Keep a Journal and Learn His Voice: Visions, Dreams, and How to Grow in Hearing God

I’m excited about where we’re headed today because we’re finally getting into the specific ways God speaks — and I’m going to give you a practical tool to start sharpening your ability to hear Him right now.

But first, let me be clear. Hearing from God isn’t just for preachers. It’s for plumbers, brain surgeons, business owners, and stay-at-home parents. He’ll talk to you about anything — from million-dollar decisions to where your lost luggage is at 2 a.m. in a DC hotel. I know because He’s done both for me.

Start a journal. It will change your life.

Before we get into specific ways God speaks, let me give you the most practical tool I can hand you right now. Get a notebook and start writing things down.

When you believe God told you something, write it down. Write what you think He said and what you think it means. Then make a note of what happens.

If it turns out the way He showed you — that was you hearing from God. Write it down as a win. If it doesn’t — make a note that whatever happened in that moment is not how you hear from Him. Over time, you’ll develop a track record. You’ll start recognizing His voice the way you recognize a friend’s voice on the phone.

There is going to be trial and error. That’s just the truth. But do you really think God is going to let you shipwreck if you’ve made up your mind to hear from Him and you’re moving in the integrity of your heart? He’s sitting there saying, “If you want Me that bad, I’m going to help you. I’ll protect you. I’ll teach you.”

God does speak through visions — but not every Tuesday at three.

About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius!”

Acts 10:3 NKJV

Cornelius had an open vision — it was as if someone walked right into the room. In Acts 9, Ananias received direction from the Lord in a vision that led to Saul’s conversion. Peter had a vision three times before going to Cornelius’s house.

Visions are real. They’re biblical. They’re New Testament. And they can happen to you.

But here’s the caution — they don’t happen with the frequency some people claim. When you study Paul’s or Peter’s entire ministry spanning decades, you find a handful of visions spread across a lifetime. That’s not weekly appointments. That’s God showing up when He needs to show you something specific.

Dreams from God are real — but most dreams are pizza dreams.

God speaks through dreams. Joseph was warned in a dream to flee to Egypt with Jesus. Paul received direction through dreams. The prophet Joel said your old men would dream dreams and your young men would see visions.

So yes — God can give you a dream. I’ve had them. Some have already come to pass and some I’m still believing for.

But here’s my personal rule of thumb. If I don’t wake up and immediately know it was God and understand what He was saying, I classify it as a pizza dream. Or in my case, a shrimp-and-grits dream — because Jeff made me eat jumbo shrimp and grits one night and I had some weird ones after that.

When God gives me a dream, I typically sit straight up at the end of it, and I immediately know two things: it was Him, and I know what He’s telling me. There’s no guesswork. I don’t have to call somebody to interpret it. I don’t need a dream-interpretation book that tells me if I dream about daffodils, the president’s coming to dinner.

Why not? Because the Interpreter of dreams lives inside me. The same God who gave Joseph the interpretation — that God lives in you. You can bypass the middleman and go straight to the Source. “Father, was that You? What were You telling me?”

I had a dream once where three bad things happened in sequence, followed by one good thing that undid them all. I woke up knowing exactly what it meant. Six to eight weeks later, it played out — three setbacks in three weeks, followed by one breakthrough that reversed all of them.

That wasn’t pizza. That was God.

God speaks through people — but don’t confuse the messenger with the Source.

Now let me touch on one more way God speaks. He speaks through people.

I know some of you just tensed up because we spent two full days talking about not turning your hearing over to anyone. And that’s still true. But the reality is, God put teachers, pastors, and prophets in the body of Christ for a reason.

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.

Ephesians 4:11 NKJV

There’s a verse in 1 John that says you have an anointing that teaches you and you don’t need any man to teach you. People love to quote that. But here’s the question — how did you know you had that anointing? Because a man named John wrote it down and taught it to you. So you needed a man to teach you that you don’t need a man? Come on.

What that verse means is the Holy Spirit will illuminate truth to you personally. But God still uses people to speak, teach, correct, and confirm. Your pastor speaks God’s truth in a service. A friend might say something that lands right in the middle of your situation. A broadcast like this one might address the exact thing you’ve been praying about.

The key is this: people confirm what the Spirit has already been saying on the inside of you. They don’t replace Him. They echo Him.

Write it down. Learn the patterns. Trust the process.

You’re building something here. Every time you hear from God and obey — write it down. Every time you think you heard and you missed it — write that down too. Over time, your journal becomes a map of how God speaks to you specifically.

He doesn’t speak to everyone the same way. Some people will have more dreams. Some will have more of that inner knowing. Some will hear Him clearly through the Word. Your job is to figure out your frequency — and the journal is how you do it.

Don’t make this spooky. Don’t make it weird. Just start paying attention. Start writing. Start listening. And trust that your Father is going to meet you in the process.

Start the journal. Learn His voice. Fight To Win.