Josh: This is episode three, the big booming voice of God. How do we hear it? How do we know was God

Hello? Hello? Hello. We’re just two normal guys trying to live this Jesus life. My name’s Josh.

Andrew: Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, this is Andrew and we are this Jesus life podcast. Josh,

Josh: what’s up man? How are you doing? You

Andrew: know I’m good. I was working on a chicken coop foundation and run all day. You’re

Josh: digging

Andrew: a dude year of the chicken.

It’s been more than a year, but the chicken, the year of the chicken is still going strong. We’ll talk about that, but at some point. But we’re just going to refer to it at this point. You know, you’re the chicken.

Josh: It’s like, what the heck is a year of the chicken? Yeah.

Andrew: I mean, it’s like a, you know, like the Chinese new year, like here the dragon.

It’s

Josh: going on. How funny it’d be if it really is that you’re the chicken. I don’t think it is, but.

Andrew: That would be funny if I thought I was hearing from God that whole time through that it was actually just the year of the chicken and at the end of it it was just like, I finally have a flashback to like, you know, when I was getting taken out of the Chinese place and saw the menu that said, it’s the year of the chicken

Josh: and that’s all it was.

God was speaking to me this whole

Andrew: time. I’ve told so many people.

Josh: But in all reality, like it’s a sign of God’s faithfulness and God’s faithful, whether we hear from God in that moment or not. Right.

Andrew: Whether it’s through Chinese food, been you. Yeah. Or some other means that we talked about, you know,

Josh: or another fast food restaurant menu.

Andrew: Yeah, exactly. Now, what have you been up to today, man? What have you been up to in the last like five days? What’s

Josh: the family in town over the last couple of days? Um, this is good to hang out with them.

Andrew: Killed a skunk and mounted it around your mic.

Josh: I did. I know I have a skunk mic. Um, for those of you that can see, this is just everybody, but me and Andrew right now, there’s a skunk around my mic to help with.

I don’t know, dampening the sound, I guess,

Andrew: knowing

Josh: for sure what it’s supposed to do, but I

Andrew: smell, it smells terrible, but it looks, that’s me spray it and it sounds great.

Josh: It doesn’t smell like anything actually. It kind of looks like. My mom has a dog, a tiny little dog. I call her the sausage because she’s just pretty much a chunk of meat with two little or four little legs, but just kind of this color.

I should grab her at some point.

Andrew: This sausage would be more fitting just to hold,

Josh: just pulling her along.

Andrew: Polling around.

Josh: Yeah, but haven’t been up to much other than that. It was a bunch of chores and errands today. Just getting ready for this next week, but dude, Hey, we are jumping into. To the big booming voice episode.

Booming

Andrew: voice. Yeah. Yeah. The big voice. First of all, when you think about God’s voice, what accent do you think would be most appropriate for God’s voice? Obviously it’s big and booming, but I mean, come on. What accent? We thinking German.

Josh: Russian.

Andrew: Like a loving brush,

Josh: a loving, I was about to say those are pretty like harsh languages.

Like is this like more of like a psychological insight of your view of God? Then

Andrew: they’re just, they’re big and booming, but I was thinking like loving Russian.

Josh: Yeah. Uh, I don’t know what, uh, what accent does. Um. Oh gosh. What is his name? Who’s the dude that always plays God played in like Evan almighty,

Andrew: Morgan Freeman,

Josh: Morgan Freeman, whatever his accident is.

I just like

Andrew: American deep, good voice.

Josh: It’s just like deep and solid, but like still nice and caring.

Andrew: Patriotic USA talked

Josh: to

Andrew: this.

Josh: That’s all matters, right? Just the United States right

Andrew: now, that’s a solid Morgan Freeman voices. That’s definitely a good choice.

Josh: Yeah. Unfortunately, in my experience, and this is different than your experience is, I’ve never audibly heard God’s voice. I’m like, God’s speaking to me. It’s more like a whisper and into my soul than a big Andrew listened to me kind of thing.

Andrew: How is it different than like. Josh, you really need to poop right now. Josh, quit doing what you’re doing. You really need to poop. Like, is it like that?

Josh: Uh, it’s similar in terms of like the part of my body that it’s coming from, not the backend, the stomach end. Like that’s that, that soul piece that kind of lives in there.

Um, so probably at times you have to like, assume like, is this God speaking or do I just have to like. Go take a poop for the next three hours. Um, which happens because I’ve recently found out that I’m lactose intolerant, which is purely miserable because ice cream is good and cheese is good. Yeah. But it doesn’t seem to hit me all the time.

So I bought these, I’m showing Andrew on the screen, but these lack toe joy. Pills. Hey yo. I Googled at Amazon and they had good reviews.

Andrew: Put them on Amazon. I don’t know, man. Stories not signing up. I think you met a guy behind a building

Josh: and he’s like, I did, and I was like, I got a problem. My problem is I got a poop when I eat there, and he’s like, I got the thing for you.

Andrew: And then he walked back inside the dirty Mexican restaurant and sold you breakfast burrito,

Josh: which at that point, I fell in love with him. We got married. Um, you know, happily ever after.

Andrew: That’s fair enough. Well, sweet. Well, dude, um. And what do I hope you have joy in lactose, but, um, dude, what is going on with peer and from God and a big booming voice?

Is it big? Is it quiet? Is it no voice at all? What’s going on with all of that?

Josh: Dude, I think it would be best. What do we doubt dove into? Just our stories? Let’s start there and just share like maybe the first time you heard from God or an impactful time that you heard from God. Um, and then we kind of dive into really the question of how do you hear God speaking?

You know, I’ve spent a lot of time in ministry and we did ministry together for a while. And, um, this is a question we got pretty regularly is how do I hear from God? I think

Andrew: every time, every time. You know,

Josh: with the,

Andrew: the high school, late middle school students, it was always maybe early middle school. It was always just like, how do I hear from God?

How do I know I’m hearing from God? How do I, yeah. Basically those two things,

Josh: you know? And it’s crazy too, like I don’t know where it stems from. I don’t know if it’s a desire. I don’t know if that’s the sign of sphere spiritual maturity that they see in their head and that’s what they’re chasing, or if it’s, um, they’re just looking for a miraculous experience.

They’re like looking for something that gives life. Um, I don’t, I’m not totally sure where the question itself comes from, but it’s not just teenagers. Act like adults ask these questions all the time to you. Like the second it starts to talk about now I grew up in a tradition where. Hearing from God.

Like that wasn’t a thing. Talked about like, you know, good old Southern Baptist church. I’m like, Holy spirit was not part of the Trinity. The Trinity, you know, had a, had an uncle, but he was like a distant uncle. We didn’t like to talk about him. Um, and that’s kind of my experience with their guys. So my first experience of hearing God’s voice, I didn’t recognize it being God’s voice.

Um, so this is. It took time to like be able to reflect back and be like, Oh, okay, now I see what’s going on. Now I understand what God’s voice sounds like.

Andrew: Well, I grew up Christian missionary Alliance and I’m in one of those churches and, um. The one time it was really talked about from like hearing from God was, Josh, you should go be a missionary.

You know, that’s, and I’m not knocking that at all. I’m just trying to be funny. Um, but, but that was the one time that, like, I heard about it a lot of, like, I heard from God, he called me into being a missionary, you know, which I was like, that’s awesome. But. I don’t know if he’s ever said that to me. I don’t know if he’s going to say that to me, and I don’t know if I want him to say that to me, you know?

Um, but anyway, stories. Do you want to, do you want to go first? Do you want me to go first? I’m down for whatever.

Josh: Once you dive in first, that’s your forest hearing from God’s story.

Andrew: Yeah. So the, the biggest one for me. Is the really, the one time that I heard from God audibly in my life, and, um, I was, and again, one time in my life, I feel like I’ve heard from God audibly.

So, um, I was in college, um, as a sophomore and, um, had started really tick my relationship with Jesus seriously, like six months before that. Um. Something like that. Four to six months. Anyway, I was, um, I was fasting, not for super long, nothing crazy, but it was kinda my first time ever doing that. I was fasting and praying and I went to this little prayer chapel on campus called, um, William’s prayer chapel.

Um, it was like the sweet, tiny little, like. Stone built building, um, in the middle of campus, and it was, uh, well, um, Wilbur Williams was like the most Epic professor, uh, ever. Like, he, I mean, he’s gotta be seen out by now. He’s gotta be 95, 98 this point. But he was teaching like in his late eighties when, uh.

Mid to late eighties when I was in school.

Josh: So when you already had a building named after him, he wasn’t retired yet. That’s

Andrew: impressive. He was still alive and he

Josh: had a real live and have a building named after you and be like loaded and paid for the building.

Andrew: Yes. And he wasn’t loaded. I think he probably was a great fundraiser.

Who knows? Who knows? But, um, yeah, he was an old, I took old Testament from him, but, um. I think he hit on my wife in front of me, weirdly as an old man, one point in college, and I’m like, I don’t.

Josh: Was this before or after this experience while you were in Lillian’s chapel after.

Andrew: Thanks for Lord. It was after, cause you probably didn’t want to work.

Josh: You probably wouldn’t want to go into Williams chapel if

Andrew: you’re like,

Josh: Oh my girlfriend

Andrew: hit on, what the heck? Yeah, yeah. Girlfriend at the time, but still it was in front of me. It was like this 87 year old, you know, to 19 year old. Not cool, man. Um, so, so I am, I’m sitting there kind of late at night, kind of late.

It’s like 10 30, maybe close to 11. And uh, anyway, dude, I was praying and praying and then it just stopped for a minute and I hear. Rise up like that, clear, just rise up. So I just stood up, like I thought somebody was being weird and like saying it, um, like, rise up, you know, like you gotta get outta here.

So I stood up physically and then he turned around and looked, cause I was kinda in the front of this small building, like maybe 30 people considered their max. Um, so I stood up, turned around and looked and nobody’s there. And so I turned back around. I’m like, uh. And then just here, stand firm. And I was like, okay, so just rise up, stand firm.

And I was like, Whoa. You know, like, cause I, I seriously thought when I heard rise up that just somebody was telling me. Get out of here, you know, like it’s, it’s almost 11 the things closing. They’re going to lock the door, prize up, get out of here. No, it was rise up. Stand firm. And, um, I firmly believe that that was the voice of God.

And it was not in any accent. It was just in a voice that’s very similar to mine, which is probably how God speaks to everybody just in a voice. They understand, you know, um. But yeah, rise up. Stand firm. So I did. I stood up. And

Josh: it’s interesting, like, yeah, the people have experiences that when God speaks, it’s, it seems to be scripture, right?

Like, I’ll get into my story here in a bit, but I have a similar experience where you see, you know, stand firm throughout the old Testament. You can see all the times in the new Testament, um, like this idea of God repeating scripture to you. But how’d you was God’s voice?

Andrew: I was, I was looking for it, if that makes sense.

And um, and I was in the midst of, um, not just like looking for like speak to me God, but I was looking forward in that. I was like really trying to break some send in my life. I was really trying to. Take this following of Jesus. Seriously. I was trying to be like, this is what I am about, you know, really trying to do that.

And in the midst of that, and in fasting and prayer, I was just like, I took a minute to just listen. Like God could just say something. And, um, I don’t know. I as weird as this maybe sounds when I heard grads up Stanford. I just knew it was, it was like, that’s what I needed to hear. You know, like that’s the advice that’s simple.

It is totally scripture, scripture based, um, and is just solid. I’m like, stand firm, rise up. You know, like. Take action. Okay. Like take action against the sin in your life and then what? Stand firm don’t back off of that. You know? And that’s not like a prideful thing. Like just break all this stuff in your life.

No. It’s like, do something to honor God. Take the next right step. And when you get attacked about it, what do you do? You stand firm. You don’t just like. Backup easily. You don’t withdrawal, you don’t retreat, rise up, stand firm and all of that. Aside from that, I had total goosebumps and I literally thought somebody had spoken to me from the bathroom, so I stood up.

Yeah. Around like, Oh, sorry, mr, you know, then nobody was there and then turned back around Stanford and it was just so, so. Accurate

Josh: with Stan from audible too.

Andrew: Yes. Yeah. But this town is just looking to the front and there was just a cross right there and just stand

Josh: for a ball. Good chapels have got to have that cross.

Yeah. Yeah. We’re all good to cross,

Andrew: obviously.

Josh: Yes. So what changed? What changed for you after the fact?

Andrew: Well for, for a minute. I thought I’m crazy. I had fasted for maybe 24 hours at that point, and I was like, dude, this is maybe just messing with my mind. Like, I don’t know. I should eat some food soon. Um, and.

Yeah. I felt, I kind of felt like maybe it was just in my head. Maybe I was crazy. Obviously they can’t validate it, you know? It’s not like somebody else heard it, but, um, but the thing that makes me like certain that it was of God, that it was his voice and my life is that it was applicable. Like I, um, I dunno, I was trying to break some sin in my life and.

Those words just stuck to me, man. Every time, every time I was thinking about sin, like add doesn’t matter that much. It was just like as up, whereas up and then in the moment when, uh, when it’s okay, I’m not going to do that. I’m going to honor God. Stanford, Stanford, you know, it’s just simple, like nothing crazy.

Then the craziest part was. And, and it could have not been audible at all. But in my head, in my mind, in my heart, it was audible, rise up, stand firm for sure. Doesn’t matter if it would have been if somebody was sitting beside me. So anyway, those words just kept coming back. And, and now if I read the Bible for any length of time, I run across rise up, stand firm.

Like together in the same sentence or almost back to back so often. But that’s good. Anyway, man, that’s my story. That’s my, that’s my one. Like that’s my highlight story. What about you? What’s your highlight story of hearing from God?

Josh: Um, the first time I ever heard from God, I didn’t know I heard from God.

Um, so I’m going into my senior high school. Give you some backstory. Um, at this point in my life, uh, I was playing hockey and like, hockey was my identity. Like it’s all I did. So I thought about the majority of my friends were hockey players. Um, are a part

Andrew: of the church fee as good of a move as I think it is.

Josh: It’s not, no, no. Not only that. The flying V I’m pretty sure in the movies was you couldn’t do it like they were off sides. I think coming into the zone, yeah, I’d have to go back and watch it, but such a good party though. We reenact all those movies over and over again in the backyard.

Andrew: Yes. Alright. Sorry.

Totally distracted from a very important story. Hockey was your life at that point.

Josh: Now I’m thinking about the mighty ducks of the funding. Um, well, hockey was my life, so we went on a mission trip to, to, uh, auger pre at the Mexico. Um, and we stayed on the Arizona side and Douglas and kind of went over every day.

And, um, the interesting thing like looking back and was. To go on this trip. Um, I was skipping a tryout for the next season, um, and my justification, my head was, well, I’m like, I’m so good that like, come on, like they’re gonna, they’re gonna put me on the team no matter what I was gonna be at the trials.

It’s ridiculous. I am what’s up, right? Like, I’m the cat’s Meow. Um, and so I go on this mission trip. They can like, they’ll be fine. Um, I think even like. It’s the crazy thing of like how God shows up. So like, um, I wasn’t there for the mission trip. I was there to hang out with friends as there just to have a good time.

Um, and I have remembered like, telling, uh, one of my friends, there was this girl on the trip that’s super cute, and I was like, I’ll be dating her by the end of this trip. That was my goal to turn right. And it was like, Oh my gosh, there’s such a true, um.

Andrew: I cannot imagine. 17 year old or 16 year old, you feel right.

I’m going to be dating her,

Josh: gosh, slicked back hair wearing a Nautica, not even a hat, like a Nautica visor with my hair coming through the tap house. A way. Lots of fun pictures and show it to you at some point. It’s so funny. So I’m on this trip. And, and this is the crazy thing, is like I wasn’t, I wasn’t seeking God out.

But the grace thing about trips like this, and I think it’s the same reason why I still, I love retreats and camps for people is because it just gets you away from life and your schedule is somewhat dictated and you’re spending time with God. You wouldn’t necessarily be spending time with God when you’re back at home.

Like I went to church and. It was really about it. Like that was my God, time was out as a church. We might pray as a family from time to time, but beyond that, it wasn’t a lot of times thinking about God or praying or spending time with him in his word and any of those things. But on mission trips like this, like you wake up in the morning, you do your devotions because while everyone’s doing their devotions and then you go into worship in the morning, kind of get your heart right for the day, and then you go into a mission field where you’re literally being in the hands and feet of Jesus to, you know, these kids.

And, um. In Mexico, we’re just doing VBS and those kinds of things. And that’s where I learned, uh, all the Spanish that I know was on these trips. Um,  uh, I mean, sit down please. And you pretty much just say that. Constantly see it, that they put forward seeing that they bought before. Uh, cause they’re just having a blast and they want to sit down

Andrew: and all you want permissions work is for them to sit.

So you can show them the PowerPoint, the PowerPoint. Here are the three reasons you should know Jesus. Anyway,

Josh: here’s all the things, here’s all the things that we had planned for you and you have to do.

Andrew: Otherwise, why did we come to Mexico? It

Josh: is more effective. Would it be better if we just built some relationships and tried it.

Get to know and care for kids. My

Andrew: goodness. It was effective. God spoke to you. It’s all good, sir.

Josh: So one of the nights, halfway through, towards the end of the trip, I don’t remember, um, um, listening in on a conversation between, uh, this girl that I thought was super cute, uh, and one of the youth leaders, and they’re just talking about sports and kind of the role that sports plays in their lives.

And if. If she just kept going down this path or she should quit, or like, what does God want? Um, and just try not to send it in. And I’m like, in this conversation, but I’m not participating. I’m just kind of listening. And, um, God started to stirred something inside of me and I didn’t really know what, um, so I just kinda got away.

So I kinda left the compound, um, and went and sat on the street corner in the middle of Douglas, Arizona, which is probably not safe, but whatever, uh, is what it is. Yeah, I started to pray. Um, and when you got, when you get to the end of prayer and you have nothing else to say, you just kind of sit there. Um, so just kind of sitting there and I was slipping through this pocket Bible that I carried around.

It looked like a really good Christian. Um. Because they all get Christians have good pocket Bibles. Right, right.

Andrew: Stop a bullet. You know, if somebody got you in your pocket,

Josh: except that I usually carry it in my back pocket. So if the like shooting me in the butt and it stopped the bullet and we’ve been going and it was like a nice thick one to you that like was open to maybe once a month.

But man, did I carry that thing around gotta put up that facade

Andrew: with your hair sticking through the top of your

Josh: head and slicks slick straight back.

Andrew: Yes. Yes. That’s what’s up,

Josh: dude. I went through like a cholo phase my sophomore year high school where it was like white jeans, white Jean shorts, and like white Adidas.

Oh my God. I don’t know why. I guess it’d be the guys I was hanging out with at school at the time. That’s what they were and that’s what I was wearing. It doesn’t match what personality

Andrew: say,

Josh: right? That’s it. Right. There’s such a weird group of guys too. Alright. It doesn’t even matter the story. So I’m sitting on the street corner, I’m opening my Bible and reading things and praying, and I just felt like, I’d say like, Hey, Josh, unique what?

Hockey? And you’re like, well. No, that’s, it’s probably either that Mexican food I just ate. Um, or, uh, um, you know, the enemy is trying to get me away from hockey. Like that’s a crazy time. God would never tell me that God wants, what’s, what, what, what I want. God wants me to be happy and

Andrew: like

Josh: no joke. I remember like sitting in youth group or in Sunday school and they’d be talking about heaven and like thinking to myself, you know, like.

Like if hockey’s not in heaven, I really don’t want to be there.

Yeah. I remember like asking the question and like one of our youth leaders been like, yeah, you probably play hockey with Jesus. Like, alright, calm down to go to heaven now. Like we’re all good.

Andrew: Jesus. And you’d probably like maybe stop a shot. You never know. 100% out of like three you would block it.

Josh: Yeah. Like come on Jesus. He probably let me walk in and like feel bad. Could feel good about myself.

Andrew: Probably

Josh: think it will be a new new bodies because my body, yeah, no way in heck it’s, it’s saving a puck now without breaking something or hurting something.

Yeah. But I’m sitting on the street corner and Jesus is saying, um, quit hockey. Um, and he said it a couple of times and I said, no, cause that sounds crazy. And eventually I said, okay. Uh, okay. Um, I think I’m supposed to quit hockey. Um, and now I’m, I’m talking about in the, in the past tense, because I’ve kind of gone through the discerning of like, this was God speaking, but in the midst, I’m just, these are the thoughts running through my head.

Um, so I decided, I said, okay, I guess I’m gonna quit hockey. And. Um, in, in the next moment, it was Josh shepherd my sheet. Um,

Andrew: dang

Josh: right. Uh, and I didn’t know what that really meant. Um, like I get what it means from like a shepherd. My sheep makes sense. Like help people follow Jesus, but from a sense of like, be a pastor.

Yeah. Didn’t understand that at all. Um, so now it’s like, I don’t know, one, two in the morning, it’s late. Um, why nobody came and checked on me. Like, where’s my daughter is 16 year old kid, not inside the compound, sitting on a street corner and everyone goes to bed. Like I come back in and like jump, I think I haven’t jumped over the fence.

I think the gate was shut. Um, that wasn’t a hyphen. It was like four or five feet. Like wasn’t super high. But yeah. Yeah. But then you’re like, wait a second. Like, what the heck’s like, where’s my youth leaders? Like, why is this ever okay, dude?

Andrew: Well, I like, whenever I’ve been on international trips, um, and people see me counting every week getting back on the bus.

They’re always just like, how many do we have? And I’m like, well, plus one minus one is, I always say, you know, and leaders were probably just like, give or take. We’re fine.

Josh: It’s just like. Yeah. Which has happened to us before. Like we’ve, we’ve lost one.

Andrew: The girl had

Josh: to walk home. Uh, I don’t think I’ve ever been mattered in ministry than that number right there.

Andrew: We’ll just see what an episode one time called we lost one. Um,

Josh: tell the story. We lost a child in Winslow, Arizona. Oh, thankfully she knew where she was and she walked home, but, Oh, what a miserable day. Um, so I’m, I’m, I’m getting back in. I jumped the fence. I’m walking back upstairs into the Bible study when you’re Sunday schooling where we’re sleeping.

Um, kind of just running back through my head of what it, what just happened, and just trying to get the bearing on it and understand it. And one of our youth leaders were still up, I think she was editing a video. Uh, for the church for something. Those are kind of a role. But, um, and she was kind of just sitting there.

So I kind of walked in and sat down next door and shared with her, Hey, this is kind of what just happened. I don’t really know. What it means. I said, I think God wants me to be a pastor. Um, and like this heart touching moment where I’m looking for sympathy and care, and their response was, duh, you know what?

That’s not, that’s not what I was looking for.

Andrew: Yeah.

Josh: And we got to talk to her at a Y. She said, uh, you know, the things that she’s seen and you’re like, Oh, okay, maybe there’s something to this, I guess. And so what you need to wake up Fred, who was my youth pastor, and, um, kind of tell them what’s going on. So, you know, I go to the room and I wake up, Fred, and we kind of talked through it all.

And I share

Andrew: as this, like,

Josh: no, no, is a, what do they call it? Is. Bed manners. No. His bedside manners, bedside manners. You don’t want to bed manners with your youth basil. It’s a bad day. You want bedside now,

bedside manners are much better than our youth leaders. Yeah. We kind of talked through it and, um, just give context of like, what does this mean or what does it look like? And you kind of share his story and his calling of how he got into ministry and, um, kinda just opened this new, whole new world. So I went back that next week and I quit hockey.

Like I played one more game. Wow. Wow. I was done and kind of jumped forehead into ministry and what that looked like. And um, I know, right. Which is like

Andrew: crazy

Josh: crazy to make such a shift. And I think it was just, I was naive enough to be like, alright, God, so do I want to do it? But it’s cool.

Andrew: It’s cool.

Josh: It’s cool to look back.

But like you, you give myself credit.

Andrew: Well, you obviously were like, yeah, that was real, you know, like that was a real thing. Or you wouldn’t have been like. Well quit. You would have been my audio this season and then think about next, you know, but you’re like. Yeah, that’s cool, man.

Josh: Yeah. And thankfully, like I got to play against my old team.

I’m like, as you look back at it, so like one last time playing with those guys, now they’re shooting on me, but, um, you’re still kind of playing with them, right. But like, even coming back after the trip, you know, we’re coming back late at night whenever it was, and my mom picks us up. Um, and I just kind of share with my mom, Hey, this is, this is kind of what happened this week and this is what I think I’d said.

And, uh, my mom’s response was like. Are you sure? Are you sure? This week? Really? Uh, I, I think so. I can’t, I’m sure, but that’s

Andrew: probably a good first response all the time. You know, maybe sometimes you can be confident and be like, duh, you know, duh. Obviously that was the, everybody knows that. Um. But that’s probably good to be like, Hmm.

Are you sure? Like w why did she, why was she saying that?

Josh: Uh, for her was fear. So like we’ve had conversations since then and you know, she’s been friends with enough pastors and pastor’s wives over the years that she’s like, I don’t, I don’t want that for my son. Like, CNB has a rough life, right? Yeah. So I think that was, and this is why, like.

We started talking about finding people that love Jesus, love you in that order. Yeah. We might’ve said that last last episode. I don’t remember. But you hear it over and over again. And the why that order matters so much is, you know, like, it was difficult for my mom to love me in that moment in such a way that she put Jesus’s wants and desires for my life over her wants and desires for me to be safe.

Um, but you know, you’re gonna see that being, the crazy thing is like, so like here I go through this experience, it started to become like, Oh, this is. This is what it means to hear God’s voice, um, to, to be called into ministry. And then, you know, a few weeks later, we’re at camp, um, and we’re at a camp with a bunch of other churches and our Bible study leader.

Um, it has me pray before we go to lunch one day or wherever we were going. Um, and I pray, we start walking and she stops me and she says, Hey, Josh, can I talk to you for a second? You’re like, Oh shit, what did I do? I didn’t do anything wrong. Like I was paying attention. I was engaged,

Andrew: I

Josh: was being good. Yeah.

And she goes, Josh, you ever, you ever think about being a pastor? Wow. Interesting. You bring this up and I kind of tell her the whole story. It doesn’t, it’s just kinda one of those moments like, here’s God confirming what God has already said to get me on the path that God wanted me to go. Um, but now that’s kind of my first story of, of, of hearing God’s voice.

And, uh. But yeah, let me ask you this question, Andrew. Wait a minute.

Andrew: Wait a minute. Wouldn’t it have been funnier? Well, you wouldn’t have told this story, but if when you got back into the camp compound, um, and that lady, instead of saying, duh, if you just like told her that and spilled your heart out, if she was just like.

That’s cool, Josh, but like, how’d you get back in? You should wake up the pastor and tell him, and then he waked

Josh: out. Okay. Where have you been for the last hour?

Andrew: No, no, no. Not even that. Just like, Josh, how’d you get back in? Like, we really tried to like secure the perimeter and then you get back and you tell your mom about it and she’s like, Josh, I didn’t, I didn’t.

How’d she get back in? Like we, it was just this series of like, Oh crap, everybody,

Josh: Oh, nobody was safe.

Andrew: Nobody’s safe.

Josh: The gangs of Mexico could have been bred over the border and kill us all. That’s right.

Andrew: Sorry. That was a stupid, a stupid interjection, but still like important,

Josh: right? Like when. When your kid comes to you and says, Hey, I think I heard God speak to me.

Like to not respond in fear, um, to embrace it and not necessarily like help him discern it and double check the K’s God in the midst of this. But, um. Like don’t dismiss it because God could be in the midst of it and you don’t want to be

Andrew: about that a lot. Like the, was it Samuel, um, Samuel, who like grew up in the temple?

Um, am I right? Like it was Samuel, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Josh: But yeah,

Andrew: not temple, just the tabernacle. Tabernacle. Thank you. You know, and God, like he kept thinking God was speaking to him.

Josh: No, he thought he thought Eli was

Andrew: speaking. She thought Eli was speaking to him.

Josh: So he was giving up saying. I’m right here, like, why do you keep calling me

Andrew: here?

Am I like, what are you, you know, what are you doing? And, and that ended like after multiple times of Eli being like, Hey, I’m not talking to you. I think two times, Hey, I’m not like, go back to sleep. I’m not saying anything. I think the third time, if I remember right, Eli was like, Hey, ask the Lord what he’s saying.

You know. And then listen. Um, and I think Samuel’s, I think his response was, here I am Lord, send me right.

Josh: Not send me. But like, here, you know, Eli told me

Andrew: when

Josh: you are, he said, when, when you hear God speak again, just say, here I am. You’re, your servant is listening.

Andrew: That’s right. That’s right. But he validated it is.

Yeah. That’s like, I obviously didn’t have that in my notes, but, um, but that was a good thought, man. Like Eli and the parent, the friend, the youth pastor, if you’re like. Uh, you might be crazy, but I’m going to act like, you know, I’m gonna, I’m gonna assume that God did speak to you and then proceed from there.

You know, we’ll figure it out if that’s not the case or whatever. Um, but like, I’m gonna think, yeah, God might’ve spoke, might’ve spoke to you and kind of go from there.

Josh: So anyway, well, and that’s probably the response for most things, right? Like. Don’t take the position of, um, dismissing something or take the position of, um, shaming somebody right in the midst of it.

Like, let them, let them sit in that for a second, just to be able to, to understand what may be happening or not happening. But that goes for so many things, not just hearing God’s voice.

Andrew: Uh, right. I mean, South Dakota, like. Don’t just write it

Josh: off that last episode.

Andrew: That was,

Josh: yeah. Oh yeah. Oh, South Dakota

Andrew: going on in South Dakota.

Josh: Um,

Andrew: anyway,

Josh: so say you hear God’s voice or you think you did. How do you know it was.

Andrew: Um, well, first of all, um, seriously, first thing, um, I was, I was trying to think of something funny, uh, but how do you know it was, um, I would first find somebody who loves Jesus and loves you and run it by him. And, and like you mentioned, like in that order who loves Jesus more than they love you.

Um. Like, talk to them, you know, be like, Hey, I think that God told me, rise up. Stand firm.

Josh: Yeah.

Andrew: Am I crazy? You know, I think that God told me, uh, quit hockey shepherd my sheep. If I nuts, what the heck? You know? Like start there and you don’t have, there’s, there’s no like script, you know, there’s no, write it down and say it this way.

It’s just like, go tell him exactly what you think just happened. Like God just said this. God told me that. Poor, um, or even God keeps putting this thing in my mind or heart, and I think he’s saying something to me through that. You don’t always have to have it figured out of like, this is exactly what he said and why he said it.

It’s just like, go seek clarity with people who love Jesus and love you. That’s probably step one. Um,

Josh: for me to like, um. I think people are looking for like this big miraculous moment or like booming voice, like the veil has been torn and the God of all creation is speaking, which is like, right. Let’s be honest, like thinking that God speaks to us as body, like it’s crazy in itself.

Like here’s creator of all things, all knowing, all powerful God, and for whatever reason he desires to speak to you.

Andrew: He’s just tweeting

Josh: and boggling.

Andrew: Directly,

Josh: but like the more and more people that I talk to, like it’s a small still whisper. Like it’s, it’s, it’s like this passing wind, right? Like, here’s just the small whisper, you know, in the wind that we’re picking up on or feeling in our, in our souls that we’re grabbing hold of.

And I think you’re, I think that’s good of, you know, taking it to followers of Jesus, those, that love of Jesus and love you. Um, I think another one that’s important is take it back to scripture. Like God’s not going to contradict himself. And, um, you know. If you feel like God’s saying something to you that is in direct violation of the new covenant, then yeah, totally.

I’d say it’s probably not gone.

Andrew: Yeah. Yeah. That’s, that’s all. And I said, take it back to people who love Jesus and love you as like a first thing because, um. Man, there are a lot of pages in the Bible, and sometimes it can be like, you heard me mix up the story earlier. You know some, and I’ve read the Bible a couple times and many other partial times.

Um, it can be tricky to like, remember it all. To think through the concepts of it all. It’s a, it’s a big book and it’s a living and breathing thing, not breathing. Uh, but it’s a living truth. Uh, the Bible is so to just like feel like you have it all memorized and to like quick crosscheck that that’s like tough, man.

I’m no scholar.

Josh: Yeah. And I think too though, like I don’t think God’s going to speak to you in a way or about something that’s beyond your ability to comprehend it, right? Yeah, that’s true. I don’t think God’s going to reveal a mystery that’s so. Right? You know, bigger or complex that you’re gonna be like, I don’t even know how to take this back to the script.

Right? We’re the actors. Start with this topic.

Andrew: Okay. Can you imagine, I don’t think God would say this, but if you were a teenager. I’m in that same scenario, and God just said, coronavirus 2020 that would be nothing to you in the time you’d be like, I am insane. I don’t

Josh: think like they’re seeing the numbers inside of scripture and it’s like on this day, on this time, the world’s going to end because, right.

But

Andrew: like, yeah, Corona virus is happening in 2020. But I don’t think God would say that to to you or I in years past, you know,

Josh: because I was just like, I don’t even know what that means.

Andrew: Exactly.

Josh: Exactly. Everybody were supposed to drink Coronas in the entire year of 2020 I think that’s how I’ve interpreted it.

Andrew: All of 2020 is your

Josh: own. No water, no juice, straight Coronas, 24 seven fat bites,

Andrew: not Corona, Corona light. I assume it is. You know, everything’s a light and extra and whatever, but, but yeah, man, like you said, like he’s going to speak in a way you can understand it. That makes sense. You know, cause he, you at least in the moment, that’s a good kind of gut check of like.

Do I even get it? You know,

Josh: what are you gonna take it back? Take it back to scripture, take it to your, you know, other followers of Jesus. And I think the, the last one, and, um, maybe for a lot of people, the biggest one, not that these are in any order, but, um, I think you need to take an account of your motives.

Like, what are you praying about? Or what do you wanting God to speak into? Um, like I think that’s a biggie. Like, you know, I know people that, I think it’s their, their pride or their jealousy that, that, you know, now they find themselves in a place that they think God speaking to them about a situation or about something, or they think, God answered this prayer.

Um, because they want it so bad, they want it to be true, so bad. And so I think this is why we take it back to the followers of Jesus. We take it back to scripture to really dig into the motive of it. Like, are we, are we generally just trying to hear from God or are we just trying to manipulate God and put words in God’s mouth?

So he says the things that I want them to write like that.

Andrew: Like, give me the Powerball numbers, like, God,

Josh: no, I don’t play it. I don’t undo the lottery, but

Andrew: now I don’t either. I, okay. But maybe a couple of lottery tickets. My entire

Josh: life. Scratchers, I’ll do like the bingo scratchers and I’ll call the numbers out to myself.

Like I’m in a bingo hall and I’m like, ah, be seven. Yeah. I’ve never won 10 bucks, but

Andrew: I’ve never won anything into lottery. I think about one or two tickets in my life.

Josh: My grandma’s been telling me since I was a child, that if she ever won the lottery, she take me to England where she was born. She hasn’t won a lottery yet.

Not enough, at least to take me to England. That’s funny.

Andrew: Yeah. Now you just saying motives. I mean like

Josh: thinking about what I did used to do all the time, like playing hockey was like if I’m having a bad game, I would create like ultimatums. God, I’ll be the best Christian in the entire world and do everything you say.

Just get me the win. Like no more shit, but I need like 15 more shots. I need to block all of them cause I need to get my save percentage up. It’s really bad right now. I made those burgers all the

Andrew: time.

Josh: The motives, motives, not in a good place.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it happens, you know, whether it’s hockey shots or, I saw the power balls at 300 mil and I’m going to try to get that.

Just give me those numbers. You know? I

Josh: didn’t see that. You know that, that cute, you know Burnett in your English class that. You know, you’ve been praying about that you’ll, you’ll marry and you’re just convinced that God has told you that you’re going to marry this girl, and you’re like, well. Maybe, but probably not.

Andrew: Yeah, totally. Totally.

Josh: And this is where you’re like, you need those people that love Jesus and love you in that order, right? Like you need people to tell you the truth. You need people like it’s not really loving you if they’re just going to tell you what you want to hear, right? Like they got to ask you the tough questions like.

I think through my life. And I think through, you know, the men and women that have asked me those tough questions, they’re like, I’m extremely grateful to them. Like, sure. It was painful. It was hurtful in the moment. Um, but after the fact, like I didn’t go down those roads because I had someone who said like, this isn’t, this isn’t right.

This isn’t, you got to move this way. Right, right. But you gotta check your motives. You gotta take it back to scripture. You gotta ask those followers of Jesus what they think.

Andrew: Totally. And. I would add maybe one thing, uh, which this is, this is just a rule of thumb in my life of just. If you feel really strongly about something, give it three days, two, three days, you know, take the time and maybe in that time, allow yourself to just like talk to people who love Jesus.

Love you, read your Bible, pray, listen in that time, you know, and check your motives. Like, and when I say, listen, I mean like listen to God. Like pray for a minute, and then. Listen for a minute or two, you know, that’s hard to do, but, but um. It’s important, but I just mean literally take a couple of days and like say it, God says going to me and let’s, he said like, go right now to plank,

Josh: you know?

Andrew: Um, but yeah, if it’s something like, you know, um, feed my sheep or something like that, just, you don’t have to know exactly what that means in, in the next. 30 seconds, like, take some time on it. Think about it. 12 on this trip. Um, and you may, after doing those kind of things that we talked about, you may decide like, dude, I’m crazy.

That was just a voice in my head that doesn’t align with scripture. All of my friends are like, you’re crazy. But, uh, but you also may be like, Oh, that applies to a lot of areas in my life. And I think that may have just been. Like the vision for going forward in my

Josh: life. Well, I think too, like, wow. Giving it time like that I think is, I think I’ve been experienced.

I just had with God, you know, a couple of weeks ago where I wasn’t seeking God, I just kind of, I was seeking cigars and whiskey and sitting on my back deck and enjoying the views and the weather. Um, and in the midst of that

Andrew: Rocky mountains, right.

Josh: Yeah, that’s true. Yeah. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. You can always move back my friend.

Yes. Um, that’s always an option. Um. Um, but I’m, I’m sitting in my back porch and I’m playing music. Um. And the music I was playing, I was like, nah, I don’t like this playlist. I put on my different playlists and I wasn’t feeling that playlist for the mood. So I ended up putting on worship music and it ended up turning into just a moment of where I’m just sitting in praying and sharing fears about a dream that I felt like God has given me of like, I just don’t want to do it.

Um, and, and praying through that, and then just kind of sitting and listening. And in the midst of that, like, and I think this goes back to what you’re just saying, and this white bring it up, but like, there’s a piece in the midst of that of like, yeah, like. This is what God is saying, and here’s the confidence of those things, and here is the truth that has been spoken.

Um, that, um, supports these things. I feel God is in the midst of, and, um, the, even like, even though there’s peace in the midst of it, I still might have fear about it. Like the fear doesn’t necessarily go away. You know, bravery isn’t overcoming fear. It’s doing it in the midst of the fear. Right. Yeah, totally.

And, but there’s a piece about him like, and I think for me, like looking back at moments of time when God has spoken to me, there was a piece that kind of continued to go on. Like I wasn’t questioning, did God say this to God? Not say this. Um, I’m just wrestling now with like, God, you said this and I don’t want to do this.

What do we do now? Right, right. And digging through that. But I think, I think what you’re saying of like give it time, I think that’s where the piece comes into play and we’re like, no, this is God is speaking this and, or there’s piece of it of like, God’s not speaking this. Right.

Andrew: Yeah, totally. Cause sometimes you ate a bad burrito or whatever, you know, and you’re just like, never

Josh: be bad.

Well, should never do that to you.

Andrew: Yeah. I should have picked another food. I’m sorry. You know how I feel about them? Um. Oh dude. Um, I was just thinking like, as you say, that kind of the, the piece like settles in and I think you get used to hearing God’s voice more and more over time and recognizing that, and kind of.

Leaning into it and just being like, yeah, cool. And it’s not always a big booming voice, like very often. It’s just like a small nudge and it’s like, Hey, correct course, or like you’re doing awesome, proud of you, or love you, or, or whatever. I think God is speaking to us a lot.

Josh: Um, Andrew, let me, let me ask you this then.

Um, for those people that are asking that question of like, how do I hear God’s voice? Like, what, what are you doing.

Andrew: Um, first of all, I mean, um, we just kinda walked through a lot of it, but if I were just being like real, uh, concise, I guess I’d say be still, like, take some time. Um, pray and then stop praying.

Like, stop talking. Um, so yeah, like shut up and then stay awhile and just listen. So kind of be still quit talking. Stop talking. Listen, you know, and God is, is bound to speak to you. Cause I think he’s always speaking to us and that, that we pretty much just miss it. Often, you know,

Josh: how am I like, you look back at like your prior life and what’s the percentage that your talking in your prayer life?

99% of the time,

Andrew: right? Yeah. Gotta be 90 plus.

Josh: And we wonder why we never hear the voice of God. Well, it’s cause you’re just not sitting and listening. Like you’re not creating space for it. And here, you know, we’re in the midst of the coronavirus still as a recording list. So like here you have opportunity.

To sit, to stop talking and just listen to what God is doing because you have less, you have less things, you know, pulling for your attention. But you gotta be, you know, when things are back to, you know, the new normal. I’m like, you’ve gotta be intentional of are you creating time to spend time with God, hear God, speak through his word, you know, to your soul, into your heart and um, kind of guide your life where, you know, he desires it to go there other than where you desire or it ends up turning out.

Cause. Yeah. You’re just kind of going along. But dude, the big booming voice. Yes. God almighty.

Andrew: Yeah. So if you take anything away from this, just take away, it’s always audible. Always loud, and no one can confirm it. Did I get that right?

Josh: It was close. Not quite. I would have said it differently, but yeah,

Andrew: my head was in the heart or the right place.

Heart wasn’t, you know, something like that.

Josh: Hey, this is your first time listening to us. Please subscribe to us from all the major platforms, anywhere you listen to your podcasts. We’re probably there if you could also rate us. That’s always a big help, but thanks for listening, Andrew. As always, .