What’s in this Episode?

I think I heard from God… Or was that just the bad pizza from last night? How do I really know if it’s vision from God or if my own thoughts are getting in the way? Well, that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about in this episode of the Church Tips podcast.

---

Read the Transcript

Vision from God

Dick Hardy 0:00
I think I heard from God… Or was that just the bad pizza from last night? How do I really know if it’s from God or if my own thoughts are getting in the way? Well, that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about in this episode of the Church Tips podcast. Here we go.

Dick Hardy 0:14
You know, if you’ve been in the faith at all, for any period of time, you know, you’re regularly trying to listen for the voice of the Lord. Not many people I’ve come across have actually heard the audible voice of the Lord. Certainly you could. I haven’t. Have you?

Jonathan Hardy 0:35
No.

Dick Hardy 0:35
You haven’t. But there are times that we do know that we’ve heard for the Lord, I remember there’s two specific times…

Jonathan Hardy 0:42
Two times? Hopefully more than two!

Dick Hardy 0:46
Yeah, there have been more than two moments, I’m just remembering two to make a specific point. In the story here, what the reality is, I remember these two like they were yesterday. One where I was sitting at the Willow Creek Conference, Leadership Conference in Chicago area. And the Lord spoke to my heart. That’s where my heart for evangelism was birthed. That day, watching a video of people expressing publicly what the Lord had done their heart.

Dick Hardy 1:22
I heard from the Lord. I remember I went to, and I have an Assemblies of God background. So here I am over at Willow Creek. And then I went to a Lutheran conference up in the Minneapolis area, and listened to the whole discussion growing further. The sense of evangelism in my heart, the Lord spoke to my heart. I remember coming back and talking to our pastor and saying, I believe the Lord spoke to my heart.

Dick Hardy 1:48
Now, of course, you have to be careful with that, you know, because who’s gonna argue with what the Lord’s spoke? But the point is, there are times in your life where you’re clear that the Lord speaks to you. Getting to that point sometimes can be a challenge. Is it me? Or is it the Lord? Is it the bad pizza from last night? Or it might truly hear in something for the Lord? This is what we want to talk with you about today, how it is determining whether what you’re sensing is from yourself, or from the Lord.

Dick Hardy 2:18
We’re gonna dig right into it. Now, I would encourage you, we’ve got an episode that we did back a few weeks ago, Episode 36, how a pastor can hear vision from the Lord. So that’s the piece of hearing vision for the Lord. This one is a bit different. And then we’re going to determine the difference between, is it me or s it the Lord?

Jonathan Hardy 2:36
Yeah, well, I think that’s a big question we often face is, you know, because if we’re especially if we’re going to be making a big decision, yeah, it’s like, well I hope this is right. And obviously, we know all if it’s from God, yes, we will do it in a heartbeat. But so often, we question is it from God? How do I know if it’s from God. So hopefully, the thoughts today will help.

Jonathan Hardy 2:53
I want to also mention too, we actually have a full video series inside the leaders.church membership. Clarifying Vision, we break a lot of this down even further. And you could go learn more about it. Even if you’re not a member, you can go read a little bit more about it at leaders.church/series, leaders.church/series, and go there, check it out, just scroll down, you’ll see the one called Clarifying Vision.

Dick Hardy 3:17
And we have another one in there specifically on this topic that fleshes this way further than just this single podcast. So again, those are two you really want to go check out.

Jonathan Hardy 3:27
Sure, and obviously, if you want to jump into it, just become a member, and you’d love to have it. There’s a button there for you to do so on that.

Dick Hardy 3:33
Well, Jonathan, what do you think is the very first thing that you would do? If you’re trying to make this determination?

Jonathan Hardy 3:39
Well, I think you first have to check yourself and say, am I in alignment with the Lord? So this is to make sure this is basically you doing the spiritual disciplines that we all know we should be doing. But are we doing so? Yes. Praying? Am I praying consistently, regularly communing with God? Am I in the Word of God on a regular basis reading and meditating on the word? Do I fast, do I set aside food so that way I can get nourishment from the Lord in communion with the Lord in that way. And all the other, you know, disciplines, whether that’s worshiping God, through just praising God, all the different things.

Dick Hardy 4:17
Giving your tithe.

Jonathan Hardy 4:17
Sure! You’re giving. Yeah, all these things, being obedient to God doing all the things that we know we should be doing. If our life is in alignment with God, then that’s the first thing that’s going to help us know, when it comes to these decisions we’re making, these visions and thoughts we have for the future. That helps maybe solidify that we’re on onto the same page as the Lord and the Lord gives us desires. And when we know we’re in tune with him, he knows that these desires then are from the Lord. So that’s the first thing.

Dick Hardy 4:50
You know, and I think when you come off of that, Jonathan, you have these, these two words that are frequently difficult for pastors and church leaders. And that’s “wait” and “listen”. Now waiting for almost everybody is a challenge. But listening, particularly for men is a challenge, because we’ve always got our mouth out. And I should speak for myself. But we’ve got our mouth out in front of our ears, but really wait. And listen, you know, I remember, just stop talking. As I’m talking. I’m just saying, stop talking.

Dick Hardy 5:26
You know, Jonathan, I don’t think I said this to you. But I remember a couple months ago, you had been in a period of prayer and fasting. And you told me about how you were sitting out by fire pit there on the patio. And you just stopped. With your pen and paper out. And you’re just listening. That just inspired me to say, in a month or so later, I did a prayer and fasting time. And I tried to do the same thing. Stop.

Dick Hardy 5:51
You know, if you want to see is this from the Lord, stop, wait, and listen.

Jonathan Hardy 5:57
Listen, yeah. And then just ask God, like, hey, God, what do you want to say.

Dick Hardy 6:00
You might be amazed at what He will say to you during that time, it’s hard for impatient people to do, you’re gonna have to give that over to the Lord. But you’ll be amazed if you’ll do that. If you’re doing the things that Jonathan just mentioned, if you’re doing the spiritual disciplines, and then you stop and listen, God will speak.

Jonathan Hardy 6:17
And I want to mention, too, that we as ministry leaders know to do this stuff. So we’re not, you know, in some sense, I’m preaching to the choir here. Well, but we’ve both been serving in churches for years. And we know the reality of life, his business of life gets in the way. And sometimes there are seasons where pastors aren’t doing these spiritual disciplines, prayer, fasting, meditate on the word like they should.

Jonathan Hardy 6:42
And so you know, if that’s you let this be a good reminder that, hey, we need to be doing these things. These are the things that are going to help us know, are we in line with the Lord? And are we hearing from him and is this vision from him?

Jonathan Hardy 6:55
Then the final thing you want to do, once you sense this, is you want to act, you got to take action, you’ve got to move forward. So after you’ve evaluated, if you’re in alignment with God, if you’ve waited and listened, then upon hearing from the Lord or sensing the direction you should do, then you just do it. Because you’re in alignment with God, you’re walking faithful with him, you’ve been listening and waiting and patiently just seeking Him. And so then at that point, we say, well, if this is a desire I have or if this is a sense I have, then I need to move forward, because then at this point, this would be from the Lord, if you haven’t had that hesitation, from the Holy Spirit, if you haven’t had any sense of a “no” in the direction from the Lord, then just act.

Dick Hardy 7:39
You know, when you’ve been doing these things that we’re talking about here. It’s like, you know, I do things, because my wife likes them. I don’t sit there and wonder if she does or doesn’t. I mean, I’ve spent 43 years with this woman together. And so I learn her, I listen, and so act, when you do these things, and then actually act, do it. I just tell people, you know, do the spiritual disciplines, and then do what you want to do. Because what you want to do is what God wants. That’s the confidence you’ll have in moving forward.

Jonathan Hardy 8:12
Right. So let’s just recap real quick. So the three things are: make sure your life is in alignment with the Lord. Second thing is to wait and listen. And then the third thing is to act. And when you follow these things, then you can be confident that the vision you have and the decisions you’re making are from the Lord. And it’s not the bad pizza that you ate last night.

Dick Hardy 8:29
That’s right.

Jonathan Hardy 8:30
You want to make sure to be doing those things. And then as well, we want to make sure that you sign up for the leaders.church masterclass that we put together. It’s a presentation just a little bit under an hour. It’s going to help you be a better pastor, be a better leader. And you want to make sure to sign up for that if you have not yet done so. I would encourage you to do it just go to leaders.church/secrets, again, that’s leaders.church/secrets, and you can sign up, get access to it right away and go through and start leveling up your personal leadership and effectiveness, and ministry. Anything else?

Dick Hardy 9:02
Hey, you know, I would encourage you to jump on and subscribe to any of the platforms you listen to or watch the podcast, and on YouTube. You know, and rate and review us. We are honored when pastors and leaders do this.

Dick Hardy 9:15
We have a review from “Ryan Rickjay”, who says “the best is yet to come.” I like this guy already. “The best church and church ministries has not yet been created. But these guys…” I think he’s referring to these two here, “will get you there. Their long standing ability to be creative and three steps ahead of everyone else is important for you to have relatable ministry. So much content.”

Dick Hardy 9:38
Thank you, Ryan Rickjay. We appreciate that if you will rate and review us on apodcast platform, we will be honored to be able to maybe read your review and go forward. So thanks so much for hanging out with us today. Make it a great one and be blessed.

Subscribe & Follow:

• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
• Follow on Spotify
• Subscribe to YouTube Channel
• Subscribe on Google Podcasts
• Like us on Facebook
• Follow us on Instagram
• Follow us on Twitter

Other Resources:

• Leaders.Church
• Leaders.Church Blog
• Church University
• Take the Free 5 Day Leadership Challenge for Pastors
• Get Free Access to the 4 Secrets Masterclass

Share This Article

---