Joel Osteen Podcast - Listening To The Whisper | Joel Osteen

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

God places gentle promptings in our spirits to guide us. When you hear that still, small voice, that’s Him leading you down the best path for your life.Your best days are still ahead, and together we can make a difference in this world with the message of God's hope and love. To give visitJoelOsteen.com/GiveHope.God wants to refresh how you experience time in His Word! In this brand-new book, you’ll find 12 powerful lenses that will transform the way you read your Bible. Let our November offer show you How to Read Your Bible & Enjoy It https://bit.ly/4f5GjAY.  Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of the Joel Osteen Podcast ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hi, this is Joel and Victoria. Thanks so much for listening to the podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry. We believe you're going to have an awesome 2024, healthy, productive, and favor-filled. God bless you today and enjoy the message. God bless you. It's great to be with you today and I hope you'll stay connected with us during the week. Through our daily podcast, our YouTube channel, social media, we'll keep you encouraged and inspired. But I like to start with something funny and I heard about this past.

pastor and song leader that weren't getting along and it started spilling over in the services. One Sunday, the pastor preached on the importance of being a giver. Afterward, the song leader got up and led the song, Jesus paid it all. The next week the pastor talked about not gossiping, watching your tongue. The song leader got up and led. I love to tell the story. The pastor was so frustrated, finally resigned, told the congregation, Jesus brought me here and Jesus has taken me away.

way. The song leader then led, what a friend we have in Jesus. Say it like you mean it. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do. Today I will be taught the word of God. I boldly confess, my mind is alert, my heart is receptive. I will never be the same. In Jesus' name, God bless you. I want to talk to you today about listen to the the whisper. We don't always realize how God speaks to us. We've seen in the movies where God spoke to Moses, the voice boomed out of the heavens, sounded like thunder, so powerful and dramatic, gave you goosebumps. But most of the time, God speaks to us in a gentle whisper. It's not something loud, it's not forceful. It's called the still small voice. We feel an impression, a prompting, not in our

our head, but in our heart. It's like a suggestion, something that we suddenly know we're supposed to do. That's not random. That's not you just thinking up things. That's God speaking to you. Six times in the gospels, Jesus said, he that has ears, let him hear what the Spirit is saying. Everyone has ears. He wasn't talking about physically. He's talking about your inner ears. He was saying, are you sensitive to the whisper? Are you paying attention to what you're feeling in your spirit? It's easy to ignore it, push it down. But if you'll start obeying these promptings, the suggestions, the gentle whispers,

God will lead you down the best path for your life. You see that coworker, and suddenly you have the desire to be good to them. You feel compassion. Something says, let them know that you care. you'll be tempted to reason it out they look like they're doing fine they don't need my encouragement don't ignore the whisper

God wouldn't have given you that impression if they didn't need it you don't know what people are going through you can't judge by the outside that whisper is God leading you the more you obey that still small voice the more God can entrust

you with and sometimes you feel an unrest and uneasiness like an alarm is going off, telling you not to do something. Stay away from that person. Don't take that business deal. Don't get involved in that situation. Looks fine. Everything seems okay. Don't go against the whisper. God sees things that we can't see. He knows where the dead ends are. He knows the people that are going to pull us down and waste our time. When we look back over our life, mistakes we've made, disappointments, failures, if we're honest, most of the time, we can see how God tried to warn us.

We felt the uneasiness. We knew something wasn't right, but we wanted our way so badly, we overrode it. If there's an unrest, if that whisper is saying back off, it's not because God is punishing you, keeping you from something good, he's protecting you. He's keeping you from heartache. The reason that whisper is saying no is because he has something better in store. When you have big decisions, things you're concerned about, it's important to get quiet and listen to the whisper. Listen to what you're feeling. You can't hear it if you're always busy, noisy, stressed out, getting opinions from others, on the phone all the time. It's not that God isn't speaking, it's that it's too loud around us.

You need times of peace, times where you can get quiet and hear the whisper. Every morning I start the day off saying, God, help my spiritual ears to be sensitive to your voice. Help me to hear what you're saying today. It's not going to be your mind just a feeling down in here, an impression. All of a sudden, you have a desire to check on your children. a prompting to go to a certain place. It's easy to dismiss. And, oh, that's nothing.

That's just me daydreaming. No, that's God speaking to you. Pay attention to the whispers. There are times these whispers are going to ask you to do things you don't understand, things that don't make sense. If you reason it out and look at it only from a logical point of view, you'll talk yourself out of it. When Victoria and I were first married,

we found this townhome that we really loved. It was a beautiful place with big windows looking out to the woods, tall ceilings. We got it for an amazing price, almost half of what it was worth. And we were so grateful. We never dreamed that in our mid-20s we would have a place that nice. But about a year later, Victoria said, Joel, I feel so strongly we need to sell this place and buy a house. I thought, what do you mean?

This place is perfect. We just got here. That didn't make sense to my mind. When I got quiet and listened down in here, I could hear that same thing. Don't be surprised if that still small voice whispers things that go against your logic. God's ways are not our ways. That's a test. You have to trust that God knows what's best for you.

We took that step of faith and sold it. A few months later, Victoria called and said, Joel, I found our new house. Meet me at the property. I pulled up. It was this old run-down house. house, hadn't been lived in in years, had broken windows, foundation problems. The kitchen had buckets of water on the floor from the holes in the roof. Wasn't even livable, but it was on a beautiful half-acre lot close into the city. All of our logic said, are you crazy? You moved out of

your beautiful town home to this piece of junk. But down in my spirit, I could hear that whisper saying, this is it, move forward. The scripture talks about peace that passes understanding. That means sometimes your logic is not going to understand. Your intellect is not going to get it. But down in your spirit, there will be a peace, a rest, a knowing. You can't explain it. Doesn't make sense on paper.

You just know that you know it's right for you. We bought the house and we're going to fix it up. the day we closed on the property, I was standing in the front yard and this car pulled out. Lady got out and asked if we wanted to sell the property. I said, no, ma'am, we just bought it. She said, how about I pay you more and you make a good profit? I said, no, thanks. We really want to stay here.

She said, congratulations. You just bought your dream house. I didn't know what she meant. Well, the neighborhood was in the process of changing the deed restrictions so you could subdivide buy the property. A year later, a builder knocked on our door and wanted to buy it. We sold half of the property for more than we paid for the whole property. He built two houses, one for him and one for us. Our house, he built for no fee. We just paid the materials and the labor. It was more than we could ever imagine. We went from a small town home to a beautiful new house in a nice area in Houston.

This all started from a whisper, a simple suggestion down in our spirit. If you'll be sensitive to that still, small voice and not talk yourself out of it, God will lead you places that you've never dreamed. See, the Holy Spirit is on the inside of each one of us. He's called our helper, our counselor, our guide. The more sensitive we are to his whispers, what we're feeling, the promptings, the nudgings, the further we're going to go. This is something I've learned so strongly,

especially the last 20 years. I won't go against what I'm feeling on the inside. I trust my sensor. That's where God speaks to you. No matter how good the opportunity looks, no matter how impressive, if you don't have peace about it, don't move forward.

Or just the opposite. It may seem impossible. The odds are against us. All the circumstances say it's not going to happen, but if you have peace, that knowing, take that step of fame. When you develop this skill of listening to the whisper, following that still small voice, God will not only take you further, but he'll protect you from things that would have caused your heartache and pain. My brother-in-law, Kevin, was working on his washing machine a while back,

and Kevin can fix anything. He disconnected the hose in the back and turned the water off at the valve needed to run up to the store and get some parts. As he was about to leave, something said to him, out of the blue, wasn't even thinking about it. You need to put a cap on that faucet in case the valve breaks. Normally when you turn the faucet off, you don't need to cap it, but he heard it several times. Not out loud, just an impression, a gentle whisper. He was in a hurry and thought there's no need. I'm just being overly cautious. A few hours. A few hours. later, his children called Daddy, hurry home. There's water all over the house, the kitchen, the den, the study. He said, Joel, I heard it so strongly, but I kept ignoring it.

Pay attention to the whispers, especially when it won't go away, keeps coming back. That's God speaking to you. And sometimes the whisper is very practical. You're drinking too much caffeine. You're not eating healthy. This is not good for you. You keep hearing it again and again. pushing it down, don't ignore it. Maybe you hear that whisper. You need to get to work on time. You need to treat your spouse better. You need to watch your words. Gentle whispers, impressions in your spirit. Not your mind. Your intellect may say it's fine, but down in here it's something you know you should do. When we understand that the whispers are for our benefit, the whispers is God leading us down the best path, then we won't ignore it.

We won't push it down. We'll be quick to obey. At the mall, you don't feel good about that purchase. You don't override it. You put it back. At home, you feel that prompting to spend time with your child. You turn the TV off and obey. At work, something says, don't hang around that person. You feel uneasy. The alarm is going off. You don't reason it out. Oh, they look fine to me. You trust your sensor. You make the change. My father was driving down the free. one day and when he got off the feeder, he felt something whisper, you better slow down. There's a policeman around the curb. Just an impression, a prompting. He didn't pay any attention. He kept speeding along. He got around the curve and sure enough, there was a policeman with his radar gun waving him into the parking lot.

Daddy pulled in. The officer came up to his car. My father said, officer, you won't believe this, but the Lord told me you were here. the officer looked at him like yeah right who's this guy and he took his driver's license went to his car and he came back a couple minutes later and handed it back to my father he said listen to here a preacher i'm going to let you go but the next time the lord speaks to you you better listen how many times is god whispering to us throughout the day but we're not sensitive to it just a whisper slow down on the freeway be kinder to your spouse call that

friend and encourage them. Stop by and see your parents. Turn off that computer, get some more sleep, take care of yourself. Gentle whispers. They're not loud. God's not going to force you to do it. It's just an impression. The word obey in the original language means give ear to. To be obedient, you have to give your ear to what God is saying. You have to be a listener. Be sensitive to the whisper. What are you feeling in your spirit. May not be words just a knowing, something deep down you know you're supposed to do. I've heard it said, the loudest voice in your life should be the still small voice. The whispers will be quiet. Other voices, thoughts, reasoning, people's opinions, news will be much

louder. But you have to learn to give the whispers the most attention. When you let the still small voice be the voice you follow, then you'll make the best decisions. A friend of mine that attends Lakewood was a senior in college. Was a young man in her math class that she became friends with. She would see him from time to time. They'd talk and go to the math lab together. One day something said to her, invite that young man to church. She didn't know him that well.

She didn't know what he believed. She thought that's going to be kind of strange. He's going to think that's too forward. On and on. She kept coming up with all these excuses and wouldn't do it. Week went by, two weeks, a month, but she couldn't get away from it. One way you know it's from God is it won't go away. That impression, that prompting, it keeps coming back.

Every time she saw him down deep, she heard that whisper, invite him to church. And sometimes God will ask you to do things that are uncomfortable. where you have to stretch and take a step of faith. Now, last week of school, she got her nerve up and did it. She invited him to Lakewood. They both graduated and went there separate ways. She never knew what he did with the invitation, but she felt good that she obeyed that still small voice.

Two years later, she met her husband here at Lakewood. They fell in love and were married. Life was good. One day they were leaving the service, and she saw the young man from college at the back of the auditorium. He had a badge on. He was an usher. She was amazed.

She said, I can't believe you're here and that you volunteer. Her husband went over to him, gave him a big hug. Say, hey, how you've been doing? They began to talk like they were old friends. She looked at her husband and said, how do you know him? Her husband said, he's the one that invited me to Lakewood. He's the reason that I'm here.

That whole time she was hearing that whisper, invite him to Lakewood. She thought she was doing him a favor. In fact, she was doing herself a favor. That gentle whisper was saying, in effect, invite your husband to church. God sees the big picture. He knows how to connect the dots. We're never going to understand at the time all that he's doing, how he's arranging, moving, and preparing.

anytime you feel that whisper, that impression, it may be to be good to someone else, but it will be instrumental in reaching your destiny. There will be these times where you're uncomfortable. You have to stretch. You have to push past the fear, the uncertainty, and do what you know God is asking you to do. Every act of obedience leads to a blessing. You may not see it right now, but down the road, God will be. connect the dots. That gentle whisper may be telling you to forgive, to let go of that hurt,

quit holding on to the grudge. That's uncomfortable. Your mind will say, no way. They hurt you too badly. You get to choose. Which voice are you going to obey? The loud, forceful, don't change. Take the easy way out voice. No, let the gentle whisper be the voice you follow. May be uncomfortable, but God knows what he's doing. When you're sensitive to the still small voice, when you're in tune with what you're feeling in your spirit, not just living by your intellect, but listening to the promptings, then you're going to go down the best path for your life. When my father was in his mid-70s, he had to go on dialysis. He'd struggled with high blood pressure most of his life, and it had damaged his kidneys.

Many times I would take him to the clinic. One morning, he called me at 3.30. I said, Joel, I can't sleep. I'd like to go up and have dialysis now. I said, okay, I'll come pick you up. And I drove him to the clinic. After we got him all hooked up and settled, it would take about four hours. Normally I'd go run errands or go to work, come back later. There's only 3.45 in the morning. I was planning on going back home and sleeping. But as I was about to leave, I heard something whisper, Joel, you need to stay here with your father and visit with him. Keep him company.

I felt him so strongly. Not out loud, just an impression. I knew I was supposed to stay. Now my mind said, Joel, you can visit later. It's four o'clock in the morning. Go back home. These loud thoughts came telling me something different. If you're going to listen to the whisper,

you have to have your ear tuned to what you're feeling. Don't let the loud thoughts. drown out the gentle whisper. Develop your ear to where the whisper becomes the loudest voice. Well, my father thanked me for bringing him said he'd see me later. I said, no, Daddy, I'm going to stay with you today and we can visit. He was so happy.

We talked for four hours and time went by so fast. I brought him home at 8 o'clock in the morning. We were standing in the kitchen. He said, Joel, you're the best son a father could ever hope to have. And leaving that morning, I felt so satisfied, so at peace, so fulfilled. My father knew that I loved him, and I knew that he loved me. Well, those were the last words I ever heard my father speak to me. That night, he had a heart attack and went to be with the Lord. I'm so glad I didn't ignore that whisper to stay with him.

God knows the future. He knows what we're going to need, what to avoid, what not to do. At the time, we may not understand it. Does it make it? Does it make a future? He knows what we're going to need, what to need. He knows what to avoid, what to do. At the time we may not understand it. Does it make sense? We're uncomfortable, but you can trust the whisper. You can trust that knowing. Not your mind, but in your heart. Don't override the still small voice.

God is leading you down the best path. You can't accomplish your purpose on your own. The whispers are what gives you an advantage. The whispers will give you inside information. The whispers will take you where you can't go on your own. 1 Kings chapter 19 Elijah was in a difficult place he had just called down fire from heaven destroyed 450 of the false prophets of bail one of his greatest victories but when the king's wife heard about all these men they had lost she was furious she set out to kill Elijah he was hiding in

a cave discouraged and afraid he needed direction and god told him to go stand on the mountain He was about to pass. Verse 11 says, there was a great and powerful wind that tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks. You would think, surely, God just showed up. That was so powerful. But it goes on to say, God was not in the wind. After the wind, there was a great earthquake,

something even bigger that split the ground open. But the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was a great fire that burned things up. but God was not into fire. After the fire, the scripture says, there came a gentle whisper. God was showing us how he speaks.

When all the circumstances are loud, it's noisy, thoughts telling you what's not going to work out, people coming against you, it's easy to get stressed, confused. You have to come back to that quiet place. The reason God whispers is because he's close to you. You don't whisper to strangers. You don't whisper to people you barely know.

You whisper to your spouse. You whisper to your child. You whisper to someone you know and love. That's why God whispers to you. You're his child. He loves you. He trusts you. He wants the best for you.

He's not going to shout, be loud, forceful. He'll lead you by these gentle whispers, by the still small voice. Psalm 25 says The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him When you honor God He'll tell you secrets He'll whisper things in your spirit

That you had no way of knowing He knows like he did with me When you need to spend time with someone He knows where the property is that's going to increase He knows like my friend where your spouse is He knows where the good breaks are The promotion, the resources, the abundance,

the abundance. He'll give you inside information, a gentle whisper. It's the secret of the Lord. Won't always make sense. It may not seem logical. The facts say otherwise, trust the whisper. Obey the promptings, the knowing, the still small voice. That's God whispering secrets. A man I know bought some property years ago way out in the middle of nowhere. Hardly paid anything for it. less than $100 an acre. He bought several hundred acres. Logically speaking, as an investment, it looked like a waste of money. The land was dry and barren, couldn't grow crops on it, couldn't raise cattle. He was just rocks, clay, and cactus. He used to go check on it every once in a while. It always puzzled me as to why he bought the property. I thought maybe he had

family in the area, some kind of plans to develop it. He said, no, Joel, I was just driving by one day, and I felt so drawn to it. I knew it was supposed to be mine. Just a whisper, just a prompting that he felt in his spirit. God will ask you to do things that are not always logical. The battle will take place between your mind, all the loud voices, and the gentle whisper. When it's from God, it's more of a knowing. You can't explain it.

on paper it may not make sense your reason can't justify it but deep down you have this peace you know you're supposed to do it 15 years later he received notice that the state was putting in a highway it just so happened out of all that land it was going to run right through his property they had to buy him out he ended up making more than a hundred times what he paid for it this man is an older gentleman, he's kind of country. A reporter from the regional paper was talking to him. He said, sir, you sure know how to pick a piece of property. He said, yes, my father told me about this place. The reporter said, I didn't know your dad was in real estate. The man pointed up, said, I'm talking about my heavenly father. He knows where everything is. When you listen to this

still small voice, you'll come across blessings, favor, good breaks, things you had no way of knowing. You can't explain it. You don't have any data to back it up, but you do have the most high God living on the inside of you. He'll whisper secrets to your spirit. Now, some of these whispers are destiny moments. They are vital for you to see the fullness of what God has in store. The reason you feel it so strongly is because it's about to launch you into a new level of your destiny. God is about to whisper some secrets. He's going to give you insight into things that propel you ahead. You are one whisper away from stepping into greater favor, greater influence, greater resources, something more than you've imagined. Now, it may not happen the way you think. It may not make sense logically.

Your mind will try to talk you out of it. Follow the still small voice. You can trust your sensor. I believe that God is whispering something to all of us. Maybe an area we need to grow, come up higher, make better decisions. We've heard it. We keep ignoring it, but it won't go away. Now is the time to act. Maybe it's a whisper where we need to stretch. Get out of our comfort zone.

Take a step of faith. My challenge is pay attention to the whispers. Be sensitive to what you're feeling. The promptings. Let that stills. small voice be the loudest voice in your life, the voice that you choose to obey. If you'll do this, I believe and declare God is going to whisper secrets to you. He's going to give you inside information. You're about to rise higher, accomplish dreams, and become all you were created

to be in Jesus' name. And if you receive it, can you say amen? I'd like to give you an opportunity to make Jesus the Lord of your life. Would you pray with me? Just say, Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins. Come into my heart. I make you my Lord and Savior. If you prayed that simple prayer, we believe you got born again. We'd love to send you some free information.

You can text the number on the screen and go to the website. I hope you'll get into a good Bible-based church and keep God first place. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I can do. This is the first Bible that my parents gave me. I was six years old.

They taught me the importance of believing what God says about you and letting that determine your self-image. Now, how through the scripture you can learn to handle challenges and pursue your dreams. Some people tell me that the Bible's not practical for them, how they don't understand it. We've created a new resource called How to Read Your Bible and Enjoy it. It provides 12 distinct lives.

lenses that'll help you see the Bible with fresh eyes so you can discover the hidden treasures that increase your faith and practical truths that'll help you in your everyday life. When you tap into the power of God's word, there's no limit to where he'll take you. As our way of saying thank you for your gift of any size to the ministry this month, Joel would like to send you this inspiring new resource. Sometimes reading the Bible can feel confusing, out of touch, or even produce more fear than faith. But now, with this new resource, how to read your Bible and enjoy it, it will make the Word of God come alive in new ways. You'll discover fresh inspiration on every page of your Bible. The 12 lenses give you the power to see the scripture in a whole new light. When you experience

the right way to approach God's word, it will ignite renewed passion in your life. When you get God's word down in you, it brings life and victory. This has a great Bible reading plan, plus introductions to each book. It'll help you enjoy reading the Bible. Thanks so much for being a part of the ministry. Victoria and I pray for you and your family every day. We appreciate your prayers and support. Remember, you can watch the services online every Sunday morning,

download our daily podcast, watch on YouTube, or we have a new Joel Osteen Television Network. 24 hours a day, and of course, SyriXXM as well. Until we see you next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you. Be sure to request your copy of How to Read Your Bible and enjoy it. Today, visit Joel Osteen.com or call 888-567 Joel. Call or click anytime 24 hours a day.