Priscilla Shirer - How Can I Know it ?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It ruins you for church as usual.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Oh hey, come ruins you.

Speaker 3 (00:04):
Yeah, that regular old mundane Christian redivers day to keep
the devil away.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Sit in church.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
Go because my mama went, my grandmother went, this is
what we do.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
All of that goes away.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Okay, because you're hungering for what you know, you've experienced before, actually.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Sensing the voice of God, his presence near you. Listen.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Sometimes hearing God is less about having a specific word
and more about just the nearness of His presence.

Speaker 4 (00:28):
Discerning the voice of God today, we're going to unpack that.
So why is this subject matter something that is really important?

Speaker 3 (00:38):
It is important because this facet of our faith is
what separates our faith from every other so called faith
on the face of the earth. Okay, that our God lives,
he's alive, and he speaks to us. We have an
actual relationship with him. And that's so casually thrown around
this whole relationship thing. But what good is any relationship
if nobody's talking to each other, if there's no community,

(01:00):
if there's not a connectedness that is ongoing and continual.
So this issue of discerning the voice of God, first
of all, believing that he does speak but second of all,
trusting in the fact that as his kids, we have
the privilege to actually discern and have a distinction of
his voice between all the other voices that also want
to get a word in edgewise. That's something that really
can change and transform the trajectory of your entire Christian experience.

Speaker 4 (01:24):
Okay, let's let's slay a little bit of the ground
rule in your in your world where you're our guests today,
you and Jerry, Jerry jump in anytime you want to.
You're much bigger than I am if you can, and.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
You know you're a miracle worker that you got him
on the show. Jerry doesn't want my buddy.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
Come you guys, you're just gonna have a good We're
gonna we're gonna discern the voice of God. Let me
ask you a question. In the Priscilla Jerry world. Does
God speak audibly? Does He only speak through his word?
Does he speak how?

Speaker 1 (01:59):
How?

Speaker 4 (02:00):
What are the different ways that you certainly know of
that God speaks to you.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
I've never heard the audible voice of God, Babe? Have
you I missed something?

Speaker 5 (02:10):
I have?

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Not, no, no, not yet.

Speaker 6 (02:12):
But I think there is something internal and that you
feel the presence of God, and it lines up with Scripture,
which confirms, Okay, this is what I'm hearing.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
So the Holy Spirit of God illumines Scripture, the book
is alive, and he causes the old presepts of Scripture
to have a nowness and a newness that applies and
intersects with our personal experience. So, as Jerry mentioned, the
Holy Spirit in us confirms and corroborates and connects with
the Word of God and causes it to intersect with

(02:44):
our experience.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
So that that verse that.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
Has something to do with David and Goliath, all of
a sudden, it's not about David and Goliath. It actually
applies to what you're facing right then in your life,
and you understand it as a directive straight straight from God.
And then there's the conviction, you know, the conviction of
the Holy Spirit, that green light of ease and peace
that says go, that yellow light of warning and uneasiness

(03:07):
that says, hold up a minute till you get clarity.
And then that red light that is a straight up no,
there's no peace, there's confusion, there's dissension. That's the Holy
Spirit's way of telling you no, don't go there. There's
a better yes for you if you'll just wait and
be patient.

Speaker 4 (03:23):
Have you ever heard the still small voice of the
Lord in a phrase and an impression? What describes some
of what is in discerning the voice of God, how
the Lord speaks, or how this conversation unfolds with you?

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yes, well, most of the time, most of the time,
God speaks to me through his word.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
It is exactly what I described.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
It is reading through a portion of Scripture, and on
that day it's like the Holy Spirit has taken out
a highlighter and it has highlighted this verse you have
seen a million times before, but on that day it
leaps up off the page and it grips you. That's
the only way I can really do describe it is
that it grips you in the depths of your soul
and causes you to pause for a moment because it

(04:06):
seems to be literally speaking to something that's happening in
your life. Most of the time, that is the voice
of God. We have discounted, I think the power of
scripture because if we say we want to hear from
God and we never actually read the love letter that
He wrote to us, we don't want to really hear
from God, and we rarely will, because the canon of
scripture is not only it not only provides the boundary

(04:28):
into which everything God says to us will fall, because
He'll never say anything that manipulates the scriptures or his
character as revealed in the scriptures. So it not only
gives us the boundary, but it also provides for us
the number one mechanism through which we have the privilege
to hear Him in the first place.

Speaker 5 (04:44):
Beautiful, Okay, so start us out on because I know
so many people wonder, Oh, how can I hear God's
voice for ourselves and I will trust it or trust
or trust it? How can I trust God's voice when
I do hear it? Is that really him?

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Is it me? Is it? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (05:02):
Well, let me just start by putting a little grace
over this entire situation. The reality is that sometimes you
do not know until hindsight that what you heard was
the voice of God. And the reality is that there
is grace and mercy to cover our missteps, and that
the Lord, in his graciousness toward us his knowledge of
our frailty and our humanity. For the willing heart who

(05:23):
desires to do his will. Even when we make mistakes,
he allows them to become our greatest teachers for hearing
Him correctly in the future. He does not hold it
against us because we've misstepped along the way. So just
grace for those of us, yes, who have ever heard
God wrong and wish we could get it get it right.
One of the people I sort of interviewed when I

(05:43):
was first writing that book many you know, over a
decade ago now, I interviewed Henry Blackaby, who wrote Experiencing God,
and I, you know, had my notebook out my pen.
I was going to take a seminary class from Henry Blackaby,
you know, and I said, how do you know when
you're hearing God? Gave me lots of incredible answers to
that question, but really.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
He summed it up this way.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
He said, the more you know God, the more clearly
you can hear God. There was really nothing for me
to write down because it boiled down to Priscilla. It's simple,
he said, the more you know Him, the more clearly
you can hear Him. So the reason why we go
to the scriptures, the reason why we have quiet time,
the reason why we fellowship with other believers who are
going to help us remain encouraged in our faith is

(06:24):
because we're just trying to get to know God. When
you know his character, when you know the nuances of
what he does say and what he wouldn't say, because
of how we spoke to our forefathers, because of how
he handled circumstances previously with people in the scriptures who
were going through some of the same scenarios we're going through. Now,
When you see his personality and his character, then you
know when you hear the voice of fear that don't

(06:45):
sound like my God, when you hear the voice of
your ego, pride, jealousy, divisiveness, stepping in all of that
stuff that in our flesh is also trying to get
a word in edgewise, We can quickly pinpoint the voice
of a stranger, because if we know God more clearly,
we can discern and divide his voice from a stranger.

Speaker 5 (07:03):
Okay, now you talked about seeking God's provision and his
blessings on our life and then knowing who what his
character is. Talk about that because I've found that fascinating.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
Yes, so God's blessing and I believe his provisions are
a corroboration of his word to us.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
So, in other words, while in the.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
Old Testament there were external means as a primary way
for folks to hear God, in the New Testament, and
now in this timeframe as well, we have something they
didn't have.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
We have the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
So the primary way he has speak to us that
he speaks to us has changed, but his goal hasn't.
His goal is still for his kids to hear his voice.
So he's chosen the Holy Spirit of God to be
the way that we hear and know what.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
It is that his will is for our life.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
But he still uses external means, his provision, his blessings,
his aligning of providence. Some people would call it luck
or coincidence. No, it's then of God's handiwork in our
life to confirm that what we're sensing on the inside
is indeed how He's aligning the direction for our life.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
To just F. B.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
Myers, a great theologian, to put it this way, When
a big seven forty seven is getting ready to land
on a runway, well, well the plane better not just
be looking for one light somewhere to land. Better not
just look for two lights somewhere to land. There better
be several lights that are that are liigning a runway
so that that seven forty seven knows exactly to we're land.

(08:30):
The bigger the decision that you have to make, the
more you need to trust in the mercy of God's
external confirmation that aligns for you where to land that
plane in your life. And so that's important that we
have external blessings, provision, coincidence that really shows us the
sovereignty of God aligning. I'll give you an example. I

(08:50):
was just telling you guys before we started airin that
I that I started to look at this discerning the
Voice of God book, the material that we've been privileged
to be able to develop through the years on the topic,
and I just started, you know how the Lord puts
layers of maturity on a message the more you grow
in him. Aren't we so grateful that He lets us
grow and mature and learn from our mistakes? And I

(09:11):
thought I was just starting to feel like, you know,
it might be time, especially with the video series that
we've done in regards to this, it was taped eleven
years ago, so it kind of looks dated now, and
I thought we might need to do something different with
that at some point this was going to be my
lazy year where I just kind.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
Of sat down and didn't write too much.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
But at the same time I started to sense that
on the inside, maybe we need to do that. At
some point, one of my publishers called to say, you know,
let's redo the Discerning the Voice of God Bible study.
Then the publisher of this particular book called and said, hey,
you know what, maybe we're going to put a reface
this and go ahead and freshen up the material here
and the new insights that the Lord has given you.
So there were two things, two lights there that kind

(09:50):
of corroborated what I was already sensing on the inside.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
And then Matt.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
Lloydkrauch called and said, you know what, Priscilla, we think
that we would love to offer this to people who
want to know how to discern God's leading. That third light, Wow,
was the confirmation for me that what it was I
was sensing on the inside, the Lord was very clearly
giving me a light bulb to let me know this
would be his direction for.

Speaker 4 (10:14):
Me a number of years ago when laws were different. Today,
if we're hiring somebody here at Trinity Broadcasting, we can say,
by the way, your you know, TBN is a Christian organization,
might have noticed, are you a Christian?

Speaker 2 (10:35):
We can say that that is. But there, if you.

Speaker 4 (10:38):
Wind the hands a clock back about thirty years, you
couldn't say that. You couldn't make somebody tell you whether
they were a Christian or not. In the application process
is different rules. Well, my dad when he in the
early days, somebody called and Trinity Broadcast is, you know,

(11:01):
under the authorization of the Federal Communications Commission. We have
employees here that make sure we stay in tune with
those policies and preduders and rules and all that kind
of stuff. We have different sets of employees that do
lighting and sound and this and that.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
But my dad was, of course the general manager.

Speaker 4 (11:19):
And somebody called, and my Dad's on the phone, mister Crouch,
you have to be a Christian to work at your channel.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
He had the phone in his hand.

Speaker 4 (11:29):
He went ye and wanted to say yes, and the
discerning voice of God at that point was literally he
couldn't say the word yes. So he went ye and
tried to say yes again and couldn't, and he said

(11:50):
hold second, put the call on hold, and said, you know,
just kind of went what you know, Lord, And he
clicked the button back and went, well, sir, I suppose
you don't have to be a Christian to work at
our channel, but you might want to be, you know,
much like if you were applying for a Spanish language channel,
you might want to know how to speak Spanish. Yeah,

(12:10):
And the guy went, hmmm, well that makes a lot
of sense.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
Okay, I get that.

Speaker 4 (12:15):
Uh oh, by the way, if you'd have said yes,
I was going to file uh, you know, against your
license at the Federal Communications Commission. So my dad's you know,
hit over the head with a ball peen hammer from
the Lord. That moment was that was God having a
conversation by literally not allowing him to make a mistake.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
And see, here's the thing that I love about this
story about your dad and the story about your parents
at the very beginning of this what I love is
their willingness to not push past those moments of restraint
when they sense that that warning, that conviction, to not
put the foot call on hold, but then pick it
back up, only to get that yes out that they wanted,
that he wanted to get out. And that's the problem

(12:55):
with most of us, that rebellious streak that we all
have that when we sense that can viction, that warning,
don't say that to your spouse. Not right now, that's
not the time to say that to your spouse.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
You had to say this spouse thing.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
Yes, you know when you're in heated fellowship with your
spouse and you you know, sometimes it's wives.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
We get ready because we know what we're.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
Gonna say is shut this whole thing down, and we're
gonna win this battle. We plan to win the battle,
and then we feel that warning, that conviction that's not
that's not going to be healthy for the longevity of
your marriage. The question is when we sense that, what
we push past it and say what we want to
say anyway, wow, or will we submit to the leadership

(13:33):
of the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
And the moment it might seem a little bit limited
and losing.

Speaker 3 (13:38):
Yeah, it might seem like you're limited, you're losing, But
really the outcome of obedience is always freedom and victory. Yes,
and it's hard to see that from this perspective. But
if you trust God, if we trust God, then when
we sense that conviction of the Holy Spirit to not
say this, to not buy this, to not eat all
of this, to restrain ourselves. It's because there's freedom and

(13:59):
victory that he's trying to leave us.

Speaker 5 (14:00):
Why is it important to hear God?

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Because it changes you, sent change me.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
That's right, It does change you. You know what it does.
You know what it does. It ruins you for church
as usual.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
Oh, hey, ruins you.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
That regular old, mundane Christian redivers day to keep the
devil away, sit in church. Go because my mama went,
my grandmother went, this is what we do. All that
goes away because you're hungering for what you know you've
experienced before, actually sensing the voice of God, his presence
near you listen. Sometimes hearing God is less about having
a specific word and more about just the nearness of

(14:39):
his presence, just knowing that he's near. I'm talking about
where your physical body responds to the presence of God.
There are times when you know he's near because he's omnipresent.
There are times where he manifests himself in a way
where that the hair on the back of your next.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Days south kind of feel goosebumps.

Speaker 3 (14:55):
Yes, And in those moments, once you start sensing the
nearness of God in that way, you're ruined for all
just doing stuff because it's what you're supposed to be doing,
and we want more of that.

Speaker 6 (15:04):
And I think what a lot of people need to
understand it. He also speaks through his silence very much,
so you know, I'm not saying anything. You know, think
about the years in the world where you know, from
the Old to New Testament, he was just silent. Yeah,
and his silence means stay still, don't move, I got you.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (15:23):
Does somebody your size ever feel goosebumps that ever happened
to you?

Speaker 5 (15:26):
Ever?

Speaker 6 (15:28):
You know, you know I'm gonna have goosebumps right now.

Speaker 4 (15:30):
Oh hey, hey, hey, hey, yeah, how much time we
have left in the show? They need to get out, okay,
And by the way, we're going to unpack this, so
get right back into the subject.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
But it's an important subject matter.

Speaker 4 (15:44):
Even the idea well way, the publisher and all that
kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
This is this is on the heart of God right now.

Speaker 5 (15:51):
This is the people being dissatisfied with the mundane.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeah, we are aren't wanting.

Speaker 5 (15:57):
To hear God's voice, wanting to know, you know, I
I mean, you know, not what to eat today necessarily,
but needing to know to help their kids to their jobs.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
There you know, in every area.

Speaker 5 (16:10):
Of your life, I believe God is speaking or once
to speak or once to have a say yes.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
And you know I want to say too, that just
that sense of dissatisfaction that someone may be feeling, that
we all feel when we're going to be launched into
the next level in our relationship with God. Sometimes that
dissatisfaction makes us so upset and so frustrated because we
just want to know the answer.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
We want to get to the answer.

Speaker 3 (16:32):
But the dissatisfaction itself is a sign of God's spirit working.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
With absolute and the dissatisfaction.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
The journey that it is going to lead you on
the lessons that are meant to be learned. They are
going to be learned because the dissatisfaction sent you on
a journey. The journey itself is not a waste of time.
Discerning the voice of God is never something you're going
to arrive at. It is never something you're going to
be successful at. It is going to be a journey
with God. As you walk in the rhythms of grace,

(16:59):
you will be on your deathbed still wanting to know
whether or not you have clearly heard the voice of God.
Because we are human He's mysterious. He is God, and
aren't we glad that He's not just a big version
of us.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
I don't want God to just be about me.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
I want God to be so far beyond my imagination
that I can never arrive at the knowledge of Him
that I have to constantly and consistently be growing.

Speaker 5 (17:22):
Well because it takes faith. That it takes faith to say, okay,
you know what that That's why I always say, if
we step out in faith kind of no matter what
it is. But if we walk in faith, how can
we ever fail in that? That's right, that's right if
we're believing that we're doing what God's called and be
in our Yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yeah, even when we're when we're unsure and we're unsteady.
In the book, I list several of these, but I'll
tell you just a couple of them. I believe that
He allows us to have the mercy of confirmation. I
call them the five ms of hearing God. When you
sense that God is imparting something upon you, impressing conviction,
just a push towards something or away from something, ask

(18:05):
him for the mercy of confirmation.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
He knows you're just a human. He knows that you need.

Speaker 3 (18:09):
To make sure that his fingerprints are on this assignment
before you move forward. I believe that He honors the
sincere request of his children when they say, Lord, would
you just do something to confirm Not because it's the
primary way you speak, I think you're speaking. Would you
confirm that by some external means to point me in
the right direction. And then one of the other m's
is the ministry of Eli. Do you remember the little

(18:31):
boy Samuel. He had an older, wiser guy in his
life name Eli, who was the one who pointed out
to him that the voice you're hearing is the voice
of God. You need to have a wiser, more mature
believer in your life who you admire, not the car
they drive, the house they live in, the success that
they've achieved, but the ongoing conversational relationship they have with God,

(18:52):
the victory you've seen them experience in your life. You
go to them and you say, here's what I think
the Lord is saying. Would you pray through this with me? Listen,
I've got those people in my life. The majority of
the things that we have done in ministry as a couple,
we have not done. I'm talking about big things that
would have marked our lives, in our children's lives.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
We have not done before.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
We have called people that we are submitted to their authority,
ask them would they pray through and give us their
wise counsel before we took a step. So we've submitted
ourselves to the ministry of Eli. We've got Eli's in
our life.

Speaker 4 (19:23):
Okay, we're talking about discerning the voice of God. We're
going to be talking about unpacking it with Jerry and
Priscilla all hour long.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
This book.

Speaker 4 (19:33):
Why don't you wind back and go back to the
original moment that you started thinking about writing this book.
What was happening in your life, what was going on?
How did this subject matter start forming?

Speaker 2 (19:48):
Books?

Speaker 4 (19:49):
For most people are painful to write, except Max.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
Ofcato, who says it's easy, which is not fair.

Speaker 7 (19:55):
Is kind of different than that's not even yeah, And
for me to write books, and so most of us
would would I've never written a book, probably won't, but
the idea.

Speaker 4 (20:08):
It would be painful because it's hard for me to
write a letter. So this had to be a period
of light in your life where you were going to
drill down, you were going to get into this. Why
this book, why this subject matter when you wrote.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
It specifically because of what your wife described a few
moments ago as a dissatisfaction with my Christian life the
way it was. Wow.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
I grew up in an.

Speaker 3 (20:33):
Incredible, wonderful, spirit filled environment where my father who started
the church that I still attend to this day, when
I was one year old. They have been faithfully passedoring
for forty years. And if anybody can preach the word
of God, it is Tony Evans. I tell you he
is one of the most gifted communicators of God's word.
And I was talking to your wife earlier today and
telling her that the reality is I had parents that

(20:55):
lived the thing.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
I'm so grateful integrity and character.

Speaker 3 (20:58):
That's what my parents had, and so I gleaned so
much of what the word of God was, who had
described God to be what he did in the Old
Testament and the New Testament. I knew all that, but
felt dissatisfied because if he did that for them, then
why am I not experiencing that for me?

Speaker 1 (21:14):
There was an unrest in my heart. I wanted more.

Speaker 3 (21:16):
I wanted to see and experience this God of the Bible.
And it is that dissatisfaction that sent me on just
a personal journey that connected me with people who were
in different streams of the faith, and instead of closing
them out, I invited in what it is that God
was teaching them and the ways that He had demonstrated
himself to them. And by just listening and gleaning and

(21:38):
inviting from the breadth of the body of Christ, I
began to realize that there is so much more than
our little box of our little stream presents to us.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
That there is more that can be that doesn't take away.

Speaker 3 (21:49):
Or water down what we have, but on the firm
foundation of where that God has already laid in our life,
there are deeper depths and there are higher heights.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
And so I just started walking the journey. And I'm
so grateful to the.

Speaker 3 (21:59):
Lord because he honored my quest by again not allowing
me to be at a place where I've arrived. I'm
in a place right now here I am at I
wrote that book, I think when I was thirty one
or thirty two. Here I am at forty two years old,
and I'm at a place right now where I'm revisiting
this whole concept because I'm needing to say, Lord, I'm
at a place right now where I feel like you're

(22:20):
silent or either my heart's hardened and I'm not hearing.
So once again, Lord, I need to retrain my spiritual ears.
I'm praying and saying, Lord, would you heighten my spiritual senses?
You know, just like we have five physical senses, we've
got spiritual sentence Lord, senses. Lord, I need my radar
to be up so that I can detect your presence
and hear your voice. And I'm going to need you

(22:40):
to make my detectors sensitive again, Lord, and I'm entrusting
that to your spirit. So it's an ongoing thing that
is born out of those moments of unrest in our
life with the.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
Lord's the greatest gift ever, It's the greatest gift.

Speaker 3 (22:53):
It means there's a new level he wants to take
you to. So I've been trying to keep myself from
getting frustrated by those moments and just go with God.

Speaker 4 (23:00):
You know, then at some point, though, how is your
life different?

Speaker 2 (23:08):
How is your life better?

Speaker 4 (23:10):
After you hit that dissatisfaction point, started writing this book
what has changed in the ten years for you personally?
Because there could be somebody viewing going you know, this
is really too deep of a subject for me. You know,
I got kids to raise, and I got two jobs,
and I got this and that I don't.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
Have time to put into.

Speaker 4 (23:30):
Okay, how can we make sure everyone understands this book,
the contents of this book, the subject matter of hearing
God's voice is something that will change their life. So
take your own journey talk to us about that.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
If we feel like our life is too big and
too filled with the busyness of kids or business or
life right now to be concerned about this topic that
just seems soot theoretical and sort of out there, then
those very reasons are the reasons why I'm more than anything.
You need to discern the voice of God. Okay, all
the things that you love the most, your children, your spouse,

(24:06):
your business, your ministry, all the things that are closest
to you. Without guidance and leading from the Holy Spirit,
without knowing what it is that God wants you to do,
you will not be able to handle those things. I
won't be able to handle those things correctly. We'll miss
out on some of the biggest gifts and biggest surprises
and biggest miracles that He wants to present to us.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
Because most of those hinge.

Speaker 3 (24:26):
On us hearing a word and having faith enough to
step out on the journey just like your parents. Let
me tell you what I've gained. Here's what I've gained.
What I've gained is that now, at forty two years old,
and I say this, you know I'm stepping carefully when
I say it. But at forty two years old, there
are very few things that the Lord could ask me

(24:48):
to do that I would not quickly and immediately step
out to do them because I have such a track
record with God now, even with my mistakes, but I
have such a track record with God now. And I
think my husband can attest to this. But I'm one
of those people that, if I sense the Holy Spirit
is calling me to do something, because of the track
record of seeing his faithfulness time and time again, step

(25:09):
in for me.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
When I stepped off what I thought was a leege
and it didn't look like it was.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
But I had a word from the Lord and it
comes confirmed in his word and by leadership in my life.
So I just went ahead and I did it anyway,
and I watched him catch me, and I watched him
take me to a place I never could have gotten
in my own giftings, or my own talent or my
own skill.

Speaker 1 (25:27):
You watch him do that enough times, you get.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
To the place that when God asks you to do
it again, you can't wait to step off the ledge because.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
You're another word, let's go.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
I'm so excited to see what's next in the journey.
So I get excited now.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
About hearing a word from God. I don't allow myself
to become discouraged. When I feel like he's silent. I
assume that that means the last word I had.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Stay with the last words, stay right there, be obedient
to the fine.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Give me a favor.

Speaker 4 (25:54):
Just let's for somebody that still is going, Yeah, that's
good for you folks that are on television.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
Right, you don't know what it's like out.

Speaker 4 (26:05):
Here, you know, and all this and and you know
you're all up there in your suit and you're all
looking good and smelling good and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
It's really rough out here.

Speaker 4 (26:15):
Think of the people in you know, foreign you know,
parts of the world of Indonesia and Africa that are
watching tonight.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
They're just they're struggling to get by. Okay, want to
John talk to them? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (26:28):
Yeah, would it happen think think of them in regard
to that, and if you would look at them and
maybe pray for them for.

Speaker 6 (26:35):
So let me just say this first of all, and
I want to talk to those people please. I'm the
youngest of three. We're up in a single parent home.
My mother had the fat groceries, work for tips on
to put food on the table. But I remember the
nights I couldn't sleep and get up. I saw her
praying on her knees.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
For her.

Speaker 6 (26:54):
It was how bad she wanted it. I tell people
all the time, how the prayers of one woman change
entire generation.

Speaker 4 (27:01):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (27:03):
So yeah, and so God speaks to us no matter
what ailments we have, no matter how devastating those seasons
of life are where we feel like we are completely overwhelmed.
We don't have what it's going to take to sustain
our current needs, and we're wondering if God hears. We're
wondering whether or not our prayers matter. We're wondering whether
or not He is ever going to speak into and

(27:23):
change and alter our circumstances. But one of the greatest
gifts I think from Scripture is not his voice.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
It's not what he can give us. It's just him, Yeah,
seek him.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
He will disclose more and more to you in terms
of his will, his plans for your life, his gifts,
his blessings. Those are a benefit of just having him.
And you need to know that he'll never leave you.
He will never forsake you, no matter how devastating things
might become. And I know there are some very real
practical needs, and so I want to pray for those

(27:57):
right now. I want to pray that the Lord will
manifest himself to you at tangible way that will keep
you hope filled, encouraged, and excited to continue your relationship
with the Lord despite external circumstances. Lord Jesus, I pray
for my sister and brothers all around the world. I
am asking right now in Jesus' name that you would
bring encouragement. You would replace discouragement with encouragement.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
Lord.

Speaker 3 (28:20):
I'm going to ask right now in Jesus' name that
you would build up somebody's faith today by manifesting yourself
in their life.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
Lord.

Speaker 3 (28:27):
I'm asking you to speak to them a still small voice, Lord,
or let the scriptures fall open to a page of
your word Lord that is so evidently, so clearly for
them that they will never doubt again that they have
not heard.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
From you and experienced you. Lord.

Speaker 3 (28:41):
I'm asking that the church they attend would be on
fire with your spirit, that every time they and the
others that go there would walk through the door, they
would have a tangible sense of your presence with them.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
Lord. I pray that your word would be alive.

Speaker 3 (28:53):
I pray that the assignment of the enemy against them,
against their children, against their spouses, Lord, that those assignments
would be canceled, and that they would see those assignments
replaced by your grace, your love, and your mercy washing
over them.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
And their experience. Lord, meet us, Speak to us.

Speaker 7 (29:10):
Lord.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
We need a word from you, and so we ask the.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
Lord that you would bring your word to your people
and speak clearly so that we can hear.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
Thank you. Lift the veil from our eyes.

Speaker 3 (29:20):
Thank you, Lord, cause the veil that is over our ears,
the hardness of our heart, Lord, to be softened and
to be removed, so that we have tender censors that
are able to detect your presence. We need you, Lord,
and so we ask you to speak. It is in
Jesus' name that we pray.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
Amen.

Speaker 3 (29:38):
Amen.

Speaker 2 (29:39):
Beautiful, Wow Wow Wow.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
Wow, I love what you said about your mama. You know,
the need for God.

Speaker 5 (29:46):
So many of us we need something new life, We
need God, and I think that dissatisfaction leads us to
a place of seeking, you know. And I think being
a se is one of the greatest things that could
ever happen to us, because there's a lot of people
sitting in church that aren't seeking God anymore. But there's

(30:07):
a lot of people out in the world that haven't
found God yet. God hasn't found them that are seeking,
and you seek and you're gonna find it, that's right,
you know.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
So I think that's a that's a good thing.

Speaker 5 (30:16):
If you've got children that are seeking God, you need
to pray for your kids that God brings that person
or something into their lives that that draws them to God,
because I think that's a very open season of their
life was when they're seeking God to ada, you know.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
So, so I know that a lot of.

Speaker 5 (30:38):
People want to hear God's voice, but they won't stop talking, right,
tell us how.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
To stop talking?

Speaker 3 (30:49):
Yeah, we have turned prayer into this one way monologue
where we're just you know, just feeling like we have
to fill in the noise of the silence, any quiet spaces,
We've just got to filling them in with our next
request or the next thing that we want to say.
And you're right, we don't leave room for God to
get a word in edgeways. But one of the authors

(31:11):
that I remember reading, Bob Sorgey I believe his name is,
he said, nothing happens when I speak, but when God speaks,
worlds come into existence. So why in the world wouldn't
I want to leave time for him to speak. And
what that practically looks like is, yes, vocalize your prayers
to him.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
I literally have.

Speaker 3 (31:29):
Kind of begun the habit of even writing some down,
just writing down what it is that I want to
say to the Lord. Yes, we have the privilege of
bringing our needs and our request to him, but there
ought to be at some point where you just pause
and you say, Okay, Lord, is there anything you want
to say to me? Most of the time he'll speak
to us just through his word, through whatever you're reading
in your Bible time that day. He knows how to

(31:49):
match up what you're going to be reading today with
what the needs of your life or your future are
that you might not even be aware of yet.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
So in his word. That is how most of the
time he speaks back to us.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
Oftentimes it's just an impression, it's just a Bible verse
from that you learned in Sunday school years ago. All
of a sudden it comes back to your mind. Now,
take that as God speaking to you, or the name
of a friend you haven't talked to in years. Take
that as God saying, pray for this friend right now.
Those little impressions, those little inklings, you know. Deuteronomy chapter

(32:21):
thirty says, God's word is not so hard that you've
got to send someone above the heavens to go find
it for you, or through the seas to.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
Go and get it for you. God's word is in
your own heart.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
It's in your own It is as close as your fingerstips.
All of that stuff that we discount as our own ideas, Oh,
that's just coincidence.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
Most of the time.

Speaker 3 (32:40):
For the believer, for the one who is seeking God's
will and his voice, most of the time, that's God's word.
Take it seriously, write it down, ask him for confirmation,
Treasure his word, and see if he doesn't show you
how important and palatable it is in terms of the
experience that He has planned for you.

Speaker 4 (32:55):
We are talking with Jerry and Priscilla Shier discerning the
Voice of God. You know what's you know, it couldn't
be any more important this subject matter. I mean, the
very fact that the four of us are sitting in
a studio doing this broadcast is because Discerning the Voice

(33:17):
of God came to Paul and Jan Crouch forty some
years ago, and TBN is his thing. This isn't something
that the Crouch family built. This is something God did
and the idea, you know, that's why it's almost comical
when people try to rise up against something that God did.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
It's just kind of kind of funny.

Speaker 4 (33:39):
You know, it can be irritating for a season, but
it's it's almost comical because if we thought that this ministry,
and as it is now fully in its second generation,
we're up to us, we'd quit.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
It's not up to us.

Speaker 4 (33:54):
It's God's thing. And so we have that same firm
foundation of understanding. And oftentimes people will say, well, you know,
everything's different for you, and everything's different for these smiling
faces on television.

Speaker 2 (34:11):
You don't understand what it's like, you know, in the
real world.

Speaker 4 (34:14):
And well, the problem is is the Crouch family, the
Shire family, and you know, the Evans family were all
just normal people till we heard the voice of the Lord.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
And then that's what changed.

Speaker 4 (34:28):
If there is a difference, it's because of his voice.
There couldn't be a more important subject matter for you
and Jerry, I'm circling back to you just for a
second because of what you said. So it's not an
economic thing. It isn't just you know, executives that the
Lord speaks to. Your mama needed the voice of the

(34:49):
Lord and apparently was struggling in a single family situation.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
So it worked, and it worked for your mama. Yes,
absolutely right.

Speaker 6 (34:57):
I remember her coming home with her tips and say
she made forty dollars in tips that day, all right.
I remember her taking out four dollars, yeah, you know,
putting it into the side because that was gonna go
into the offering plate. That's something I mean, I'm like, Mom,
are you kidding me? You know, the Lord would understand
she goes. No, it's just she goes. It's a simple obedience.

(35:18):
So it had nothing to do with that. And then
I remember her, like I said, getting up early, praying.
I remember there are situations I was in off in
college that some of my boys and I we would
go do something, and there was this thing in me like,
you know what, Jerry, don't go. You know Now, that
was the time my mom was praying for me. So
she has kept me out of so much situation through

(35:40):
her prayers. That's why I said, the prayers had the
prayers of one woman changed the generation. I mean still today,
it's so funny. Our boys would be like, it is
Granny still praying. She had been in the prayer for
thirty minutes. I'm like, yep, she's still be praying. I said,
she's praying for you guys. So she's praying even for
this next generation, her grandchildren. Yeah, and so it's just great.
But yeah, it is not an economical thing. It is
it is it is something that you desire. Do you

(36:03):
really want it? Like I said, she used to get
up early in the morning before the kids got up,
on her knees, praying for her children, praying for the day,
praying for whatever. So you know, you make time for
what you want. And if you want to hear the
voice of God, you got to make time for him.

Speaker 4 (36:15):
Okay, now we we the four of us grew up
in an environment where this subject matter is normal, This
is understood, We get this. There are people that grew
up in the opposite, polar opposite of that, and they
don't get it. This book, you know, the title is

(36:38):
Discerning the Voice of God. How to Recognize when God
is speaking? Okay, so there could be you know, why
don't you start with you know, just speak to the
people that are New Christians. They didn't grow up, they
don't have no examples in their life of this happening.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
This isn't normal and sounds sounds like it's not right,
that we're not right.

Speaker 4 (37:02):
Think it's not a little crazy, okay, So just introduce
the subject matter if somebody just doesn't quite get it, okay.

Speaker 3 (37:13):
So John ten twenty seven, to me, is the most
concise and comprehensive verse in scripture about hearing God. It
is when Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
I know them, and they follow me. He says, you
got to be my sheep to hear my voice.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
So you said, New Christians, listen, that relationship right there
is the connector that allows you access to the voice
of God. So, to me, the first step is actually
believing that as an adopted son or daughter grafted into
the family of God, that you have the capacity innately
because you're part of the family to now hear the
voice of God.

Speaker 1 (37:49):
It's like when we were growing up in our house.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
I don't know about you guys, but we didn't have
access to a whole lot of cable tell My parents
didn't get cable, They didn't get you know whatever, Direct TV,
all that stuff, have any of that stuff.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
And I felt a little mad about that. I really
wanted to have more channels. My parents chose that we
could really only watch.

Speaker 3 (38:09):
The Cosby Show on Thursdays at seven o'clock and then
a Different World. So it wasn't until we were getting
ready to get married I moved out. I remember the
day I had the cable guy come over hook up
the cable, and after he did all that hooking up,
he said, here's the remote control, pushed.

Speaker 1 (38:23):
The guide button, and I pushed the guide button at
I had.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
Never seen so many channels in my life on the screen.
I had no idea all those channels were there now.
All those channels didn't just get created that day. They
had always been there. It's just I didn't have the
right hookup so that I could tap into them and
bring them and draw them down into my experience. The
Holy Spirit is the hookup when you place faith in
Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
If Hejus. Chapter one says, the moment you believe, you
receive the hookup the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 3 (38:51):
Now you are able to draw down divine channels. It's
not that you created him, No, they were always there.
God speaking, He wants to reveal himself. Now have the
opportunity to hear him. So really, the first step, especially
if you grew up in an environment where this concept
is sort of unique and different and new for you,
it's to believe that as a privilege of being a

(39:12):
son or a daughter, you can hear from God. It
is the deception of the enemy to cause us to
think we have to have a seminary degree, we have
to have some special hotline connection with God like somebody
we may admire that we as regular men and women,
can't hear from God. That's what the enemy wants you
to think. He doesn't want you to know it's your birthright,
and so believing that you can is the first step

(39:33):
to hear in God. Friends, no matter what trouble you're
facing today, God has already provided the wisdom, courage, and
strength you need to stand for your gift to support
in any amount, We're going to send you Joel Osteen's
new book, You Are Stronger Than You Think.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
Please go to TBN dot org forward slash stronger

Speaker 3 (39:50):
Than and thank you for being a part of this
global television ministry.