Have you ever wondered about those who say they’ve “heard from God” ??

I know I have…

And I can think of a number of wild weird “out there” stories, things that made me more solid in my atheism as a kid and young adult. Even after I became a Christian, I doubted the stories of those who claimed they had “heard from God.”

“God told me…” is a phrase I grew to question.

Still do, actually.

A friend shared a story about how she wasn’t sure if she should go to a meeting, so she asked God what she should do, and “sensed” He told her to go. Her car refused to start, so she decided she misheard the Lord, and decided He was telling her to stay home. She later doubted this decision, tried again, and her car started, so she thought God wanted her to go. And she went.

Stuff like that has confused me over the years.

Even so, today, I still want to share something unexplainable with you, something I believe needs to be within the possibilities for all believers – that God actually still talks to His children. 

The Keys

My husband lost the keys to his car a few weeks back. We wandered the property, and he literally spent hours looking for them one Saturday. I confess, it didn’t occur to me to pray about it until we were about eight hours into looking for them.

I was walking out to my chicken run to check the water status on the babies. Thought to myself (which was likely a prompting from the Holy Spirit), “Hey maybe I should pray about the keys…” then inquired, “Lord, I know you know where they are… will You let me know?”

Immediately, an image of the Ivory Soap box in our tiny old farmhouse bathroom popped into my head.

I turned around immediately and went to look, as I just “knew” the keys were under it. 

Sure enough, there they were!

What’s funny is my husband already looked in the box, and to the side of the box, and no luck.

Here’s a cool part too… when we talked about it, he was blown away and we had a cool discussion about how God is still talking to His people… 

I’m amazed at how God has healed us both, and our marriage.  All these years, I have believed God, and that’s why Greater Impact exists, to help others save their marriages.

In the past, during a discussion like the above, I might have easily become defensive. I might have felt not listened to, or that I needed to defend God, as if He needed me to. I won’t go into the why of all that. BUT… I literally was fine with a small difference of opinion that came out of the conversation, even agreeing with some of the points made, because they weren’t wrong, and because I wasn’t defensive, I could see that. 

Which was all respectful behavior toward my husband – treating him as though his opinion also matters. Hello. SO basic.

Because we either ARE respectful as a PERSON, or we are not – we can tell the difference if someone else’s behavior determines how we treat them.

Think about that!

Regardless, we also agreed that if anyone wants to hear from God, the most solid way is to open the Word, the Bible, as He is always speaking to us there.

We connected, had a great discussion, and I’m just thankful.

Crazy good.

I’m super stoked about this because I’ve seen what it takes to BE a respectful person, and how that can change a marriage. The elements of the Person of JESUS, self-respect, boundaries, grace, respect for others, and selflessness prove a great cocktail of necessaries to facilitate change. The new Respect Dare book I’m writing will be posted here starting sometime in November – and I’m hoping you’ll follow along. I would LOVE to see God change your marriage, too!

The Verses

Here’s a few verses to chew on with regards to this topic today:

In other words, it is normal and wise even, to test the spirits, to question. God’s cool this way, He tells us to do that, then He is faithful to confirm.

This verse is still true – one of the wonders of knowing Jesus is He can whisper things to you that you couldn’t possibly know. There’s NO WAY I could have known where the keys were! I prayed silently, as a thought, and IMMEDIATELY an image filled my head.

You can’t make this stuff up!

If you spend any time at all scrolling on your phone (here’s what that’s doing to your and your kids’ brains…), you have time to invest in your relationship with God. Seriously. Just take the date, look it up in Proverbs and start reading that chapter. If you have 15 minutes, you could also add a few Psalms, AND, if you are zealous, you could just start at the beginning and read for a half hour each day, reading it every year. After doing this for over twenty years, I’m STILL surprised by Scripture – stuff I didn’t know was in there comes to life and pertains to a situation I’m dealing with right then…

God will bless you mightily with Himself if you will just start, even if it is just a single verse a day!

Whatever you are doing, how could you “level up” your reading? Know that is listening to Him, too!

He is always speaking!

Dare you to share what A-Ha’s you are having today!

Love to you,

Nina

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PS

If you are interested in growing with a group of women who want to save their marriages, please check out our free pdf, Find Your Voice, and our Strength & Dignity community at GreaterImpactWives.org 🙂