The Thriving Christian Artist

How to Listen for God When Life Get's Noisy

• Matt Tommey: Artist, Best-Selling Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur and Artist Mentor

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The still, small voice of God exists even in our chaotic, noisy world—but are you positioned to hear it? In this transformative episode, we tackle one of the most fundamental aspects of walking with God: learning to recognize and respond to His voice in everyday life.

Many believers struggle with the concept that God wants to speak directly to them. Perhaps you've been taught that God only speaks through Scripture, or maybe past disappointments have left you skeptical. The truth is far more liberating—hearing God's voice isn't reserved for super-spiritual people or biblical characters, but is the birthright of every believer.

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27) isn't just a nice verse—it's a promise about the relationship God desires with you. This episode provides practical strategies to cultivate a listening heart, including dedicated quiet time, journaling spiritual impressions, and learning to distinguish God's voice from other influences.

For artists especially, there's a profound connection between creativity and divine communication. Those moments of "flow" in your studio can become sacred opportunities for hearing God's guidance about not just your art, but every area of your life. By approaching your creative practice with intentionality and spiritual awareness, your studio becomes a sanctuary where heaven and earth overlap.

We explore how guarding your heart (Proverbs 4:23) creates fertile ground for God's voice to flourish while crowding out distractions and lies that prevent clear spiritual hearing. You'll discover how journaling what you sense becomes evidence of God's faithfulness, building confidence in your ability to recognize His voice over time.

Ready to experience the peace, confidence and supernatural guidance that comes from walking in step with God's voice? Whether you're struggling with creative blocks, life decisions, or simply longing for deeper connection with your Creator, this episode offers the practical guidance you need to tune your heart to heaven's frequency today.

Find out more about The Created to Thrive Foundations Course 

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Speaker 1:

Have you ever wondered how to hear God's voice in the middle of what seems like a really busy and sometimes noisy world? Or maybe you're even struggling with the idea that God would speak to you at all, or does God speak at all, much less to you, right? Well, listen, he does. He wants to speak to you. He speaks to us in a variety of different ways, and I'm going to jump into all of those ways today and give you some practical steps on how you can start learning to hear God's voice today.

Speaker 1:

On the Thriving Christian Artist. All over the world, artists are awakening painters and potters, writers and weavers, poets and dancers not chasing followers or fame, but sons and daughters called for such a time as this, transformed from the inside out, creating with purpose, releasing the glory of God and living in the power of the kingdom. Right now, this is the Thriving Christian Artist. Well, hey, my friend, it's Matt Tommy, super glad that you are here again with me. Make sure that you hit the subscribe button and make sure you check out all the great resources that we've got for growing artists right here in the description and the show notes, so that you can find out about the Thriving Christian Artists Weekly newsletter, which is absolutely free, got a ton of great resources that comes out every Wednesday. Also our foundations course, our artist mentoring program, as well as lots and lots of other resources, books and devotionals and all the stuff that can help you in your walk with the Lord and also in developing everything that he's got for you as an artist in his kingdom. You know, when I look at my life and all these years I've been walking with the Lord and not only mentoring artists but being an artist myself I really can't imagine not leaning on the voice of the Lord through all those years. And yet I know for a lot of people, depending on the stream of the body of Christ that you've come out of, or maybe different issues that you've walked through in your life. You may be sitting there today going gosh. I'd really love to believe that I could hear God's voice, but that's just not been my experience. Or maybe you think that that's just kind of, you know, just for super spiritual people, but I want to let you know it is not just for super spiritual people, in fact.

Speaker 1:

John 10, 27, this is Jesus talking and he says this my sheep, that's us, that's me, and you right, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. So, in other words, hearing God's voice is based number one in our relationship with the Lord. He sees you, he knows exactly where you are and he speaks and he says my kids, my sheep right my sons and daughters, they know my voice. In other words, I want you to begin to reorient your mind right To the fact that God is speaking, he wants to speak and that hearing his voice Listen this is so important wants to speak, and that hearing his voice listen this is so important, hearing his voice is a normal part of your walk with him as a son and as a daughter in the kingdom. That's really really huge, because one of the things that the enemy is always trying to do in our life, no matter what the issue is right, we know this is to come to steal and to kill and destroy.

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In other words, he wants to steal the truth that God even wants to speak to you. He wants to kill and destroy. In other words, he wants to steal the truth that God even wants to speak to you. He wants to kill your ability to hear God's voice by keeping you busy or keeping you in unbelief, or he wants to destroy the gift of being able to hear God's voice in your life through lots and lots of different ways, through woundedness and trauma and busyness and all the stuff, right, confusion. But God's not giving us a spirit of fear, he's giving us a power of sound mind, right A power, and of love, a sound mind. That's our inheritance in the Lord, that is normal Christian living.

Speaker 1:

And so I just want you to begin to think right now, even as we're getting started, with this idea of practical steps to hearing God's voice. Wow, this idea of practical steps to hearing God's voice. Wow, how would my voice begin to change, what's coming out of my mouth, if I could begin to hear his voice in my ear? In other words, how would the things that are coming out of my mouth change if I knew that his voice was coming into my ear? See, friend, the Bible says that the power of life and death is where, in the tongue. But do you know where things come out of the tongue? Where they start? They start in the heart. That's why the Bible says that faith comes by what Hearing and hearing? By the word of God, not just the written word of God, but also the word of God, that the Holy Spirit is speaking to us Now.

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Listen, this is super important as we're getting started today. Nothing that you would ever feel like God is speaking to you would ever go against anything that's in God's word. In fact, I love to reverse engineer that and say you can use the word of God and the nature of God as it's revealed through his word. You can use that as a tried and true, 100% of the time right filter for you to begin to determine in your life whether you're hearing from the Lord. Listen, I know a lot of well-meaning. I'll say maybe that's a grace-filled way to say it, but a lot of well-meaning denominations out there would rather teach people not to believe to hear God's voice, that God doesn't speak, and they'd want to teach that the only way that he speaks is through his word.

Speaker 1:

And listen. God's word is a primary way that he speaks. Nothing that you feel inside your spirit, inside your imagination, things that you see, things that you sense, things that you feel, things you know, situations coming together in your life None of that is ever, ever, ever going to contradict the Word of God. But, my friend, the Word of God is full of lots and lots and lots of different ways that God speaks right Through His audible voice, through people's imagination, through seeing circumstances come together and just beginning to realize that, hey, god's trying to get my attention, through prophetic words from people with prophetic giftings, or just friends that want to encourage us in the Lord. Maybe they're praying one day and God just begins to speak to them. All of these ways, right, are different ways that we can hear the Lord, but we hear all of those things and we receive all those things through the filter, through the lens of his written word, which is the Bible. That is super, super important for you to understand.

Speaker 1:

So don't for one second believe that, well, god doesn't speak anymore like he did in the Bible. Of course he does. The Bible says that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. In other words, if he was walking in the cool of the day and speaking to Adam and Eve, if he spoke to Moses, if he spoke to David, if he spoke to Isaiah and Jeremiah and if he spoke to the disciples, and if the Father spoke to Jesus and if the Holy Spirit spoke to the apostles, come on, the same Holy Spirit wants to speak to you today. Jesus knows you, he knows you. He knows right where you are, exactly what you need.

Speaker 1:

And his desire listen is that you be able and willing and desirous of tuning into his voice so that you can be led by his voice. That's really, really important. Listen, life in the kingdom, especially for us artists. As intuitive beings, we're designed to be led by this beautiful intuitive process of learning to sense God's presence, learning to sense the things that he's saying and the things that he's showing us in the context of what we know about God, in the context of his word.

Speaker 1:

And so I just want to encourage you today, as we get started with this don't be afraid of hearing God's voice just because maybe you grew up in a denomination or a well-meaning church that taught you that that was not the truth. I just want to say that is not the truth. Jesus loves you, the Holy Spirit. If you've come to know Jesus as your Savior, the Holy Spirit is living inside you, active and ready and willing to speak. In fact, I love to say this the Holy Spirit is always speaking.

Speaker 1:

The question is not will he speak or is he speaking? The question is am I listening? Am I tuning my heart, am I tuning my ears to be able to hear and sense what God is saying to me. So that's what I want to jump in today, real, practically, in this time that we have together, in order to really give you some practical steps to do that. All right.

Speaker 1:

So I think all of us can say, no matter where you are in your art journey or in just in your life journey, life is busy, right, there's a lot of stuff, and I think one of the big barriers to us often hearing God's voice clearly can be just the busyness of life. The enemy loves to keep us distracted, right? And so I just want you to know that learning to hear God's voice and I like to talk about it as cultivating his voice, cultivating an ear to the spirit and eye to the things that he's doing it's going to take your intentionality. It's going to take you saying you know what this is important. I'm going to begin to listen for, I'm going to begin to look for the movement and the leadership of God in my life. Why? Because I know it's God's idea.

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Listen, let's just put to bed this idea that wanting to hear God's voice is somehow selfish. It's absolutely not selfish. It's God's idea. If he didn't want to speak to you, friend, he wouldn't speak to you, right? If he didn't want to speak to you, he wouldn't have been showing us the model of him speaking to people all through the Word, right? So this is again, this is normal Christianity. And when we learn to hear God's voice and interpret how he speaks and when he speaks to us and again, I think we all hear God a little differently, based on how we're wired and how we're designed. We all sense and see and feel and interpret things a little differently.

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But here's the one thing that's always true when you begin to hear God's voice and you begin to get a confidence that God is leading you in a certain direction, you know what happens. Peace begins to happen, confidence begins to happen. In other words, you're not worried all by yourself. Oh no, I've got to deal with this situation myself and I don't know what I'm going to do. And I'm just so frustrated. What if I mess up? What if I miss God? No, jesus said what Come to me, come to me All you who are heavy laden, and what I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. My yoke is easy, my burden's light Again, if you'll bring the stuff of life to him and roll that over to him and begin to trust him with that and begin to listen to his voice. In the middle of that, guess what's going to happen? You're going to get peace. Not only are you going to get peace, you're going to get confidence. Why? Because you know that you're not walking by yourself.

Speaker 1:

I can't tell you the confidence that comes with learning to hear the voice of the Lord. When you know that, you know that, you know that God has spoken, that God is working all things together for your good, not only do you see it in His Word as a promise, but you know it down deep and in your spirit and you can begin to see the situations of life. You begin to see that's not just a coincidence, that's a God moment. What do people call them? God winks, right. This is a God moment. I see him confirming, I see him leading, I see him bringing that person to encourage me along the way or open the door. Listen, when you begin to put all these puzzle pieces together and that's kind of what it's like, right, hearing God's voice is kind of like putting all these pieces together. There's a confidence that begins to come and there's a clear direction.

Speaker 1:

And listen, hearing God's voice doesn't always mean that you can see 10 years down the road. It may mean that you know the next step, or it may mean that you just have enough faith and confidence to keep going, even when you don't know the next step, because you've learned that when you walk with the Lord, he's faithful to his word, that he will lead and guide and direct you in everything that he's doing. That's huge and, you know, I just find that, leaning in again to God's idea of me being led by the spirit, led by his word, hearing His voice, following His lead, there is no greater way in your life to begin to develop and cultivate a deep intimacy with the Lord. So not only is this helping you right, not only is this helping you practically, it is developing a deep, deep, deep connection with the Lord, and it's one of the ways, I think, that we learned to just build our deeper relationship with him. Now, I love this verse. You may have heard this before Psalm 4610, lots of different versions of this out there, depending on the translation that you love, but I love this one that says be still and know that I am God.

Speaker 1:

Now, remember a minute ago I said that learning to hear God's voice takes intentionality on your part. I think sometimes we just want God to come bang us on the head. I mean, granted, wouldn't that be nice if we could just say God, if you need to say something to me, just send down the golden scroll right, hit me on the top of the head like send a big sign, or something like that. But God doesn't always do that right. He speaks to us many times in the still small moments that we're choosing to be with Him, that we're choosing to kind of lean our ear toward Him. We talk a lot about this and give a lot of practical exercises in the context of our art in our Foundations course, because I learned that for me, and one of the ways I've seen with a lot of artists, one of the ways that we hear God best as creatives is not just sitting around in Bible study, which is a wonderful thing you should be doing, right but we often hear God best in the context of our design and for us as artists. Guess what that means? That I probably hear God and have the capacity to hear God best when I'm doing the thing that he created me to do.

Speaker 1:

How many of you maybe you've been in the studio one day. You've been painting or creating or weaving, or stitching, or throwing pottery or writing music or journaling or whatever it is that you do, and all of a sudden, in this, this place of of flow and of joy and of connection with him, all of a sudden, in this place of flow and of joy and of connection with him, all of a sudden, you just begin to say, wow, I sense that God's leading me. Wow, that scripture is jumping off the page. And that's the same thing that I felt, like he told me yesterday. Or, wow, I've had two friends say that to me in the last two weeks. Maybe God is trying to speak something to me.

Speaker 1:

Right, I just find when we will tune our ear to the Lord, both in our creative process and in intentional times with him, we begin to hear him and see him more clearly. Again, this is God's idea. He's the one that's wanting to speak to you. He's inviting you into this time. And so part of what we do and part of the things I do, you can look behind me. You see my comfy chair back there. That's not just a prop, that's actually my comfy chair where I sit and hear the Lord a lot. I've got one here in my studio, I've got one in the house where I sit and drink my coffee. Every morning.

Speaker 1:

I make time to offer up to the Lord the things that are going on in my life, to read His Word, to listen for His voice and to begin to just quiet my mind and say Holy Spirit, would you lead me, would you direct me? I find a lot of times that just the real practical things of deep breathing, of closing my eyes, of just kind of getting in a really relaxed spot with the Lord, and again, all of that just conveys trust. Right, I'm not in a hurry, I'm not in a rush, I'm not frustrated about this. Lord. I know that you're right here in this moment with me and God. I just lay everything down, I just I breathe in faith, I breathe in your presence and I breathe out, lord, all of the stress and all the anxiety that the enemy's trying to throw on me in this time, and I began to just worship him with my focus. You say worship him with your focus.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, did you know that turning off your phone could be an act of worship? Did you know that turning off the TV, the, the, not scrolling Facebook or Instagram or or whatever it might worship. Did you know that turning off the TV, not scrolling Facebook or Instagram or whatever it might be, did you know that that can actually be an act of worship? Why? Because you're choosing Jesus over the things of this world that so easily entangle us.

Speaker 1:

Remember when Jesus I love that parable that he talks about the parable of the sower and the different ground right, and he talks about the hard ground and the thorny ground and the rocky ground and all the different stuff. You know, thorny ground, many theologians say, are the thorny things of life, the things that just kind of creep up on us. And when you choose to get those thorny things out of your life, when you choose to say you know what, instead of picking up my phone first thing in the morning, instead of looking at my email, instead of looking at TV and putting on the news first thing in the morning, I'm going to choose to offer my time and my focus as an act of worship to the Lord. I'm going to choose to let him be the first thing that I listen for and look for. What does that do? That listen that begins to set the stage for your whole day and it just kind of I just think for me and I hope this makes sense for you it just kind of raises the flag, right, is you know in, in, in, like I think about in England, you know when, the when, the Queen of England, you know, when she was alive. I've grown up seeing, seeing the Queen my whole life before she passed away and you know, just on TV and all that, and I loved it, like when she, any castle that she was at, they'd raise the flag right and they would know that she's there. I just kind of love the idea that I can raise the flag of my heart and just kind of let the Lord know hey, I'm here, I'm in residence. In other words, I'm ready to hear your voice, I'm ready to spend time with you, I'm ready to focus my attention on you.

Speaker 1:

The next thing I would say about you know just kind of some practical ways to hear his voice is really out of Proverbs 4.23. I love this. It says guard your heart above all else, and that's some pretty strong words. Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. You may have heard it in a more traditional version. For you know, guard your heart, for out of it flows the issues of life. You know, when the Bible talks about your heart it's kind of talking about this seat of all wisdom and knowing that's inside of us.

Speaker 1:

I think about it as the subconscious framework I teach a lot about in Foundations and my God's Plan for Living book and all of my books about this inner framework of your heart that God has knit together and we have a part in choosing how that gets to be developed and formed. Now, of course, the enemy wants to form the inner framework of your heart through woundedness and trauma and lies and anxiety and fear and all that stuff. And guess what? The inner framework of your heart through woundedness and trauma and lies and anxiety and fear and all that stuff, and guess what? The inner framework of your heart is not really a respecter of what's getting put into it, right? If you put junk in, you're going to get junk out. If you put the kingdom in, you put God's word in, guess what's going to happen? You're going to get the kingdom out. You're going to get a lens that's based in the word of God. You're going to get a lens that's based in the kingdom of God.

Speaker 1:

In that perspective, and so I think part of learning to hear God's voice is developing an intentional, listening heart. Why? Because I want to guard my heart. That is, I want to be really really careful, not in a fear-based way, but just in an intentional way. I want to be really really careful, not in a fear-based way, but just in an intentional way. I want to be careful and intentional about the things that I'm allowing to be sown into the garden of my heart. If you think about your heart like the way Jesus taught about it, as ground, we realize that when a seed goes in, whatever kind of seed that is, it's going to bring forth fruit. Why? Because your heart is designed as an incubator. It's designed as a seed bed.

Speaker 1:

Right, the Bible even talks about your imagination and, again, part of this inner reality that God's given us, even as a womb, even as a place where we form things like a potter, and so this inner framework of our heart, where our imagination is, where our subconscious is, it's important that we guard that and we curate maybe is a great word. We curate that like a museum curator would curate a show. We curate the ground of our heart. Why? Because the Bible says out of it flows, the issues of life or out of it, you know, determines the course of your life. So let's again reverse engineer that.

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If you don't guard your heart, if you're not intentional about learning to train your heart and train your imagination, and train your spirit man to to hear God's voice and to be trained by his word, guess what? The course of your life, the issues of your life, are going to be led and determined by things that you do not want them to be led and determined by. In fact, friend, and again I'm going to say this and I don't want it at all to come across as something that leads you into shame, because you know, god doesn't speak through shame, he speaks through faith, he speaks through love, he speaks through invitation, right in his word. But one of the ways that you can know what's going on in your heart is to look at the fruit of your life, because everything on the external starts where On the internal. And so if the issues of your life that is the way that your life is going right now, the things that you're always struggling with, the things that you keep coming up against in your life, the struggles that you just can't shake, if those are the things that are determining the issues of your life. You're like man I'm just always seeing these things, I'm always running into trouble. I can never seem to get breakthrough All of this. I would, I would ask you to just take some time with the Lord and say Lord, what's going on with my heart? That is, what have I allowed to be sown in my heart? Because when you just let any old thing get sown in your heart, guess what? Any old thing is going to start sprouting and start bringing forth fruit in your life. And listen, that is one of the most woo. Listen, this is one of the most empowering things you can ever get in the kingdom.

Speaker 1:

And a lot of religion. You know, well-meaning religious people don't teach this. You can, absolutely. You have the power through Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit. You have the power to cooperate with him, to co-labor with him, to absolutely change your life, to change the output and the outflow and the experience of your life. Not by striving more, not by trying more, not by trying to do it yourself. No, by learning to what. Hear his voice, know the promises that are in his word, sow them into your heart, come out of agreement with the lies of the enemy and into agreement with the truth of God's word. Listen, I could talk a lot about that. In fact, if you want to find out more about that process in general, in my God's plan for living book I teach a process called the five R's. I think I talk about that in Unlocking the Heart of the Artist. We go deep into that in the Foundations course.

Speaker 1:

But it's just this process that I teach, right of taking every thought captive, learning to identify it as a truth or the lie, coming out of agreement with it if it's the lie, replacing it with the truth of God's Word, and then just some practical things to begin to rejoice and reinforce the truth of God's Word in your life. But listen, all of that, all of that takes a listening heart, a heart that is pointed toward Jesus, that is pointed toward desiring to hear his voice. And if you hear, if you don't hear anything else, hear this. Hearing God's voice requires your participation, it requires your intentionality and it acquires reproaching life through a kingdom lens, a spiritual lens, right Even you know, when you're in the studio and you're thinking well, was that nudge me or was that the Lord?

Speaker 1:

You know, was that color idea? Was that me or was that the Lord? Listen, I've just learned that when I come in the studio, I'm already kind of in a heightened state of awareness because that's what God has created idea. Was that me or was that the Lord? Listen, I've just learned that when I come in the studio, I'm already kind of in a heightened state of awareness because that's what God's created me to do. But I just invite the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, thank you. In fact, if you were to go outside my studio right now and look over the door, there's a big old yield sign, like a traffic yield sign, and every day when I walk in, I'm just reminded.

Speaker 1:

This is not about me, this is God's story. God, I'm yielding my ears and my eyes and my hands and my heart to you today. Speak to me, lord, and I like to call it this way. I assume connection what? No, matt, isn't that kind of presumptuous. No, the Holy Spirit is living inside of me and living inside of you. Jesus already said my sheep know my voice, right, I know them, and they hear my voice and they follow me.

Speaker 1:

Again, this is his idea, it's normal, and so I just want you to begin to assume that, as you're being led in the studios, you're entreating his presence as you're in the word, as you're declaring his truth out of your mouth. Just begin to as a normal part of your day. Lord, thank you that you're leading me and guiding me today in my creative process, in the business decisions that I make, in the things that I'm doing with my family and in relationships, all right, and I've just found, the more that you do, that sensitivity to the voice of the Holy spirit grows as you intentionally practice and pursue his presence. That's just. That's just one of those things. The more you do it, the better that you're going to get. And here's, here's the cool thing. Even if you're like, I think this is Lord, but I'm not quite sure, step out. Even if you're like I think this is the Lord, but I'm not quite sure, Step out, step out. You know why? Because God is full of grace and mercy and he loves to direct our steps. You know what I think that assumes.

Speaker 1:

That assumes that as you walk, sometimes you're not going to get it exactly right. Sometimes we're going to step off the path. Sometimes we're going to think he said this, but he actually meant that. But you know what? God didn't come and just hit us over the head, like religion teaches Don't miss God. You miss God. You're in the flesh, you're going to go, blah, blah, blah, blah, all this kind of stuff. No, he's a loving father, the Holy Spirit, jesus said. Jesus said it's better that I go. Why? So the helper will come. The Holy Spirit's a helper. In other words, he wants to help you in the times you get it. He wants to help you in the times you miss it. He wants to help you in the times that you're not sure he's the helper. So don't ever allow the enemy to come in and put fear and shame in your life.

Speaker 1:

In regards to hearing God's voice, the biggest thing is you just begin to read his word. So is his word in your heart? Begin to cultivate his presence in a listening ear, begin walking, begin looking for him and as you do, you will begin to gain confidence. You know why? Because you're going to see things start happening in your life. In other words, you're going to take a step and you're going to go. Whoa, I didn't think that was possible. I didn't think breakthrough like that was possible. I didn't think that idea that God gave me in the studio was even something that anybody could do. But I did it and wow, look at the results and what does that do? That gives you faith. That begins to give you faith.

Speaker 1:

Now, one of the big things I think that a lot of people struggle with in regards to hearing God's voice is again this whole kind of nervousness around. Well, how do I know it's God and how do I know it's me, and how do I know this is not the enemy, or distractions and that sort of thing. So again I just want to reinforce God's voice always aligns with scripture. It never sounds like shame and fear and control and all of that kind of mess. It always is an invitation to a deeper relationship with him. It's always an invitation to dive deeper into his nature, into his principles that we see in his word. It's always loving, it's always truthful, it's always peace giving. Even when the Lord is trying to bring you maybe up in an area where you need some correction, that never comes as fear or shame based. It always comes as a loving invitation wanting to draw you into more. So one of the ways that I've learned to do this over the years and again this is just through a lot of great Bible teaching over the years, a lot of great mentors in my life and then just seeing this work over the last 20 years in my own life.

Speaker 1:

I love to journal. I'm a big journaler. In fact I've got a big my prayer journals in the house. Uh, I get a. It's one of the little things, bougie things I do for myself. Every year I get a brand new handmade journal, um, from this lady on Etsy. I actually maybe I should put the link in here. I could do that, but she's a great book binder and I just love getting a new, fresh one, you know, every year.

Speaker 1:

But as you're hearing things from the Lord, as you're, you know, I write my prayers. I write down things that I sense, maybe things that I'm praying about, things that I feel like the Lord's showing me, things that may seem like, hmm, this is the second or third time, or maybe I'm really feeling this strongly, or, wow, I've gotten two or three prophetic words about this Lord. I'm going to write these down. I just find that writing things down you know Habakkuk says what Write the vision down, make it plain why, so the runner can run with it. It's hard for you to run with things in the Lord, that is pursue things that he shows you if you don't write them down? Right, if you're just kind of letting them go one in and out the other and expect God to just float down everything you need in every situation automatically, without your participation. That isn't how the kingdom works, right. God requires and expects and invites our participation. That is how the kingdom works, right. God requires and expects and invites our participation.

Speaker 1:

This co-laboring and I just find, in a real, practical way, journaling, is one of those ways that I do it. Now I can hear you now oh, what's the right way, the wrong way? There's no right way, there's no wrong way. Sometimes I sketch in my prayer journal, sometimes I pray in my sketch journal, sometimes I'm writing things down on a note and I put sticky notes inside my journal.

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Whatever it takes for you, I would just say the big thing is just write those things down, even when, even when you think you may not understand the fullness of it, but you just kind of feel that nudge, write it down and just say, lord, I'm writing this down, I don't have the full understanding. God, I pray that you'd confirm it through your word, confirm it, you know. Confirm it through situations, you know through relationships that I have, whatever it is right, but it allows you to keep going back to things that you believe the Lord's speaking about and listen when it comes to pass, or he begins to give you a little direction in this way or that way. That builds such faith in you. Why? Because you know that the things that you're hearing, the things that you're sensing, are from him, and that's how faith gets built in your life. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Again, not only hearing his written word, but hearing his voice inside your heart. That's how faith and confidence, if you, will get developed.

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Now the last thing I would say is, just once you feel like God is speaking, you got to learn to walk in alignment with what he's showing you. And sometimes I'm going to be honest sometimes the things that God speaks to you, you're like whoa, that's a lot bigger than me. In fact, I think one of the hallmarks of especially with vision is understanding that God loves to give big vision. That is impossible for you. Why so that it's impossible for you? Because God wants you to be involved in this supernatural process of seeing and agreeing. Seeing and hearing and sensing what he's doing, agreeing with it in your heart, decreeing it out of your mouth and then beginning to proceed. That is walk toward that in faith. And he knows that as you do that, that's how supernatural confidence and faith get developed. That's how you become faithful with little and made ruler over much is because you're showing yourself faithful Again, not striving, not running ahead of the Lord, but no, daily, moment by moment, uh, starting to to walk with him.

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And here, here's the beautiful thing. Just like I said a minute ago, as you start doing this, in the little things, writing the nudges down, writing those little things that seem like coincidences, writing those things that are repeating situations or prophetic words or thoughts, writing all those down and begin to act on them. Listen when God sees, listen to me. When God sees that he can trust you with little things, he's going to give you more and more and more and more. That's how the kingdom of God works. That's how your creative voice is going to grow. That's how your business is going to grow. That's how your life in the Lord is going to grow. That's how you're going to get better at operating in spiritual gifts. That's how you're going to get better at seeing God use you to bring breakthrough in people's lives through your creativity.

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Why is God going to entrust you with this huge mountain, moving demonstration of his nature when he can't even get you to actually open your Bible and spend time with him on a regular basis? Right, the Bible says that God is looking to and fro. He's looking for those whose hearts are completely his. How do you know if your heart's completely His? Look at what your heart's being focused on. Are you constantly being distracted? Are you constantly allowing the cares of this world, the lies of the enemy, all these things that so easily entangle us? Is your heart always focused on those things, or is your heart focused on cultivating a heart and an ear for the Lord? Listen, when you begin to do that listen, I'm just laughing because I just know I've seen in my own life when you begin to do that, god will begin to multiply and accelerate your efforts in such a way that you will surely say, as I have there's no way that I'd be doing in my life or experiencing in my life what I am unless it had been the voice of the Lord. That's how the kingdom gets manifested in and through your life.

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So, my friend, I want to challenge you this week, you know. Set aside 15, 20 minutes at least once, but I would say a day, you know. Set aside 15, 20 minutes, uh, at least once, but I would say a day, you know, every morning, instead of, if you're somebody that loves to get up, get your coffee, flip on the news or get up and check your phone immediately, I just want to invite you, like, leave the phone in the bedroom, leave the phone in the office, uh, don't pick up the remote. Use those early moments as you're beginning to develop the day and coming alive in the mornings. Use those to hear God's voice and to say Lord, I'm here, I'm coming faithful Lord, I'm coming to drink from your presence. Lord, would you speak to me today through your word. Would you open my eyes and open my ears that I could see and listen?

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The Bible says that when we ask, we will find. The Bible says seek and you'll find. Knock and the door will be open unto you. The Holy Spirit's the giver of all wisdom, the giver of all truth, he's the helper. He wants to do this Again. This is his idea. So never, ever, feel bad or feel somehow disqualified.

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You know, I just believe the Lord would say to you, some of you right now that are even feeling that, well, I've tried this before and maybe I'm doing it wrong, or I don't think God is speaking to me, because this, that or the other or whatever, listen, the enemy is always going to try to sow doubt and fear and feelings of anxiety and inadequacy in you and those in your life. And I can we just say right now that is not the truth of God's word, that is not how God leads you, feelings of inadequacy and fear. That is not the Lord. And the Bible says what Take every thought captive against anything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and do what Cast it down. The Bible says what Resist the devil and what he will flee. You Cast it down. The Bible says what Resist the devil and what he will flee. You don't have to go to the altar for that to happen. You don't have to get your preacher to lay hands on you. You don't have to email for 10 friends or call 50 people for prayer support. You can do that right now in the strength and in the authority that you have in Jesus' name. And I'm telling you when you begin to do that, then begin to journal what you're feeling from the Lord, begin to just ask the Lord. Lord, what do you want to say to me today? My ears are open, my eyes are open as you just begin to cultivate an awareness, I promise you, I promise you I promise you, because God is not a man, that he would lie I promise you you're going to begin to hear God's voice. So, my friend, as I pray today, I want you to just begin to ask the Lord. What is something that you need for him to speak to? You'd love for him to begin to speak to you about, or what are some things that you think that he's been asking and been leading you in that you're just not quite sure about. I want you to have that on your mind. I'm going to pray and we're just going to ask the Lord to begin to speak in a new and fresh way to you right now. Father, I thank you that, when Jesus went to sit at your right hand, father, you sent the Holy Spirit to be our comforter and our guide and our truth giver and our wisdom leader. Lord and God, I thank you that the Holy Spirit is not living outside of us, but he's living in us right now. And, lord, the Holy Spirit. You sent him to lead us and to guide us and to comfort us and to bring wisdom to us in every situation of our life. And so, father, right now, I just pray for faith to arise in people's hearts. Lord, father, we ask you, holy Spirit, we ask you would you speak to us in a deeper way. Holy Spirit, would you open our eyes and open our ears to the way that you are speaking, the way that you want to lead us? Holy Spirit, would you illuminate and magnify your word inside of us? God, let it jump off the page. Let the situations of life jump off the page like a 3D movie. God, would there be no doubt that we're hearing your voice and following your lead? Father, I bind the enemy right now, in the name of Jesus, that we want to come and steal and kill and destroy, to deceive and confuse. We bind you in the name of Jesus. We resist the enemy and the Bible says that you must flee. And, god, I thank you. I thank you that when you say that, when we call out to you, lord, you hear us and you'll answer, and we thank you for that. God, thank you for your voice, thank you for your word. Thank you for the inner witness of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for peace that passes all understanding, confirming your ways in our life. We thank you for all that in Jesus name, amen. Listen, my friend, I would love for you to let me know what the Lord spoke to you during that prayer. Let me know if you're on YouTube and watching and you want to leave it in the comments, if you're listening on the podcast and want to leave a review or whatever. We'd love to hear your thoughts about what God is speaking to you as you're learning to hear his voice. Also, if you are wanting to do just a deep dive, if you know, man, I've had a lot of blockages in my life and I've not been able to. You just know you're not been able to walk in the fullness of what God's got for you and maybe a lot of it's due to trauma or woundedness or fear, just maybe no intentionality in your life, or maybe some wrong teaching, just well-meaning religious teaching that's just pointed you in the wrong direction. My friend, beyond anything, I want to encourage you become a part of the Foundations Course. The Foundations Course is changing hundreds and hundreds of artists' lives all over the world as we teach you to hear God's voice. Allow Him to heal the broken places of your heart. Begin to sow his word in your heart and develop habits that allow you to do everything that I'm teaching you to do today, as you begin to build an awareness of his voice, not only in your art practice and through your art practice, but also in your life in general. You can find out about that as well as the Thriving Christian Artists Weekly, our mentoring program, all the resources that we have for artists to help you grow. We want to make sure that you can get all of those. You can find all of those down in the show notes or in the description if you're watching YouTube. My friend, I love you. I'm so honored that I get the opportunity to walk with you each week and encourage you in everything that God has for you. Again, make sure you subscribe each week and encourage you and everything that God has for you. Again, make sure you subscribe. Make sure you share this with a friend if it's been meaningful to you, and until next time, remember you were created to thrive. Bye, hey, my friend. Before you go, make sure that you're signed up for the Thriving Christian Artist Weekly. It's my free newsletter full of spiritual encouragement, creative inspiration and practical tips to help you thrive in everything that God's called you to do as an artist in his kingdom. Every issue is absolutely free and it includes the latest podcast episode, featured artist spotlights, a worship song of the week and again, tons of tips and encouragement and inspiration for you to keep you inspired and encouraged in everything that God's got for you as an artist in the kingdom. You can click the link right here in the show notes to join us, and it's a great way to stay connected. All right, love you Bye.