Pentecostal vs. Evangelical: How Do You Turn Up The Volume On God?
How two very different journeys have taught us to listen more closely to God
Welcome to **Two Paths, One Voice**—a conversation between two believers whose journeys couldn’t have looked more different, yet somehow led to the same destination.
Our stories don’t match. Our church backgrounds don’t match. Our experiences with God don’t even follow the same timeline.
One of us was raised in a Pentecostal world where the gifts of the Spirit were familiar from childhood, though their meaning unfolded more deeply over time. The other was shaped by a conservative faith tradition, experienced an unexpected encounter with Heaven, embraced speaking in tongues much later in life, and still resists fitting neatly into any label. We come from different nations, different generations, and different spiritual starting points.
Yet despite those differences, we’ve discovered something remarkable: God’s voice isn’t reserved for one denomination, personality, or life story.
Each week we’ll explore the same questions, then answer them independently from our own experiences. Sometimes we’ll agree completely. Sometimes we’ll arrive there by different roads. Either way, our hope is to encourage you to recognize that God is still speaking—and that learning to hear Him is a journey available to every believer.
Two stories. Two perspectives. One faithful God.
What are the top 3 ways God speaks to you most often?
I would say the top three ways God speaks to me are these:
The Word of God, the Bible.
Dreams.
Remembrance.
The Word Of God, The Bible
The Bible is foundational to hearing God’s voice. I call the Bible, the Book of His Voice. Because it’s the book inspired by and written under the direction and influence of the Spirit of God. Other books were inspired and influenced by other spirits. So then they are the books of that spirit’s voice.
If you want to hear God’s voice, open the Bible and start reading. He’ll speak to you.
Dreams
God uses dreams to speak to me a lot. I’ve written about how He began to speak to me in dreams and I didn’t understand what they were all about.
When I asked the Lord why all the dreams, He spoke to me and said, dreams are the beginning of the prophetic.
This area of dreams continues to be something that amazes me. Often He uses a dream to start a new conversation with me. In other words, He’ll show me something I didn’t even know to pray or seek Him about. It was completely unknown to me. Then I’ll go to the Word of God and He’ll show me from the Word. But He started the conversation in a dream.
Remembrance
The term remembrance comes from a scripture in John 14:26. Jesus said Holy Spirit will “bring back to your remembrance all things I have spoken to you.” So, Holy Spirit reminds you of what Jesus already said. This is an ongoing occurrence. He’ll remind me of scriptures. Phrases from scriptures. Dreams or visions He’s shown me. Holy Spirit uses those things to connect the dots and lead in the direction He wants me to go.
This has changed a bit over the years for me. I think I mentioned in the last post that as a youth, He spoke quite a bit through what I might call tools like songs, His Word, etc. And of course, He used people, and He still does. If I had to pin it down to (let’s say) since I went to Heaven and came back, I would say He still uses tools but I mostly hear His voice in my head now, as well as have visions and dreams. Or at least that seems to be what I pay the most attention to.
What is one way God hasn’t spoken to you, but you’d like?
One way God hasn’t spoken to me yet is what is typically called an “open vision” in Pentecostal circles. Yes, God speaks to me in spiritual visions. A spiritual vision is like Paul’s vision in Acts 16 of a man from Macedonia. Paul didn’t see a physical man. A man didn’t walk into his house. It was a vision from the spirit that was “played” in the imagination of his mind.
An “open vision” is different because it sees in the physical. Like Moses, for example, with the burning bush. Or Paul on the road to Damascus. When the angel came to Cornelius in Acts 10. Or when the angel arrived at Mary’s house. In Daniel 9, it says the angel arrived at the time of the evening prayer. Hagar in the desert in Genesis 16. She said, “I have seen The God Who Sees Me and I lived.”
Those were open visions. God spoke to them in the physical.
Peter in Acts 12 is also a good example. Because the angel kicked him to wake him up. And the angel opened the prison doors and they walked out. Peter thought he was seeing a spiritual vision. In other words, that he saw the vision played in the imagination of his mind. It wasn’t until the angel suddenly disappeared that he realized it happened in the physical.
So, this is one area of God speaking and communicating with me personally, that I am believing for.
Obviously, we don’t live by experience. I’m not basing my Christianity or relationship with Him on seeking experiences. We live by faith. But faith isn’t stagnant. It’s always reaching. So, He will reveal to you more of Himself from the Word and say, “Believe me for it.” What’s more, faith is relationship based. And part of relationship is tangibility and experience.
Open Visions, huh? That is the first I have heard that term. It sounds like Open Visions might be more verifiable by others? But perhaps not all of the time. In the last post, I mentioned the voice in the bathroom that my kiddo heard outside of the bathroom when no one was in there with me, so I wonder if that would count. I do now think of Jacob, who wrestled with a physical being that was either an angel or, I believe, God Himself, and wound up with a wounded hip.
My desire would be longer conversations with Him. I do not receive long-winded paragraphs here on earth. It is usually just one direct, jumpstart sentence. Then sometimes when I ask for clarification or a question, I get one more. I was quite jealous when I read the book of Job last year and realized that the Lord spoke to Him (toward the end) in several long chapters. LOL.
Speaking of remembrance, I love the verse that Eric quoted. When I first came back from Heaven, I thought I retained all the memories but I did not. As I wrote Routed to Heaven, He informed me that we walked and talked and more surfaced at very applicable times throughout the chapters. Of course, they were added in.
After wrapping Routed, I thought the memories were done, but more arose as I wrote the Companion Study Guide. Now that I am working on the second book, I believe more will arrive, and that is one of the reasons the enemy has been very intent on spiritual attack lately in my life. Will we ever be done? I am not sure. This month is my second year anniversary of going to Heaven. According to the experts, full processing and recovery take (ironically but maybe not so much) seven years. You all might have messy Julie on your hands for quite a bit longer. Ha.
Today, He spoke through my Bible App. Although I usually have a gift for mercy, I got very frustrated and unmerciful in some conversations (and texts - yikes) this week. Of course, I didn’t see it that way. :-) This morning, I sat at my dining room table hesitant about more conversation this afternoon. And ‘bing!’ After many months of not getting even one notification from my Bible App, the Verse of the Day popped up: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36 NIV).
What? Argh. Yes, I knew it was for me. I felt so convicted and quickly confessed. Thank you, Jesus, for the very timely reminder.
What are some tips you could give to those wanting to hear the voice of God?
There are two parts to my answer...
First, I wrote a newsletter specifically addressing this. I go through 12 keys that I use to hear the voice of God. Actually, 13 because I give a bonus one as well. I personally use these keys all the time. They are not pie-in-the-sky stuff. It’s not theory. It’s not something I dug out of the Bible because I needed something to write. They are keys I put into practice over nearly 20 years of God speaking to me prophetically. Here is a list...
Intense hunger.
Fill yourself.
Think like Jesus.
Access it by faith.
Wait on Jesus.
Follow the road signs.
Write it down.
Speak it out.
Do it.
Pray in tongues.
Practice daily.
Learn the ways He speaks.
Fast.
Plus, I’m in the process of writing very in-depth newsletters about each key. So, then if you want to dig into one specific key, there are 2-4 newsletters that go deep. Those will help you understand and put them into practice.
Second, let me give you a couple extra tips here to help you position yourself to hear the voice of God...
● Decide what is important. Often our actions aren’t congruent with our beliefs. Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. Use your time to do what is important. Anything unimportant, don’t give it time.
● Set up your life to hear God speak. Being overly busy can stifle the voice of God in your life. I heard a minister say many years ago, “If you are too busy to spend time with God, you are too busy.”
● Spend a lot of time in the Word of God. It is the Book of His Voice. This should go without saying. But you’d be surprised how many people don’t read the Bible. Reading books and listening to sermons are good. But those shouldn’t replace time in the Word.
The first two tips will help with the last one. But if you don’t address those first two, then it may be hard for you to advance spiritually, including hearing the voice of God.
Ask Him. :-) Job did, and I have too.
I do have people search me out to ask if I can help them encounter the Lord in a supernatural way. And there are others whom I beg God to provide an unmistakable encounter. To my knowledge, He has only honored this prayer from me once.
I agree with Eric’s list, but let’s tack on #14. Ask. The Lord wants to hear from you, too.
 | A guest post by
|