Be in His Purpose Podcast | Guiding Christians to Wholeness, Identity, and Calling

How to Recognize His Voice in Your Life

• Yvonne Paschal • Season 2 • Episode 18

Share episode

The question many Christians ask: "Was that God's voice or just my own thoughts?" This deeply personal struggle emerges especially when we face significant decisions, standing at crossroads where determining divine direction becomes crucial.

In this episode, we explore the profound difference between hearing God and truly listening to Him. John 10:27 reveals that Jesus' sheep don't merely hear His voice—they listen actively and follow intentionally. This distinction marks the pathway to spiritual maturity and authentic relationship with God.

God communicates in multiple ways—His written Word (alive and active, transforming us from within), the Holy Spirit's inner promptings, dreams and visions, godly counsel from other believers, and even occasionally through audible voice. Yet discerning His voice requires both knowledge and practice. We unpack five practical methods to position yourself for divine communication: daily Scripture immersion, cultivating stillness amid life's chaos, engaging in two-way prayer, journaling divine impressions, and practicing prompt obedience to what you've already heard.

True divine communication consistently aligns with Scripture, draws us closer to Jesus rather than away, produces spiritual fruit, and brings supernatural peace. While God's conviction may feel uncomfortable, it fundamentally differs from condemnation—one restores while the other destroys.

For every believer feeling distant from God's voice, the solution isn't complicated though it requires diligence: return to these foundational practices of listening. God isn't hiding—Jeremiah 29:13 promises that wholehearted seeking always leads to finding. The remarkable truth is that you can hear God's voice not because of your perfection, but because of His presence within you through the Holy Spirit.

 Join our Abiding in the Word Bible study every Monday at 10am Eastern on TikTok (@beinhispurpose) and stay connected for updates on memorizing Scripture through worship and song.

Would love to hear from you and how this Podcast has helped you. Send me a text!

If you just gave your life to Jesus, I want to provide you a Free resource on your next steps. Grab hold of it today! https://mailchi.mp/4624cb7c6c98/82d8xrp6ir

Follow Me on:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Yvonne.Paschal

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@yvonnepaschalministries

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61573737302168

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yvonne.paschal/

Website: www.beinhispurpose.com

Podcast Pro University Affiliate link- https://beinhispurpose--stefaniegass.thrivecart.com/podcastprouniversity/

**If you need some training and want to find a thorough, Christian led trainer in podcasting, how to start a podcast and get it up running, all the things, then Podcast Pro University is a great resource and opportunity. You will be trained by one of the best, Stefanie Gass. Check her Podcast out as well!


Join Email Community: www.beinhispurpose.com/join

Music credit: Music by Mike Kripak from Pixabay

Speaker 1:

If you've ever asked yourself was that God or was that just my own thoughts? You're not alone. Many of us face this question, even in our growing and our walk with the Lord. I believe we all face this question honestly at some point, and probably many times it comes up in our walk with the Lord. Welcome back to the Be In His Purpose podcast. I'm Yvonne Paschal, and today we're going to be diving into this topic that I know many of us wrestle with in our faith, in our walk with the Lord about how do I know if I'm really hearing from God? How do I know it is God? Is it me? You know my own desires, my own flesh, or you know the enemy? It could be any one of those three. It really can.

Speaker 1:

And so we all come to this point when, especially when we have to make really big decisions and you know we're walking with the Lord, maybe we're walking in the purpose and plan for for our lives and there's certain things right, we know that the Lord doesn't give us the whole picture. So we're following just even one step of the, of an act of obedience, and we're faced with all these decisions like okay, now what? Like what do I do with this? How do I handle that, you know? Should I do this, should I do that? So this is a constant. I know for me this is a constant thing where I'm faced with this question Okay, is this the Lord or is it? Is this me? And you know, is this, is this anointed by God, or is, is this just a good opportunity? Right, and we know that not every opportunity, even if it looks good on the outside, is, is anointed by God. And so what does that mean? It means that we can be faced with opportunities that look good, and you know what God didn't call us to do, that there's no anointing on it. And so, and there's no grace on it. So if we take up an opportunity that isn't from God, even though it's good, we're not going to be graced to do it, we're not going to have, um, his anointing on it, his hand won't be on it, and we're pretty much then going to be striving in our own strength. At that point, and I don't know about you, but I would much rather have his grace and his anointing to do the thing than to be striving and trying to do it on my own. Honestly, because we will. We will be doing it with god's hand, not on it, and so we all have to face that. We all have to go through that and figure out oh okay, that was not God, that was me. And now I'm, you know, now I'm striving into my flesh and I'm trying to probably now get out of it.

Speaker 1:

But let's talk about this. So I want you to grab your Bible, if you have that with you, because we're going to be getting into the Word here as well. And also let me just stop for a second Let me let you know that I do have an Abiding in the Word Bible study, that I do. I've started to do this every Monday at 10 am Eastern Time, and this is on my TikTok channel, and so if you haven't been able to join one of those, if you haven't followed or subscribed there, go ahead and do that. If you haven't subscribed to this podcast, I want to encourage you to subscribe and follow and you know like and leave me a comment on how this podcast has helped you in any way. Leave me a comment on how this podcast has helped you in any way.

Speaker 1:

But we talked about this this morning in the Bible study on my TikTok channel. We talked about coming to this conversation again around hearing from the Lord and discerning His voice, really discerning His voice, and I truly believe you know we all wrestle with this, even in the beginning of our walk and throughout our walk, and but I do believe that as we grow more and more and we mature in our walk with the Lord and our relationship with the Lord, that this will get easier for us. This will get easier for us, but I believe that we can truly gauge our relationship with God on the basis of how well we hear from Him and how well we discern that it is God versus not it really speaks to our relationship with the Lord. But let's talk about this. So we know that God speaks and the word actually reminds us that, as his sheep, we listen to his voice. I want to go to that scripture because I was reading that in our Bible study this morning and it really spoke to me that the wording used in there was listen to my voice versus hearing my voice. So that was in John, chapter 10. I'm going to go to that now. John, chapter 10 verse, verse 27. Let me see. Yeah, john chapter 10, verse 27.

Speaker 1:

It's interesting how the word used here my it says my sheep listen to my voice, I know them and they follow me. Okay, recognize that. It didn't say my sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me. Okay, recognize that. It didn't say my sheep hear my voice. It said my sheep listen to my voice, okay. Which tells me and, um, you know I'm.

Speaker 1:

I'm gathering from this, and it's speaking to my spirit, that you know what that because we are children of God, those who have accepted Christ, we can now hear from God, trust and know that, if you are a child of God and you are following Jesus, you have accepted him into your life and into your heart. That you can hear from God. Know that, okay, but there's a difference between hearing from God and listening to God. Right, we can hear from him and you know what we get. To choose whether to listen to that or not, right, and that's all part of growing with the Lord, that's all a part of our walk.

Speaker 1:

Everyone has to face this, right? Do I obey, do I? You know? Do I claim that? Oh, I don't know if that was God or not, but really, we do, we know. But anyway, right, my sheep listen to my voice. So, automatically, I'm encouraged and I want to encourage you that you can hear from God. You can hear from God as a child of God, you have the Spirit of God dwelling on the inside of you. You can hear from God, but here it tells us that my sheep listen to my voice. So we now have to get beyond the hearing from God and now get into the listening to God and obeying the Lord. Right, that's a whole other spectrum. So I want us to begin this, walking this out more and more every day, that we are not only hearing, but we're now listening, and then we're you know, we're stepping into're stepping into the act, acting out of our obedience.

Speaker 1:

What did God tell me to do? What did he tell me not to do? All right, now it's up to me to listen and to obey. Okay, so, um, that was really what stood out to me this morning. And, um, but, yes, god speaks to us and we can hear from him. And in Hebrews 13, 8, it tells us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. So guess what? If God spoke then? Right, he still speaks now and he's not going to stop speaking.

Speaker 1:

And I know we've talked about this in a previous podcast and in the Finding your Purpose series, we talked about this, but here are some of the ways that God speaks, because he does speak in different ways. It's not just one way. You know, the way that he speaks to you could be different from how he speaks to me, and we need to know. Though, right, I think it's important that we know the different ways that he speaks, because otherwise, if we don't recognize that he could be speaking to me through you know um, through dreams and visions, well then, I'm I'm not going to pay attention to that, right? If we don't know that he's speaking to us through other people wise counsel, believers then, right, we're not going to pay attention to that, we're probably going to excuse that and not listen to it. But you know what he can do, that If we don't know that the Holy Spirit is speaking to us because the Holy Spirit dwells inside of us, is speaking to us because the Holy Spirit dwells inside of us, then we may not even pay attention to that nudging or to that feeling, that inner knowing, that bubbling up, all of that, right, we're not going to pay attention to it. But guess what? That is God speaking.

Speaker 1:

Same thing as in the Word. You know the Word is alive and active. We read this in scripture. The very breath of God is in the scriptures. The word is alive and active and, like having a Bible, is a blessing. And having it in front of us, having being able to hold it, being able to open it up, being able to read the word, is a gift from God. And guess what? Through his word, he can do a work through us. I was reading this today in our Bible study, right Hebrews 4.12 not only says for the word of God is alive and active, but it says that it's sharper than any double-edged sword and it penetrates the heart, it penetrates the spirit, the soul and now I'm paraphrasing here but it penetrates the soul and spirit, it penetrates our hearts to do a work that God set it out.

Speaker 1:

You know that God set out to do so. The word itself, and when we are in it, when we are reading, it will do a work in us, whether we know it or not. It will do a work in us because it is active, because it is alive, because it is sharper than any double-edged sword. It will bring conviction, it will bring correction, it will do all of the things that it's set out to do. The very word of God has a purpose. Every word of God has a purpose and a plan.

Speaker 1:

So, guess what, when we are in the word and and and studying it and reading it, and um, memorizing it and being obedient to it and walking it out, living it out, you can, we can trust and know that there's God is working through that, god is working through that. God is working through that. Okay, so, um, so yeah, god speaks in different ways and so some of the ways we just talked about, he speaks through his word. He's. He speaks through the Holy spirit. He's. He can speak through dreams and visions. Yes, he can still speak through this method that we have dreams, we have visions. Yes, method that we have dreams, we have visions. Yes, he can speak to us through them. He can speak through other people, through wise counsel, through believers, through your pastor, um, through, you know, just through people. He can speak through through our spirit, by giving us peace in a situation, through our spirit, by giving us peace in a situation or bring conviction right.

Speaker 1:

There's something that we sense in our you know we can discern that this is not a good decision, this is not a good thing, right? So we may not always hear the actual, audible voice of the Lord, and that's another way that we can hear from Him, but we may not always hear that audible voice, but we can sense through a nudge, through a whisper, through a verse that just doesn't leave you alone. That's another thing. Just to stop for a second, like, if you continue to, if it continues to surface, you know for a specific thing, right, and you're not sure that this is from God. But what I like to say is that a good way to know if it is, if it is from God? Right?

Speaker 1:

There are some things you need to ask yourself, but if there's something specific that you need to know is did God give you this? I'm just going to use an example. Did God give you a business idea? Okay, you need to know, is this from the Lord? Does it have his anointing, his grace on it, right? Is it his will? Did I hear from him? Did he give me that? Or is that from me? Or maybe is that the enemy slipping in here to try and distract me, right? Okay, well, some things you need to ask yourself. All right, does it continue to come up? Do you continue to think about it? Does it continue to surface in your spirit, in your heart, in your, in your, in your heart, in in your um, does it like it won't leave you alone? You know you just continue to. It just continues to come up, um, pay attention to that, but also pay attention to the fact do you have peace about it? Like, do you have a peace in the thing itself? Is there peace or is there still, you know, some doubt? Are you convicted? You know what are you feeling. Pay attention to that.

Speaker 1:

Another thing you want to ask yourself is right, does it line up with the word of God? God doesn't contradict his word ever, so does it line up with what the word is saying? So, if you're unsure about that, then you need to. We need to probably do some study and get in the word and see what the word says about how to handle certain things or how to handle business, how to handle, you know, business decisions with integrity and, and, um, you know righteously doing the right thing and all of that. Probably need to go, get in the word and study that then, um, but does it line up with his word? Um? Another thing to ask yourself is does it reflect his god's character? And again, the only way to know that is through spending time with the lord, spending time in his word, and our relationship with him should tell us what god's character is. So if you're unsure, then get in the word, do some study to know what is God's character.

Speaker 1:

And then another thing right, have we prayed about it? Have we sought the Lord? And I'm not just talking about one prayer, like seek the Lord out in prayer until we get an answer. Sometimes we don't get an answer immediately, sometimes it isn't made clear immediately, but we can press in until we have, until we know we've heard from the Lord, um, and? And then seeking, uh, wise counsel, right, um, seeking out others to know, right, hear what they have to say about the matter, and that will help us to know, okay, is this a God thing, is this a me thing, or is this the enemy? That will help us in making and walking out and knowing how to handle certain situations.

Speaker 1:

So something else here right, we need to in order to hear from God. Right, we need to position ourselves to hear from him. We need to position our hearts to hear from him. This is going to be dependent on our walk. And are you know? Are we seeking him? Are we? How often are we seeking him right? What does that look like for you and I Do? We need to grow in this area, but to hear clearly from him, I believe that should be growing in our walk with the Lord. Our relationship with the Lord should be growing, and so we must position our hearts for that. We must be active and intentional about that. Just like any other relationship, we get what we put into it.

Speaker 1:

And Jeremiah 29, 13, I read this in our Bible study this morning is that you will see where it says you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart. That is a promise that when we seek the Lord with all of our heart and seek him that we will find him. There's no doubt that we will find him. God is not hiding from us, he's not hiding from you. He is there. It's a matter of will we seek him with everything? Will we seek him with all of our heart? Because when we do, we can believe and trust that we will find him. So here I have some practical ways that we can do this. I've got five practical ways. Spending time in the word daily. We've got to do this daily, daily. His voice is always in alignment with his word. We can always come back to the word to get in alignment with his word. We can always come back to the word to get in alignment with the Lord.

Speaker 1:

Number two is to we need to create and cultivate stillness and silence in our life. This can be difficult, depending upon what your life currently looks like. You know, you may have small children, you may have a busy lifestyle right now, you may have just various things in your life. You know all of those different things, right, but we need to. It's an absolute. We have to create and cultivate times in our day to be still and silent to hear the Lord. So if that means now that we need to get up earlier, or we need to stay up later to do this, or maybe we need to carve out a specific time in the day to do this, we need to do this and I'm speaking to myself right now because the Lord has been calling me to get up earlier to do this and I need to do it, and I'm going to tell you the same thing that create this stillness and silence with him. Psalm 4610, it says be still and know that I am God All right. Psalm 4610,. It says be still and know that I am God All right.

Speaker 1:

Number three we need to pray and then we need to be listening. We need to listen right. Going back to that scripture in Hebrews that I was reading is or in John I'm sorry, john 10, 27,. My sheep hear. Or the NIV says my sheep listen to my voice, I know them and they follow me. My sheep listen to my voice. Okay, so we've got to pray and then we've got to listen. Prayer is a two-way conversation. We can expect that the Lord is going to speak. He is going to speak to us as well, and so we can. We can expect that.

Speaker 1:

Number four is to journal. I think this is a good one. This is a practical method. We can journal what we are sensing or what we are hearing the Lord say that way, right, we can always come back to it and say oh, yeah, yeah, that's what the Lord was saying. If you don't like to write out in a journal, you know another. Something else I like to do is to use my recorder on my phone so I can audibly record what I feel the Lord telling me or speaking to me about, or what I'm sensing and then if I ever want to put that in a journal, then I do that. I can pull up the recording, play it back and then write it out in my journal, especially if I don't have my journal with me at the time.

Speaker 1:

And then number five this goes into obedience. We want to not only hear. We know we can hear the Lord. We now need to work on listening and then obeying right, we need to obey quickly.

Speaker 1:

God often gives us more revelation when we are faithful with what he's already said. So it's about trust when he can trust us with more, when, when he can trust us with with the small things right, the word tells us that he can trust us with the bigger things. So I believe this ties into to a lot of areas, not just something tangible, but like when he can trust us with doing something small, when he told us to do the one thing, the small thing, and we do it and obey, and then he can trust us again. And so, as we are faithful with doing that, then he can begin to reveal more and give us more, and like, um, give more, and like all those different things, like we will prosper in this area, um, so, you know, ask ourselves this is something we want to ask ourselves is, you know, have I slowed down enough to hear him? Have I slowed down enough to hear him?

Speaker 1:

When we begin to get into places where we feel the Lord is far away or distant, or that I, you know, we get in seasons where I'm struggling to hear from him. I want you to ask yourself am I doing any of these five practical things? Am I praying and listening? Am I getting still and silent? Am I spending time in his word? Am I obeying? Did I obey the last thing the Lord told me to do? Right, we've got to look at that and ask ourselves that, because if we're not, then that that's a key to what we need to do to be able to get closer to the Lord. Because he's there, lord, because he's there, it's just a matter of our intentionality. And are we seeking him?

Speaker 1:

Let's go into, let's talk about you know, we talked about this already a little bit of you know, how do we know if we're, if what we're hearing is from God? So we talked about right? Does it align with scripture? Does it draw us closer to Jesus? That's something else. Is it drawing us to him or is it taking us away from him? Does it produce the fruit of the Spirit is another thing right. Is it bearing fruit? Will it bear fruit? And do I have peace about it? So if it causes, you know, fear, confusion, condemnation, we need to pause because that may not be from God.

Speaker 1:

All right, the Lord convicts, but he doesn't bring shame, and so we need to, probably, if you know, if we've done all those things, and you know um praying and seeking wise counsel, if we're unsure, um, that's something else that we want to, we want to do and um, but I want to encourage you with this is that you can hear from God. I don't want you to think that you can't, as a believer, you can hear from God. So be encouraged today that you have the Holy Spirit inside of you. That means that you can hear from the Lord of you. That means that you can hear from the Lord, and you don't need to be this perfect person and have it all together. We just need to have a willing heart that's ready to seek him.

Speaker 1:

The answer is in the word. The answer is there. It tells us what we need to do now. We just need to listen and do it and be obedient, have a surrendered spirit and a desire to draw close to him. Now you will notice in your walk with the lord, he will draw you to him. You will begin to desire more and more of him, and in different ways. So just take some time to reflect on that and assess your walk with him Now.

Speaker 1:

Take this, take time this week to ask yourself Lord, what are you speaking to me right now? What are you showing me in my life? You know, where do I need to grow? How am I doing right now? Right, Ask yourself those questions. Don't be afraid to ask yourself that with with you and the Lord, and you know, begin to make some changes, begin to do some different things, right to grow in this area, and then, just you know, take note of that, whether journaling or audibly recording of where you're at and what the Lord wants to do, and trust that he is going to draw you and lead you closer to him, and we just need to be obedient to seek him in that. So I hope this has helped you and been a blessing to you as much as it has been for me. It's a great reminder for me as well. But thank you so much for joining me today and if this has blessed you, please let me know. Leave a comment below. Share it with a friend.

Speaker 1:

Follow the podcast if you haven't already. And again, as a reminder, I have Abiding in the Word Bible Study every Monday morning at 10 am Eastern Time, if the Lord wills, on my TikTok channel, which is at be in his purpose. So if you haven't followed there, you can definitely do that and check it out every Monday morning. And if you want to you know that's. You know, if you want to grow deeper and learning and just growing and walking with the Lord, you know, I would definitely encourage you to join that Bible study.

Speaker 1:

Um, something else I think I shared on my last podcast is I am working on um, I am praying into and seeking the Lord on this Um, but I I do feel like this is something that, uh, the Lord is continuing to bring to mind, the Lord is continuing to bring to mind, and this is around the memorizing scripture through worship and song. So if you'd love to be a part of that, I want you to stay. Stay connected with me. I'm going to be sharing more and more around that glory and honor and praise with the community of people, like-minded women, who also want to grow in this. Um, if you're like me, and you know I am about to be uh 43 this month and I've noticed, you know, with my own life, you know, uh, our memory, right.

Speaker 1:

Uh, can you know that that can change over time, it could change over the years, right, and so, um, not to say that the Lord can't bring healing and restore that, but, right, if I'm being honest, like you know, there is a struggle, there's a challenge with memory as a whole, for even the smallest of details, even the smallest of tasks, let alone memorizing the word, right?

Speaker 1:

So, if this is something that you can relate to and you're saying, look like it is hard for me, I am challenged with it, then I want you to to join me, I want you to be a part of this, because I have noticed, through preparing for this, that you know I've created a song for already some scriptures, and I have practiced this out already and I can tell you that I am able to recite that scripture now, after after actually walking this out and trying it out, that it works, and I know this works.

Speaker 1:

It's a proven method in learning to memorize and it's proven. So trust me, like this works and I can recite the scripture even now, like, yes, it's in the form of a song, but I can recite it and I can tell you it right now and and like I haven't practiced I don't practice it daily, okay but, um, even with not practicing it daily, I am able to recite the scripture right now, without even looking at the Bible. I can recite it to you right now and, um, like that, I know it works. So all the more reason why I feel led to to create this, to like it's too good to to not bring others in and like help others do the same, who also have, you know, a challenge with, you know, memorization and remembering things. So, anyway, that's that's something that you'll be hearing more about.

Speaker 1:

So, stay tuned, stay with me, stay connected. So you, so you get all of the latest on that. And, um, if you feel in any way you know, led to support or partner with the mission of being his purpose, you can actually do that by going to beinhispurposecom forward slash partner. But until next time, I want you to just, you know, be encouraged today, stay rooted in the word, stay close to the Lord and keep walking in his purposes and plans for you. Be blessed.