When God is speaking to you, you follow His call. Being unashamed about sharing Jesus.
Have you ever wondered if God is speaking to you? Some believe that that only happened in the Bible. But in reality, God still speaks to us, but we have to listen to hear Him.
How is God speaking to you?
The first step in hearing God speak to you is to read Scripture. Reading Scripture will help you recognize how the Holy Spirit speaks to us. And you can ask the Holy Spirit to make you sensitive to His voice and to help you hear Him.
The Holy Spirit speaks to us through our intuition. Or, you may have a strong feeling about something.
Oftentimes, things you’ve been praying about will come up in conversation. Someone will bring up the topic to you out of the blue. Let your ears be open to hear the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit may speak to you in dreams, song lyrics, or maybe a picture that pops into your head. In addition, you may experience a change in your circumstances, like opportunities dry up. This is what happened to Laureen Alexa with her acting career. The roles she was willing to play quit coming up. In addition, the roles offered to her were not aligned with her morals.
When you feel a shift like this in your life, ask God if he wants you to lean in and keep pressing because He’s training you in perseverance, or does He want you to pivot? Or, ask Him if this is a new opportunity and ask him to redirect your steps.
Similarly, if it’s a perseverance thing, He’s going to strengthen you and you will receive confirmation or release that gives you a new insight or direction.
In addition, ask God to give you sensitivity to hear His voice and to know the counterfeits from His. Also, ask Him to make you in tune to Him because you want to obey Him. This is the prayer Laureen prays.
Discernment is critical
The most important thing about communicating with God is discernment. It’s imperative to discern and differentiate between what we think God is saying versus what the world or Satan may be saying.
How to let go of perfectionism and control
Perfectionism is a perversion of excellence. Satan, the enemy, cannot create, he can only pervert. When we aim for perfectionism, it is like trying to be God or move above God. Jesus is the ONLY one who has ever walked that earth and is perfect.
God calls us to excellence because we are His light in the world and we are called to His standards. We get to exhibit the light and love of Christ. When we show up in life, we are exhibiting the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the essence of God.
If we show up every day and do our best, show up with excellence, then God rewards that. When we aim for perfection, we have skewed thinking that it is dependent on us instead of relying on God, instead of the power of the Holy Spirit working through us. Ultimately, when we do this, we rob ourselves of the joy and satisfaction of watching God show up. Because, we think that if it isn’t perfect, it’s not good enough.
God wants a relationship with you. He doesn’t expect perfection. Therefore you can let go of control and let God take the wheel.
Failable and Frail
As humans, we are failable and frail. When our level of achievement or the titles other humans give us are attacked, for example, you are a machine, all of a sudden you feel like a failure and don’t see your value. This perverts our view of what excellence is.
Instead of trying to be perfect, show up every day imperfect, with excellence. And, say, Lord, how do you want me to show up today, you have the authority and space to do with me what you wish with my day. Sometimes, He completely derails the plans we have for ourselves, but we learn to have patience and live by the fruits of the Spirit.
Perfectionism is an identity thief. Instead, strive for excellence. If your identity is wrapped up in what you do and how well you do it, instead of focused on being a child of God, you will forever be stuck in a cycle of striving. Don’t try to outwork God’s grace, receive it, and let Him work in you.
Let go of control and listen because God is speaking to you – He will guide you
Control is based on fear of the unknown and our wanting to have it all put together. We want to know that everything is covered and handled. This robs us of surrender. There is full trust and dependency when we are children of God. He can accomplish this in one day by working in and through us than we can accomplish in 10 weeks or more. This is the grace factor that God gives us.
If you are struggling with control, what are you afraid of, and how can you bring that to the Lord as a surrender and sacrifice to Him so that he can uproot whatever the fear is? There is always a deeper root, and usually fear-based, as to why you need to be in control.
Scripture reminds us that there is no fear in love for perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18). God doesn’t have a giving problem, we have a receiving problem. If we are incapable of accepting His love, our default is going to be fear, which leads to control, which leads to striving, which leads to thinking we have to be perfect for God to approve of us.
God doesn’t let bad things happen to us but he uses bad things for our good
So many people in Scripture went through challenging, difficult times. But every single time, Jesus, in the New Testament, met them with love and compassion, right where they were at. God’s vision was never the pain and sorrow we experience in this world. This happens because of sin, at the time of the fall of Adam and Eve. God did promise that there would be hardship, but He also promised He would be with us. His plan has always been love, care, and concern. He overcame the world through Jesus’ death on the cross.
If God’s plan was to harm us, He would have never sent Jesus. Because He is sovereign, God can take everything the enemy is planning for evil, everything that is bad, sad, or hurtful, and mold us refine us, and reshape us. On the other side of this process, there will be a story of victory that will help bring other people along so that they can experience healing and transformation.
As you go through hard things, ask God to walk in your pain with you, ask Him to show you His love in the moment. This will help you see His good, where He’s working, and how He’s there for you. God doesn’t despise the broken-hearted. We learn this in Psalm 51:17 which reads, “My sacrifice, O God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”
Romans 5:3-5 “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
Bad things will happen but . . .
When bad or hard things happen, God isn’t punishing you, He’s walking you through it, and transforming you. If you listen, you will hear that God is speaking to you and holding your hand as you walk through difficult times.
You are not what has happened to you, your circumstances do not define you. No, you are who God says you are and the victory is being able to claim that loud and proud. And, we get to watch God show up and change other people’s lives on the other side of that.
Even when bad or challenging things happen, God is speaking to you.
God wants you to be in a relationship with Him
Laureen used the example of David. David was a murderer and an adulterer and God said, that David was after His own heart. If your heart posture is that you want a relationship with God and you want Him in your life, you can have the relationship like David did. He laid his heart bare to God, talked through his sins and needs, and waited to hear from God. Just like God spoke to David, God is speaking to you today. And, just like he had a relationship with David, God wants a relationship with you.
If you are willing to be repentant and let God lead you and guide you, it is completely different than continuing to live in sin, repetitively doing the same sin over and over. But you can ask God to help you navigate the situation or sin. Ask Him to forgive you and show you how to walk in the light of His ways. God doesn’t reproach us with guilt and condemnation. His lovingkindness is meant to lead us to repentance.
We can go to God with all of our mass and He will transform us. When we bring our mess to Him, he will mold and change our hearts. As your internal changes, your external will change but it all starts with the dialogue with God.
But remember the Biblical principle, what you sow is what you reap, and you will suffer the consequences of bad decisions. The pain of consequences is meant to lead you back to wisdom, the fruit of the Spirit. God wants us to be on His path for us, the path to peace and prosperity, love, grace, and mercy. What’s so beautiful, is that you can ask Him, “Lord, am I stepping out of line, or is this what you have for me, I want to follow you, I want to be after your heart, I desire a relationship with you, He will always bring you back to that place of wisdom.
About Laureen Alexa
Laureen grew up in a small town in New Mexico and moved to Los Angeles at 18 to pursue acting. She fell in love with the city, entertainment, people, diversity, and coffee. Laureen has encountered God in new and fresh ways by watching Him faithfully show up in all of her needs. He’s shown up for her in stressful circumstances, and she discovered an overwhelming passion for helping others pursue Jesus and encounter His love. Her Instagram show and new brand is called Strength and Glory, growing community for women and helping them grow in mind, body, and spirit.
Laureen’s book: Festival in the Desert: Learning to Rejoice in the Difficult Seasons of Life
