Let’s say someone asks you for advice, and you really want to share the wisdom of God with them. You’re not sure what to tell them. You asked the Lord, “Lord, give me wisdom. Give me the words to say to this person.”
You wait, and you’re listening in your heart. You just can’t seem to get anything. You think, maybe God doesn’t want me to say anything, but you feel compassion for this person. You want to share, and you want to help them out. You’re just not sure how to receive God’s wisdom. How do you know when you’re receiving?
What you do in this situation is—you open up your mouth.
It’s as simple as that. You start out sharing what you already know to be true. Let’s say they are a Christian. You encourage the person with something like, “God is with you. God will never leave you. He will always help you out if you will trust in Him.”
You give the person that general type of Truth that you already know. As you’re speaking, because you’ve already turned to the Lord in your own heart and asked Him for His help and for His words of wisdom, as you’re speaking, your wisdom will expound. It will grow. At some point while you’re speaking with the person, your words will cross over from what you know to what God is imparting to you to share with them.
I guarantee if you will trust what I’m saying here, you will get excited. You will start to hear yourself say things that you may or may not have previously considered. As you consider the words either while you’re speaking or later—and you should be considering your words later—you start to see the depth to what you shared.
There is Truth to your words that you never considered. There will be a witness in your heary to confirm your words, that they are from the Lord. That is one way you receive and know that you are receiving wisdom from God.
You open up your mouth and let yourself be a tool for God’s use. If you never open up your mouth because you don’t think you’ve received anything, then you can’t get the wisdom out. God often shares wisdom with us for others in this way.
Just trust God and take a chance and do it. You’ll see. If you have asked the Lord for His wisdom and turned to Him in your heart, what comes out of your mouth will be God’s wisdom in this type of situation.
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Please check out my book Simply Led. I tell the story of how I learned to hear God’s voice and talk about my journey toward a closer walk with Him. I think you’ll enjoy it.
63826353 – fall back time – daylight savings end – return to winter time
How do you know you’re receiving from God? We talk about turning to God in your own heart because He is literally in there. We say to put your trust in God. Put your faith in God, knowing that He is in your heart and knowing that He wants to help you, and then receive from Him.
On a practical level, how do you receive that help?
Maybe you’ve read some of our material and you’ve read that we say talk to the Lord, and you’re wondering, “Is He talking back? I’ve asked God to help me with something. Is He helping? How do I know He’s helping? If I need His wisdom with something, how do I know I’m receiving His wisdom?”
When I was seeking God about what He wanted me to write about in this blog post, I asked the Lord what He wanted to say. I had all these thoughts already in my mind, all these subjects and ideas. I thought none of them were developed enough to make into an entire teaching. I was all over the place, thinking and thinking. I just wasn’t sure about what God wanted to say.
I kept talking to Him about it. I kept waiting and expecting that He would lead me. Sometimes I feel God has spoken a thought into my head, or from my heart. It’s a subtle thought. If I’m paying attention, it’s subtle, gentle, peaceful. It has joy attached to it. Sometimes the thoughts aren’t like that.
Sometimes We Don’t Recognize When He Speaks…At First
As I thought of these different things, I watched a video my husband made. I enjoyed it. Every time I got to a certain point in his video, I thought that point right there could be shared in a more practical way, in my style of giving practical examples. I watched the rest of the video and thought that was good. Then I would look at the video again, and in the same place, the same thought would come to me.
Later, as I discussed the matter with my husband, I told him I was still waiting for God to tell me what He wants me to share on the blog. I’m not sure. I’ve got all these ideas. He assured me God would let me know.
As I spoke with my husband about it, I suddenly said hold on, in one location in your video, I kept getting this thought that I could potentially expound on this idea. I said this has happened several times. I said, I think this is God. My husband said, “That’s God.”
Step One In Receiving From God is Believing.
The first step in receiving from God is to believe that He is going to get you your answer. It may not come in the time that you want it to, but it will come. Sometimes because we have blockages where we’re not trusting in Him, we don’t know the walls we throw up between God and ourselves. It may take a little time.
God doesn’t make us wait for the answer. We don’t know the barriers we put up between us and God, but He does know those barriers. He is always at work to get them down. I’m able to hear from God. I’m able to get direction. I know when He’s speaking, but there are times when I’m still unsure.
God Will Gently Remind You of His Faithfulness
Will God answer? Yes, He’ll answer. God will remind you daily, moment by moment, hour by hour sometime depending on what you’re going through, He’ll remind you,
Yes, I’m here. Yes, you can trust Me.
Lord, can I trust You?
Yes, you can trust Me.
Lord, can I trust You?
Yes, you can trust Me.
God will encourage our hearts over and over with complete patience. He doesn’t mind doing that. It is how He works with us very often. The bible says,
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies
never come to an end; they are new every morning; great
is your faithfulness.” – Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV)
His mercies have to be renewed because we need them, every morning, every day, throughout every situation. Sometimes to receive, we don’t know that we are throwing something up in the way. That doesn’t mean that we won’t receive. It may be that it will lengthen the receiving time because we don’t know what’s in the way. God is always at work moving those barriers.
The thing to remember is to always turn to Him, knowing that you’re going to receive. You don’t have to put a time limit on it, but you can put a certainty on it.
God Will Settle Your Heart
There was a time when I turned to the Lord for the answer to my problem. I knew to turn in to God in my own heart. I knew the answer was coming from within because that’s where God is. I was flip-flopping inside my own heart. I felt like a flopping fish out of water.
My trust in God wasn’t there. I could recite the truth about God and about His promises. “Lord, You’re good. Lord, You answer.” I rolled through those things in my mind, giving praise to God. “Lord, you always answer, and I give You praise. You’ve always brought me out of every situation.”
I went through all of this, saying it out loud and in my mind. At the same time, in my heart, I knew I was flip-flopping in trust. I knew that the trust was not there. I didn’t have peace in my heart as I was turning to the Lord.
I stayed in that place, seeking the Lord in my own heart. I was honest with Him about where I knew I was. “Lord, I don’t have peace right now. I’m all over the place. I don’t feel my trust in You. I need this answer in this situation.”
I felt unsettled in my heart. I didn’t feel connected with the hope I have in the Lord. As I stayed there, all of a sudden the gentle peace of God came over me. The trust rolled in. I went from flopping about inside my heart to being settled and sure and trusting in Him.
When that trust came in, when that trust was forefront—when all of the flip-flopping was moved out of the way and there was only the trust there in my heart—then the answer came.
How Long Will It Take to Hear?
That was a shorter period of only a few minutes. There are other situations that may be more serious in your life, or you feel more desperate or you feel less hope in God that could take you more time.
Please know that you can always hear God’s voice right now, this second. But it’s possible with your barriers that you have placed between you and God—not barriers God has up—that specific answers to situations could take more time.
God may be developing you in one area while gently leading you step by step to reaching another, more challenging area. There are sometimes layers to issues we have and rather than it all being ripped off like a Band-Aid, God may be peeling it away little by little. Everything He does is for our benefit. He knows what you can handle and what you’ve opened your heart enough to receive.
There might be a process in your receiving a specific answer because there’s so much you’ve built up in the way of you just believing Him. There’s nothing wrong with having the mindset and the words said, “Look, I’m putting my trust in You, Lord. I’m turning to You in my own heart. I know this to be true.” And then you don’t see your answer right away.
Know that your answer is coming because you don’t know all the things God is removing from your heart and mind. You think one way, but the Truth is something else. God is working with you to get all of that straight.
Sometimes the thing you’re asking God for might have something to do with someone else. Then God has to work on that person’s heart and get them moving. It could take time in that regard. The fact is, at the end of the day, you will receive.
God Helps You to Receive From Him
You have to turn to God in your heart and let Him help you to receive. It’s not all on you. Sometimes we put so much pressure on ourselves about receiving. Just know it’s not all on you. He will not only give you the think you’re asking for if it’s in His will, He’ll help you to get that thing.
If you’re not in a position to receive, God will place you in a position to receive. No matter how much time it takes, just know that He will. Know that God will help you to receive peace while you’re waiting for the thing to manifest.
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Please check out my book Simply Led. I tell the story of how I learned to hear God’s voice and talk about my journey toward a closer walk with Him. I think you’ll enjoy it.
As God reveals more of Himself to you, not only do you learn that He is good. You also learn about the goodness that He has placed in your own heart. You are made in His image, and when Jesus died on the cross for us, He provided goodness for us. He didn’t do it only to show us how awesome God is, but how good He is in and through us.
In Galatians 5:22, the bible lists the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is the characteristics of God. The bible says that goodness is one aspect of the fruit of God. When a person gets born again, God renews our heart. He makes us brand new on the inside. Over time, as we learn to turn to Him and let Him teach us, He begins to reveal what this new heart is made of. We learn the characteristics of this new heart and how it is identical to Jesus.
In short, Jesus’ nature is our nature. As we yield more and more to the Lord’s leading and teaching, we display this beautiful characteristic that is goodness. Can you imagine? As a child of God, you are good!
Someone may read this and think, “You’re wrong, Yvette. The bible says all have come short of the glory of God and there is none good but God.” I didn’t say you made yourself good or that you were born good. No, we were all born in sin. However, Jesus provided that goodness. He did the work. He did the changing. As we walk with Him, He unveils just how much He did in us.
As we walk with Jesus, He uncovers more and more of the nature He exchanged with us for His suffering. Jesus died to redeem us back to the way that Adam was. Think about that. Adam was perfect. He was just like God, and Jesus restored that standing to each and every one of us.
Maybe you think, “I don’t see it. You don’t know what my family is like. We have anger issues.” You may think no way could you be like Jesus because you have self-esteem problems. Maybe you’re always depressed, and you can’t see how to lift your head.
One big one in our society today is our identity. Many suffering people are dealing with identity issues. They struggle with feelings they don’t always want, but they think the feelings are a part of them. At the same time, deep down they wish they were born differently.
Listen, I can tell you from personal experience, I was convinced of certain opinions about myself. I had emotions I didn’t know how to deal with. I was depressed. I tried to kill myself as a teen. I couldn’t see myself being any different than I was at that moment. It was impossible. I was born to be a depressed person. That’s what I believed wholeheartedly.
Later in life, I was convinced I was a pessimistic, scared-of-everything person. I didn’t think I could be different. Even as I learned to be successful in life, I still couldn’t shake those core beliefs about myself. I thought God must have forgotten about me when He was handing out those blessings of joy and promise.
Then one day, I started learning the truth. I discovered I could hear Jesus’ voice as He promised I could. All I needed was some big fat lies moved out of the way. With those gone, I could consider maybe God has something more.
One night the Lord made Jeremiah 29:11 come to life.
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord,
thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”
This isn’t just a warm and fuzzy scripture. God literally planned out some good stuff for me and for you–specific plans for each individual. More than that, He planned before the world began that we would be as perfect and as joyful and unhindered as Jesus is.
When I could believe that maybe, just maybe, God didn’t mean for me to be this depressed, scared, screwed up individual and the emotions weren’t the way He created me, I could open my heart.
Opening your heart to God’s truth is the key. As long as you think, “No, no. Impossible. I can’t. I’m the way I am,” you are literally closing off your heart to God. He can’t help you to feel better if you assume this is the way you are. This unhappy, struggling individual is how you want to be? No.
So open your heart to Him. What is opening your heart to Him? It’s saying, Yes.
Yes, Lord, I believe You made me to be perfect like Jesus. Yes, Lord, I’m willing for you to teach me how to experience that perfection. I’m willing to let you change the emotions that seem like they are a part of my identity. Yes, Lord. I know you are not judging me or putting me down. You’re patient and kind and loving, and you’ll be right with me the whole time we’re working on me, even if it takes years.
Before you understand God better, people will quote the scripture about seeking God first. You get under pressure. You feel guilty because this thing you’re seeking, this thing you want or need is bigger in your eyes than God is.
You know the pain of not having what you need. But you might not yet know the joy of God alone. You may not have experienced the feeling of satisfaction His presence brings like nothing else.
Maybe you’ve been taught wrong. People might have said, “You need to…” and you got under condemnation. God knows how to reach you. He knows how to lead you and to temp you into giving Him a chance to demonstrate how complete you can feel in His presence.
That’s God’s M.O.
What does the bible say? He gave His only son to save us. He loved us first. God goes the extra mile, and He has no problem doing so.
The thing about God is, what He says is Truth. He means it. We don’t see it at first or fathom how deep that goes–until He demonstrates it.
Jesus said from now on without me you can do nothing. Think about that for a minute. Absorb the implications. There is no clause in God’s covenant with us that says we have to prove to God we’re strong and that we are faithful to Him before He helps us.
He lives in us. When we breathe, He breathes. When we step, He steps. When we are weak and afraid, and we can’t seem to make ourselves act, He doesn’t step back and fold His arms to say, “I’ll wait!” No, He gets to work whispering encouraging words in your heart.
God highlights thoughts inside you that demonstrate how He came through for you the last time and the time before that. He helps you to replay those instances when He was your strength.
Sometimes you notice God working on you. Maybe you see the fear receding little by little. Other times you might look up and wonder when you became a bolder person.
God wants us to seek Him first, yes, but God will be the one who draws us into seeking Him first. All we have to do is give Him a yes in our hearts. We soften our hearts in that way toward Him. We allow Him to begin to flow out from the inside to affect our lives and us.
Yes, Lord, teach me. Grow me. Guide me. I want You to be my first priority. When I don’t know how that can be because I really want this thing that I have idolized in my heart, You help me. I know You don’t condemn me or try to make me feel guilty about it. You help balance me out. It may take a day, a month, a year, or years. It will happen. It is happening now.
That’s how God is. He’s the Father running out to meet the prodigal son. He’s the Shepherd leaving the ninety-nine for the one.
He loves us to extremes, and He will teach you how to be like Him.
How does God enlighten the eyes of your understanding? He gives you the strength to face and see where you are now and then shows you where He made you to be. You and He compare the two, and you decide to follow His leading.
In Ephesians 1:13-14, the bible says:
“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also that ye believed, ye were sealed with the holy spirit of promise,
Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”
The word “trusted” in that scripture is in italics, which means it wasn’t in the original text. It says in essence “…after you heard the word of truth…you believed…” The Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us after we believe the truth. Sure. But also, He speaks the truth in our hearts, and we believe Him.
When we believe, he works out our change. That is referring to verse 14 where it says the Holy Spirit redeems the purchased possession, in other words our body and our minds. It is the Holy Spirit’s job to help us to begin to experience what Jesus did when He died on the cross.
To give a practical meaning of this scripture, I’ll share a small incident in my life. I received news about someone that I care about very much. This person has decided to follow a particular path that is contrary to the word of God. While I know this person is born again, they are not following God in the way that God made them.
Before this person shared their decision, God spoke to me and encouraged me. He told me He would strengthen this person to accept the truth, and that by accepting the truth, the person could change. I was greatly encouraged by God’s promise to me.
I am fully aware in my heart of the faith and trust in God that I have, that God will do just what He said. However, I began to pretend in my own my that my heart wasn’t broken over this person. I focused on my trust in God, which is good. But I fooled myself, as if I couldn’t acknowledge that I hurt in my emotions.
As I was in worship, the Lord began to help me to see where my emotions were and the place I denied that existed. I began to see this is really the same thing this person is doing. This person is denying what is there, the truth. The truth is always before us. God makes sure of it.
Sometimes, we don’t want to see the truth. We feel we can’t face it. We think it will break us or that it’s wrong to acknowledge that we have feelings that are contrary to what God says. We think we are betraying God somehow if we say, hey, Lord, I am believing this way when I know Your word says that.
It’s not wrong to acknowledge where you are with God. According to Ephesians 1, you have to see the truth and to believe it. Then you can move forward with the Holy Spirit to obtain the promise. It’s painful sometimes, but God won’t let us down. He will with the truth, heal, and bring us out of where we are emotionally, mentally, and physically to obtain the promise of wholeness spirit, soul, and body.
So in my worship time, I acknowledged to the Lord that I was hurting over this person all over again. After God had encouraged my heart about it. I wasn’t betraying God after He spoke His promise to me months ago. I wasn’t being honest about my hurting heart, so He couldn’t help me.
In that time, I came clean about where I was, and He was able to encourage me again. In fact, He was able to speak this scripture to my heart. Thereby, I could share it with you. Don’t be afraid to acknowledge where you are–with God–because He wants to bring you out and show you the freedom you have in Jesus.
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Please check out my book Simply Led. I tell the story of how I learned to hear God’s voice and talk about my journey toward a closer walk with Him. I think you’ll enjoy it. You can also watch some videos where my husband teaches about knowing God over at plainspeakingministries.com.
If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, you may have read scriptures like:
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. – John 14:27
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:7
You may know the characteristics of the Holy Spirit and know that one of them is “peace” as stated in Galatians 5:22.
Yet despite knowing these scriptures, you might be looking for peace everywhere else except in Jesus. Now, I’m not going to throw scriptures at you and leave it there, expecting you to believe what I’m saying. I know personally what it feels like to have someone quote scriptures at me and find no comfort in hearing them. I also know what it’s like to look everywhere for peace and not find it.
What did Jesus mean when He said He left His peace with us? How can we obtain this peace? First, I want to give an example of seeking peace elsewhere other than in God. I like to give simplistic examples because it’s how I understand.
I wanted to lose weight, and so I chose a certain diet. During the change in how I eat, I started feeling badly. I started searching the internet for tips and ideas about what I was doing wrong. I watched video after video about the subject. I tested various answers I read about as to how to fix myself. Hours and days passed while I searched. I grew more and more frustrated about finding just the right balance as to how to feel okay.
I grew unhappier, but inside I would ask the Lord to help me to find the answer. As I continued to look for experts in the field and for regular people who had been in my situation, I couldn’t find anyone who knew exactly what I was dealing with. I kept asking God for help. I even resorted to begging Him.
Then the Lord spoke to me what He had said to me about someone else not long ago. He said, “You are searching and searching because you think your peace is found in what these people have to say.” He said to me, “I am your peace.”
I was floored. I had felt so amazed and impressed when God showed me that this person I was concerned about thought that their personal pursuit would give them true peace. I knew that they were incorrect, that true peace is in God. But I didn’t think I fit the same mold with my diet. God was telling me I was no different than them.
I immediately stopped searching the internet. I resisted watching videos. It wasn’t wrong to take diet advice from someone who had been there, but I had put all of my hope in their knowledge to try to fix my problem. That part was wrong. I should have directed my hope in God and let Him lead me rather than desperately run around searching for peace.
When God told me this, I settled down and began to meditate on Him. What does it mean to receive His peace? He further said to me, “Your body is operating from a position of perfection.”
I believed that I had a broken system in my body and that I needed a way to fix it. The child of God should operate from a position of what Jesus already did. He already healed me. Therefore, I need to put my faith in Him and let Him show me how to take hold of what He has already done.
If I operate in my heart from a belief that I’m broken, then I’m already behind. I can’t fully take hold of the truth. So, I changed my attitude. “Lord, I believe You are showing me how to have my body operate as if it is whole. Even if my reality speaks differently than Your word, Lord, I know my reality is the one that’s wrong. So, Lord, show me how to receive Your reality, and let’s go from there.”
I gained greater peace when I stopped thinking I’m broken. I stopped being fearful that I might not find the answer to fixing myself. I stopped considering whether I couldn’t be fixed. Do you see the defeat in that? It’s all so iffy.
I’d rather operate from I’m fixed. Now, God, show me how to receive it in my reality. I have greater peace in knowing I have His help. I have greater peace knowing it doesn’t matter if I find the perfect answer from human beings or websites or videos. I have the help of the Creator.
Peace is God. When I can acknowledge that God is where I get true peace, I don’t have to search alone for an answer to my issues. I trust that He will help me resolve the issues. If my trust is not perfect, He will even help me to perfect my trust in Him.
Let me say that part again. If you or I don’t know how to trust in God, He will help us to learn how to trust Him. I like to say that God stacks the deck in our favor. All we have to do is first acknowledge that He is our help. We may not see it correctly yet, but we are willing to see it correctly with His help. It will come!
So, that’s where you and I are. Jesus is our peace. Jesus is our answer—for every problem. Even if we find it next to impossible to believe that He can help us with our issue, He still is the answer. It’s a simple understanding.
If you are born again, you have Jesus’ peace. He left it here in the form of the Holy Spirit. He (the Holy Spirit) will help you to receive peace from Him. All you need to do is ask Him. In your words, “Holy Spirit, help me to receive your peace in every area of my life. Help me to understand what it means to put my faith in You for every situation.”
It all comes down to talking directly to Him and opening your heart to His directing your steps. Not directing your steps as you are pursuing peace from another direction. But being open in your heart to Him showing you that you’ve been running the wrong way. He is always willing to show you.
You may think you will find peace if you make this decision or do this thing. You may think if you get this job, make this change in your life, get with that person, live this lifestyle, get rid of that person, eat low carb, eat low fat, cut out meat, eat only meat, on and on and on—peace, true peace, is in God. He is your answer.
It’s such a blessing to know God. To experience His wonderful nature. And it’s so satisfying. After all if you are connected to the God who made you for a purpose and made all things that you have anything to do with, wouldn’t He be the one who can work you into your best destiny, who can line everything up to give you the life He designed you for? He is a God of light, of love, thoroughly good, and He can give you the best. Not creature comforts, but a fulfilling life, the true desires of your heart.
You want to be in touch with this God.
Knowing God where He lives, in your heart, is infinitely easier than looking for Him somewhere else, like up in the sky somewhere. He made a point of sending the Holy Spirit down here to you so you wouldn’t have to look for Him. Jesus made it possible by dying for you to have that opportunity. He took away all barriers to God, and now God is right here for you to know. You meet Him simply by believing in the name of Jesus.
Don’t you believe that? If you do, you have the Holy Spirit in your heart. He is your new heart, your new center. You are good at your core because Jesus has saved you and made you new. This is what it means to be born again a new creature. God lives in your heart, and He desires to work Himself through you from your heart out into all your mind, your will, your emotions, and even into your flesh. This is also how you are healed, how you stay young, how you stay lively.
If you’ll take a look at my video, I will get into these things and also about what it means to commit to God in your heart. It’s different than committing to do certain things. Committing to Him in your heart is committing to stay with Him and in Him, in you. It is not a one-sided relationship. It is fulfilling in an ultimate way. It is freeing. Because staying with Him in your heart, or in Him in your heart — staying in Him — gives you the strength to stay committed, the incentive to stay committed, with a unity and knowledge of the very person of God.
When I encourage you to talk to God as the first step in the process of changing yourself, I’m not talking about form and fashion. I’m not talking about a religious thing. I’m not encouraging you to get out your list of prayers for people and things, about making sure you pray every single day without fail.
You must understand what happens as a result–and during–a talk with God. Talking to God gives Him an opportunity to teach you about you and about Himself. He shows you the nature that He has put inside you. He uncovers your identity. You know how people are often talking about “finding themselves?” You are found in Jesus.
I once said to God, “Lord, I want to be in ministry and teach people what You are showing me. But I don’t want to do it at all if my ministry is dull and without power.” You see, I wanted to stand out and to operate in the miraculous. I felt at the time that there was no sense being in ministry if I didn’t have the showy stuff that draws people.
The Lord spoke immediately back to me. He said, “Would you go into ministry without any miracles if you were able to help just one person to change their life and to get free?”
I jumped all over that with eagerness and said, “Yes! Definitely!” My heart is to see at least one person walk out the suffering and pain that I have experienced by knowing God.
After I answered God’s question, I had the sense that He was saying, “See? That’s the heart I put in you.” I got so happy and praised Him because in that instant I knew that God’s time of interacting with you is used to show you you. He wants to uncover in your own heart how good you are.
Good! Now that must sound like sacrilege, but remember what the bible says in Romans 8:29, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.“
We were created to be like Jesus. We have been given Jesus’ righteousness (Phil 3:9; Rom 3:22). This righteousness is demonstrated through and out of our hearts as we yield to the Holy Spirit and are led by Him. It starts with Him showing us what that looks like inside us. As I said, He uncovers to us what He has already done in our hearts.
When I encourage you to talk to God, it’s everything from just chitchatting as if He’s your best friend to the more serious stuff. Eventually, you’ll find yourself asking Him questions that seem casual to you but He’ll suddenly answer with some type of revelation that demonstrates the beautiful character He’s building in you.
One day I was sitting in my car watching two people walk down the street carrying grocery bags. I felt bad for them and thought, “Lord, please bless those people with more finances that they will be able to buy a car and don’t have to walk home from the grocery store.”
The Lord said, “Life isn’t a hardship.” I was floored because with His one sentence He gave me understanding. I saw that I happen to live in a beautiful city that has so much greenery. The weather was really nice that day, all sunny and bright. Many of the people are friendly and smile and greet you. The walk home from the grocery store could be refreshing and peaceful or–depending on a person’s perspective–a hardship.
What would you prefer? To see the good in this world and thoroughly enjoy it or to focus on all the bad stuff and complain about it, making yourself miserable? Wouldn’t you like to be one of those positive people who can be happy in any situation? That’s what God shows you in those private times with Him.
Mark 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
“See God.” That part of the scripture means when you hear God’s voice, when you have a tangible real experience with Him on the inside of your own heart. Let me start by saying, if you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then God, the literal God of the universe comes and lives on the inside of your heart. He literally comes and lives on the inside of your heart.
It’s not figurative. So you don’t need your prayers to reach heaven. You know, sometimes people say, “I felt like my prayers only went as high as the ceiling.” You don’t need them to go to the ceiling. You need them to go right there in your heart because He is right there in your heart. They go there anyway.
Everything you know, everything you experience, God’s right there with you. The thing is we do not see Him a lot of times. We do not experience Him a lot of times. We do not hear Him often because of an impure heart.
Let me say right here, don’t get condemned over this scripture. When I didn’t know what it meant, I avoided it. I avoided reading the scripture because I thought how can I have a pure heart? At the time, I had a lot of problems with fantasizing and awful thoughts and sinful thoughts. How can I have a pure heart if my mind is filled with garbage and sin?
Then I might have had a thought that the Holy Spirit would just jump me whenever I’m up to no good. Some people think that’s the Holy Spirit’s job. His job is to catch you on every little thing you do like oh, oh, you’re sinning right there. Stop it!
The bible says He is the comforter. He hasn’t come to catch you on every wrong thing you do. Actually when you begin to experience God in a tangible way, you’ll find that where you expect the Holy Spirit to suddenly start talking to you about that sin you just did or that wrong thought you just had, He actually wants to give you comfort. He actually wants to shower His love on you. You start to experience Him and see Him in that kind of a way, in a real way.
When you have an impure heart—and that includes wrong thinking, wrong beliefs—that stops you from experiencing Him as He truly is.
That brings me to the other part of that scripture, which says, “the pure in heart shall see God.” I want to ask, who purifies your heart, you or God? A lot of people get caught up in what they’re trying to do.
“Well, if I don’t sin, if I don’t do this wrong… If I do good works, then God will be pleased with me.” That’s not it. The Lord is the one who purifies your heart. I want to give the same example again.
I woke up one morning. I knew I needed to worship God, but I didn’t feel like it. I wasn’t in the mood, so I started doing it anyway. Lord, I worship You. Lord, I love You. Lord, I praise You. You’re so worthy. I wasn’t feeling like it.
At the back of my mind, I was thinking, maybe God won’t notice how I really feel about this, that I’m not in the mood. Then I started feeling bad because I was experiencing God. At the time I was doing all this, going through the motions but my heart not into it, I wasn’t experiencing Him. I wasn’t aware of Him. I couldn’t hear Him. I couldn’t receive His comfort.
It was as if I was all alone on the side of my bed doing all that mess. Then I thought, I don’t like this. Normally, I hear Him. Normally, we’re conversing. Maybe I might not always hear His voice, but I always receive His comfort.
I can turn in, get quiet, and experience His presence and know He’s there. At that time when I was like that, I wasn’t getting anything. I didn’t like it. So I came clean. “Lord, I don’t like this. I don’t really feel like it today. I’m tired.”
Really, all I wanted to do was go get on the computer and start work. I came clean with Him. I told Him the truth. Instead of the Holy Spirit doing something that maybe a religious person would think He would do, which would be get onto me. “God deserves worship always!”
He didn’t. What he did was flood my heart with joy and comfort. All of a sudden I was aware of Him. I knew it was there, and it felt good. My mood changed in an instant. In an instant, I was all excited. Oh, one more time, I’m experiencing God.
So then my whole attitude changed. My mood lifted. I was like oh, let’s worship, Lord. Let’s spend some time together. I was all for it. What happened? I didn’t purify my heart. I didn’t change my attitude. He did. I mean I allowed Him to by the fact that I came clean, and I stopped playing games with Him. When I did that, He was able to get through to me.
A lot of times we go to the Lord in prayer. We don’t believe He’s going to help us. We think this bad thing in our life might be something that He’s allowing because He’s trying to teach us something. That wrong belief and that lie is what can cut us off from hearing from Him on a regular basis.
I want to stress that it is the Lord who starts you on that path to a pure heart. When you allow Him to start showing you where you are believing wrong, where you have a wrong impression of Him, then He can start making Himself real. You can start having tangible experiences with Him.
He is the one who starts helping you to believe. People say—and it is true—people say you just believe, put your faith in God. Guess what? It’s even God who helps you to put your faith in Him.
So when someone says put your faith in God and don’t doubt, don’t let it condemn you. What you do—and you can say it in your own words—what you do is you go to the Lord and you say: “Lord, I know I’m supposed to put my faith in You. And I’m not supposed to doubt. But I feel doubt. I feel worry. And I feel afraid. I just want to be real with You, Lord. I want you help because I do know that You are my help.”
Guess what? He’s going to help you. As time goes on, step by step, as you begin to spend time with Him doing that, being real with Him, He will start to show you where you may be missing it. In the midst of all that—where He’s showing you where you missed it or where you might be believing a lie—in the midst of that, the number one thing He’s going to do is comfort you.
He’s going to shower you with His love. That is going to lift you to a place where you are so open to Him and so in love with Him and so eager for more experiences like that, you will see God. That’s how you see God. That’s how you experience Him. That’s how you hear Him, by allowing Him to purify your heart.
Become real. Don’t be scared to tell Him truly how you feel. Don’t be scared of it because that’s how He leads you into a pure heart, and the pure in heart shall see God.
Here’s my number one reason why I think you are not hearing God’s voice, why you’re not being led like you desire to be, and why you may not be having a tangible real experience with God.
Mark 5:8 says:
“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”
I’m not going to be talking about how you have to be perfect and you have to be pure, how you can’t have any sin in your life. I’m not talking about that, and that’s not what this scripture is talking about.
Let’s start with the meaning of “seeing God.” Seeing God is when you are hearing God’s voice, when you’re experiencing Him in a real, tangible way. When you are aware of Him on the inside of your heart.
Let me say really quickly: If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, God is literally living on the inside of your heart. You don’t need your prayers to reach heaven. God is literally on the inside of your own heart. So you only need it to reach there. How much effort does it take to reach there? He’s literally on the inside of you, and He wants you to have a tangible real experience with Him, and for you to hear His voice.
Too often we have an impure heart. What that means is—let me give you an example. It’s a really simple example. First, let’s back up a little bit. In the past, before I felt like I could hear God’s voice, I wasn’t aware of Him. I’d be praying, and I didn’t really have any kind of real experiences with Him on a regular basis.
Sometimes, I would have bad dreams. After that bad dream, I would wake up, and I would be really afraid. At the time, I was also afraid of the dark. I would turn the lights on, and I would just be in this terror. I would cry out to God, “Lord, please, make the fear go away.
Nothing.
I would continue to be really really afraid. I wasn’t aware of God helping at all. I just couldn’t tell. Now that I do have experiences with Him, I rarely have a bad dream. However, not too long ago, I had a bad dream. I woke up, and I was feeling really afraid. I turned in immediately into my heart to the Lord. I sensed His presence.
I might have prayed, “Lord, take the fear.” I’m not sure if I said that. Immediately, I felt His presence and I received His comfort. The fear went to almost nothing. I don’t have any fear of the dark.
That is the difference between seeing God, and I mean a tangible experience with Him, hearing His voice. That is what that scripture means when it says “see God.” The difference between before when I would ask for comfort after a bad dream, I didn’t receive any. He was giving it, but I wasn’t receiving it.
For an impure heart, my example is this. Like I said, it’s a simple one. I woke up in the morning, and I knew that I needed to worship the Lord and spend some time with Him. I wasn’t feeling like it. I didn’t want to. I did it anyway because people say you do it anyway. You do it out of discipline. You do it out of obedience. That kind of thing, but I didn’t want to.
I did it anyway, kind of like (whiny), “Lord, I praise you. Lord I love You.” That kind of thing. I just went through the motions. At the back of my mind, I’m thinking, maybe God won’t notice. Like I said, He’s on the inside, and I’m thinking, maybe God won’t notice!
I started feeling bad about that because I have a better relationship with the Lord a real relationship with Him. I didn’t want to treat Him like that. He’s more worthy of real honest worship.
So, I came clean like, “Lord, I don’t like treating You like this. I don’t feel like it. I’m not in the mood this morning.” I was coming clean and being real with Him. As soon as I said that to the Lord, immediately I felt His comfort.
He didn’t judge me. I felt His comfort. When I felt His comfort and I knew that He wasn’t angry with me—I knew He wasn’t going to be—but I experienced Him not being angry. I experienced His love. I experienced His comfort.
That got me excited! That immediately changed my attitude. Immediately, I wanted to worship Him. I wanted to spend time with Him. That is having my heart purified. So often, we come to the Lord and we’re hiding. We have wrong impressions of Him. We’re believing lies about Him. We’re believing that He put this thing on us or that thing on us to teach us something.
We have all these wrong beliefs and wrong views. Maybe we have unbelief. Maybe we have fears. Maybe we don’t believe that He’s going to help when we cry out to Him. All of those things act as barriers to us receiving or seeing as the scripture says. Seeing God.
As soon as we start to change that and we first of all come real to Him and not put on a pretense, then we begin to experience Him in a real way. We begin to hear His voice.
Plain Speaking Ministry 