Episode 104: How to Hear God’s Voice in the Chaos

Jacob Paul: Welcome to the Truth in Love podcast with your hosts Kimberly Faith and John Mack. The Truth in Love podcast seeks to present God’s timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love.

Kimberly Faith: Dad, it’s good to be back. Second week in September podcast.

John McLarty: Yeah. This is great and a good follow-up to the last podcast.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. You know, last time we really talked about how Jesus, the

John McLarty: word,

Kimberly Faith: speaks directly into our situation, our chaos.

John McLarty: Exactly. And we’re thankful for that.

Kimberly Faith: I remember when I was a kid how you did a lot of talking, but there was never any guarantee I was listening.

John McLarty: Well, I won’t comment on that, but I won’t disagree.

Kimberly Faith: Well, I think it’s a good analogy because I listen to you a lot more now than I did back when I was 15.

John McLarty: Well, that’s a blessing to hear.

Kimberly Faith: Well, and there’s a reason. It’s not because you’ve changed, it’s because I finally figured out that you’re a smart guy and worth listening to.

John McLarty: Only through God’s grace

Kimberly Faith: and his wisdom. Well, I think the analogy is good though because I think we have to learn some things before we learn how to hear God in our chaos. At least, I I’m pointing the finger right at myself on this. I think we need to know there’s some things that that are useful to know that god’s been teaching me so that when I’m in, you know, the everyday trouble that I can do some things actually to help me tune in. That makes sense?

John McLarty: That does make sense. Yes. And God wants us to hear him and not to rule, lord over us, just for his his glory, but for our benefit actually. He is not an evil taskmaster.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. I think that’s a good way to I wanna just start with the relationship. But what is this relationship that God actually invites us into? And we we talked a lot about how he speaks last time. And, you know, rather than doing a kind of a road map on this, I think let’s just jump right in and talk about first John one one through four.

Do you wanna root Yeah.

John McLarty: That’s great. Yeah. A lot in that series of verses. But all about a a relationship.

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

John McLarty: That we’re not just saved and rescued from hell, though we are rescued from hell. But the real key is having a relationship with God. So as

Kimberly Faith: And it’s an invitation.

John McLarty: As, yeah, mentioned in first John. So that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life, the life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the father and was manifested to us, that which we have heard, seen, and heard, we declare to you that you may also have, in this keyword, fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ. And these things we write unto you that your joy might be full. First John one one through four.

Kimberly Faith: Fur, are you from Arkansas? Well,

John McLarty: I’m not fur from Arkansas.

Kimberly Faith: But Texas, is that what you’re doing?

John McLarty: Meant to say four.

Kimberly Faith: No. I’m kidding. A couple things strike me about this passage. And first of all, if this is the fellowship that gives us fullness of joy, think about the people in your life that when you’re in fellowship with them, they give you joy.

John McLarty: Exactly. And this fellowship and I think that’s just so important. It just kinda emphasize again that a lot of people think, you know, salvation is just a one one time experience and now you’re saved and you go back to living your life. And unfortunately, that can be true if somebody fails to grow and fails to cultivate. Any relationship has to be cultivated.

Kimberly Faith: Well, it worries me when somebody says, well, I asked the Lord to save me, but I really never had a desire to go beyond that. Or when someone says, and I think this is a valid question, well, salvation is by grace through faith, then whatever keeps you from going back, then you can just go live like the devil afterwards. The thing that that ignores, the very critical thing that ignores, is that when we are born again, we are transformed. We have a new nature. We have new desires.

And if we don’t, we should be very worried. And this this joy that we’re invited to, this relationship that is that is promises us fullness of joy is once we’ve had it, we don’t ever wanna go back to the pig’s eye. You know, that’s that just is a natural once you’ve tasted, you know, a steak, why would you go back to eating something like rotten meat? You know?

John McLarty: Yeah. And, you know, just my personal experience, and I I know people have different experiences, and some people are saved, and heaven and hell is a big part of their motivation.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And, you know, Jesus talked about, that as a reason to ponder things. But when I was saved, the whole issue was reconciliation, was the relationship with God being restored. Right. Having having, you know, being friends with Jesus.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And that’s and what a friendship. You know? When when we talk about well, this word, fellowship in first John, it it means, koinonia in Greek. I’m not saying it right.

But it means sharing partnership, deep communion. You think about the people that you’ve developed, a deep relationship with. And we all should have people that we have a deep relationship with it. You know? Those relationships require intention.

They require, commitment.

John McLarty: And They’re cultivated.

Kimberly Faith: They’re cultivated. That’s right. And here we have an invitation to cultivate a relationship with the word, with the the the one who is the outward manifestation of the inward thoughts of God, Jesus Christ, and through him, the father, and, and covering it all is the spirit. I mean, we get to have a relationship with the Trinity just like we talked about in the podcast on the great dance. And this is this is the most special invitation that we could ever hope to get in our entire life.

John McLarty: Amen.

Kimberly Faith: I mean, we we have people who say, oh, I got to meet, you know, my favorite football NFL player or they name drop. Well, I’m you know, my cousin’s mother is the is best friends with, this, you know, this NBA basketball player or you know, we we do that as if that’s a measure of our value. But god who created us in his image says, I I measure your value by by what I’ve given for you my whole life. I’ve given up that, and I’m inviting you into this relationship. So god is inviting us into hit the fellowship with himself so that when we are in the chaos, when we get that 11PM call, when we get that nasty email, when our child is is is sick and we are we feel helpless, he’s right there beside us.

But the the this podcast is about how do we hear that? How do we know that? How do we sense his presence?

John McLarty: Yeah. And I think it’s important to note that it starts with salvation. Right. You can’t just you know? So salvation is just not reformation or I’m going to discipline my life or I’m going to start reading the word.

But it begins with salvation, which is hearing the gospel, responding to the gospel, asking for forgiveness, trusting in the Lord as our savior. But then that opens that door.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right.

John McLarty: But I think what we’re saying here is once the door is open and that soul’s born again, then you have the start of a relationship. And you can can kill that off pretty quick. Yeah. Or you can or you can nurture it.

Kimberly Faith: Right. It’s it’s And

John McLarty: that’s kind of Christian growth and spiritual warfare and and all those issues. But I think what we wanna emphasize here is is the the wonder, the benefit, the joy of that relationship

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

John McLarty: That God wants to have with us.

Kimberly Faith: Right. It’s like, you know, you you bring up a really good point and and that salvation is where it starts. You know, you have to be born again. And we know that is by grace through faith. It’s not, you know, making yourself better.

John McLarty: Exactly.

Kimberly Faith: And and you bring up this invitation to a relationship. And I I just wanna back up for just a minute and talk about we’ve talked about the incarnation of Christ in an entire podcast. And it was just it’s been a game changer for me from the standpoint that it’s so unbelievable to think about what Jesus gave up to have this fellowship with us. And when the bible says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten, the father full of grace and truth.

You know, and then we tie that into first John three that we can have that we he want he wants us to have fellowship with the father and his son, Jesus Christ. I mean I mean, Jesus wants us to have fellowship and god want the father wants us to have fellowship that our joy may be full. I think that it’s when we think about the incarnation being Jesus came, walked beside us. I mean, the apostles, they touched him. They saw him.

They perceived him with their physical senses so that we can understand that we what we have now. Jesus isn’t here in the form of a human. But what he does for us through the incarnation is he showed us that we can be like him. You

John McLarty: know? Right.

Kimberly Faith: And and so when people look at us, they can see the father.

John McLarty: And it wasn’t without cost. He gave up an aspect of his glory.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: And to become and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. And so that our joy might be full. So he did that, that we might have a rich and full life. Not only just go to I mean, we escape hell, go to heaven.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: But, yeah, just as we’ll develop here, but his incarnation opened the door. But then we have this continual relationship with him and the high priest and the comforter, the holy spirit. And he just doesn’t want it to stop, salvation.

Kimberly Faith: Well, that’s an excellent point. And that’s kind of why I bring up the incarnation because it’s what Jesus did for us by by becoming man and and god in the flesh, he gave us the ability to really become rep his representative god’s representative in the flesh. He showed us it could be done. And he doesn’t just leave us on our own to do that. He infuses his spirit.

Our his you know, the holy spirit is our advocate. He’s our helper. He’s our intercessor. And and then, of course, Jesus is interceding before the throne of god. It’s he didn’t just leave us to do this on our own.

He had to do it on his own.

John McLarty: Yeah. Think of a platoon leader who doesn’t just send his men out into battle. He leads them into battle.

Kimberly Faith: Exactly.

John McLarty: He takes the risks himself.

Kimberly Faith: Exactly. So, you know and again, I appreciate you establishing the fact that the first step is salvation. If you’re if you’re if you’re not born again, your soul and spirit are dead to the communication of God except for the call of salvation, And you’re not going to hear God in the chaos. So let’s kind of switch gears for a minute. Let’s talk about why we don’t hear God’s voice.

Because we know that once we’re born again, we actually have the built in receiver at that point to hear God’s voice. The ways we hear God’s voice are through his word. That’s the primary way, is through his And the more that we read his word and we talked about this in the last podcast. The more that his word becomes our language, basically, the more we understand how he thinks, what he loves, and that becomes who we are. So knowing that, why don’t we hear his voice?

Because I wanna when we start this segment, I’d like to just read these verses in Isaiah chapter 30 verses 18 to 21, which are some of it’s one of my favorite passages. Because it’s I think that we don’t I don’t tend to think about God this way. And so I like to be reminded that this is what he offers us. And says, therefore, the Lord will wait that he may be gracious to you. And therefore, he will be exalted that he may have mercy on you.

For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him. And it kinda goes on to say, your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, this is the way. Walk in it. Whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.

And there’s we didn’t read all the verses, but, can you imagine I I just try to imagine as a trial lawyer, if I was trying a case and had the greatest trial lawyer of all time having a microphone in my ear where I could hear him and he was, hey, ask this question. Hey, ask that question. Oh, wait. Cross examine. Oh, here’s what you need to say in your closing argument.

And this great trial lawyer knows the jury, knows the judge, already knows the future. That’s what we

John McLarty: have knows the outcome.

Kimberly Faith: He knows the outcome. Right. And we, as God’s boots on the ground in this spiritual warfare, have the ability to have him mic’d up into our soul saying, here, this is the way you need to go. You know, walk walk this way, walk that way. And I’ll tell you, you know, the, I we talked about this a little bit last week, but the young man that I talked to, he did not come to see me because he wanted to hear about Jesus.

He’d come to see me because of a completely different issue. And when I almost didn’t even see him because I was thinking in the carnal mind. I was thinking this is not something I can really help him with before I’d even met him. But I went ahead and did it because I think the spirit of God sometimes takes over because we’re just not smart enough to figure it out. And that was that voice saying, know, walk this way.

Right? And when I started talking to him and the you know, because I always have my quiet time in the morning. I’m always like, Lord, just you know, you need to make it apparent what I need to do because sometimes I’m just kinda like a dumb mule. I don’t know which way to go. I remember when the Holy Spirit took over the conversation and then he was leading he he was using my mouth as his mouthpiece and his word was coming out.

And this young man was hearing what he needed to hear to, in fact, get saved Amen. Thirty minutes later. You know? Mhmm. And that’s there is no better joy.

There’s nothing I did on that day earlier this week that was more important, more joy filled than when the Holy Spirit took over my life, my mouth, my thoughts, and made them his.

John McLarty: Well, yeah. Nothing could be better.

Kimberly Faith: Nothing’s better.

John McLarty: Leading someone to that relationship with Christ.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And that’s a pinnacle example. I can give other examples. There have been times in my law practice when I’ve been working on a big trial, it actually just happened recently. And, you know, the case isn’t set for trial.

And I was like, okay, I’ve got to work on my experts and, you know, the files kind of needs to be organized and everything. And I just didn’t have peace from God. That’s like that voice was saying, no. That’s actually not what you need to be doing right now. And I don’t always know the reason at the time I’m told to stop.

But sometimes, most of the time, when it comes to my law practice, I get to find out. But I’ve learned to trust that voice and listen to it because what happens, you know, that that word joy, that your joy may be full, what I experience if I don’t follow that voice is not joy. It’s a loss of my peace.

John McLarty: A grief. Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. So that’s I wanna I just wanted to give a few examples about what it looks like in our everyday walk to hear God’s voice behind us saying, this is the way. Walk in it. Because that that doesn’t come from it’s not like, know, it’s a thundering out of heaven.

Most of the time, it’s God’s spirit using his word to guide us in our mission, is to glorify him, which glorifying God is to, you know, is manifested in in winning souls and discipling people and, all the things that we’re commanded to do in God’s word. So going back to this verse in Isaiah, what had happened that the people had turned away from hearing God’s voice, being able to hear his voice, do you remember?

John McLarty: They’d placed idols at the center of their whole life.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: And I think just kinda I mean, that’s what we do basically. Yeah. It’s why don’t we hear God’s voice? I mean, the kind of the why don’t we hear God’s voice is because we’re listening to the voice of our flesh Mhmm. And the voice of this world Right.

And different idols.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yeah. That’s I think that’s just the central selfishness in in following the desires of our flesh is the central reason we don’t hear God’s voice. And and I just compare it to I use this example all the time because it’s just me, my simple little brain. But God’s in the kitchen and we’re out in the in the yard.

You know? We’ve just gone our own way. We’ve made maybe and this is a real life example. You know, I I I’m easily distracted. I I could easily spend eight hours in my yard.

I love being outside. I love doing yard work. That’s that can be a distraction. And I can put that at the center of my life and miss that I don’t hear god’s voice saying, you really need to go ask your neighbor if she wants to walk because she needs to hear about me. You know?

John McLarty: I think that’s the key is is having a heart, knowing our flesh is deceptive and just kinda wants its own way.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And just almost having a lifestyle or a daily practice of just asking the Lord to guide

Kimberly Faith: us. What’s next?

John McLarty: You know? Yeah. No, it’s Like I think of just a verse that jumps to my mind, Kim, is James one:five. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him. God doesn’t wanna hide the ball from us.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: But we kind have of ask for it, want it. And then if he gives us some guidance, I think the key is to follow that. Because if we ask God for guidance and he gives it to us and we just ignore him, well, that’s not a good pattern.

Kimberly Faith: Well, it’s and you think about it, a marriage. You know, if you’re a marriage unit, you’re trying to work together, you listen to each other, you have discussions. The difference is God knows more than our marriage partner.

John McLarty: Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: You know? And and I love that this verse in Isaiah says, the Lord will wait. It’s not you know? And and we’re always told to wait on the Lord. Right?

John McLarty: Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: And I think that when when our life like, I love what you said earlier about, we need to go through our day saying, Lord, what’s next?

John McLarty: Believe me.

Kimberly Faith: What is what you know, it was interesting earlier. We were you and mom were doing some errands, I and I I had a little downtime, which hardly ever happens. And I was like, lord, you know, I could there I was going through my head what things I wanted to do. And then it was like, okay, lord, what do you want me to do? The Lord wants to make us he wants us to fill us with joy.

Well, you go take a walk, and I want you to listen to the sermon you’ve been meaning to listen to. You know?

John McLarty: So I went

Kimberly Faith: out and took a hike and listened to a sermon. It’s not that God doesn’t want to satisfy our desires. He knew that I wanted to get out and get some exercise, but he also had something spiritual to feed me with while I was doing it.

John McLarty: Amen.

Kimberly Faith: And, you know, you you mentioned the verse in James, but our kind of our family’s theme verse is Proverbs three five and six.

John McLarty: I know that one well. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths.

Kimberly Faith: So That’s a promise. It’s a promise. Yeah. And it’s not just church time. It’s not just quiet time.

It’s all your ways. So my doubt you know, my my little downtime in all those ways I I had an hour and a half of downtime. Well, okay, Lord. What do mean to do with this? You know what I wanna do.

And Lord’s got you know, I got a plan. You know? Go walk and listen to the sermon.

John McLarty: Amen. Well, think about this. I’m just looking at this verse out of Isaiah is so incredible. Because to answer this question, why we don’t always hear God’s voice And we talked about this in the last podcast. We have, for the most part, a wrong impression of God as this, you know, disciplinarian doesn’t really want us to enjoy life, wants us to live this rigid, rule bound life.

And actually, look at this first phrase out of Isaiah. Therefore the Lord will wait that he may be gracious to you. He’s a God of loving kindness. And yeah, there’s things that maybe we think our flesh would enjoy that for our own benefit we need to stay away from, but he wants to replace that with abundant blessings. Like you the other day leading a soul to the Lord.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah, it’s I’m sure

John McLarty: that’s one of the greatest feelings of exuberance that you’ve had, you know?

Kimberly Faith: I don’t even it’s so great you can’t even really wrap your mind around it because you got to lead somebody into a different I mean, pivot eternally. You know? And but it’s but we that’s not to mean and, again, I think people tend to get feel bad because maybe they haven’t led somebody to Christ lately. But we have the opportunity every minute of our day to be part of eternal things. We talked about this a lot in the 10000% investment opportunity God gives us.

That may be giving your time to your neighbor. That may be giving your time to your money. Whatever that looks like. Mean, the most powerful weapon we have is prayer.

John McLarty: Well, I’ll give an example of just yeah. It doesn’t have to be leading someone to the Lord because that doesn’t happen every day. The other day, Lynn and I, we have our little tracks that have our testimony and then we have the link to our podcast where you’re interviewing us and we give our testimony in full. So we’ve given out so many of those in the last three months. But I was just at a doctor’s appointment and went in to go in to check-in and I didn’t have my driver’s license.

I just left it in my truck. So this one guy was handling my case. So I went, oh, I know exactly where it is, let me go get it. I go back and then he’s gone and this other lady is standing there. So she checks me in and I give her my tract.

And this was amazing. She says, Oh, she says, I’ve seen this, but I have your wife’s version of this tract. And mean, she remembered. She says, I still have it. I said, Well, this is this is my story.

Uh-huh. And I said, by the way, a new edition is the podcast. And showed her the little the little QR code.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: But I just thought, the Lord did that. Yeah. Because I would have given a track to the other guy, but then gone on because I didn’t see him again.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And I thought the Lord And wanted that I was just like, wow, I didn’t even just this acknowledge the Lord in all of our ways, lean not to our understanding and he will direct our paths. So that’s a little thing. It’s not as spectacular obviously as leading the soul to the Lord, But just like, yeah, the Lord did that. Well, it reminds me of It was a blessing.

Kimberly Faith: It reminds me of Psalms 30 two:eight where he says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my eyes upon you. That’s you know, that kind of intel in our life where we have the creator of the universe who has a purpose for each one of us. And he says, if you will just acknowledge me in all your ways. In other words, I need to be on the throne of your work life, your home life, your entertainment life, your, you know, your downtime, your, anything that you own, your money, your time, every area of your life, the way you dress, what you listen to, what you what you talk about, all those things.

If you’ll make me lord of all those things, I’m going I’ve got my eye on you. I’ve got plans for you, and I’ve written these plans. And I and I’m thinking to myself, do I wanna miss any of those plans? And every day, every minute of the day, every hour of the day, we have an opportunity to just like what you said. You know, you forgetting your driver’s license.

God just he just has his fingers in all these ways to guide us.

John McLarty: I didn’t yeah. I didn’t orchestrate that.

Kimberly Faith: You didn’t orchestrate that.

John McLarty: But I realized what had happened when I walked back in.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.

John McLarty: This new lady was there. And I go, okay. I guess she’s the one that needs to be tracked. I had no idea. And her eyes just lit up.

My goodness. I’ve seen this picture before.

Kimberly Faith: That’s so funny. That’s so funny. You know, I love the idea of god of the universe who is the greatest being ever. Right? He’s not just passively sitting back there thinking, oh, I wonder if she’s gonna screw up again.

You know? Mhmm. No. He wants he want he he wants to be he’s waiting patiently to show mercy to us. That’s what that verse in Isaiah says.

Yeah. And he actively instructs us. He actively teaches us. He actively counsels us with watchful care. And that’s why he gave us his word.

You know? He’s like, hey, Kim. Hey, Kim. Kim. Read my word.

Most of what you need to know is in there. And then when you start applying my word, guess what that’s gonna do? That’s gonna open up your mind to have the mind of Christ. It’s gonna open up your heart to have the heart of God. And then you’ll be tuned in already so that when I’m saying, go this way, go that way.

You’re already tuned in because you’re already living close to me.

John McLarty: Amen.

Kimberly Faith: And and, know, that kinda brings us to the to the next part, which is God’s word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.

John McLarty: Psalm one nineteen one zero five.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: A lamp to our feet and a light to our path.

Kimberly Faith: Now what what are you what are your thoughts? How do you think God didn’t say, hey. I’m gonna light up the whole your whole life at one time so you can see everything on the road, which is what we want.

John McLarty: Probably blow our minds. We That’s good. He can just, you know, to make the next step.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: To to walk that day. And not that we can’t have plans for the future, but, you know, I think just this Lord, just lead me today.

Kimberly Faith: Well, it’s kind of it’s I think about it this way. If the Lord let us know all the trouble that’s in the future Mhmm. You know, Jesus said the trouble for today is enough. You know?

John McLarty: Like, what if God had revealed polyapostles’ entire life? Yeah. And that, you know, whatever vision he

Kimberly Faith: had up and in heaven all kinds of

John McLarty: All might have been like, oh my word, Lord, is there

Kimberly Faith: Just kill me now.

John McLarty: Another plan? Right.

Kimberly Faith: Or or even if he revealed all the good things that were gonna happen to us, we’d be so distracted because we wouldn’t be able to wait to get there. And we also would wanna take shortcuts to the good things.

John McLarty: He knows what we can handle.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. I think about, I’ve talked about this before, but my the the law practice that God’s given me, there’s been financial bound bounty, and there’s been financial touch and go.

John McLarty: Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: The touch and go times are the times when he was just paying the bills every month where he was teaching me that my greatest trust shouldn’t be in my finances and my bank account. And what a great lesson. And I never wanna go back to thinking that my greatest security lies in my bank account because I’ve seen the miracles and the adventure that happens when we’re I’m just following the promises of his word. You know?

John McLarty: And many proverbs tell us don’t trust in riches.

Kimberly Faith: Right. I think that our our natural anxiety you know, great God is not anxious. So when we’re close to him, he’s not we’re not anxious. But when we get anxious and about maybe a a diagnosis or maybe we have are anxious about, I’m anxious about a case and how I’m gonna make it work out. I’m anxious you know, or you’re anxious about maybe, you know, a family member who’s who’s struggling to to even know Christ.

You know, we our anxiety kinda demands to see the whole picture. And we wanna see the whole diagnosis. We wanna see the whole financial picture. Right? We wanna see the outcome on the other end.

But god isn’t isn’t saying this, I’m gonna give you a lamp for the next step to frustrate us. He’s teaching us this is sustainable for you. You can’t handle all the knowledge in the future right now. I can. I know it.

John McLarty: Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: But you can’t. And he’s it’s kinda like if you you had a five year old who, you know, wanted to know where babies came from. Well, you’re not gonna give them the, like, the birds and the bees talk at age five. Right. They can’t handle that.

You know? That’s kind of a crazy example, but you’re not gonna explain, you know, the theory of relativity to a five year old. You’re gonna teach them one plus one is two.

John McLarty: And I think that’s a good point. God wants to give us lessons in ways we can understand

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

John McLarty: And sometimes incrementally. Yes. So maybe we’re prepared for bigger things. I’ll just give a small example. Real life, maybe people can relate to this.

It’s I just had an experience. The Lord’s just I’ve been I’ve been a Christian for fifty years. The Lord’s still just showing me, John, just trust in me even if you don’t know the answer. So the other day, this is, you know, compared to other people’s you know, people that are being persecuted all over the world. This is a small thing, but it was a it was a lesson for me.

I had just a a backup hard drive fail, And it had some pictures on it that are important. And I’ve got them somewhere else backed up on thumb drives, but they’re all in one place. So I went, oh my goodness. So I take it down to my computer quiz guy and he’s like, well, it may or may not be recoverable and he won’t know for three days. Well, this was like, you know, that night I had to go to sleep not knowing.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And the Lord was just saying, John, either way, whatever this works out, just trust me. Because I was having a hard time getting to sleep. Oh, you could have backed up. Why didn’t you back that up? Blaming yourself and what if this and what if that?

And it was just a lesson, though. And I I finally just found peace. Yeah. And I didn’t know the the answer. Turns out it was recoverable, but I didn’t know it for, like, three days.

Yeah. And that’s a small example. But people go through that. Maybe that’s an you have a diagnosis you Right. Talked Maybe they found some problem in your blood count and you don’t know the answer.

And those are can be small or big tests of just this trusting in him, giving And it to

Kimberly Faith: and I appreciate you sharing that because I think it goes back to, you know, when God’s word is hidden in our heart

John McLarty: Exactly.

Kimberly Faith: We it saturates what we think.

John McLarty: Yeah. My peace my give unto you.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Not as the world gives.

John McLarty: Not as the world gives.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And because the world would say, well, I’m gonna get peace when I know the answer. God says, no. You have peace when you know me. And that’s an incredible gift because what it does is sharpens our spiritual senses and we become less self reliant which is a big problem.

Pride, right? Pride is a big problem which is self reliance. And so when we think about I mean, the question, why won’t God speak to me or why can’t I hear God?

John McLarty: The

Kimberly Faith: better question is, how saturated is my mind in God’s word? Because the more his word saturates our mind, the more naturally we recognize his voice when he speaks.

John McLarty: That’s exactly true.

Kimberly Faith: And the more our prayers align with his will. Mhmm. You know, we like to pray, God, recover those pictures. I think

John McLarty: Oh, what’s funny, I gave the guy a tract when he called me to tell me that he recovered it, which it was a little process. He had to work at it. It wasn’t just so easy. I said, Chris, I prayed for you today that you would have the Oh, wow. The expertise to recover that.

And he said, you did?

Kimberly Faith: Oh my.

John McLarty: So I said and I gave him our track with a little podcast

Kimberly Faith: and

John McLarty: invited him to to church when I picked up the drive. Nice. But anyway, so yeah. Just

Kimberly Faith: And that’s that’s a really great example of how god does use our you know, those those times in our life where and, you know, you’re obviously talking about your first world problem. I like to but it’s still important to you. And you know what’s Yeah.

John McLarty: Because I’m learning.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: Like, you know, when I have that anxiety or worry, the Lord just it’s it’s like, John, don’t waste why do we have to go through this again and again? Just trust me in the beginning of a problem.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.

John McLarty: I’ve got your back. It’s gonna work out. I’m with you. I’m not against you.

Kimberly Faith: I and I don’t I don’t say that. I don’t say that as a first world problem to put you down. I’m just thinking of my own

John McLarty: first world problems. No. Yeah. And I acknowledge I mean, there’s people our problems are nothing compared to the Nigerian Christians. But we still we have to learn the lessons in the environment we’re in.

Kimberly Faith: Our problems are not the same, but our opportunities are.

John McLarty: That’s a good good way to put it.

Kimberly Faith: And that’s that’s like I think about the crowns series that we did back in December. You know, we all have the same opportunities to earn the same reward at the judgment seat of Christ that a Christian in Libya or Nigeria or, you know, North North Korea has because we we can also enter into their suffering through prayer. You know, we have these opportunities, and it’s a gold mine, really. It’s a gold mine. And the thing about hearing God is if we will just get into his word, and I say we because I mean me, if I will continue steadfast in his word, then the more I hide his word in my heart, the less I sin against him.

Amen. Because ultimately and the the Bible says, thy word have I hid in my heart that I will not sin against thee. The ultimate thing that comes between the communication we have with God is our own sin. And sin Mhmm. Is a violation of God’s love.

Sin is selfishness. The

John McLarty: less You know in a sense just we’re fretting over things can be actually a sin?

Kimberly Faith: Oh, yeah.

John McLarty: Because it’s not trusting in God.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right. And it’s think about what a smack in the face that is to God. That we would that we would fret over a bill that’s not paid or even a, you know

John McLarty: A computer hard drive. Exactly.

Kimberly Faith: I mean, one of my friends who’s a nurse practitioner, she told me last week, she goes, I think you got basal cell on your chest. And I’m like, Oh, great. You know, here we go again. I mean, I’ve gone through melanoma, basal cell, and I’m just like I said, how soon do I need to get this checked out? She goes, well, you should go now, you know, make an appointment next couple weeks.

And I’m like, well, okay. But, you know, I I I think God has to take those little things. It’s a tie it’s a little thing. I don’t I’m not missing a leg. Right?

Mhmm. And he needs to put it in perspective for us, but the only way he does that is if we’re paying attention to his word. And that like, we we talk about Proverbs all the time, you know, trust in the Lord with all your heart in all your ways. And, you know, actually, I forgot about it until we’re through this podcast, which probably is not super responsible. I probably do need to go get that checked out.

But my point is that

John McLarty: should, Kim. Yeah. But here’s a here’s a key point. Things like that, if we get our mind wrapped around the axle of a problem like that Right. Something Lynn and I have both discovered, That that hinders our ability to minister to somebody else.

Yes. Because we don’t have the joy anymore.

Kimberly Faith: Well, think about this.

John McLarty: Like this, you know, worried faced, you know, scrunched brow Christian.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Well, think think about this.

John McLarty: Wants to be like that.

Kimberly Faith: Think about this. I was told that on on Wednesday, on Thursday was the day I met that guy in letter to

John McLarty: the Lord.

Kimberly Faith: So if I had canceled everything Mhmm. Because I need to go see the doctor

John McLarty: Good point.

Kimberly Faith: He may not have gotten saved.

John McLarty: Wow.

Kimberly Faith: So this this is kind of God’s God’s voice through his word puts our life in perspective, eternal perspective. You know, this body is not gonna be going with me anyway. You know? So I think that when we’re talking about what hinders our ability to hear God, it is really the bottom line is we don’t have enough of God’s word in our heart to not sin against him. And we’re choosing, you know, we’re choosing to do to live our own way instead of his way.

And that kind of we’re gonna kinda wrap this up. But I I love I wanna talk about why, you know, I don’t I’m every Christian has has probably experienced this this idea that they feel like their communication with God, their prayers is Yeah. At the Mhmm. And, you know, this this we need to understand that it’s not the eloquence of our prayers. It’s not the, you know, the urgency of our prayers.

Like, you know, we we think a situation requires an urgent prayer. It’s all about the relationship. It’s all about maintaining that relationship. You know, I know that there are certain people in my life that if I said, I need you to come pray with me, they would be there just like that Because we have a relationship. And that’s the the ultimate relationship that we have is with God.

And the thing that makes our prayers hit the ceiling or seem like they’re hitting the ceiling is our own unconfessed sin. And because we basically walked out of the relationship from the standpoint of our closeness with God. Does that make sense?

John McLarty: It does. Yeah. God doesn’t just turn wouldn’t doesn’t turn his back on us. We turn away from him.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. I remember hearing a sermon by Lon Solomon about effective prayer. And one of the he he’s kind of a funny guy. And one of the things he always uses as a term is, you’ve gotta roto rooter out that sin.

John McLarty: Amen.

Kimberly Faith: You know, that analogy fits all the

John McLarty: way around

Kimberly Faith: because sin is the trash of our life. It is the, you know, it’s the thing that destroys everything. And when we’re when fire hosing sin, what are we doing? We’re cutting off the best things in our life. All of them, starting with God.

John McLarty: Well, think of that verse out of Matthew five, the beatitudes. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes.

John McLarty: So as a Christian, you know, and it’s just that heart, again, to want to serve God, to know who he really is, that he’s good, he wants the best for us, and that we we hunger and thirst for that righteousness. And, again, we’ve said this a thousand times, we are not talking about self righteousness. We’re talking about letting God’s righteousness, which is because of him in our born again nature, kind of free in our life. It’s that acknowledge him in all of our ways and he shall direct our paths. But if we ignore him and just like, No, I’m just It’s like put on the new man,

Kimberly Faith: not

John McLarty: the And old

Kimberly Faith: James five sixteen talks about, you know I mean, we hunger and thirst after righteousness, which means we the opposite of that is to abhor sin. So it it says, confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. We’re already our our soul is already righteous before god. It’s this flesh that’s always getting in the way, and it’s always the flesh wants what it wants.

So we have to completely be every day, we’ve gotta be on guard to check our flesh. And if we we do things and we say I mean, I’m always saying the wrong thing, I’ve gotta turn around and say, I’m sorry. And sorry to the person I offended and sorry to god. That’s what makes empowers our prayers. And that’s back to what Lawn Solomon said about roto rootering.

You know? So when I I appreciate you bringing up the hunger and thirst after righteousness because that goes back to infusing our mind with god’s word. That’s what that’s what we think about this. When we’re born again, Jesus Christ, we have his righteousness. And he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

Right? So his truth is in our soul and our spirit. But we have to train our mind through that desire to because we are we are Christ is in us. We have his nature. That desire should be perpetuating us to discipline our flesh to do that, to hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Flesh won’t ever do that, but our soul does.

John McLarty: And, you know, the positive aspect of that is that’s developing that relationship with Christ, that fellowship with Christ we started this podcast off with. So it’s not of just we’re shunning sin and that’s our whole you know, it’s like we’re we’re yeah. We’re following Christ. Right. And that by by definition, if we’re following Christ, we’re not following, you know, the path of the flesh.

Right. Because we’re too busy following Christ.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Of course, you know, that’s again a daily struggle.

Kimberly Faith: It’s a daily struggle.

John McLarty: It’s that kind of acknowledging and just asking God for his wisdom.

Kimberly Faith: You know, I I think about and I and that’s 100% right. I think about when we hide God’s word in our heart through reading, memorization, study, it naturally shapes our prayers. And we’re talking about, you know, what how how can we feel like we’re in communication with God so that we’re not just talking to him, but we’re also hearing him. What what happens when we prayed and we talked about this in the the we talked about the holy spirit. In Romans chapter eight, that when we like, there are times when I do not know how to pray for somebody because they have really offended me.

And I have to ask the Holy Spirit, you need to show me how to pray the way you want me to pray for this person because I wanna pray that their brakes go out when they get on the hill. You know? And that’s Kelly Clarkson prayer or whatever. You know? I don’t think there’s a song or something about that.

But the and and the and the spirit honors that As it says, the spirit when we do not know what we what we should pray for as we ought, the spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. That is so beautiful.

John McLarty: Amen. Romans eight twenty six twenty seven.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. I mean, this is an incredible circuit of power that we have. The Trinity is engaged in our prayers. We’re praying to the father in the word who is Jesus by the intercession of the spirit. That is like the divine power circuit.

John McLarty: That is tapping into the power source.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes. And, you know, it’s the reason I wanted to talk about this on on this podcast is because I think that we all struggle with feeling like we don’t hear God. I know I have. But these are just some practical I mean, really practically speaking.

We’re talking about hiding God’s word in our heart, meaning memorizing it, praying, obeying it. Right? Praying God’s word, singing God’s word, speaking God’s word. I mean, think about you an email from if it’s a nasty email from somebody, and if God’s word is hitting your heart, you’re you’re thinking Proverbs, a soft answer turns away wrath. Right?

I mean, that’s just a practical application. When you can’t pray for somebody because they’ve offended you so badly, you’ve got, Holy Spirit, you need to intercede. I want to pray God’s will. I don’t know what it is. All I can think about is revenge.

And that’s okay. He understands that. So, you know, when you think about if if you’re struggling, if you’re listening to this podcast and you’re struggling with hearing God, you know, it’s God doesn’t make it difficult. He doesn’t he doesn’t make it like you’ve gotta go to divinity school and become a theological expert. No.

Any more than when your children were growing up, they had to become an expert in your profession or how you put bread on the table in order for you to grow as a child into an adult. They made it simple. God keeps it simple for us.

John McLarty: Yeah. He doesn’t he doesn’t wanna hide the ball from us.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And and, you know, he says, draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. James chapter four verse eight. Drawing near to God is living and loving obedience to him. Jesus said, for all the commandments, love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.

Love your neighbor as yourself. What does that mean? We read his word. We pray. We obey it.

We make it our operating system. Make God’s word and his spirit our operating system. And, you know, if you’ve never been born again, obviously, that is the first step. You have to receive Jesus Christ as your lord and savior because you don’t even have the right operating system installed. And your soul and spirit are dead to god, and he needs you to make you alive.

And then if you are born again and I mean, just go back to the basics. Morning prayer, daily word, time in the word, having a community, a membership in a church, a commitment to a church, confess your sins, you know, the the path look. Some of these things I gotta do every day. You know? I mean, I gotta read my bible every day.

I need to pray every day. And I say I have to because you have to discipline yourself. You have to persist in that. And it doesn’t matter where you are. You can always come back.

We are sometimes daily prodigals, I feel like.

John McLarty: You know?

Kimberly Faith: And so but god is so what did that verse in Isaiah said? He waits patiently Yeah. For us.

John McLarty: Well, in this I’ll just kinda paraphrase a little bit out of the James one five. If any of you lack wisdom, or that could be if lack peace, or you’re full of anxiety, or you lack direction Yeah. If any of you lack something that God can give you, let him ask of God who that giveth all man liberally and abraveth not and it shall be given him. God wants us to ask, Lord, give me peace. Give me wisdom.

Give me some direction.

Kimberly Faith: I love that.

John McLarty: It’s like the child that asks of his father for a good thing. How much more, that verse, that God will give good things to his children?

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Well, I love that you read that verse to close out, dad. That’s perfect. And we want everyone that’s listening, including ourselves, to hear God in all the chaos every every day, every hour of the day because we have an incredible purpose that God has given each of us to live for, and that is to bring him glory, eternal glory. And we we our lives can make an eternal difference, and, we want that for everyone listening.

John McLarty: Amen. Great blessing. If

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