularly
spiritual. I have heard God speak to me through children
and adults who had no idea that what they were saying
was a direct word from the Lord for me.
We have to be willing to lay aside our own desires.

GOD SPEAKS THROUGH PEOPLE

As I have mentioned, we should be maturing in our faith
to the point that we don’t run to somebody else every time
we need to know what to do in a certain situation. I am
not implying that it’s wrong to go to people whom we feel
are wiser than we are to ask them for a word of counsel
or advice. But I do believe it is wrong, and insulting to
God, to go to people too often. Having someone give us
advice is not necessarily a problem; the problem comes
when we seek man rather than God. God is a jealous God
(see James 4:5 and Deuteronomy 4:24), and He wants us to
ask for His advice.
King David asked, “Where does my help come from? My
help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and
earth” (Psalm 121:1-2 NIV). It is important to clearly
establish in our hearts that we will seek God first, as
David did. God wants to guide each one of us—not just
full-time preachers, but every individual who puts their
trust in Him.

I encourage you to seek balance in this area and to wean
yourself from seeking other people’s opinions, if you have
a consistent habit of doing so. Discipline yourself to go to
God first, but understand that He may use the counsel of
other believers to clarify things for you or to give you
assurance that you are truly hearing from Him.
People who will never ask for or take advice usually have
a big problem with pride. People can give us a word of
advice that confirms what we already feel in our own
spirit. The best policy is to seek God and let Him choose
how and through whom He wants to speak to us. In
Numbers 22:20-28 we see that God chose to speak to the
prophet Balaam through his donkey. If we won’t, or for
some reason cannot, hear God ourselves, He uses many
natural sources to reach us—including man.

There certainly are times when God uses people to speak
“a word in due season” to one of His children (see
Proverbs 15:23). If He chooses to speak through someone
else, which He frequently does, we should humbly receive
from anyone God chooses to use.
Where there is no counsel, purposes are frustrated, but
with many counselors they are accomplished. A man has
joy in making an apt answer, and a word spoken at the
right moment—how good it is! (Proverbs 15:22-23)
These Scriptures tell us that a right word spoken at the
right time is a good thing.
Our ministry founded and provides oversight to a church
in the inner city of St. Louis. I hired a new secretary, and
she began attending that church. After about two years, I
sensed that she might want to go to church somewhere
else but felt it might offend me if she did so since the
church she would be leaving was an outreach of Joyce
Meyer Ministries.
Seek God and let Him choose how and through whom He
wants to speak.

I waited for a few weeks before saying anything to her
because I wanted to be sure I was hearing from God. I
have discovered that if what I am sensing is from God, it
stays with me over a period of time. Sure enough, the
feeling did not go away, so I approached her one day and
said, “I don’t know if you’re happy at the city church or
not, but I realize it might not be meeting your needs as a
single woman. I just wanted to say that if you ever want to
go somewhere else it will not offend me.”
She looked at me in amazement and said, “Joyce, this is so
good. I have been feeling like God wanted me to go
somewhere else, but I really wanted to be sure I was
hearing from God. This is great confirmation that what I
have been feeling is correct.”
As I have said, it is not wrong to go to other people. It can
even be very beneficial. But mainly we should lean on
God; if He chooses to speak to us through someone else,
that is His choice. As in the case of my secretary, she was
seeking God, not me. God chose to speak to her through
me.
God was offering an answer, but I didn’t like receiving it
through a messenger.
Here is another example from my own life. When
everything is right in my life, I sense a liberty when I
preach. I also sense when there is great opposition against
my message, because I feel a loss of freedom. At those
times I know to pray and depend on God to move on my
behalf.
There was a time that I knew something wasn’t right, but I
couldn’t discern what was bothering me. It went on long
enough that it affected my preaching more than once.
Every week that I went to hold a certain meeting in St.
Louis, I felt like it was the biggest mess I ever had. Each
time we left the meeting I would comment to Dave, “Oh,
that was terrible.”

He’d ask, “What do you mean? That was a great message.”
Something was bothering me, and God was gracious
enough to keep it from showing through my preaching,
but I was uncomfortable. After more than three weeks of
concern, I thought, That’s it. I’m staying up tonight until I
find out what’s going on in my life. I can’t go on like this
anymore. It seemed to bother me particularly when I was
preaching. I stayed up late that night to seek God, but I
couldn’t get any direction from Him.
Then I learned that God sometimes speaks to us through
other people. When I got up the next morning, Dave said,
“I think I know what your problem is.”
I thought, Oh great! God won’t tell me what my problem
is, but He’s going to tell Dave what my problem is. So right
away I had a poor attitude, thinking, Oh sure, Dave is
going to tell me what my problem is when he has
problems himself. He doesn’t need to tell me what my
problems are.
Perhaps you can relate to the apprehension I felt knowing
that Dave was going to tell me what was wrong with me. I
had cried out to God, “Lord, show me what’s wrong!” God
was offering an answer, but I didn’t like receiving it
through a messenger. All I could think was, Well, who do
you think you are, trying to tell me what’s wrong? We beg
to hear from God, and yet it can make us mad if someone
hears on our behalf. But sometimes that is the way God
speaks.

So I said, “What do you think is wrong with me?”
He answered, “The other night when we were talking
about so and so…” We had listened to a preacher, and I
had commented that I felt he took too many directions in
his message without bringing his main points to a close. I
like to organize my thoughts and finish up loose ends
when I preach. I really didn’t say that much about him,
but in my heart I was comparing his style with my own. I
had simply said that he was kind of scattered in his
preaching, and that it was hard to follow and understand.
Dave had agreed with me. Now he was saying, “I feel God
told me you’re having problems because of what you said
about that preacher.”

I resented being told by Dave that God had told him I had
done something wrong, when Dave had fully agreed with
me. Of course my first response was, “Yeah, well you said
the same thing!”
Dave said, “Look, I’m not trying to start anything with
you. All I’m telling you is what I believe God showed me. I
wasn’t asking God to show me what’s wrong with you.
God just showed me.”
Dave is a matter-of-fact sort of person. You can take what
he says or leave it, and it won’t make any difference to
him. He’s kind of like God when it comes to truth, saying,
“Here it is; do what you want to with it.”
It took me a few hours, but I finally laid it before God and
I asked, “Is that really why I am having these problems?”
Once my heart was opened to the truth, God showed me
James 3:1, which says that those who are called to be
teachers of the Word will be judged with greater severity
than others. The chapter deals with the fact that teachers
will be judged for sins of the mouth. As a teacher, I can’t
have a mixture of blessing and cursing coming out of my
mouth (see v. 10). I can’t preach the gospel and expect the
anointing to be upon it if I gossip about somebody
between services. If I judge the style of another preacher,
I am judging God’s anointing on him, and that will always
affect my own preaching.

God taught me this lesson in a way I would never forget. If
we take our God-given talent for granted by criticizing
someone who is doing the same thing, our critical,
judgmental eye will turn back upon ourselves until we
remember that what we do well is only by the grace of
God.
Judging others brings condemnation and judgment on
ourselves, because in judging that person we are saying,
“I’m great at this, but you have a problem.” God lifted
what I call the “holy ease” from what I did until I learned
this lesson. God worked me over until I finally fasted and
submitted to a state of repentance.
When I understood what I had done, I wept and cried out
to God, because I knew He had worked greatly in my life.
God spoke to me through Dave. He was also speaking to
me through inner discomfort, which I will discuss in a
later chapter. But the point I am making here is that we
need to be open to messages God may send through
people who love us and are praying for us. God wants us
to keep humble hearts and be ready to hear from Him
whichever way He chooses to speak.

GOD SPEAKS THROUGH
OUR NATURAL ABILITIES

We wonder, What am I to do with my life? What is my
purpose here? Does God have a calling on my life? God
answers these questions through our natural gifts and
abilities. He leads us to our purpose through the natural
skills and unique talents He bestows upon us.
God-given gifts are the skills a person easily performs
without formal training. Many great artists know just
how to put shapes and colors together, and so they enjoy
designing buildings or sculpting beautiful and useful
items. Many songwriters just write down the music they
hear in their head. Some people are great at organizing,
while others are natural counselors, helping people sort
out their lives and their relationships. We derive great
pleasure from doing what we are naturally good at doing.
If you aren’t sure of your purpose, just do what you are
good at doing, and then watch God confirm you by
blessing your endeavors. Don’t spend your life trying to
do what you are not gifted to do. I tried to grow a garden
and can tomatoes and sew my husband’s clothes. I wasn’t
at all good at any of these things, and I even despised
trying! It was obvious that God wasn’t calling me to grow
and preserve vegetables or to sew. But what if no one
enjoyed gardening or canning or making clothes? God
keeps our world in balance by giving each of us natural
talent and pleasure in doing what needs to be done for the
good of everyone around us.

God speaks of this division of gifts several places in His
Word. Genesis 4:20-22 mentions that Jabal was the father
of those who raised cattle and purchased possessions. His
brother Jubal was the father of all the musicians who
played the lyre and pipe. His half-brother Tubal-cain
forged instruments made of bronze and iron. When
Solomon built the temple, God empowered skilled
craftsmen to do the work (see 2 Chronicles 2).
Then again, in the New Testament church, God makes it
clear that He calls us to work together as one body in
Christ. He appoints some to be apostles, some prophets,
and some teachers. Some people are given the faith to be
workers of miracles, some have gifts of healing, some are
gifted to help others, some have gifts of administration,
and the Word says that some are speakers in different
tongues (see 1 Corinthians 12:28).
I tried to be like other women I admired, but I didn’t
understand at the time that they were gifted to do what
they did. If we work at doing what we hate to do, we won’t
be good at it, and we won’t glorify God with our lives. God
came to give us an abundant life, not a miserable one (see
John 10:10).
God wants us to enjoy life. How can we enjoy spending
time doing something that we hate to do? There are
wonderful tests available to help us discover which jobs
we might enjoy. There are tests to help us understand
how we process information and make decisions unique
to our personalities. And there are tests that measure our
spiritual gifts.

When people work at jobs they aren’t gifted to do, they
quickly become unhappy, and they make everyone
around them unhappy too. Even in raising our children,
we need to see what they are good at and give them
household chores in line with their gifts. It is senseless to
make everyone conform, because we are not alike. God
needs each of us in our place. He needs every one of us to
function to our fullness, without wasting time competing
with someone with different gifts and talents.
When teams of employees are in their right places with
everyone in his or her niche, operations run like a finely
tuned machine. If we do what we are good at doing, we
will enjoy it, because we will sense God’s anointing on our
efforts and achievements.
God speaks to us through this inner anointing. We know
we are operating in our gifts and calling when what we do
ministers life to others. If what we do makes us miserable
and fills us with a sense of dread, it’s possible we are not
in God’s perfect will. God gives us peace and joy to let us
know we are fulfilling His perfect plan.
You can be called to do something that feels difficult to
your flesh, but if you can get beyond your initial doubts
and find that you have peace once you are doing it, then
you will know that God is confirming your natural talents.
It is senseless to make everyone conform, because we are
not alike.

A woman I will refer to as Sharon (though that’s not her
real name) worked as our housekeeper a long time ago,
but she didn’t feel that her work was important. She
wanted to do something else, so she begged God to lead
her elsewhere. When Sharon left us, she tried several
other jobs, but nothing ever gave her a sense of
fulfillment. She finally started keeping house for
somebody else and discovered that it was easy for her to
do the work and to find people who needed her. She came
full circle and worked for us again doing exactly what she
had done years earlier. The difference was that this time
she was happy—and peaceful.
People who are anointed to the “helps” ministries often
struggle with the feeling that their work is not important.
Satan deceives them to keep them from fulfilling their
purpose. God’s ideas are never achieved without help
from the entire body working together toward His
common goal. The devil hates our anointing and our unity
when we use our gifts to supplement one another’s
calling.
It is important to hear from God and find out where you
are called to bloom. Then get where you are supposed to
be—get planted, rooted, and grounded—so you can bear
fruit. We don’t have enough years left on this earth to be
miserable working at the wrong assignments. Sometimes
we become tired of doing what we are anointed to do. But
we find that we become miserable when we try to do
something we are not called to do.

God will speak to you through your own gifts and talents.
Make sure that what you are doing ministers life to you
and not death. Watch for the evidence of grace on your
life. If grace is not present, you will struggle through
works of the flesh that are not ordained of God. I know
I’m into works if I’m pushing and pushing to get
something done and becoming resentful of the process.
When there is no desire or energy from the Holy Spirit,
and I dread the task, I know that God is telling me there is
something wrong with my plan.
When we were working hard to get on television, I
became so tired I cried, but I still loved the process.
Sometimes I am so tired after our seminars that I just
weep before the Lord. But then I get built up again and
feel a burning desire to get to the next conference. I have
to have grace on me to do that. God won’t give us the
grace to do something He hasn’t called us to do.
I encourage you to look at what you enjoy, what you’re
good at, what God is giving you grace to do—and then let
God be God in your life. He wants to flow through you in
many different ways, but it may not be the same way He
flows through others. Trust His ability in and through
you, and don’t be afraid to be unique.

God Speaks Through
Natural Things

In God’s compassion for mankind, He did not hide the
truth of His existence from anyone. The Word says that
God reveals Himself to all people:
For that which is known about God is evident to them and
made plain in their inner consciousness, because God
[Himself] has shown it to them. For ever since the
creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes,
that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made
intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the
things that have been made (His handiworks). So MEMBE EDRINE NSUBUGA
are without excuse [altogether without any defense or
justification]. (Romans 1:19-20)

People who now claim to be atheists will one day stand
defenseless before the Lord, because God speaks to
everyone through His handiworks. Even people living
outside the will of God perceive right from wrong and the
reality of God, because nature itself testifies of God’s
power and divine plan. Psalm 19:1-4 says:
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament
shows and proclaims His handiwork. Day after day pours
forth speech, night after night shows forth knowledge.
There is no speech nor spoken word [from the stars]; their
voice is not heard. Yet their voice [in evidence] goes out
through all the earth, their sayings to the end of the
world. Of the heavens has God made a tent for the sun.
I encourage you to take time to look at what God has
created. The main thing God says to us through nature is
that He is. Period. It is an important revelation because
the Bible says that before we can get anywhere with God,
we must first believe He is: “Without faith it is impossible
to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would
come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God
exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly
and diligently seek Him [out]” (Hebrews 11:6).

God has given every person a measure of faith to believe
in Him (see Romans 12:3). The very first words of the
Bible are our first lesson of faith, “In the beginning God…”
Many people acknowledge that God exists, but they have
not learned to relate to Him on a day-to-day level when
they face struggles or difficulties. By grace, God tries to
reach us every day, and He places reminders of Himself
everywhere. He leaves clues of Himself all around us,
clues that bellow out clearly, “I am here. You don’t have to
live in fear, you don’t have to worry, I am here.”
Jesus said to consider the lilies of the field (see Matthew
6:28) and the ravens of the air (see Luke 12:24).
Meditating on how God adorns the fields and provides for
the birds can remind us that He cares even more for us. A
nice walk outdoors is a great opportunity to take a short
vacation from the pressures of daily living and look at the
trees, the birds, the flowers, and the children playing.
How can anyone look at a baby and doubt the existence of
God?

When we consider how some trees look totally dead in the
winter and yet come back to life each spring, it reminds
us that God will bring our lives back into full bloom even
if we feel our circumstances are hopeless. We can look at
a tree and think, Last winter it looked barren, but now it
flourishes.
When I need a break from my work, I enjoy just looking
at a tree and watching it blow in the wind. I have noticed
dead pine needles clinging to the branches, but then a
strong wind blows away the dried needles and makes
room for the new buds ready to grow and thrive. It
reminds me of how the wind of the Spirit is faithful to
blow away things that aren’t needed in our lives anymore,
and how we can trust God to protect all that needs to
remain.

Every morning the sun comes up, and every evening it
goes down. The stars come out in the sky, and the
universe remains in order as a reminder that God is
watching over us. He keeps the planets in orbit, and He
can keep our lives in order too.
By grace, God tries to reach us every day.
The ocean is so amazingly massive, and yet the mighty
roaring waves stop at a certain place because God has
commanded them to go no farther (see Proverbs 8:29).
Think of all the different animals and how God has given
each one of them a way to protect themselves. There are
some that change color to match their environment when
danger is near, and others that spew forth poison against
their attacker.
In the book of Job God asked Job, “Where is the way
where light dwells? And as for darkness, where is its
abode?” (see Job 38:19). The point is that we do not know
everything there is to know about God; we have not seen
where the wind, rain, or lightning is stored (v. 22). It
seems that any reasoning person could be assured of
God’s existence by simply being in and seeing nature, and
yet there are those who persist in unbelief.

God Speaks Through
Supernatural Revelation

Sometimes God transcends the laws of nature and speaks
to us through supernatural revelation. There is nothing
more supernatural than the Word of God, which is given
to us by divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit speaking
through His prophets and disciples. The Bible has an
answer for every question we might ever have. The Word
of God is full of life principles, true stories of God’s mercy
toward human behavior, and rich parables filled with
important truths for every individual on earth.
Anyone who wants to hear God’s voice must be a student
of the Word. Of all the other ways that God may speak to
us, He will never contradict the written Word, which was
originally referred to by the Greek word logos. His spoken
Word is called the rhema. God specifically brings to our
remembrance His logos for every situation. His rhema
may not be word for word in the Bible, but the principle
will always be supported in the written Word. The Bible
confirms whether or not what we are sensing is of God.

For example, the written Word of God, the logos Word,
doesn’t tell us when to buy a new car or what type of car
to buy; we may need a spoken or revealed word (a rhema)
from God concerning that. Even though the written Word
gives no specific instruction on the buying of an
automobile, it does say a lot about wisdom. Therefore, if I
need a car, and if I believe I am hearing God tell me to buy
a certain car, yet the car costs more than I can afford and
would mean years of deep debt that would place my
family in bondage, I should have enough common sense
(wisdom) to know the voice I think I am hearing is not
God’s.

There are many voices that speak to our thoughts, and
our own is one of them. I have discovered when I desire
something in a strong way, it is easy for me to think God is
telling me to get it. For this reason we must always check
to see if we have peace and if what we are doing is wise.
The Bible is written as a personal letter to each of us. God
speaks to us, ministers to our needs, and directs us in the
way we should go in His written Word. He tells us what
we should do and how we should live. Sometimes a
Scripture will seem illuminated or made alive in a
particular way, and that is when a portion of the logos
becomes a specific rhema to us. The Word is made alive as
though God just spoke it into our ears.
There may be times when God speaks something to us
that is outside a specific chapter and verse of the Bible,
but it will always be in agreement with His Word. For
example, the Bible doesn’t tell us where to work, but God
will speak to us if we seek Him.

If we think we can hear clearly from God without
spending time in the Word, we are mistaken. Listening for
God’s voice without being dedicated to spending time in
the Word on a regular basis opens us up to hearing voices
that are not from God. Knowing the written Word protects
us from deception.
Trying to hear from God without reading His Word is
irresponsible and even dangerous. People who want to be
led by the Spirit, but who are too lazy to spend time in the
Word or time in prayer, set themselves up for easy
deception. There are many evil spirits ready to whisper
lies to a listening ear.
Some people only come to God when they are in trouble
and need help. But if they are not used to hearing from
God, they will find it difficult to recognize His voice when
they really need Him. Even Jesus resisted Satan’s lies by
answering, “It is written” (see Luke 4).
Any idea, or prompting, or thought that comes to us needs
to be compared to the Word of God. All vain imaginations
are to be cast down and ignored (see 2 Corinthians 10:5),
but knowledge of the Word is of vital importance in
discerning the voice of God.

Many people feel they are too busy to read the Word, but
if that is true, they are just plain too busy. A surprising
number of people who work in ministry use their fulltime service as an excuse for not devoting personal time
to reading the Word and fellowshipping with God. They
feel their service for Him is spending time with Him. We
are all to work as unto the Lord, regardless of whether or
not our job is classified as ministry. If we are going to be
fit to work for God, we must always spend time with God,
reading His Word, and praying to Him. Anyone working
in ministry is a sure target of the enemy and needs the
protection of the written Word even more than others.
The apostle Paul tells us:
Knowing the written Word protects us from deception.
For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not
carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and
using mere human weapons. For the weapons of our
warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood],
but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and
destruction of strongholds, [inasmuch as we] refute
arguments and theories and reasonings and every
proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the
Alvin Abang knowledge of God; and we lead every thought
and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ
(the Messiah, the Anointed One). (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
If we don’t know the Word, we won’t have anything with
which to compare the theories and arguments that make
war against God’s perfect will for us. The devil can
present wild ideas that make sense to us, but just because
something seems logical to us doesn’t necessarily mean it
is from God. We may hear what we want to hear, but it
doesn’t necessarily mean we have heard from God. An
idea can feel good to our emotions but fail to give us peace
when it isn’t in line with God’s Word.

Commit time each day just to read the Word. You may
enjoy a certain reading plan. I enjoy The Amplified Bible
because it explains the meaning of important words. It is
also good to read various versions of the Bible for new
insight. There are wonderful reference books available to
provide background history of the Word and the cultural
implications from the time period in which the Scriptures
were written. The important thing is just to read. God can
bring to life the answers that are hidden in the pages of
His written Word for any trial you may face.

GOD SPEAKS THROUGH
DREAMS AND VISIONS

In the Bible there are many accounts of God speaking to
people through dreams and visions, but this is one of the
least common ways that God speaks to us. We can’t
assume that every dream is a godly dream. If we do, we
may misinterpret images that will lead us astray.
I dream a lot, but most of my dreams are not prophetic. I
haven’t had many dreams that I feel were spiritual
messages, but I have had a few that I know were from
God, because either I received an interpretation
immediately upon waking up, or it simply would not fade
from my memory until God revealed its meaning.
Here is an example of a spiritual dream I once had. I had
left my job at a church in St. Louis to go out on my own. I
was really scared to step out into full-time ministry. One
night I dreamed this dream:
I was driving down a road, and I was in a line of traffic.
All the other drivers were suddenly pulling off the road
and parking on the side of it, or they were slowing down
to find a place where they could turn around and go back
in the other direction.

I wondered what was going on ahead of me that was
causing all those people to park their cars or turn around
and go back the way they had come. I strained to look
ahead, and I saw that the highway led to a bridge that was
totally submerged in water. Of course, I realized why all
the people were afraid to keep going forward.
I looked at the bridge, then I turned to look back from
where I came. Then I looked at the bridge again and
turned to look back from where I came.
The minute I woke up, God spoke to me saying, “Joyce,
you’re on a new journey. You’re on a road that will
sometimes look a little bit dangerous or unsafe. You are
going to be a little unsure.” But He said, “There are always
going to be plenty of places in the road where you can
park, plenty of places where you can turn around and go
back where you came from, but I’m looking for someone
who will go all the way through and do what I tell them to
do.”

I knew right then what God was telling me, and I’ve
trusted that word many times when I’ve been in struggles
or when things have seemed hard. I remembered how
God warned me in the beginning that I would be tempted
to park myself right where I was or turn myself around
because I didn’t know what was ahead for me. Knowing
that difficult times would be part of His plan kept me
moving ahead through uncertain paths.
During a certain period of time, God was dealing severely
with me about my attitude. He chastised me concerning
my actions over a couple of rough, rebellious days. It was
obvious God was not going to relent until I humbled
myself to His instruction.

In this time of discouragement, I dreamed of a row of five
or six fine-looking model homes on display in a new
subdivision. The houses were varied in size, and the
particular house I noticed was one of the bigger ones. I
watched people enter the house. As they toured the
rooms, they saw all kinds of trash left from the
construction crew. Bits and pieces of unattractive scraps
were everywhere, all over the house, and especially in the
one room that everyone entered. As I woke up, I
understood immediately the interpretation of that dream.
The Lord said to me, “We are getting ready to go on
television in just a few weeks, and I am getting ready to
put you on display; but when the people look into your
life, I don’t want them to find trash.”
That dream comforted me, because it was a positive word
from the Lord. Even though it was hard to endure His
correction, I understood that He really could not put me
on display as He wanted to until I conformed more to His
plan.

On the other hand, I have had literally thousands of
dreams that didn’t make any sense at all. Actually, if I
tried to make them say something specific, I could get
very confused and possibly cause lots of trouble. Dreams
are interesting but usually very unstable in giving us
direction. As you may have heard, many dreams are
“pizza dreams” or “taco dreams”; in other words, they are
the result of eating some spicy food before going to bed
that prevents us from falling into a deep, restful sleep, so
we dream rather unusual things most of the night.
My daughter recently dreamed that I was the president of
the United States and that everyone was angry with me
because I was letting people get sick. I was put into prison,
but the court agreed to let my daughter go with me so she
could take care of me. She loaded up the car with all the
things I like so I would be comfortable in prison; she even
had the sparkling water of which I drink many bottles
each day.
Dreams are interesting but usually very unstable in giving
us direction.
She saw the guard suddenly go off to do something else,
and so she told me to get in the car and make my getaway.
I jumped in the car and drove off at high speed while she
stood calling after me trying to let me know that I had
forgotten my cell phone.

I actually know people who would try to “interpret” this
dream and make something spiritual out of it. The fact is
my family teases me about becoming the first woman
president; that my daughter is in charge of many of the
details of my life, including packing me for trips; and that
our entire family are on our cell phones far too much. I
really don’t know why we dream so many unique and
seemingly mixed-up things. But one thing is for sure, in
my opinion, people who try to make too much out of their
dreams are asking to be deceived.
We realize God does speak through dreams. He spoke to
Joseph in a dream, and Joseph interpreted dreams for
Pharaoh, as well as for Pharaoh’s servants, with whom he
was in prison (see Genesis 40 and 41). There are
numerous others recorded in the Bible to whom God
spoke through dreams. Joel 2:28 states that in the last days
the old men shall dream dreams, and the young men shall
see visions.

I have a friend who has many spiritual dreams. I have
known her since 1983, and during those years she has
shared four dreams she has had about me. Each of them
has been amazingly accurate.
Dreams are certainly one of the valid ways God speaks,
but this is also an area in which people can easily get out
of balance, simply because so many people worldwide
dream almost nightly and they are not all spiritual
dreams. Use discernment, wisdom, and balance, and I
believe you will have confirmation in your heart if a
dream you have is God trying to speak to you or show you
something.
God also speaks to us through visions, which differ from
dreams that occur while we are asleep. I have
experienced two kinds of visions. One I refer to as an
open vision, which happens when my eyes are open, but I
see only the spirit realm instead of the room around me.
God gave me a brief vision that showed me I was to take
our ministry north, south, east, and west. I had entered a
special time of prayer and fasting. It was the first time I
had ever tried to fast with water. I was desperate to hear
from God, because I thought He was telling me to leave
my job at a church and begin my own ministry. It was a
serious decision, so I wanted to be sure I was hearing
clearly from Him.

God doesn’t give us visions just for fun; I believe that God
speaks to us in these more spectacular ways during times
in our life when we need definite direction. Visions also
seem to come to people when they are specifically seeking
God.
Another kind of vision I have experienced more
frequently is when I see things in the spirit. There have
been occasions when I was looking at someone, but in my
spirit I was seeing something concerning that person that
my natural eyes did not perceive. Usually when I see
something in the spirit realm for someone, I am also given
prophetic words to give specific encouragement to him or
her.
Visions are much like dreams; they are definitely used by
God, but we must be cautious and test the spirits as the
Bible instructs us to do (see 1 John 4:1-3). I do believe
there are people who are gifted in visions and dreams
more than others.

I have known a few people who seem to always be seeing
something in the spirit realm. They talk about seeing
angels the way I see people. I don’t want to assume they
don’t see angels simply because my gifts don’t function in
that way; neither do I try to make something happen
myself just because some people have told me it happens
to them. I have learned to leave these things to God. In
this book, I choose to speak more about what normally
happens to most people, not what may happen to a few.
I think if we exalt what happens to a few, it makes all of
those who don’t have similar experiences think they are
lacking in some way—that they are spiritually dwarfed or
that they simply don’t know how to hear from God. I
know people to whom Jesus has appeared several times,
even sitting on the side of their bed and carrying on a
conversation for a lengthy time; but that has never
happened to me.

When I was less secure in my own spiritual gifting, I
compared myself with those people, wondering, What is
wrong with me? I have since learned that I am a unique
individual, with a unique, individual calling. I have
received gifts from God accordingly, and they are all for
His purpose and in His plan.
I am content and satisfied, and I strongly encourage you
to adopt the same attitude. After all, “A man can receive
nothing [he can claim nothing, he can take unto himself
nothing] except as it has been granted to him from
heaven. [A man must be content to receive the gift which
is given him from heaven; there is no other source]” (John
3:27).

GOD SPEAKS THROUGH PROPHECY

Sometimes the Lord speaks prophetically through other
people to reveal His will for our lives. A prophecy inspired
by God will strengthen, encourage, and comfort the one
who receives it (see 1 Corinthians 14:3).
There is a difference between a person who has a gift of
prophecy and someone who is appointed to the office of
prophet in the body of Christ. A prophet has a stronger
word for the church at large than someone who is
operating in the gift of prophecy to simply strengthen and
encourage individual believers. The Word encourages us
to welcome divinely inspired prophecy:
I am a unique individual, with a unique, individual
calling.

Earnestly desire and cultivate the spiritual
endowments (gifts), especially that you may prophesy
(interpret the divine will and purpose in inspired
preaching and teaching)… the one who prophesies
[who interprets the divine will and purpose in
inspired preaching and teaching] speaks to men for
their up-building and constructive spiritual progress
and encouragement and consolation… he who
prophesies [interpreting the divine will and purpose
and teaching with inspiration] edifies and improves
the church and promotes growth [in Christian
wisdom, piety, holiness, and happiness]. (1
Corinthians 14:1,3,4)
Prophecy must be in line with the Word of God, and a
personal word of prophecy should confirm something
that’s already in your heart. It’s nice when that happens,
because you know that person didn’t know anything
about what God was saying to you. But if somebody tells
you to go to the mission field, or to Bible college, don’t quit
your job and go unless you know that God has spoken to
your heart this same word. I’ve seen people get into
horrendous messes by trying to run their lives based on
what other people have told them was a “prophetic
message from God.”

If the prophecy doesn’t bear agreement in your heart,
don’t worry about it. There are a lot of well-meaning
people who think they are hearing from God for others,
but they’re not. If someone prophesies something to you
that is not already in your heart, then I suggest you write
down the words that are spoken over you and just wait
for the Lord to reveal to you whether or not the words are
from Him.
Many times, people come to me and share their
disturbing concern that they are trying to do something
because somebody has prophesied to them that they
should do it. Many times they aren’t getting a
breakthrough, so they are confused. It grieves me when I
see people working to make a prophecy come to pass,
because we are not to run our lives by those kinds of
things.

If a word is truly from God, He will make it happen in His
own time. Lay aside the prophecy and just wait to see if
God brings it to pass. He will speak to you in other ways to
confirm it, if it is really from Him.
Opposition is one of the greatest signs that their message
was truly from God.
I know of situations in which five to ten years have passed
before something happened to prove that a prophecy was
truly from God. So even when we have clear direction
from God, we need to let Him fulfill His promises without
trying to manipulate their manifestation. When a promise
does come to pass, the Holy Ghost will call our
remembrance back to that word we received years before
to let us know we are indeed walking in God’s perfect
plan.

If a good word has been spoken over you from other
prayerful and godly believers, then opposition is one of
the greatest signs that their message was truly from God.
Refer back to the spoken or written message when the
devil tells you that you are not called or that you are
never going to do what is in your heart to do or that you
are never going to prosper or that you are never going to
get a breakthrough in your situation. Your weapon
against his attacks will be the words that have been
prophesied to you.
Remember, what has been said through the gift of
prophecy will help you remain steadfast in faith when the
devil wages war against your calling. If the prophecy is
truly from God, the devil will eventually show up to
discourage you from believing the truth, and you will be
able to stand firm in faith because you know what the
Lord has said about you.
While waiting for God to move, you should follow the
instruction given to Timothy by the apostle Paul:
Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of
Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect
your gift, which was given you through a prophetic
message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them,
so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life
and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do,
you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Timothy
4:13-16 NIV)

We are not to specifically seek a certain way for God to
speak to us. There are times when I tell the Lord that I
would like for Him to give me a word, but I don’t ask Him
to send it in a certain way. I am not devastated or
disappointed when someone who is anointed with a
prophetic gift doesn’t have a word for me. I trust that if
God wants to speak to me a certain way, He will do it.
Of all the prayer requests that we get in our office, the
largest percentage is from people who have problems and
don’t know what to do. They want to hear from God. They
need to make a decision, so they ask for prayer to know
what to do. Indecision makes us feel uncomfortable, but
our confusion is magnified when we start running to
other people asking them what we ought to do.
I find it interesting that I can preach the Word for an
entire weekend, and yet invariably somebody will come
to me after the meeting and say, “I believe that God said
you’ve got a word for me.”
I am perplexed, thinking, Well what do you think I’ve had
for you the last three days? Now, I will show them the
courtesy of praying to see if God speaks to me on their
behalf, but most of the time people just want to be led
around by what somebody else has to say. It’s sad that
there are so many insecure people in the world who
believe they can’t hear from God themselves. They spend
all of their life trying to hear from God through other
people.

If you get out of balance by always asking others what you
should do, it will hinder your ability to hear from God
yourself. Besides, most people don’t even know what they
are doing, so they are not qualified to tell you what you
ought to do. I don’t mean that statement to be insulting,
but most people have enough issues in their own lives
that they are trying to sort out without taking
responsibility for your life too.
There are times when people ask me what I think God
would have them do in a situation. If I know what the
Word says about their particular situation, I share it with
them. Or if I have some discernment about their situation,
I share it. But many times I feel pressured when people
want me to make their decisions for them. It helps me
know that it is not my job to hear from God for other
people. My job is to teach people how to hear from God
themselves, not to hear for them! The Holy Spirit can lead
us all individually.

Some time ago we had a couple who had worked for us
for more than twelve years, had become dissatisfied with
their positions, and were feeling God wanted them to do
something else; however, they had no idea what it was.
They felt their season with our ministry was at an end
and that they had lost their grace to do their jobs. They
did not want to work for us any longer, but they did not
want to be without jobs either. They came to Dave and me
and said, “We believe God will show you what we are
supposed to do.”
Some people delight in telling other people what to do
with their lives, but I am not one of them. I don’t
particularly like taking that kind of responsibility. I feel I
have enough to do trying to run my own life and ministry
and hear from God for myself. In addition, people need to
have assurance and confidence that they have heard from
God, not other people. If they don’t, they will become
unsure and even confused during testing seasons, which
almost always come sooner or later.

We shared with that couple what we felt were several
points of just plain wisdom, but we could not tell them
definitely either to stay or to go. It was an important
decision, one that needed to be made by them, especially
since it would affect their income and destiny.
We have to let God initiate prophecy into our lives.
God is a jealous God, and He doesn’t approve if we are
always putting people ahead of Him by running to them to
ask what we ought to do. I believe that we should find out
what God says about our situation in His Word, explore
His wisdom, and let our decision establish itself through
peace in our heart. Then, if we feel we need to, we can go
occasionally to someone we trust to prayerfully seek God’s
will on our behalf just to double check that what we want
to do is right. I will share in a later chapter how God
sometimes uses the counsel of others, but even then we
must seek balance in this area. The advice of people
should be in line with God’s Word and tested against our
inner witness of God’s truth.
We have to let God initiate prophecy into our lives, or else
we will never know if it’s something we provoked on our
own. If we ask people if they have a word from the Lord
for us, they may speak something out of their flesh just
because they don’t know what else to do.

We need to trust God to speak to our heart. In the many
years I have walked with God, I have never yet asked
anyone if they had a prophecy for me. If somebody has a
word for us, God will work that out supernaturally
without us seeking it. We don’t have to search or ask, “Do
you have a word for me?” I prophesy occasionally, but I
tell people not to run their lives by personal prophecy.
A man named Fred attended one of our marriage
seminars. Fred shared with us that he was being
mistreated at his job and was underpaid. He was
demeaned and made fun of even though he had given
years of faithful service to his employer. It was obvious he
was not being treated right.
The Spirit of the Lord came upon me, and I prophesied to
Fred that he was going to have a job where he would have
respect, where people would come to him for advice, and
where he would make good money. Then his situation got
a whole lot worse before God’s word to him proved to be
true. But it did get better. It didn’t happen quickly, but a
true word from God will always happen. Prophecy is
meant to encourage us with God’s promise to us while we
wait for Him to work it out in our lives.

I admit I’m no different from anybody else in that I like to
get a refreshing word that is truly from the Lord. It is
wonderful to hear God speak to us specifically through
someone who couldn’t possibly know our needs.
Prophecy is a tremendous gift from God, but we must not
become dependent on a word of prophecy. It’s more
important to get direction from the Word of God.
The more mature we are in the Lord, the more we will
hear from God on our own without the supernatural
intervention of a prophetic message from someone else.
As you learn how to hear from God yourself, you may find
that you will receive fewer words from others than you
did in the beginning of your walk with the Lord.
When God called me into the ministry, I received many
prophetic utterances from people. But there have been
times in my ministry that I have gone for years without a
single prophetic word spoken to me. It is a great gift when
it is given to us, but we must not wait for a word or let our
lives be run by something someone has spoken to us. We
are to diligently read and study the Word, preach, and
teach the good news. As we do that, God will work His
plan through us and for us.

GOD SPEAKS THROUGH
WISDOM AND COMMON SENSE

One of my favorite ways to hear from God is through
conventional wisdom and common sense. Wisdom
discerns truth in a situation, while common sense
provides good judgment in what to do about the truth. I
consider wisdom supernatural because it isn’t taught by
men, but is a gift from God.
Many sophisticated and intelligent people still lack
wisdom and common sense. The Word says, “If any of you
is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who
gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without
reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him”
(James 1:5).
Actually it amazes me how many people seem to think
that all their common sense must vanish in order for
them to be “spiritual.” Spiritual people don’t float around
all day on clouds of glory while seeing angels and hearing
disembodied voices. We live in a real world with real
issues and need real answers. The answers are found in
God’s Word and are revealed to us by His Spirit.
We do the seeking, and He does the speaking, but He is
the Spirit of Wisdom and will not tell us to do things that
are unwise. Wisdom and common sense are closely
linked. I like to say that wisdom is choosing to do today
what we will be satisfied with tomorrow or later on in
life.

When I am shopping, I often seek God for wisdom about
my purchases. I don’t pray about everything I buy, but I
do try to acknowledge God in all my ways. If I am going to
spend any sizable amount of money, I wait on the Lord
for a minute to see if I feel peace about it or not.
Many times we ask God to speak to us and lead us, but if
He doesn’t respond with a specific word, we still have to
live our daily lives. We make decisions all day long, and
He is not going to dictate every little choice we make, but
He does give us wisdom to carry us through our day.
When we don’t get a rhema from God, we need to use
conventional wisdom in the choices we make.
If God does speak to me, I have learned to do specifically
what He says to do. But if God doesn’t speak to me
specifically, it doesn’t mean He isn’t leading me. There are
some issues about which God already trusts me enough to
know what is right or wrong. I don’t have to have a “big
word” from God. But I have learned to wait on Him to see
if there is a need for Him to intervene in the way I am
planning to go.
For example, if I am pondering, Lord, is it okay for me to
buy this? and I don’t hear anything from God, then one of
the things I ask myself is, Can I afford it? Obviously, if I
can’t afford it, then wisdom says, “Don’t buy it.” The
audible voice of God is not needed when wisdom is
already shouting the truth.

If people would listen to wisdom, they would keep
themselves out of a lot of trouble. The book of Proverbs is
a great source for wisdom. I recommend that you read at
least a few verses of Proverbs or Psalms daily. I am not
trying to establish rules or regulations, but I simply share
what has profited me. Most days, I read something from
these two books. Psalms always encourages me and builds
me up, and Proverbs tells me how to stay out of trouble.
God speaks wisdom to us through what I call “sanctified
common sense.” A lot of people, even Christians, ignore
their common sense and make foolish decisions. An
example of not using common sense is when people get a
sense that something bad is going to happen to someone
else, so they call that person and say, “I have been praying
for you, and I sense that something really bad is going to
happen to you.” The bottom line is, I don’t believe there is
wisdom in telling anyone such things. That kind of news
can only bring fear, and God’s Word says to fear not.
Common sense tells us that if what we are hearing about
someone else is from God, then He has given us that
warning so that we will pray for that person’s protection.
What good would it do to scare the person with such
news?

If people would listen to wisdom, they would keep
themselves out of a lot of trouble.
I won’t discount that God may lead us to tell someone a
specific word for a specific event, but He would not tell us
to impress someone with a generalized fear. There is a
great difference between the two. Only common sense
will help us reason out the possible fruit of our decisions
and help us know which way we ought to go. Ask God for
sanctified common sense to lead you.
I greatly appreciate people who use common sense.
Sometimes I would rather be around a person who is
known for good common sense than someone who is
considered to be a spiritual giant.

Heavenly Father,
Thank You for the blessing of a new day. Thank You for the breath in our lungs, the strength to rise this morning, and for Your goodness that surrounds us each day. We are grateful for Your love, Your mercy, and for carrying us through every moment.
As we go through this day, help us to walk in wisdom and to trust You with every concern. Fill our hearts with joy, patience, and peace.
May our words and actions reflect Your love, and may we be a blessing to those around us.Lord, watch over our families and loved ones. Open doors that no one can shut, provide for our needs, and keep us under Your protection. Whatever this day brings, help us to remember that You are with us and that Your plans for us are good.
In Jesus' name, Amen. 🏾

KEEP AN ATTITUDE OF PATIENCE

I need to hear from God every day, and I want to hear
from Him about everything. To hear God, we must be
willing to wait on wisdom out of a passion for wanting
God’s will more than anything else. We will hear from
God much more clearly if we are determined not to move
in the heat of our fleshly desires or emotions. We will be
blessed if we wait and make sure that we have heard
from God before we take any steps at all. Then we should
do what God is saying to do, even if it hurts, and even if it
costs us something.
Several years ago I started collecting classic movies on
video because there wasn’t anything decent to watch on
television. As a result of my buying them and people
giving them to me over the years, I have a pretty nice
video collection. As a matter of fact, my kids tease me
sometimes and call my collection the “Joyce-Buster”
movies (instead of Blockbuster).
A magazine arrived at our house listing many good, clean
movies. Everything listed was Christian-based, moral
entertainment, and it seemed that God had just dropped
the opportunity in my lap. I got excited and probably
checked fifteen different videos I wanted to order. I then
decided to just lay the list aside for a few days. I finally
came back to it after I was able to patiently overcome my
emotions and use godly wisdom. I ordered only two new
movies.

If I had acted the night my emotions were stirred, I would
have ordered too many videos, and it wouldn’t have been
God leading me to do it. We need to wait for sound
wisdom before we act on an impulse that we think is from
God.
Learn to wait. Emotions that rise and energize us will fall,
and emotional energy won’t carry us where we really
need to go. We need God’s energy, which is Holy Ghost
determination to follow through and do what God has
said.
God has a will and a plan for everyone. Each person
needs to find out what it is that God wants him or her to
do, then wait on His timing to do it. All of us need to
follow Wisdom:
Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who
listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the
posts of my doors. For whoever finds me Wisdom Katjivari finds
life and draws forth and obtains favor from the Lord. But
he who misses me or sins against me wrongs and injures
himself; all who hate me love and court death. (Proverbs
8:34-36)

We can miss God by being in a hurry to get what we want.
If we don’t wait, especially in important areas, we will
bring trouble into our lives. Patience is becoming more
finely tuned in my life all the time.
I am a natural-born confronter. In the past, if I wanted
something solved, I confronted the issue and forced a
solution. It took me years to learn that sometimes it
wasn’t good for me to deal with issues that directly. I
learned that I could make matters worse, or get in God’s
way and end up having to go through the same situation
again because I didn’t wait for God’s timing. Because I
was impatient, I didn’t give God a chance to solve things
for me.
I have learned that when I feel anxiety rise in me to
handle something, I should let it rest for at least twentyfour hours. It is amazing how we can change our mind if
we will just let things settle for a few hours. We can save
ourselves so much trouble if we will learn to wait on God.

KEEP AN ATTITUDE OF OBEDIENCE

The psalmist David said of God, “Sacrifice and offering
You do not desire, nor have You delight in them; You have
given me the capacity to hear and obey [Your law, a more
valuable service than] burnt offerings and sin offerings
[which] You do not require” (Psalm 40:6).
God delights in the atmosphere of our obedience.
Naturally, it doesn’t do God any good to talk to us if we
aren’t going to listen and obey.
For many years, I wanted God to talk to me, but I wanted
to pick and choose what to obey. I wanted to do what He
said if I thought it was a good idea. If I didn’t like what I
was hearing, then I would act like it wasn’t from God. God
has given us the capacity both to hear Him and to obey
Him. He does not require a higher sacrifice than
obedience.
Some of what God says to you will be exciting. Some
things God tells you might not be so thrilling to hear. But
that doesn’t mean that what He tells you won’t work out
for good if you will just do it His way.
It is amazing how we can change our mind if we will just
let things settle for a few hours.
If God tells you that you were rude to a person, and He
wants you to apologize, it won’t work to answer back,
“Well, that person was rude to me too!” If you talk back
with excuses, you may have prayed, and even heard, but
you haven’t obeyed.

Instead, go apologize if God tells you to do so. Take
yourself through the walk of obedience and say to that
person, “I was rude to you, and I’m sorry.” Now you have
obeyed. Now God’s anointing can flow through your life,
because you are obedient.
I was moved by a story about a message from a pastor of a
very large church who spoke at a pastors conference in
Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hundreds of pastors came from all over
the nation to hear this man tell what he did to build his
church. He told them simply, “I pray, and I obey. I pray,
and I obey.”
One of the ministers who attended this meeting expressed
to me his disappointment in the pastor’s message. He said,
“I spent all that money and went all that distance to hear
this world-renowned leader tell me how his ministry
grew to the point it is. For three hours, in various ways, he
said the same thing, ‘I pray. I obey. I pray. I obey. I pray. I
obey. I pray. I obey.’ I kept thinking, Surely there’s
something else.”

Looking back over nearly three decades of walking with
God, I would have to agree that if I put into words the
simplest explanation for all the success we have enjoyed,
we too have learned to pray, hear from God, and then do
what God tells us to do. Over the years I have been
seeking God about the call on my life and pressing
forward in what I feel He has told me to do. The essence
of it all is that I have prayed, and I have obeyed. It has not
always been popular with everyone else, but I have
prayed, I have obeyed—and it has worked. God’s plan is
not hard; we make it hard.
If you want God’s will for your life, I can tell you the
recipe in its simplest form: Pray and obey. God has given
you the capacity to do both.
Pray.
And obey.
Pray.
And obey.
Pray.
And obey.
Pray.
And obey.
If you do that, before you know it, you will have stepped
right into God’s perfect plan for your life.

KEEP AN ATTITUDE OF FAITH

When I was called to the ministry, I wanted to tell
everybody. When I did so, I was met with a lot of unbelief.
But when God speaks a word to us, there is no doubt in
our heart what we are supposed to do. We must maintain
faith in what God tells us, even when no one else believes
it with us.
Paul had been persecuting Christians and was not a likely
person to be called to preach. If I had been one of Paul’s
peers, I would have had a hard time believing that he was
called. He knew what the reaction to his ministry would
be, so he wrote:
But when He, Who had chosen and set me apart [even]
before I was born and had called me by His grace (His
undeserved favor and blessing), saw fit and was pleased
to reveal (unveil, disclose) His Son within me so that I
might proclaim Him among the Gentiles (the non-Jewish
world) as the glad tidings (Gospel), immediately I did not
confer with flesh and blood [did not consult or counsel
with any frail human being or communicate with
anyone]. Nor did I [even] go up to Jerusalem to those who
were apostles. (Galatians 1:15-17)

Paul said that he kept the news of his calling to himself; he
didn’t check it out with “the big guys” who were supposed
to always be hearing from God. He knew what God had
done with him on that road to Damascus. He knew that he
had been changed forever (see Acts 9:3-8). He knew that
the Son of God had been unveiled and disclosed on the
inside of him. He knew that he could never go back to the
life he had lived. He knew that for the rest of his life he
would have to preach the gospel and remain faithful to
what he had heard Jesus say to him.

But he also had wisdom to know people would find his
calling unbelievable. So he waited on God. He didn’t go
running around checking with the other disciples, saying,
“Hey guys, I saw a light on the road and fell off my horse
and this happened and that happened. What do you all
think?” Instead, he went away and retired into Arabia.
Afterward he came back to Damascus. Three years later,
he did “go up to Jerusalem to become [personally]
acquainted with Cephas (Peter), and remained with him
for fifteen days” (Galatians 1:18).
Paul kept God’s Word in his heart and let it grow and
manifest on its own. Then he started doing what he was
called to do. Soon others recognized that the calling on
him must have been from God. Paul finished by saying,
“And they glorified God [as the Author and Source of what
had taken place] in me” (Galatians 1:24).

People often say they want confirmation when God
speaks to them, citing the biblical rule that we should
expect every word to be confirmed by two or three
witnesses (see 2 Corinthians 13:1). But that Scripture
about two or three witnesses has nothing to do with
hearing from God. It was intended for the purpose of
correction when an accusation was being brought against
a Christian. If a believer was being accused of doing
something wrong, accusation was not to be believed
unless it was confirmed by two or three other believers.
Finding two or three witnesses was never used in
reference to seeking counsel for God’s direction in the life
of an individual Christian. When we hear from God, we
do not need to wait for three people to tell us the same
thing; we simply need to have an attitude of faith, like
Paul, and wait for God to show us the next step.
Sometimes people want God to confirm their calling with
a sign, as Gideon did when he laid out a fleece on the
threshing floor (Judges 6:36-40). God honored Gideon’s
request, but it wasn’t God’s best. When Thomas was full of
doubt, saying he had to see before he believed, Jesus said
to him, “‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet
have believed’” (John 20:29 NIV).

God will do some special things for us when we are young
Christians, but as we mature in our knowledge of God’s
leading, He is pleased when we learn to operate in faith.
Sometimes people open their Bible at random, hoping it
opens to a Scripture that is relevant to their situation.
They are afraid to proceed in faith with what God has told
them to do. There were times in the past when God would
honor such requests for signs, but that “well” of
reassurance will dry up real quickly when it’s time to
simply act in faith.
I had to learn how to be led by my inner man. As the
apostle Paul said, “My conscience bears me witness in the
Holy Spirit” (see Romans 9:1). That is the only
confirmation that we are required to have when God calls
us to do something.
“‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have
believed.’”

I like the way my pastor, Rick Shelton, said he operated.
When he thought he heard from God, he would say, “I am
not going to move on this until I know for sure that it fits
inside.” Everything that is right for our lives has a place
on the inside of us, where it is going to settle comfortably.
God may call us to do something we don’t always like in
the flesh, but deep inside it will give us pleasure if it is
truly a calling from God. For example, I am not eager to
stay in hotel rooms every weekend, because to me they all
look alike, but I know what I am called to do. I am excited
about preaching, so I don’t think about the parts of my
ministry that are less pleasant.
There is a deep desire on the inside of me that is settled
with any inconvenience associated with my calling. I
know I have to stay in hotels in order to do what I love to
do.
God may call you into things that you are not be used to
doing. You may be scared in the natural, but you will feel
that what you are doing fits inside with everything else
that God has developed in you. An attitude of faith will
keep you moving toward the fulfillment of your calling.

Questions For Discussion

1. What atmosphere (climate, environment, or
predominant mood) is surrounding you? What personal
attitudes created this atmosphere?
2. Describe a time when you heard God’s voice. How did
you know it was God’s voice? What confirmed this?
3. Describe a time when you heard a voice other than
God’s. How did you know this was not God’s voice? What
confirmed this?
4. How do you consistently distinguish between God’s
voice and other voices?
5. Are you wavering in remaining steadfast to something
God has told you? Why have you lost hope? Are you
listening more to other people? What are you to do with
what God has spoken to you? Something specific or are
you to continue prayerfully seeking God and waiting on
Him?
6. Is there someone in your life God has told you to forgive
or ask forgiveness from? If so, have you acted
accordingly? If you have not acted obediently, what is
keeping you from doing what God has spoken?
7. Note the aspects important in creating an atmosphere
to hear God—listening, honoring, faith, patience, and
obedience. What are the areas in which you are
strongest? What are the more challenging areas?
8. In what ways are you currently walking in obedience?
Are there any ways you are currently walking in
disobedience? If so, what or how? Be specific in your
answer.
9. What do you believe God is leading you to in response
to this chapter?

KEEP AN ATTITUDE THAT HONORS GOD

Another attitude that invites the presence of God into our
atmosphere is one that honors Him above all others. We
need to have an attitude that says, “God, no matter what
anybody else is telling me, no matter what I think myself,
no matter what my own plan is, if I clearly hear You say
something to me, and I know it’s You, I am going to honor
You and what You say above anything else.”
Sometimes we give more consideration to what people tell
us than to what God has said to us. If we pray diligently,
hear from God, but then start asking everybody else what
they think, we are honoring people’s opinions above the
Word of God. This attitude will prevent us from
developing a relationship in which we consistently hear
from God.

The Word confirms that we can trust God to instruct us
without needing constant reassurance from others: “But
as for you, the anointing (the sacred appointment, the
unction) which you received from Him abides
[permanently] in you; [so] then you have no need that
anyone should instruct you. But just as His anointing
teaches you concerning everything and is true and is no
falsehood, so you must abide in (live in, never depart
from) Him [being rooted in Him, knit to Him], just as [His
anointing] has taught you [to do]” (1 John 2:27).
This verse isn’t saying that we don’t need anybody to
teach us the Word. Otherwise, God wouldn’t appoint some
to teach in the body of Christ. But it does say that if we are
in Christ, we have an anointing that abides on the inside
of us to guide and direct our lives. We might occasionally
ask somebody for their wisdom, but we need not go
constantly to other people to ask them about decisions we
need to make for our lives.
When our staff members ask me, “What do you think I
ought to do?” I tell them, “You have to hear from God.”
If we are ever going to develop an ability to hear from
God and be led by His Spirit, we have to start making our
own decisions and trust the wisdom God has deposited in
our own heart.

God is the only One who can minister life to us.
The devil wants us to think we are not capable of hearing
from God, but the Word says that’s not true. The Holy
Spirit dwells inside of us because God wants us to be
individually led by His Spirit. We are not living under the
old covenant in which we have to run to the priest to find
out what we ought to be doing all the time.
In Jeremiah 17:5-7 the prophet tells us:
Thus says the Lord: Cursed [with great evil] is the
strong man who trusts in and relies on frail man,
making weak [human] flesh his arm, and whose mind
and heart turn aside from the Lord. For he shall be
like a shrub or a person naked and destitute in the
desert; and he shall not see any good come, but shall
dwell in the parched places in the wilderness, in an
uninhabited salt land. [Most] blessed is the man who
believes in, trusts in, and relies on the Lord, and
whose hope and confidence the Lord is.
The Lord is clearly saying not to make human flesh our
strength. Severe consequences happen to those who trust
in the frailty of people. Blessed are those who trust and
honor the anointing from God that abides within them.
Good things happen if we listen to God. He wants to be
our right arm and our strength. God is the only One who
can minister life to us.

Jesus heard clearly from His Father that He needed to go
to the cross. In Mark 8:31 Jesus told the disciples that it
was necessary for Him to suffer many things, be tested,
approved, rejected by the elders and the chief priests and
scribes, and be put to death; but, after three days, He
would rise again from the dead. Verse 32 says that Peter
“took Him by the hand and led Him aside and then [facing
Him] began to rebuke Him.”
But Jesus didn’t consider the direction of frail men, like
Peter, and “turning around [His back to Peter] and seeing
His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, Get behind Me,
Satan! For you do not have a mind intent on promoting
what God wills, but what pleases men [you are not on
God’s side, but that of men]” (v. 33).
Jesus honored whatever His Father said, no matter what
the personal cost to Himself. Sometimes we only listen to
God if what He says isn’t going to cost us anything, or if He
tells us what we want to hear. Most of the time, if we
receive a discomforting word, we act like Peter and say,
“Oh no, this can’t be God!” But if we want to have ears that
hear God’s voice, we must honour His words above all
others.

KEEP A LISTENING ATTITUDE

Listening is an important key to hearing! Have you ever
met someone who asks questions, but doesn’t listen to the
answers? It is hard to talk to people who aren’t listening. I
am confident that God doesn’t bother to speak to closed
ears. If we are not going to listen to Him, God will find
someone with a ready ear, someone who is listening for
the sound of His voice.
Hebrews 5:11 warns us that we will miss learning rich life
principles if we don’t have a listening attitude:
“Concerning this we have much to say which is hard to
explain, since you have become dull in your Mxolisi Duma
hearing and sluggish [even slothful in achieving spiritual
insight].”
A listening attitude will keep us from becoming dull in
hearing. We shouldn’t have the mentality of only listening
for God’s instruction when we desperately need help. Of
course we’re ready to hear from Him if we’re in trouble.
But God wants to speak to us on a regular basis. We need
to have a listening ear all the time.
I sat down at my computer today and was ready to begin
working on this book project when I sensed the Lord
saying, “Take a few minutes and just wait on Me.” I waited
very briefly, then started to make a phone call. The Lord
gently said, “I didn’t tell you to make phone calls; I told
you to wait on Me.” Our flesh is so full of energy it is
difficult for us to just be still. We need to develop new
habits in this all-important area.

So I waited quietly for a period of time, and the Lord
began to talk to me about angels—something I certainly
was not expecting. He led me to look up several
Scriptures, and I ended up receiving a mini Bible lesson
on the power and presence of angels. God has reasons for
everything He does, and I believe He wanted me to be
more aware of His angels working on my behalf—
something I honestly had not thought about for a long,
long time.
You might ask, “Joyce, how do you know for sure God was
talking to you, that your mind was not just making it up?”
The answer is that I had peace about what I was
receiving. It felt right inside me. My spirit confirmed it as
being truly from the Lord. We know things about God by
the spirit, not necessarily by the head. We take
information into our minds, but revelation comes to our
spirits through the Holy Spirit.

There have been other times when I have waited on God
and heard a similar voice but intuitively knew it was not
God’s. We must know God’s character in order to know
what is from Him and what isn’t. As we will see, He is
gentle, not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing (see Matthew
11:28-30). For example, when I began to pick up the phone
to make a call, God didn’t become angry and yell at me.
His voice was gentle and kind. God understands our
nature. He knew I was not purposely being disobedient
but that my flesh just wanted to be busy “doing
something.”
Our flesh is so full of energy it is difficult for us to just be
still.
There are many facets of God’s character, and each one of
them seems to be more wonderful than the next. He is
faithful, true, loving, kind, long-suffering, just, and honest
—among many other wonderful attributes. If I thought I
heard God tell me to give up on something just because it
was difficult for me, I would question whether that
message was from Him, because I know His character is
to be faithful. His Word says that even when we are
faithless, He remains faithful (see 2 Timothy 2:13);
therefore, it is unlikely He would tell me to give up
quickly.

If I went shopping and came home with an extra item in
my package that I didn’t pay for and thought God was
telling me that it was His way of blessing me, I would
know the voice was not God’s because He is always
honest. He would not keep something He did not pay for,
and we should not do so either. I recently purchased two
pairs of shoes and the purse that matched one pair. When
I returned home I found that the clerk had given me two
pairs of shoes and purses to match both pairs, but had
only charged me for one purse. It was an effort to return
the purse—it actually cost me time and gas money to be
honest—but I knew honesty was God’s way.
The clerk was so impressed that as I was leaving I saw
him telling others he could not believe I had returned the
purse. People need to see God in action and He wants to
work through His children. Don’t let Satan deceive you in
this area of hearing from God. Know God, know His
character, and you will be able to discern the voices that
come to you, whether they are His, yours, or the enemy’s.
Jesus said that people have ears to hear, but they hear not;
and eyes to see, but they see not (see Matthew 13:9-16). He
wasn’t talking about our physical ears; He was talking
about the spiritual ears we are given when we are born
into the kingdom of God. Our spiritual ears are tuned in to
God’s voice. We need to have a quiet, expectant attitude to
be able to hear Him.

An example of a listening attitude is what happens in
natural circumstance when Dave and I make tentative
plans for the weekend. If what we want to do requires
good weather, we start listening for the weekend forecast.
When we don’t have a desire to go anywhere, we don’t
really care about the weather forecast. When we need
information, we keep a listening ear tuned for the
answers we need. We may not know exactly what time
the weather report will be given, so we turn on our radio,
hoping to catch the weather broadcast.
We can get busy doing things around our house, but
because we are determined to keep one ear listening for
the weather report, we are quick to separate ourselves
from what we are doing as soon we hear anything said
about the weather. We need to listen for God with this
same kind of anticipation, as if we know He is about to
give us important information that will influence the
plans we are making.

When people come to the altar for prayer, I have learned
not only to listen to them with my physical ears, but also
with my spiritual ears. I listen to hear if God is telling me
something to pray for them. Many times what people tell
me is not the whole story, and they don’t even know it.
Maintaining a listening ear takes practice.
God knows the whole story, and that’s why He wants us to
train ourselves to have an attitude of listening to Him.
Maintaining a listening ear takes practice because it is not
something that comes naturally. We need to create an
atmosphere of expectancy that says, “I am listening, God.
If You don’t like what I am doing, please let me know. I am
listening.”
During our conferences, it is obvious that our worship
leaders and musicians are listening to the Lord, because
they frequently choose songs that perfectly complement
the message God tells me to share. Many times it is
impossible to coordinate song selections ahead of time, so
I am grateful to work with people who listen to God and
are led of His Spirit. When God confirms His message in
many people at the same time, it builds faith in us to
know that we really do recognize and discern His voice.
Everlyne Opondo

Expected, Unexpected, Above and Beyond
You should expect the expected—what you prayed for. If you bring your tithes and offerings, your hope is that God will open the windows of heaven. Expect what He said will happen.
But also expect the unexpected—breakthroughs you can't anticipate, like an unexpected check or a surprise promotion.
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” — Ephesians 3:20
We should also expect what is above and beyond. Our God is above and beyond any problem or circumstance. When you do what you know to do, expect the expected, the unexpected, and what is above and beyond. Who can defeat you with that kind of hope?
Change your perspective and declare: Something good is coming to me today. Let Jesus be the foundation of your hope. Don’t let reason kill your faith and expectation; instead, praise God. Declare your harvest is on its way, and always live expecting that a great harvest is coming.