How to receive God’s guidance

January 28, 2026Squadron of Sisters (Debbie Chavez) Leave a comment

We all want to receive guidance from the Lord. You may need to make a decision in your marriage or with your children or regarding your work situation, and you wonder which way to go. Well, the good news is that God promises to guide us! Psalm 32:8 says “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.” The tricky thing is figuring out exactly how to access his counsel!

Here are two primary ways to access his wisdom and his counsel. The first is….spending time reading His Word. Duh. But how many times do we come up with excuses as to why we don’t have the time or energy to spend much time reading the Bible? Maybe it’s time to stop making excuses and DECIDE to make Bible reading a priority in your life. I bet you make time to brush your teeth and take a shower, so why can’t you carve out 15 minutes for reading the Bible every morning? 😊 Reading the Bible will give you direct guidance on so many decisions you’ll need to make throughout any given day. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Next, spend time worshipping God and in “listening prayer”. When we worship God, he draws near, and he longs to whisper to us through His Holy Spirit if we will strain to listen for that whisper to our souls. 1 Kings 19:12 “After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” So try this. Put on some worship music, or start singing a worship song. As you praise Him, close your eyes and envision God with you. Now ask Him to whisper guidance to your heart. Strain to listen. Did he give you a vision or nudge your heart in some way? I believe He will guide you. Just make sure that anything you believe you hear from God does not contradict what He says in the Bible.

Try this amazing spiritual discipline!

August 5, 2025Squadron of Sisters (Debbie Chavez) Leave a comment

The spiritual discipline that has most transformed my life; the one that has brought me such brilliant guidance; the one that has comforted me during grief; the one that has given me great hope for the future: the one that has slowly but surely matured me; the one that has made me feel cherished….is this. I have been transformed by the simple spiritual discipline of quieting myself and asking God to communicate with me.

Many of us pray. We call out to God when we’re in a desperate situation. We tell Him what to do. We talk and talk at God, but do we ever stop talking and realize that communication is a 2-way street?! Yes, God wants us to bring our concerns to Him in prayer, but more than that, He wants to talk to us! He has many things to reveal to us. He wants to reveal His character and His love. He wants to guide us and prompt us to become more spiritually mature. He wants to instruct us on how we can partner with Him to expand His kingdom. But we’ll never receive any of those things if we end up doing all the talking and none of the listening!

God created us to be in relationship with Him and He longs to communicate with us. Jeremiah 33:3 Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.

I have found 2 ways to best hear God communicating to me. One is pausing before and after I read a section of the Bibe and asking God “what are you trying to tell me?” 2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

There is a second way that I have begun hearing from God, and it has become so very sweet to me. I have begun the practice of taking just 1 minute each morning to be completely still. I close my eyes and envision being with God, and then I ask Jesus to draw close and tell me what He wants me to know that day. Sometimes I sense Jesus giving me a vision. Sometimes I sense Him speaking a few instrumental words to my heart. Jesus is always speaking to His followers if we will simply listen! As Jesus told his followers in John 10:27 “My sheep hear my voice”.

A truly wise wife does this

May 13, 2025Squadron of Sisters (Debbie Chavez) Leave a comment

Most of the time, being a woman of wisdom is an excellent attribute. You may have been blessed with the ability to make smart financial decisions or relationships decisions. That’s awesome!

But human wisdom is not the highest goal, and it can sometimes lead us astray from God’s perfect plan in our lives. Think of Noah, for instance. According to human wisdom, he must have been viewed as an idiot! Wisdom would tell him there was no need to build an ark. It was utter foolishness. Many “wise” people of his community must have mocked him and probably shook their heads in disbelief. Some were probably aghast at his “foolishness”. But Noah decided to go against conventional wisdom and follow the promptings of the Lord. It’s a good thing he did!

Listen to what 1 Corinthians 2:14 says: The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

What I’m trying to say is this. Don’t put God in a box. He often operates outside the box and colors outside the lines! In Isaiah 55:9, God says: “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. I have known women who were told by wise counselors to leave their unfaithful husbands and yet, some of these women heard God tell them to stick with their marriage, and in the long run, their marriage was restored. I, personally, have experienced God telling me and my husband to do “unwise” financial things in order to carry on full-time ministry, and yet God rewarded our obedience to his “outside of the box” instructions!

So, consult God. Ask Him for direction when you are at a crossroads. Get quiet before Him and ask Him to speak guidance to your spirit. Wise counselors are fine, but God has the ultimate wisdom, and He alone can see what lies ahead. God says this in Isaiah 48:17, “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.”

Don’t be so wise that you forget to consult God and follow his perfect guidance!