Journaling
the Voice of God
How are you experiencing the way that God is talking to you recently? Sometimes this question can be a sensitive one between children of God. For many years I was wondering if God was also communicating to me, as I heard friends talking about what God was sharing with them in private. Wondering if God was also interested to communicate to me, I made a study of all the different ways God use to communicate to His children in His Word. After this, I realized that He have been talking to me all the time through my journey of life, I just wasn't aware of His way of communication!
Together with so many creative ways that God use to talk to His children, one of them is though journaling. Maybe you have never journalled before. I want to encourage you to try some of the suggestions on this page together with your old, trusted ways of studying your Bible.
​
Remember that journaling can happen either through writing or typing. Some like the old, trusted pen and paper idea while others rather prefer to experience journaling through typing. Doesn't matter which you prefer, journaling can be a tool where you experience and learn to know yourself and God better. It can be a way of finding comfort and upliftment in a place of healing or during your walk towards maturity in Christ.
​
This page is a teaching and guideline to help you
experience your Father's communication towards you.
May you be blessed with fresh inspiration and practical ideas
as you apply this information in your Biblical Journaling experience.
​​
Ways God communicate
There are endless and very creative ways that God use to communicate to His sons and daughters. Here I am going to share just a few different ways. Remember to be attentive to His Voice and open yourself up for His communication. Ask Holy Spirit to help you recognize His Voice throughout your day. Also try to be thoughtful for when He is putting a specific suggestion or an idea in your thoughts or on your heart.
​​​
The Word of God
While reading through the Bible, Holy Spirit can focus your attention on certain verses or words. Sometimes you will find an answer you were seeking for. The Word of God can also direct your path or thoughts in a certain way, as you overthink and meditate God's Word.
WISDOM
Sometimes God can put an inner prompting in your spirit. In these times you feel the strong need to do something for someone, or to pray urgently or call a close friend or relative. Inner nudging's are navigations for your life guided by Holy Spirit to direct your path or help someone on your way. Sometimes God can also put a deep "knowing" of something in your heart to make you aware of His will for you.
A 'whisper'
The Bible describe God's Voice in different ways. Sometimes it can have the sound of many waters, other times like a whisper. God can speak directly in your ear with a voice of love to comfort, warn or instruct you specifically from His heart. Sometimes His Voice can feel like you hear your own voice, but it will always be uplifting, full of love, encouraging and align with His Word.
Prophecy/ Messages
Sometimes God can sent you a prophetic word or message through someone along your path. These words can uplift, warn or encourage you to discern what God is doing or going to do in your life. Always pray for discernment and confirmation when receiving a word from someone else.
Dreams
God can talk through dreams in the nigh time. Be attentive to what God is telling you. Pray for wisdom and correct interpretation of your dreams. Dreams can be warnings or information given by God behind certain situations that your human eye can't see .
Visions
Visions can be 'pictures' seen in the spirit. Sometimes God gives you a sneak preview of something in the spiritual realm to understand physical situations better.
Physical strange situations
Sometimes unexplained things happen in our lives, such as your car broke down or you get hold up longer in a line while waiting. These events usually happen unplanned and sometimes can lead to frustration. Trust God for being with you, protecting you from accidents, unseen flying arrows of the enemy or circumstances that could cause you great harm without even knowing.
Numbers
Different numbers have great symbolic value throughout the Bible. Be observant at the repetitive number of times things happen in your life or the number of years or days certain cycles events re-occur in your life. God many times talk through numbers unto His children. Nothing happens 'by incident' in the life of God's children.
Music and songs
Sometimes the Lord can speak to us through putting a certain song in our hearts, either for edification or for confirmation of who we are in Him. The song can also be a declaration of praise or worship unto His name. Listen carefully to the message within the song He is putting in your spirit at certain times.
Prayer
During our time of prayer in our inner room, Holy Spirit can reveal to us answers, hidden truths and give us guidance straight form the Fathers' heart. This happen when my spirit and the Lord's Spirit become one during times of intimacy with Him.
Spiritual senses
Just as our physical bodies have senses, our spirit can also sense activity in the spiritual atmosphere. Sometimes God can make you aware of situations in the spiritual realm through letting your spiritual sense experience things in the spirit that is unseen for your natural/physical senses. The Lord can 'activate' or make His children aware of either His presence (the presence of Light) or the presence of the enemy (darkness). Ask God to sharpen your spiritual senses for Him to talk to you through it.
Journaling
From Biblical times, the Lord told His children to write down certain commandments, words, messages and proclamations. Through the guidance of Holy Spirit, God's sons and daughter receive still unto today, spirit-filled messages for the Body of Christ. God reveal His heart, give warnings and direction unto His children through written words inspired and given by and through His Holy Spirit.
Things that distract or block my receiving from the Lord
During our walk with the Lord, you could find it difficult to hear or receive the Lord's communication towards you at certain times. This can be because of certain sin or heart attitudes on your side. Ask Holy Spirit to reveal your heart to you. He is the One who knows you intimately and desires for you to come in alignment with His will for your life as quickly as you can, so that your relationship with Him will be firm and established - unshaken IN Him at all times.
​
Here are some reasons for difficultly in hearing and receiving Abba's communication towards you:
-
"Busyness" - many times in my life the enemy kept me busy with so many things, distracting my focus form what really matters the most - Jesus and my relationship with Holy Spirit. The busyness of life can overtake you if you do not make intentional time to spent with your First Love - Jesus alone in secret. Physical noisy areas as well as wild running thoughts can also steal our main focus. I have found that better discernment comes to me in more quiet times of solitude and silence. Don't be afraid of silence, the Word say that even silence is like praise before the Lord (Ps 65)!
-
Religious spirit - the religious spirit is a "stiff spirit", that is rooted in pride. A religious spirit hardens your heart and keeps you in a "comfort zone of slumber", canceling what the Holy Spirit is able to do in and through your life. A religious spirit blocks the creative and free flow of Abba's Holy Spirit and constantly wants to pull your focus unto who and what you are NOT. A religious spirit is closely related to strivings of being perfect, where the deep root of fear is often hiding.
-
Unrepented sin - For quite a time in my life, I have been disobedient towards the Lord to forgive others as He has forgiven me. After taking His Word to heart, starting to forgive others through repenting of my unforgiveness and bitterness towards others, the 'division' between me and God disappeared. Unforgiveness is disobedience unto the Lord, just like stealing and lying. Unforgiveness can grow as bitterness in your heart, becomming a root of hatred towards someone else. Within unforgiveness, arrogance and a pridefull heart attitude is hiding. Self centeredness is also a root within unforgiveness - this is not a reflextion of the character of Jesus, therefor you need to be repent when these characteristics is popping up in your life.
-
Hardened heart - This type of heart is not really seeking God. A person with a hard heart does not want to wait on God and lives an independent lifestyle apart from God. A hardened heart reveals an arrogant attitude towards Holy Spirit, saying that you do not really seek His counsel or help or guidance for your path ahead - you are actually better off on your own without Him.
-
Unbelieve or the opinion of other people or my own 'made-up thoughts' - When I disqualify myself from hearing or receiving answers or messages from the Lord, either through thinking it or saying it aloud, it will be so. Remember that there is power within our tongue - you can create with our tongue! There was a time that I surely belief God can talk to others but not to me. During this time I was struggling with jealousy in my heart toward other children of God who received answers and guidance form Him but not Me. Never was I aware that I was forming my own twisted idea and building my own wrong believe about God communicating unto His children around my life. Jesus said that "My sheep will hear My Voice, and they will know Me (John 10:27). This is a promise and declaration! When I realized I cancelled myself from receiving God's loving communication towards me, I repent of my unbelief and started to long for His Voice. I opened myself up to receiving any way He want to reveal and communicate Himself unto me.
-
"Word - poorness" - There is no other way for me to describe this "condition". The more time I put aside, reading and studying the Word of God, the more I acknowledge and experience His different ways of communicating towards me. Ask the Lord to birth within you, a new deep love for His Word and then, in faith, start reading. Start with small pieces, overthink what you read. Make a little note with what you think the Lord is trying to say to you through the piece that you have read and then live accordingly in obedience unto Him.​​​
The importance of silence and solitude
Spending time with God don't just happen. In our daily lives we need to prioritize everything we value as important. Therefor we need to construct certain spiritual disciplines in our daily walk with God. Reading the Word of God and spending some alone time with Him in prayer or just times of adoration of who He is, will help to build our spiritual life. When you make the choice to be a disciple of Jesus, it means for you to have a disciplined life that constantly seek to live as Jesus did. Jesus's lifestyle should always be you example and benchmark in everything you do and say.
Fresh suggestions for your Biblical Journaling experience
Journaling your thoughts and writing down what you experience God is saying to you through His Word may be a new to you. Maybe you are a journallar for a long time now and have already tasted the value and enrichening effect it can have on your time spent with God.
Either way, how about trying out a few of these ideas when spending time with God in His Word next time. You can have two journals: one with blank pages (for drawing and doodling verses and scripture), as well one with lines (where you will do more writing and reflection).
Construct these suggested pages by creating headlines for each page and some simple sketches which you can later fill up with verses from the Word of God that speaks to your heart. Put on some background worship music or invite a few friends and journal together!
Journaling together is a great and creative way of having fellowship around God's Word.
A few tips when starting to practice your Biblical Journaling experience.
A few useful tips to remember while reading your Bible and journaling together with it is:
​
-
​Always remember to first write down the date in jour journal.​
-
Remember that Holy Spirit lives inside of you. Speak to Him and invite Him to lead and guide you as you read through God's Word. He will highlight or lift certain verses out for you as needed. Trust Him - He is your Teacher!
-
Keep in mind that God loves to talk to us, His children and that He is always available when we need Him. Open yourself up in prayer and ask Him to reveal to you His heart in that specific moment of time when you meet.
-
Keep practicing! Journaling the Voice of God from the inside of you can be hard or challenging in the beginning. But to not give up. Remember that practice makes perfect! Keep on reading, waiting on Him and then listening to what He saying to your heart. Write it down, even when you feel you are hearing only one word or sentence.
-
Keep your heart open to receive from God and tell Him that in a short prayer.
-
Usually, God's Voice will come with a very spontaneous flow off words...write everything down as you listen and write.
-
When you start to write/ type the response you feel led Holy Spirit is saying to you, don't stop and get distracted in this time. Don't correct grammar or spelling mistakes you may make in the proses. Just flow with what you hear of feel you experience the Lord is saying to you. Do not try to take over control, just let His Voice speak over you as you receive His heart and thoughts.
-
For those of you who like different colors, a good idea can be to write/type your thoughts, understanding and prayer in one color (e.g. black) and God's response on your prayer in another color (e.g. red).
-
Sometimes it can be valuable to ask a trusted friend or your spouse to read back to you the words that God answered you. Hearing it from someone else's mouth can be a heartwarming experience, knowing that the God of Heaven and earth spoke to your heart, needs and answered your questions in love through His Spirit living inside of you.​
​
​
Journaling during your times of Bible reading
1.Invite Holy Spirit to guide and lead you as you choose to spent time with Him in God's Word. Tell Him that you open yourself up for His guidance and correction in your life.
2. Choose a Psalm or chapter from the Bible you want to spent time with. Read slowly with attention and overthink the words that you read.
3. Write/type the date and passage you read (e.g. Psalm 23) on a line in your journal. Now re-write only the verse/s that stand out to you or pressed on your heart during reading the Word.
4. Circle words that draw your attention. Highlight or underline words that you feel is important. Try to write words with similar meanings (synonyms) above or underneath these words to describe them to you more clearly. Try to unravel the verse to see what God is trying to tell you through it. Draw small stick figures if you feel like it or simple pictures to describe or remind you of the words in the verse.
5. You can compare different Bible versions and write other versions' meanings together with yours to deepen your understanding of the chosen verse.
6. After letting the Word and verse work with your heart, starting on a new line, write/type a prayer to God, telling Him how you want to incorporate the chosen verse in your life. Ask Him anything according to the chosen verse that you don't understand.
7. Now, on a new line, write/type the words: "My child,...." then wait on Him and write spontaneously what comes to your thoughts, what you think God is trying to tell or answer you at that specific time and season.
Journaling your feelings
When you feel overwhelmed by a roller-coaster of emotions and need to regain focus, try to identify and name three to five emotions you are experiencing at the moment.
> Write/type them down in your journal.
Be vulnerable before God. Value each emotion that you experience, either negative or positive. Be open and honest to yourself and God. Listen to your heart and recognize your neediness for peace and comfort from God. By letting your most intense emotions open up before God, you give Him permission to direct and comfort you in a loving way only He can. Remember that our emotions are the language of your soul. Acknowledge your emotions. Jesus experienced a wide range of emotions himself while He was on earth, and He was also fully human just like us.
> After writing/typing down your emotions, now write a prayer unto God, telling Him why you experience these emotions. If they just bubble up and the root of it is unclear, ask Him clarification about the cause that triggered these attitudes or behaviors in your life.
> Now write/type: "My child ..." and then wait on Him. Write or type what you hear or feel He is responding towards you. Let the spontaneous flow of His Voice and love minister and comfort you.
Journaling your questions
God loves to speak to us through different objects and events. These can be things in nature or circumstances we can't always describe or understand. When the questions of life pops up and you need clarification around events that re-occur, try to turn towards God and ask Him what His message behind these events are.
Sometimes God want so to talk to you through an object that draw your attention, it can be a feather or the clouds or even a bug, finding his way around you during the day. What can be the message God is trying to give you through this tiny insect? Or maybe a word or number that constantly pops up throughout your day?
> Write/type down the object or question you want to talk to God about in your journal. Invite Holy Spirit to guide and lead you through this time of journalling.
> Write/type a prayer unto God, asking Him to give you directions as you constantly experience your attention is drawn to this event/word/ object/question.
> Now write/type: "My child ..." and then wait on Him. Write or type what you hear or feel He is responding towards you. Let the spontaneous flow of His Voice and love minister and comfort you. God is Love. Let His Voice of Love answers you and bring a answer or healing to your searching heart.
