Tag: Christian Women

  • 5 Steps to Obey God

    5 Steps to Obey God

    The idea of obeying God sounds like a fairytale, but if I can be honest, obeying God isn’t fun.

    Obedience requires you to change your mind, actions, and beliefs. It requires you to start something new and stop something old. It’s uncomfortable, awkward, and a struggle.

    The good news is that God does not expect us to be perfect in our obedience. Instead, God wants to see progression. In this blog, we will talk about five steps you can consistently take in your obedience journey.

    1. Get Clear

    One of the biggest challenges in obeying God is overcoming your doubt.

    Doubt may sound like:

    • Did I really hear from God?
    • Did I make the right decision?
    • What if I’m wrong?

    🚨 Unchecked doubt will always lead to disobedience.

    Getting clear on what God is calling you to do will help you to overcome your doubts.

    ✨ FYI: Being confident you heard from God is not the same as being confident in your actions. Obedience will always require faith, but knowing that you heard from God will give you confidence to obey.

    Blog ➡️ Hearing God’s Voice

    2. Overcome Resistance

    Next, you have to identify and fight against what’s stopping you from obeying God. There will always be a natural resistance to obeying God because obedience requires you to go against that grain. That grain may be social norms, your mindset, or habits.

    By identifying the issue, you’re able to recognize and fight against anything that comes against your obedience. This step is really important because you cannot fight something you do not identify.

    ✨ So, what’s stopping you from obeying? Fear, insecurity, the opinion of others, doubt, etc.?

    3. Ask God For Help

    Obedience is meant to be done in partnership with God, not through human strength. 💪

    When God calls us to obey him, he’s calling us to take his hand and walk with him, day by day and moment by moment. Your strength is not strong enough, but you + God will always be enough.

    🚨To obey God, you must ask God for help.

    Prayer to welcome God in: “God, I desire to obey you. Please help me obey, in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

    “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” Philippians 4:13 NKJV.

    4. Stay Connected To God

    To consistently obey God, you have to stay connected with him. He is the only person who can keep you on track.

    ✨ God will give you the power, discipline, and mindset to obey him, but you have to stay connected with him.

    Ways to connect with God include:

    • Obeying
    • Reading your bible
    • Praying & talking to God

    5. Restart

    Sometimes we mess up. Obedience isn’t a linear journey. It’s full of ups and downs. And, the good news is that God doesn’t expect or require perfection.

    😌 When you mess up, he is there, waiting for you. All, you have to do is pray, “God, I’m sorry, please help me. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.

    Receive God’s grace and love. Then start over! You can do this! 💖

    A graph that shows that obedience happens over time.

    That’s A Wrap 💗

    Today, I want to encourage you to start or continue your obedience journey. I know that obeying God is hard, but you are capable of doing hard things with God! It will get easier! 💖

    Encouraging Scriptures ↓

    Here are a few scriptures that can help you as you obey God:

    • “…If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31 NIV)
    • “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37 NKJV)
    • “The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.” (Deuteronomy 28:7 NIV)

  • 5 Ways to Hear God’s Voice Clearly

    5 Ways to Hear God’s Voice Clearly

    A lot of times, the reason we are paralyzed, overwhelmed, or disobedient is because we are constantly questioning whether we are really hearing from God. I want to encourage you that you do not have to stay paralyzed and questioning.

    Instead, we can boldly approach God with the mindset that:

    • God wants to speak to you 
    • God has an answer 
    • You will find your answer

    In this blog, we will talk about five ways to find answers from God. You can use the methods independently and together. I recommend choosing 2-3 options and asking the Lord to help.

    Ask God

    Asking God seems so simple, yet we often skip over God and run to people or the internet. I want to encourage you to ask God for wisdom today.

    Example prayer: God, please help me to make the right decision about _. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.

    Read Your Bible

    The Bible is not a history book. It is the word of God. It is a living entity that God wants to speak to you through (Hebrews 4:12). When you read your Bible with the intention of finding an answer, the Holy Spirit has a way of getting you exactly where you need to be. 

    Side Note: God will never tell you to do something that does NOT align with his word. 😌

    👀 Blog Post: What is the Bible?

    Quiet the Noise In Your Mind

    God’s voice is sometimes quiet and subtle, sometimes making it hard to hear him, especially when our thoughts are so loud. In 1 Kings 19:21, as Elijah is at the top of the mountain, God speaks to him in a gentle whisper. One of the best ways to hear God’s voice is to quiet your voice so that you can hear his whispers.

    🧠 Brain Dump

    One way to quiet your thoughts and slow down your mind is by brain dumping. Brain dumping is writing down all the thoughts, ideas, and feelings without censoring or trying to organize them.

    Brain dumping allows your brain to breathe and think more clearly, which results in mental peace and allows you to have the mental space to hear from God. Brain dumping is a method I use almost every week.  

    Steps to take:

    1. Get a blank paper and write down all your thoughts
    2. Organize your thoughts
    3. Ask God for direction on where to focus

    🥴 It’s tempting to do all the steps together but do them one by one.

    🎙SPEAK OUT LOUD

    Another way to quiet your thoughts is by speaking all of your thoughts out loud. Hearing your thoughts out loud will help you sort through all your thoughts, quieting them down. This is a great method if you enjoy talking your thoughts out. However, in this method, you are to yourself and God.

    Talking your thoughts out will help you to see the lies you are holding on to and will be an opportunity to hear from the Holy Spirit. If you struggle with hearing God’s voice, I recommend asking God to make his voice sound differently than yours so that when he speaks, you know it is him and not your thoughts.

    Find Wise Counsel

    God did not make us do life alone. Wise counsel is critical to making wise decisions. Throughout the Bible, we both see the power of wise counsel.

    📖 For example, we find the following scriptures:

    • “For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers,” (Proverbs 11:14).
    • “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice,” (Proverbs 12:15).
    • “Plans fail for a lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed,” (Proverbs 15:22).

    Tip: Everyone is NOT wise counsel. Your parents or friends may not always be wise counsel. Ask God who you should talk to. You can pray, “God, please guide me to the right person to talk to.” 

    When you are looking for wise counsel, look for the following characteristics: 

    • Trustworthy
    • Hear God’s voice
    • Personally submitted to God’s will in both words and actions!

    Fasting 

    Lastly, I recommend fasting to hear God’s voice. Fasting allows us to take our eyes off of ourselves and focus our eyes on Jesus. It is an opportunity to weaken our flesh, get out of our feelings, and obey God.

    When fasting to hear God, I recommend giving up things that:

    • Unnecessarily take your time or attention
    • Unaligned with God’s words or your convictions
    • Numb or distracts you

    🍷 For example, social media, TV, books, hanging out with friends, drinking wine, eating sugar, etc.

    Be careful not to replace the open time with other things that distract you. Instead, spend some of the time with God.

    Before fasting, take the following steps:

    1. Ask God to help you. Do it with God!
    2. Get clear on what you are fasting for.
    3. Set a timetable for how long you are fasting.
    4. Get clear on why you are fasting.

    Hint: The things you don’t want to fast are often the things you should fast.

    🏃‍♀️Blog Post: Running Back To Jesus

    Encouragement:

    Finally, I want to encourage you in the fact that:

    • God loves you so much
    • God is already speaking.
    • God wants you to hear his voice.

    I hope this blog helps you boldly search for God’s voice with the expectation that he is speaking. Today, take a moment to hear God’s voice.  💖