Living the Reclaimed Life

Is That You, God? Preparing Your Heart To Hear ~ Norma Donovan Ep. 94

February 20, 2023 Season 2 Episode 94
Living the Reclaimed Life
Is That You, God? Preparing Your Heart To Hear ~ Norma Donovan Ep. 94
Show Notes Transcript

Have you ever wondered...  Can I hear God's voice?  How does God speak to us? How do I know if it's God, or just me? This is part three of our mini-series, "Is that you, God?" We are discussing how we can position ourselves and prepare our hearts to hear God's voice.

This month, in Feb. 2023 we are giving away 2 free copies of Norma's book, "Restoring Your Heart to Deepen Intimacy."

Follow us on IG or FB at Reclaimed Story. Comment on one of our posts this month and share a story of a time when you heard from God; let's encourage each other as we engage in the adventure of hearing God's voice. Every comment is 1 entry!


You can find Norma's book, "Restoring Your Heart To Deepen Intimacy," on Amazon HERE
Stay Connected With Norma: 

Website: www.restoring-hearts.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/FollowRestoringHearts

If you would like to connect with a safe group of women doing real-life together, join our private Facebook page,
“Living the Reclaimed Life” Join us! 

Check out more at our website www.reclaimedstory.com 

Connect with us!
Facebook
Instagram 

Here are two FREE Ebooks for you!
1. Shame Off You: 10 steps to shattering shame in your life,
HERE.
2. ABC's:
CLICK HERE for a FREE E-book to help you combat lies and replace them with God's truth. For more encouragement, check out some of our offerings at www.reclaimedstory.com

Did you know we have a jewelry line that speaks to your identity in Jesus?
CLICK HERE to shop. Every purchase helps support our mission to provide healing and hope to women worldwide.

Would you partner with us to spread the message of hope and healing? You can
DONATE HERE. Living the Reclaimed Life is a Reclaimed Story, Inc. podcast, An Arizona non-profit corporation.

If you would like to connect with a safe group of women doing real-life together, join our private Facebook page,
“Living the Reclaimed Life” or on Facebook or Instagram

Transcript is auto-generated

[00:00:00] Denisha: How do we position ourselves and prepare our hearts to hear God's voice? Well, that's what we're gonna talk about today as we continue in our mini-series, is that you, God, where Norma Donovan is teaching us how to hear God's voice, the different ways that God speaks, and today, how to prepare our hearts to hear.

[00:00:21] Denisha: So we hope that you enjoy this. Welcome to Living the Reclaimed Life podcast. I'm Danisha. We're glad you're here for conversations that revive hope, inspire healing, and encourage you to live a vibrant life with Christ. So grab a cup of coffee as we chat with today's guest.

[00:00:42] Denisha: Norma, I am so excited to have you back for week three of the podcast 

[00:00:48] Norma: and I am so excited to be here, Danisha. Thank. If 

[00:00:51] Denisha: you miss the last two episodes, this is episode three of this series. Is that you, God. And so what Norma is bringing [00:01:00] to us is a great wealth of knowledge on how to hear the Lord's voice.

[00:01:04] Denisha: So the first episode we did, why does God speak to us? The second episode was how does God speak to us? And in this episode, we're gonna hear from Norma on how do we prepare our hearts to hear. And if you did miss the first two, I wanna encourage you to go back and listen to those. But you will find that Norma is an author, a speaker, and the founder and president of Restoring Hearts Ministry.

[00:01:29] Denisha: She has a master's degree in counseling and her passions include, which you will hear just ooze out of her messages, is mentoring women, being intimate with God and seeing others' hearts restored. And this month we are giving away your book, Norma. We're giving away two copies of your book and it is restoring hearts to deepen intimacy on Amazon.

[00:01:52] Denisha: And you guys, if Norma's messages her life experience, the wisdom that she's sharing resonates in your heart. [00:02:00] Grab her book. It is definitely filled with wisdom and the very last chapter talks about hearing from God, but there's so many steps into that to restoring our. Norma today, share with us how can we position ourselves and prepare our hearts to hear God's.

[00:02:17] Norma: Okay, so the first, and I think one of the main things is Danisha, is to have childlike faith and complete trust. We need to believe and expect that God wants to speak to us, everything we receive from God, whether it's our salvation, whether it's being filled with the Holy Spirit, uh, walking out our gifts and also hearing God's voice.

[00:02:40] Norma: They all come as a result of. It's not an intellectual thing, okay? And hearing God's voice is one of those things. Matthew 1125 says, at that time, Jesus said, I praise you, father Lord of heaven and earth because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to [00:03:00] little children.

[00:03:01] Norma: Little children have faith. You know, I keep praying to the Lord as I get older. I'm 67. Make me more childlike. I want to have more wonder and childlike faith as I age. So a child though, is one who has not been hurt or deceived by a parent. They will automatically trust their parent to provide for their needs.

[00:03:23] Norma: In fact, I don't even think it's a thought in their mind. You know, will they help me out? , you know, will they feed me? When we're childlike, we believe that God wants to speak to us and we trust that what he has to say is for our good childlike faith and trust prevents us from doubting that we'll hear already hearing God's voice.

[00:03:45] Norma: Sometimes our faith Danisha is displayed through waiting. for God to speak. We'll hear him speak when we take the time to sit still and wait for him to speak. Hearing his voice is unexplainable. [00:04:00] It's not something you can rationally or intellectually understand. It takes simple, unadulterated, childlike faith, and so I encourage the listeners ask God for more faith.

[00:04:12] Norma: I'm always doing that because I only believe to a. Degree, and then I need more faith to believe beyond that. The second way we can prepare our hearts is through humility, dependence upon God and submission to God. And I'd like to read first Samuel three verse one through 10. This is when the Lord is calling Samuel.

[00:04:35] Norma: The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. And in those days, the word of the Lord was rare. There were not many visions. One night, Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord where the arc of God was.

[00:04:58] Norma: Then the Lord called [00:05:00] Samuel. Samuel answered. Here I. and he ran to Eli and said, here I am. You called me. But Eli said, I did not call, go back and lie down. So he went back and laid down again. The Lord called Samuel and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, here I am. You called me. My son Eli said, I did not call, go back and lie down.

[00:05:25] Norma: Now, Samuel did not yet know the Lord and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. A third time the Lord called Samuel and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, here I am. You called me. Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, Lord for your servant is listening.

[00:05:52] Norma: So Samuel went and laid down in his place and the Lord came and stood there calling as at the other times, [00:06:00] Samuel. Samuel. And then Samuel said, speak for your servant is listening. You know, initially Samuel did not recognize God's voice and he mistook it to be that of Eli's. And likewise too, we can mistake and think that the thoughts in our minds are just our thoughts when it's really God's speaking to us.

[00:06:22] Norma: Our response to the Lord, I think, through that passage is to be like Samuel's. Here I am. This signifies that we're present and we're near to God, we're available. In other words, he has access to our heart and we're willing to obey and do what he's called us to do. Samuel told God, speak Lord, your servant is listening.

[00:06:46] Norma: And I think one way, our heart attitude is to be like that, like Samuel, one of surrender, immediate obedience and a willingness to serve. You know, I think I might have mentioned this before [00:07:00] in another podcast, but we listen in order to obey, we hear, in order to heed what he says. The third way we can position ourselves is having purity of heart.

[00:07:12] Norma: Last week we discussed the obstacles to hearing God's voice and sin is one of the main ones. Probably no surprise there, but Matthew five eight says, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. And I believe the pure in heart will also hear God as our love for God increases, so will our holiness increase, which in turn then gives us greater access to hearing the father's.

[00:07:39] Norma: Repentance is a gift to us from God. And if the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, then we need to repent, purify our heart and restore relationship with God before we listen to his voice. The fourth position or character to build within ourselves is to have [00:08:00] the fear of the Lord, or in other words, a healthy reverence for God, and then also Obed.

[00:08:06] Norma: In June of 2015, I heard the Lord say this to me. I will speak to you when you least expect it. My daughter, you don't have to be as ready to listen, as willing to listen so you can obey. So my willingness to submit and obey what God tells me. Swings the door open for the Lord to speak to me when I go about my normal day.

[00:08:30] Norma: It's not just when I'm sitting still intentional to try to hear his voice. This might sound silly, but a few days ago I was looking for a recipe and I have a big recipe box, and then I had recipes that I had pulled that I thought I was going to use or had used and I just hadn't put them. and I was looking for this one particular recipe through, I started to look through the box and just the thought came through my head.

[00:08:57] Norma: Look at that pile of paper, you know, the [00:09:00] others that are separated out at the box. Did I obey? No, I did not in that situation. And I went through that whole, you know, all, all those recipes when I could have just simply gone over to that small pile and pulled it right out. And so, you know, he likes to help us out.

[00:09:18] Norma: That was not a major thing. It may be saved, it could have saved me a couple of minutes, but he wants to be involved in our daily life. First Samuel 1522 says, Samuel replied, does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams in God's language.

[00:09:46] Norma: you spell love Opie. E D I E N C E. Love is the number one motivator for obedience because you'll do anything for the one you love. And love is also the secret to not [00:10:00] sinning. So when I love God more than I love the world and my fleshly desires less. Love compels us to obey. Periodically, I will ask the Lord to cause me to fall more madly in love with him.

[00:10:15] Norma: Everything is initiated by God and fearing or reving him is another motivation to obey, but it doesn't last in the long run as loved Does. When we obey the words, we hear God speak, then we show him that he can trust us with more words from hearing his voice. I think one of the most difficult things in hearing his voice danisha in responding to what he says, it's because it may require risk.

[00:10:44] Norma: And stepping out of our comfort zone. I remember one time I was answering a phone at our first house in Omaha, Nebraska, and I can still see myself sitting there at the little desk in the kitchen, and it was one of the pastor's [00:11:00] wives and she was calling. To invite John and I to go on a short-term mission trip.

[00:11:05] Norma: It was a prayer team that she was putting together to minister to those in Kabul, Afghanistan. And this was in 1995 when the Taliban were bombing Kabul. Our kids were in junior high at the time, and you know, as she said it, it was like, oh gosh, I know the Lord wants us to. But you know, I was afraid to do that, quite frankly, and I had fear up till like the last week or two before we left, when one of the pastors, you know, delivered me from that fear.

[00:11:43] Norma: So sometimes, you know, obeying his voice is very difficult to do. Another way we can position ourselves to hear God's voice is to make listening a top priority. He wants to be our number one priority and he wants our time. He wants our [00:12:00] attention. God wants no one or nothing else to take his rightful place.

[00:12:07] Norma: No idols, no other gods before him, and when he knows that he occupies that place or that it's our heart's desire to do that, even though we may not always show that. Then I believe he speaks Scripture repeatedly encourages us to have wholehearted devotion to God. So the new living translation of Exodus 34 verse 14 says this, you must worship no other gods, but only the Lord, for he is a God who is passionate about his relationship with you.

[00:12:40] Norma: And likewise, God wants us to demonstrate that we're passionate about. by making it a priority to listen to his voice. One of your listeners wrote on Your Living the Reclaimed Live Facebook page that she once heard a wise man say, if you don't hear [00:13:00] God, you aren't listening. So I think the ball is on, is in our court.

[00:13:06] Norma: God wants to speak. We just need. Be willing to listen and be intentional about that. God loves to be pursued. Exodus three verse four demonstrates this. When the Lord saw that Moses had gone over to look at the fiery bush, God called to him from within the bush. Moses. Moses. I believe that if God sees any hint of us being interested in listening to his voice, he'll.

[00:13:36] Norma: God likes it when we go after him and pursue hearing his voice. In 2014, the month of July, I heard God say this. I go with you wherever you go. It's your commitment and faithfulness to me. I want to bless it. Doesn't matter what room you're in or where you want to sit to hear my voice. What matters most is that you [00:14:00] take the time to sit still and listen.

[00:14:03] Norma: What matters is that you make time with me a priority, and that's what love looks. What I like is knowing that you want to be with me. It's not a chore or a duty and no longer a responsibility to check off your to-do list. Your pursuit of me is what gives you great favor with my heart. You're preferring me, causes me to want to prefer you.

[00:14:29] Norma: You 

[00:14:29] Denisha: know, as you read that, I think of even the relationship with my husband. , when he prefers me, when he does something kind for, it does make me want to prefer him to do something kind in return. Like there is a reciprocity, if you will. Yes. To that relationship. That was really powerful. Hmm. When you talked about the childlike faith mm-hmm.

[00:14:52] Denisha: there was a thought that came to my mind, a memory of when our oldest was in first. And I was learning to [00:15:00] hear from God myself. And so the first thing I wanted to do was, okay, I forget how old I was at the time, but I remember thinking, I wanna teach these kids young because I didn't get to learn that young.

[00:15:11] Denisha: So it wasn't a lifestyle for me. I had to learn. And I was, you know, struggling and I was falling and it was like, you know, a toddler trying to walk. Right. And I remember that our six year old, he was in first grade and he was homesick with the stomach. And it was ugly . It was one of those, like he had no control over what his body was doing.

[00:15:31] Denisha: Sweet boy. And I remember it was the time of the morning when he was at school normally, where I would lay on the floor with our littlest and I would just practice hearing from God. And I would just lay there and just wait. And I remember that I said, Hey, bud. I said, I'm gonna go in and see what God has to say for me today.

[00:15:50] Denisha: And I wish I could say, oh, I do this every day, Norma. But I just wanna be honest. No, this was a season in my life. and I have not laid on the floor and just [00:16:00] listened for the Lord's voice in this way for a really long time. I'm gonna be, I wanna be really honest. I don't people thinking that, oh, she does this every day.

[00:16:07] Denisha: No, that's not real for me. But at this season of my life, I remember laying on the floor every morning, I'd get the kids off to school and I would lay on the floor with my little one, and I would pray, God, what do you have to say to me today? And our friend Sally calls it our march. Her marching orders for the death.

[00:16:22] Denisha: Yes, . And I just love that, Lord. What are my marching. To my son. I said, why don't you lay here with me and let's see what God wants to show us. And I said, it might be a picture in your mind. It might be words that you hear. It might be just something you weren't thinking of that pops in your head. And he goes, okay.

[00:16:40] Denisha: And so he's laying there and all of a sudden I heard the Lord clear as day say, I'm gonna take this infirmity from. , and this wasn't a big disease. This was a 24 hour stomach flu. So when you said God cares about the little things that reminded me of that, and I heard [00:17:00]grownup words, I heard God's gonna take this infirmity from him.

[00:17:04] Denisha: And I thought, oh, thank you, God cuz Right? What are we doing today, Lord? That's what I'm kind of asking. And my little guy goes, mom, I see a picture. And I said, oh, what? What do you see buddy? And he goes, I see a trash truck. And now in my wise thinking, I thought, oh, how cute. He sees a trash truck, you know, how cute is that?

[00:17:24] Denisha: And he says, I see a trash truck. He says, it's opening up in front of our house and I see men putting all the icks out of my stomach into the trash truck and driving it away. Oh, I came up off that floor. I looked at him and he kind of looked shocked and I. That's what I heard God tell me too, that he's gonna take away his infirmities and he just saw men packing up something bad from his belly and taking it down the street.

[00:17:52] Denisha: And I said that you're right. Like that is exactly what I heard. Let me tell you, my faith in that moment, it became normal for him. [00:18:00] This is what mom does. This is, we expect there was an expectation that God was gonna speak to him in that, but I remember he never threw up again. That. . Wow. He didn't have any issues with his stomach for the rest of the day.

[00:18:12] Denisha: And we played and had this great day and he went back to school the next day and he goes to a private school and his teacher said, has any of you ever heard the voice of God? Like he just happened to be the lesson. The very next day, Uhhuh and he raised his hand and said Hi. Yesterday he showed me a trash truck and that teacher called me that night and said,

[00:18:33] Denisha: I cannot believe what your son just said. And I was like, I know that Is that childlike faith that you talked about, Norma? Like I just, that was the, the memory that came back into my mind is he had such childlike faith. Like mom says, I can lay down and ask God, what do you have to say about today? And he's just gonna show me.

[00:18:50] Denisha: And as we get older, you had such a great way of verbalizing that. We forget that it really is that simple. We get hurt, we get [00:19:00] disappointed, and we forget that hearing God's voice is really that simple. . 

[00:19:03] Norma: Yeah. And he wants us to wonder, to have that wonder in awe of who he is and to trust him. Like what my daddy does want to speak to me and what he says will happen.

[00:19:16] Norma: Yeah. 

[00:19:17] Denisha: Yeah. Oh, I just love that you gave us so many practical tips. I wanna see, tell me if I've missed any here. So to ready your hearts to hear God's voice, we have to have childlike faith and. Be humble and dependent upon God to have a pure heart, to revere and obey the Lord and to make it a priority.

[00:19:39] Denisha: Did I catch everything there? We got it. . Oh, so such good stuff. So Norma, what else can we do to posture ourselves to hear his 

[00:19:47] Norma: voice? The next one. Danisha, I think is a key one, and we need to know our daddy. We need to know who God is, what he's like, so that we can trust him. [00:20:00] Our relationship with God or anyone else for that matter, will only be as intimate as the depth of our trust.

[00:20:07] Norma: We can't trust someone. We don't. You know, you're not going to share your secrets with strangers off the street, or at least I hope you don't . You know, you watch people, you observe them, you get to know them, and then you can place your confidence in them and share your heart with them. So the more we know God, the more we'll trust him, and the more we trust him, the more intimate we'll be.

[00:20:32] Norma: Moms know their babies cry because they have spent lots of time with them. When I first started dating my husband, and it's coming up to 50 years ago that I met him this August. Yeah, I kept asking him all sorts of questions about his hopes and his fears and his likes and dislikes and his dreams, and the more I spent time with John, the more I got to know him.

[00:20:56] Norma: Likewise, we get to know who God is [00:21:00] and what he is like by spending time with him studying his word of God. One listener wrote on your Facebook page that the most clear way she hears from God is through his word. So pay attention to your everyday experiences with God. Observe how God interacts with you and others, but especially concentrate on getting to know Him through the word of God.

[00:21:25] Norma: Always be in pursuit of knowing God. The more I get to know him, the closer my relationship with him. Which also helps me to recognize and hear his voice more clearly. I think it can be confusing to try to discern God's voice if it's his voice, if it's the enemy's voice or our own voice that you're hearing in your thoughts.

[00:21:49] Norma: And so when you read the Word, you'll discover God's character traits and what he's. and that process helps you to discern whose voice [00:22:00] you're hearing when you read the word, take notice of God's nature and what his voice sounds like. For example, in the verses, in Ephesians chapter four, verses two and 32, it says this, be completely humble and gentle.

[00:22:15] Norma: Be patient bearing with one another in love. Be kind and compassionate to one another. Forgiving each other just as in Christ, God forgave you. And so what we learned from this scripture. These verses is that God's character is humble, gentle, patient, kind, compassionate, and forgiving. And because this is his nature, God's voice.

[00:22:40] Norma: Will be humble, not proud or arrogant. His voice will be gentle, not harsh. It'll be patient, not demanding. It'll be kind, not forceful or manipulative. His voice will be compassionate, not distant or caring, and his voice is forgiving, not [00:23:00] condemning us or holding a grudge. His voice will be filled with love and encouragement even when he brings up a sin issue.

[00:23:08] Norma: In my life, God's kindness woos me to repentance. He doesn't condemn shame or put me down as he speaks. He confirms my identity as his beloved daughter, and it amazes me that the crater of the universe wants to speak to me and he wants to speak to your audience, those listening to this podcast. When God speaks, you hear his love and he woves and encourages you.

[00:23:37] Norma: Satan's voice drives and forces you, and he uses intimidation and demands you to do it. God's voice gives us clear specific instructions and calls us by name. His words are personal. . On the other hand, the enemy exaggerates. He gives vague and confusing instructions and at times uses derogatory or [00:24:00] negative speech.

[00:24:01] Norma: But God speaks truth because he values us and he offers us hope and strength. While the enemy speaks lies, he attacks and devalues us. And his words instill fear and. So the more you get to know God through reading the word of God, the less you will question whose voice you're listening to. And sometimes he will confirm, uh, the words he speaks to me by giving it to me over and over again, kind of like a broken record

[00:24:34] Norma: And then the last way we can position ourself is practice sitting still and listening. As Nike would say, just do it. in Psalm 46, 10, God encourages us to be still and to know that he's God. , I think I probably should have included this last week, is one of the obstacles is sometimes we're afraid of silence [00:25:00] and solitude.

[00:25:01] Norma: I was that way for many years, and again, it was something that the Lord had to do some healing within my heart, so I would be comfortable being alone and quiet with the. When we choose to make the time to quiet ourselves and stillness, listen to his voice, the Holy Spirit will speak to us. So we need to cultivate like an inward sensitivity to the spirit by practice being with God in quietness.

[00:25:30] Norma: We listen to God with our heart, not with our physical ears. It's an analogy would be like, you know when you turn on a radio station and you haven't quite turned into the frequency and you hear all this static. That's what I think the training process has been for me. He's tuning me in my spirit, within me, into his frequency that the Holy Spirit is.

[00:25:56] Norma: And at times hearing his voice will require [00:26:00] waiting and being patient to hear, but waiting shows the Lord that we depend upon him to show up and speak. Danisha, how do you feel when a friend seeks you out and initiates time alone with you, like calls you up and says, let's go have coffee. How does that feel Special?

[00:26:19] Norma: Yeah, you do. 

[00:26:20] Denisha: I feel like they care. They care about me, that they want that time with me. Not something from me, but just genuinely want to be with me. Oh, that's 

[00:26:29] Norma: beautiful. Yes. And it makes you feel loved and valued, doesn't it? Yeah. And it's the same with God. When we are intentional and choose to make time to sit still, to listen to his voice, I believe he feels special.

[00:26:42] Norma: Just as you mentioned. So before we spend time listening to God's. The audience may want to take authority in the name of Jesus and silence the enemy, the enemy's voice. Tell the Lord that you desire to hear him to speak, and that you [00:27:00] believe he will speak to you. That's like an act of faith that you're showing him.

[00:27:05] Norma: Ask the Holy Spirit to purify your heart, and then if he convicts you of sin, please confess and repent of that. You could even thank him, you know, thank you that you want to speak to me. Sometimes when I sit still to listen to God's voice, I'll say to him, just as Samuel did speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.

[00:27:27] Norma: I'll have my pen and my journal ready to jot down what I hear him say. Those are some of the ways we can prepare our hearts to hear God's voice. But in closing, I'd like to encourage maybe a little challenge to the listeners to complete a homework assignment this week, and I'd like them to take just five minutes.

[00:27:48] Norma: Of stillness and solitude alone with the Lord. If they want to do it longer or if they wanna do more days than just one day, you know, go for it. But then record [00:28:00] whatever he says. You could ask him, what Lord do you wanna say to me? What is your heart for me? What do you want me to know about you or about?

[00:28:12] Norma: Or about a particular situation you're in. Let him know that you're listening and that you want to obey him. You could even ask him to tell you how he feels about you or for a direction in a specific area. He may give you a word picture and just like we talked about, I think it was last week, if you get a word picture, ask him to explain what it.

[00:28:34] Norma: He may give you a scripture verse or a new name, which will speak identity and destiny over your life. Whatever he says, write it down. Don't worry about grammar or punctuation. Just let those words flow. And even if you don't hear anything, know that your time spent in his. Is very near and dear to his heart.

[00:28:59] Norma: He [00:29:00] loves having time alone with you, even when there may be no conversation. I want to encourage the listeners to make this a practice, something that they do often, and when you practice the practice of hearing God's voice, when your inner ear is trained to listen, it will become more automatic and you'll begin to hear his voice throughout the day.

[00:29:22] Norma: Hearing God's voice is where real life I. With a real God. I really wanna 

[00:29:28] Denisha: encourage you to take Norma's challenge. You know, our prayer behind the scenes has kind of been for this season to increase your expectation, to maybe stretch you a little bit in your relationship with God. I remember for years going in and just doing two worship songs, reading two chapters, and then kind of going through my list.

[00:29:50] Denisha: I have a little bulletin board up on the wall where I keep the prayer requests, and so going through my list of prayers and then sitting and going, okay, Lord, what do you have to say about this? Hmm. . [00:30:00] Amen. Okay, now look, go on with my day. And I didn't give him that chance for a two-way conversation. I sort of was doing all the talking and so that two-way conversation, I just pray that through Norma's teaching and through her examples also, that you would have a heightened expectation for God to speak to you, that during this time, take our five minute challenge, set your timer on your phone and for five minutes and just practice sitting and know that your mind may.

[00:30:29] Denisha: If this is not a practice that you've integrated into your life, your mind may wonder, you may be filling out grocery lists or to-do lists, and just try to pull it back when you notice and just focus on what you've asked and just stay still in that moment and the next day, try it again. I mean, I love the idea of trying it every day for five minutes, you know, and just seeing what does God have to.

[00:30:51] Denisha: Norma, thank you so much for setting that expectation, that anticipation for us that he will do what his word says. He will [00:31:00] speak to us and it will grow intimacy with him. You're 

[00:31:03] Norma: welcome. Thank you for having me today.

[00:31:06] Denisha: Oh, this is so good. We're gonna need a lot of notes from all of this cuz there's such rich content in here.

[00:31:12] Denisha: So Norma, thank you so much. And you guys, if you took Norma's five minute challenge, if you decide to take that this week, would you pop on to our Facebook or Instagram page and let us know what. God spoke to you. You can do it through a private message or you can do it publicly as we share. You know, faith comes from hearing and so as we hear other people's stories, other people's experiences with the Lord, it encourages us as we do the same.

[00:31:40] Denisha: So let's encourage one another this week. Pop on one of the posts about this podcast and let us know what is God's speaking to you this week, and thank you so much for joining. We will see you same time, same place next week with Norma and Norma. Really quick, where can we find you outside [00:32:00] of this podcast?

[00:32:01] Norma: Yeah, at restoring hearts.com, that's our website. 

[00:32:05] Denisha: Fantastic. And your book is on Amazon. Restoring Your Heart To Deepen Intimacy. You guys grab a copy and weaken together. Learn even more from Norma and what the Lord has done in her life. So Norma, thank you so much and look forward to having you back next week.

[00:32:22] Denisha: Thanks. We'll see you same time, same place next week. Thanks for listening. I pray you found hope in today's conversation and maybe even feel a little less alone in your story. Stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram at Reclaimed Story. Wanna learn more about living a reclaimed life and how you can be a part of our growing community of re.

[00:32:45] Denisha: Check out our website@reclaimedstory.com. All of those links and more will be in the show notes. And if you enjoy this inspirational podcast, be sure to subscribe, rate and review. Not only will you be the first one to know when [00:33:00] new content comes out, but it is also a huge help in helping us reach more people to live the reclaimed.