Hearing God – Jerri Kelley

I am often asked what the voice of God sounds like or how to know when God is speaking. In the Bible we read, “God told this person this stuff,” and we assume it is some booming voice from heaven, and even if it is booming, it is at least audible. I can tell you I have heard an audible voice that was unmistakably God a few times, but more often than not, it’s an internal thought or knowing. Here are two examples from this week.

At the beginning of the year I spent time seeking God for His desire for this year. I asked for directions on my writing, social media presence, physical health, social life, and career. One of the things I felt strongly led to do is get fit. Not “lose weight” but get fit. Get in the gym, lift some weights, and do some cardio. Build muscle, trim down, and build endurance. So for the last few weeks I’ve been in the gym four days a week doing just that. I do weights and spent 20+ minutes on cardio. I started with light weights, low reps, and shorter cardio times and intensity so my body could acclimate and I didn’t hurt myself. It has been going great.

Last week I was having my morning quiet time, journaling and praying, and I had the thought, “I need to be stretching every day so my muscles stay loose.” When I was in high school and even when I worked with trainers, that statement was drilled into my head. You stretch so you don’t hurt and so you don’t injure yourself. Stretching keeps your muscles loose and your body able to handle hard work.

Now, understand, I hate stretching, so I took that thought, held it up to my body at this moment, and realized my body was fine. I didn’t ache. I was sleeping okay with no residual muscle soreness. I was good, so I promptly dismissed the thought as a voice from coaches past.

Jump to Monday morning when I rolled over to my left side, and the pressure hurt in my hip joint. Probably just stiff from sleeping, so I ignored it. Tuesday when I worked in the yard my hip ached from the tightness, and I knew what it was. I had the same deep ache from muscle tightness when I was training for a 5K. The ONLY answer is stretching, so I did. I would lean my hip out and stretch the deep muscles at the joint. It hurt, which means things are really tight, but I was too busy for that 30-minute stretch thing. Yesterday I had to run some errands and get groceries. My hip throbbed the whole time. At one point I prayed, “Lord, can you please do something about this?” And immediately I had the thought, “Yeah. I can tell you to stretch.” And I remembered last week, that thought during my prayer time, the one I dismissed thinking it was just a voice from past coaches. Nope. It was not a voice of past coaches. It was the voice of God.

Example number two.

As I mentioned, yesterday I had errands to run and needed to get groceries. One of the thing I needed to pick up is potassium because I ran out Monday. I don’t take supplements every day, but when I know I haven’t gotten enough in food, I use supplements, especially since I’ve been working muscles and getting fit. Instead of just taking potassium, I take the muscle trifecta of potassium, calcium, and magnesium.

Yesterday I stop by to pick up some potassium, and I thought I should get a bottle of all three, which made no sense because I just bought a bottle of one of them two weeks ago, and I knew I had plenty of the third. I only needed potassium, and I am trying to streamline my life by not having unnecessary extras, so I only bought potassium.

Last night I was getting ready for bed, and I knew my body was running low on the trifecta so I went in my bathroom to take the supplements. Opened the medicine cabinet and picked up the empty bottle of potassium to toss it, except it wasn’t empty. It was about 1/3 full. Not good. That means…yep, the calcium bottle was empty. I didn’t need potassium. I needed calcium. Had I listened to the “Thought” that said to buy one of each, I would have bought what I actually needed.

Now you might be wondering what makes me think those were God talking. A few things.

One, both of those “Thoughts” went against my natural bent. My bent is to hate stretching and not buy stuff I don’t need (unless it is books, and then He is usually the one saying, “You don’t need that.”).

Second, every morning I pray for God to bless my day, to lead me into His will, and give me strength and wisdom to do His will. His will is for me to be healthy and fit. Both of those “Thoughts” had to do with my physical ability to sleep well and to be physically able to serve Him. NOW ,I see that those “Thoughts” were direct responses to my prayers.

Finally, those “Thoughts” were pre-emptive. The Word tells me God goes before me, not just in location but also in time. Both of those “Thoughts” were pre-emptive in that they addressed things to come, like the pain that I feel now and finding out last night I didn’t have calcium. Did I know they were pre-emptive then? No, which is why I ignored them, but if you look at the Bible a lot of God’s words are based on what people didn’t see. Noah and the flood. Joseph and the famine that was to come. The entire Promised Land journey. I had no reason to have those thoughts based on what I knew, which is another reason to believe God is speaking based on what HE knows.

It would have been great if God’s voice sounded like a booming voice from heaven, but honestly, I have found it rarely booms. Instead, God’s speaking often just seems like thoughts or “just feel like I should do (whatever)”.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to stretch before I go back to the store to buy some calcium.

As of yesterday, we have entered the season of Lent. While I am not Catholic, the Protestant church I am attending observes Lent, and this year I feel compelled to observe it myself.

I have only observed Lent one other time. Ten years ago, the year we ended up moving from the home where we had lived since my son was born. That year the Lord told me to meditate on 1 Corinthians 13 for the entire 40 days. Less than two months after Easter, my family knew it was time to move.

The morning we were to go look at houses I heard in my mind, “It won’t look like you expect, but you will know as soon as you walk in the door it is the house.”

The realtor and I had five houses we were going to view, and I had a feeling on one of them. It was a house I didn’t want, but something told me it was the one. It turned out to be the first house we viewed, and I didn’t want it. It was a HUD home with all kinds of issues. Most of the flooring was gone. Light fixtures were gone. Holes in walls, and that is what we saw just walking through. Plus it all needed to be repainted. I didn’t want that house. I didn’t want the work. We had come out of a hard season, and I wanted some rest, not this.

Then I heard my realtor call from the front living area, “Did you see this on the wall?” Lands, what now?

I walked into the room where she was and looked at the adhesive letters that started at the door and went all the way around the room.

“Though I speak with the tongues of man and of angels…”

1 Corinthians 13 encircled that room.

For the next six years the black letters were visible on the maroon paint. When I repainted that room, I left the letters and painted over them. While I know that isn’t the proper way to do things, I also feel you can’t go wrong when 1 Corinthians 13 is part of your foundation.

When I think about Lent, I think about that year and how the Lord used my 40-day meditation to give me direction and to give me peace in choosing a hard road I would not have chosen on my own, but a road that was ultimately good and blessed, and I wonder what this year’s Lent observance will ultimately hold, how He will use it, who I will be when its purpose is fulfilled.

February 23, 2023

Tag: Hearing God

What Does the Voice of God Sound Like in Real Life

Lent and 1 Corinthians 13