Episode 27: Times when we can easily miss hearing God

Episode 27: Times when we can easily miss hearing God

Nov 19, 2023 | 0 comments

Episode Description:

I wonder how much we miss hearing God because we are not paying attention, life circumstances get in the way, or we are not in a healthy relationship with God. Join Gary & Jane as they share various heart and mind attitudes where we can easily miss hearing God. As always, they share engaging personal examples of times when they have heard God and stepped out in obedience.

Episode Notes:

First Principle: When we are not in a healthy relationship with God.

  • Sin or disobedience in our life.
  • Haven’t obeyed quickly.
  • g. Abraham in Genesis 22
  • Darren Wilson’s ‘Finger of God’ movie and how that impacted Gary.
  • Example of Gary driving 5 hours to stand outside the P.O. because God told him to.
  • Other times e.g. unforgiveness, unbelief in hearing God, not actively listening.
  • Inner vows and prayer to break an inner vow.
  • Contrasted with Samuel in 1 Samuel 3:1-4 re positioning.

Second Principle – Busy or distracted, not paying attention.

  • Mind crowded with life’s worries and distractions.
  • Luke 8:5-15 – seed fell among thorns, choked with life’s worries.
  • I wonder how much we miss hearing God because we are not paying attention.
  • Moses in Exodus 3 – investigated the ‘strange’ sight. He saw something unusual and paid attention.

Third Principle – Life circumstances get in the way.

  • False expectations – expect God to act in a certain way and then get disappointed.
  • Looking for something different so don’t recognise it e.g. 1 Kings 19:11-12
  • Grieving e.g. Disciples on the road to Emmaus and Moses in Numbers 20.
  • Times of celebrating.
  • Focused on wanting a particular answer.
  • Storms in life, e.g. the disciples in Mark 6:30-52 and John 6:1-21.
  • Peaceful times in life when everything is ‘easy’.
  • Immediately after a miracle in the Bible, the people often didn’t recognise God.
  • A call to position ourselves, expect God to speak, and posture our hearts towards God.

Prophetic activation:

Turn your heart and thoughts to Father God and ask Him:

  • Father God, is there a time when I especially miss hearing You?
  • When is that?
  • What do I need to know about those times?
  • What do I need to change or be aware of?
  • Father God, what would You like me to know about those times?

Time Stamps:

[0:36] – Gary & Jane share briefly how they have heard God this week.

[5:31] – First Principle – Not in a healthy relationship with God.

[6:33] – Example of Gary driving 5 hours to obey God.

[11:18] – Other times when our heart may not be right with God.

[14:07] – Second Principle – Busy or distracted.

[17:13] – Third Principle – Life circumstances get in the way.

[21:02] – Recap the principles.

[22:05] – Prophetic activation.

[23:10] – Gary & Jane both share a prophetic word for a listener.

[25:12] – Gary prays for you.

Resources / Links Mentioned:

Bible Verses Mentioned:

  • Numbers 20
  • Numbers 17
  • Genesis 22
  • Genesis 12
  • 1 Samuel 3:1-4
  • Luke 8:5-15
  • Exodus 3
  • 1 Kings 19:11-12
  • Luke 24:13-35
  • Mark 6:30-52
  • John 6:1-21
  • Isaiah 43:19

Connect with Gary & Jane:

Support the show:

  • Share this podcast with someone who would value hearing from God.
  • Subscribe and leave a rating + review on your favourite podcast listening app.
  • If God is leading your heart to donate or support the show in any way, please visit https://buymeacoffee/garyandjanM Thank you so much.

Episode 26: Hearing God with Katharine Goschnick

Episode 26: Hearing God with Katharine Goschnick

Nov 12, 2023 | 0 comments

Episode Description:

Katharine Goschnick is a guest on this episode of the Hearing God Podcast. Katharine has an extensive background in ministering in the prison, schools, and the community. She shares simple but powerful examples of how she hears God and acts on what she hears, as well as how she teaches the many women she disciples to receive from God. Even Katharine’s testimony of how she became a Christian is fascinating. Listen in to Jane and Katharine’s conversation and the numerous examples of how Katharine has heard God in the various facets of her life.

Episode Notes:

  1. Prophetic Intercession
  • Jane learnt prophetic intercession through praying for Katharine’s ministry.
  • If you get a positive thought for someone, let them know.
  • Graham Cooke – “The worst thing you’re going to do is to bless them in the wrong area”.
  • We hear God, but we don’t always recognize it.
  • If we spend time with God and we’re close to Him and at peace, trust your thoughts are from God if they align with Scripture.
  1. Katharine’s journey of becoming a Christian and her growth in this area.
  • Lordship/control of Katharine’s life.
  • Katharine prays for people wanting to become a Christian.
  • Transformation in Katharine’s desire to read.
  • Prophetic journalling and the S.O.A.P. method.
  1. Encouragement
  • Encouragement if tired or burnt out.
  • Encouragement to pray from being seated in High Places with God.
  • Recognize you can hear God, you do hear God, you will hear God.

Prophetic activation:

Turn your heart and thoughts to Father God, reflect on where you are in hearing God, and then draw a line. Ask Father God:

  • What do I need to leave behind?
  • What do I need to trust you for, Father God?
  • What things am I thinking/believing that are not from you, God?
  • Father God, what do you want me to step into?
  • Then step over the line.

Time Stamps:

[0:47] – Jane introduces Katharine Goschnick.

[1:53] – Katharine & Jane share briefly how they have heard God this week.

[8:30] – How Jane learnt prophetic intercession through praying for Katharine’s ministry.

[11:05] – Encouragement to let people know if you have a ‘positive thought’ for them.

[13:23] – Katharine’s experience of becoming a Christian.

[17:51] – Katharine prays for people who want to become a Christian.

[19:19] – Katharine shares the change in her desire for reading.

[20:50] – Anything I hear in my spirit has to line up with the Bible.

[23:37] – Prophetic journalling and the S.O.A.P. method.

[24:56] – Encouragement if you are tired or burnt out.

[28:00] – Examples of hearing God when praying in prison.

[33:36] – Katharine & Jane both share a prophetic word for a listener.

[36:10] – Katharine encourages us to pray being seated with God in the Heavenly Realms.

[38:58] – Prophetic activation.

[41:05] – Katharine prays for you.

Resources / Links Mentioned:

Bible Verses Mentioned:

  • Colossians 1:27
  • Psalm 34:8
  • Exodus 5:1, 8:1, 9:1
  • Matthew 4:1-11
  • Deuteronomy 33:27
  • Matthew 25:1-9
  • Matthew 5:16
  • Psalm 23:2-3
  • Isaiah 61:1-3
  • Proverbs 3:26
  • Ephesians 2:6
  • John 10:27-28

Connect with Gary & Jane:

Support the show:

  • Share this podcast with someone who would value hearing from God.
  • Subscribe and leave a rating + review on your favourite podcast listening app.
  • If God is leading your heart to donate or support the show in any way, please visit https://buymeacoffee/garyandjanM Thank you so much.

Episode 25: How Our Personality Can Impact How We Relate to God

Episode 25: How Our Personality Can Impact How We Relate to God

Nov 5, 2023 | 0 comments

Episode Description:

There is a kaleidoscope of ways we can hear and relate to God. Often, it can depend on how we are ‘wired’ or our personality. This episode of Hearing God unpacks several personality types and how each type may best hear God. How we relate to God and hear from Him may also depend on the season of life we are currently in. Join Gary & Jane as they share various methods you may find helpful in hearing from God and relating to Him.

Episode Notes:

First Principle: God made us unique and wonderful.

  • Psalm 139:13-18
  • Eric Liddell – “I believe God made me for a purpose – but He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”
  • Different learning styles – e.g. kinesthetic, auditory, visual, writing, logical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, music, etc
  • Different personality types.

Second Principle – Don’t compare yourself with others.

  • Galatians 6:4
  • We change and grow over time.
  • It’s important how we interpret and discern our experiences.

Third Principle – Find your best way of connecting with God, but don’t limit yourself to only that way.

  • View it as a continuum.
  • Ask yourself, “What do I do to feel close to God?”
  • Often a combination of practices.
  • It may depend on the season we currently find ourselves in.
  • Soul Shepherding website – soulshepherding.org
  • Intellectual vs experiential (thinker vs feeler).
  • Structured vs spontaneous.
  • Solitude vs community.

Prophetic activation:

Turn your heart and thoughts to Father God and ask Him:

  • Father God, what aspect of my personality do you like the most?
  • Father God, why did you create me this way?
  • Father God, what can you tell me about my (temper, procrastination, etc)?

Time Stamps:

[0:37] – Gary & Jane share briefly how they have heard God this week.

[5:02] – First Principle – God made us unique and wonderful.

[7:12] – Example of Erice Liddell

[8:56] – Second Principle – Don’t compare yourself to others.

[10:25] – Third Principle – Find your best way of connecting with God.

[12:49] – Intellectual verse experiential.

[16:43] – Structured vs spontaneous.

[20:25] – Solitude vs community.

[24:11] – Prophetic activation.

[25:12] – Gary & Jane both share a prophetic word for a listener.

[27:08] – Gary prays for you.

Resources / Links Mentioned:

Bible Verses Mentioned:

  • Psalm 139:13-18
  • Galatians 6:4

Connect with Gary & Jane:

Support the show:

  • Share this podcast with someone who would value hearing from God.
  • Subscribe and leave a rating + review on your favourite podcast listening app.
  • If God is leading your heart to donate or support the show in any way, please visit https://buymeacoffee/garyandjanM Thank you so much.

Episode 21: Hearing God when God is silent

Episode 21: Hearing God when God is silent

Oct 8, 2023 | 0 comments

 

Episode Description:

Are you in a place where God is silent or appears silent? Join Gary & Jane as they unpack this topic and explore why it may appear that God is silent. They touch on numerous reasons why we may feel God is silent and not recognize God communicating with us. Throughout this episode, Gary & Jane encourage you to be honest with God and to turn your heart to Him. They emphasize that, above all, God desires a relationship with you.

Episode Notes:

First Principle: Be honest.

  • Be honest with God.
  • The problem is always on our end, not with God. He hasn’t moved.
  • Usually, we think God is silent when things haven’t worked out like we thought they should.
  • God is not a vending machine. We want a roadmap that explains everything.
  • God wants a relationship. It doesn’t require faith if God tells me exactly everything to do.
  • God’s character doesn’t change because we’ve experienced loss. In his sermon several days after his wife died of cancer, Bill Johnson said, “God doesn’t owe us an explanation”.
  • Don’t critique God.
  • Lean into Him.
  • Not the time to pull away.
  • Desert experience. Ask, ‘What are my current circumstances? – valley of dry bones, grief, trauma, disappointment with God.
  • Journal your pain, but don’t camp there. Journal also your miracles so you can remind yourself. You are responsible for the seeds you plant in your heart.
  • Don’t allow the enemy to fester disappointment and bitterness.
  • Those times invite us to grow and explore, to change our position and posture.
  • Be honest with a trusted person.

Second Principle: Go back to the last time you heard God.

  • What did He say?
  • Have you obeyed Him?
  • What’s happened in your life since?
  • Have you moved from God or have an issue with Him?
  • Am I offended by God?
  • Am I disappointed with God?
  • On the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:13-32 – the two disciples were walking along when Jesus came alongside them, and they didn’t recognize Him. Perhaps you are not recognizing God amid what you are going through.
  • May need to repent of unconfessed sin.
  • Don’t judge God by what He didn’t do.
  • Look at your theology. Do you believe God is always good?
  • In 1 Samuel 13:14, we see David is called a man after God’s own heart, but in Psalm 22:1-2, David writes, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? 2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.”
  • Psalms always end up worshipping and praising God apart from 2 Psalms, one being Psalm 88.
  • Psalm 13:1-2 – lamentation “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?”
  • Has God already answered you, but you haven’t recognized it? Isaiah 59:2 “But your iniquities have separated you from your God, your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”
  • Psalm 66:18 “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened;”
  • Wrong motives: James 4:3 “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”
  • The answer may still be coming: Daniel 10 – fasted for two weeks until heard God.
  • Grow faith and dependence – Luke 18:1-7 the parable of the persistent widow.
  • Am I quiet enough to hear the whisper (1 Kings 19:12)?
  • May be looking for a different answer or way of receiving.

Third Principle: Is God wanting to use my situation to increase my trust?

  • Remember His faithfulness.
  • Importance of memory stones – In Joshua 4:1-18, God told Joshua to get 12 memory stones after crossing the Jordan River.
  • When God appears silent, it doesn’t mean He is unresponsive.
  • Fight the good fight. John 16:33
  • Look at your theology, your beliefs about God.
  • We live life. Life has pain. Philippians 4:4-7. We wouldn’t be given those instructions if life was easy.
  • Invitation to grow and explore with God.
  • Keep showing up. Keep reading the Bible. Keep the lines of communication open.
  • Psalm 37:4
  • Deuteronomy 31:6
  • 1 Kings 18:43-44
  • It may be a time of being patient and trusting God is working behind the scenes.

Fourth Principle: Silence can be a sign of intimacy.

  • Oswald Chambers (an early 20th Century Scottish evangelist and teacher) wrote in “My Utmost for His Highest” – “When you cannot hear God, you will find that He has trusted you in the most intimate way possible with absolute silence, not a silence of despair, but one of pleasure, because He saw that you could withstand an even bigger revelation.”
  • God is near in the silence.
  • James 4: 8 “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”
  • Trust God for His Presence despite how I feel.

Prophetic activation:

Sit quietly before God for about 10 minutes.

  • Start with an awareness of your surroundings and acknowledge the sounds.
  • Invite God to come and sit with you.
  • Delight in being with God.
  • Ask, “Lord, what would you love to say to me?”

Time Stamps:

[0:47] – Gary & Jane share briefly how they have heard God this week.

[3:14] – First Principle – Be honest.

[7:56] – Jane encourages listeners to journal and have ‘memory stones’ (Joshua 4).

[9:18] – Gary explains a ‘prophetic act’ may be appropriate.

[9:41] – Second Principle – Go back to the last time you heard God.

[10:25] – Don’t judge God by what He didn’t do.

[11:16] – Jane shares why Psalms can be helpful to read.

[13:16] – Am I looking for a different answer?

[15:44] – Third Principle – Is God wanting to use my situation to increase my trust?

[17:19] – Jane encourages you to keep the lines of communication open with God.

[19:42] – Fourth Principle – Silence can be a sign of intimacy.

[21:16] – Prophetic activation.

[22:35] – Gary & Jane both share a prophetic word for a listener.

[24:36] – Gary prays for you.

 

Resources / Links Mentioned:

Bible Verses Mentioned:

  • Joshua 4:1-18
  • 1 Samuel 13:14
  • Psalm 22:1-2
  • Psalm 88
  • Psalm 46:10
  • Psalm 13:1-2
  • Isaiah 59:2
  • Psalm 66:18
  • James 4:3
  • Daniel 10
  • Luke 18:1-7
  • 1 Kings 19:11-12
  • Philippians 4:4-7
  • John 16:33
  • Psalm 37:4
  • Deuteronomy 31:6
  • 1 Kings 18:16-46
  • James 4:8
  • Isaiah 43:19
  • Luke 24:13-32 (the disciples didn’t recognize Jesus)

Connect with Gary & Jane:

Support the show:

  • Share this podcast with someone who would value hearing from God.
  • Subscribe and leave a rating + review on your favourite podcast listening app.
  • If God is leading your heart to donate or support the show in any way, please visit https://buymeacoffee/garyandjanM Thank you so much.

 

Episode 20: Making Time to Hear God.

Episode 20: Making Time to Hear God.

Oct 1, 2023 | 0 comments

Episode Description:

Do you ever become so busy you ‘forget’ God? Are there times when you are so focused that God doesn’t get a thought? Do you tend to plan and then ask God to bless your plans rather than listen to God’s thoughts first? Join Gary & Jane as they unpack this topic. Hear numerous personal examples of how they intentionally make time to listen to God. Gary & Jane also share how they meditate on God by practising ‘stilling’ their thoughts.

Episode Notes:

First Principle: Be intentional

  • Sometimes a barrier to hearing God may be that we don’t make time to hear God.
  • Still my heart Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God” but the whole chapter is about the almighty God and His power and strength and being able to be still and trust God despite our circumstances.
  • Sometimes I am so focused I don’t think about God and what He would like.
  • Sometimes I forget to ask God. So I need to train my mind. Hourly prompts.

Second Principle: Be careful not to go overboard.

  • So heavenly minded we are no earthly good.
  • Have friends who ask God absolutely everything.
  • Be careful of decision overload.
  • If something comes to my attention, giving God the credit.
  • Capture every thought – 2 Corinthians 10:5, Romans 12:2.

Third Principle: Practice ‘stilling’ your thoughts and focussing on God.

  • We all have 168 hours in week. 10,080 minutes. Important how we use them.
  • Dreams – spend 1/3 of our life in bed.
  • Soaking / meditating / stilling our thoughts.
  • Pray at beginning to silence any other voices.

Prophetic activation:

Turn heart and thoughts to Father God and ask Him:

  • Father God, what would you like to tell me about how I manage my time?
  • What would you love me to know?
  • What would you love me to stop doing? Start doing?  Change?
  • Holy Spirit, what are you praying for me regarding this?

Time Stamps:

[0:35] – Gary & Jane share briefly how they have heard God this week.

[4:17] – First Principle – Be intentional.

[5:48] – Jane shares practical ways she is intentional.

[7:09] – Gary shares a practical example of how he is intentional.

[8:48] – Second Principle – Be careful not to go overboard.

[11:37] – Third Principle – Practice ‘stilling’ your thoughts and focusing on God.

[14:28] – Jane explains how she meditates/soaks/practices stilling her thoughts.

[17:46] – Gary & Jane share more practical examples of intentionally listening to God.

[20:11] – Prophetic activation.

[21:09] – Gary & Jane both share a prophetic word for a listener.

[24:40] – Gary prays for you.

[25:28] – Jane explains about the survey at https://garyandjane.co/survey

Resources / Links Mentioned:

Bible Verses Mentioned:

  • 2 Corinthians 10:5
  • Psalm 46:10
  • Romans 12:2
  • Matthew 28:18
  • John 14:12
  • Luke 10:19-20
  • 1 Samuel 12:16

Connect with Gary & Jane:

Support the show:

  • Share this podcast with someone who would value hearing from God.
  • Subscribe and leave a rating + review on your favourite podcast listening app.
  • If God is leading your heart to donate or support the show in any way, please visit https://buymeacoffee/garyandjanM Thank you so much.