American Family Radio thanks sponsor Preborn for supporting pro life advocacy

Dr. Jessica Peck: We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound 250 and say the keyword BABY or visit preborn.com/AFR hello

 : and welcome to the Dr. Nurse Mama show prescribing Hope for Healthy Families here on American Family Radio. Here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner and mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, hey there, friends, and welcome, welcome, welcome. It's my favorite time of afternoon with some of my favorite people getting to spend time with you prescribing Hope for Healthy Families. And listen, today, if you're looking for something to do with your family this summer, I want to invite you to the Activate Summit. Now, this is going to be hosted. It's an event hosted by American Family association in Tupelo, Mississippi. If you are thinking, where in the world is Tupelo? Well, it is the birthplace of Elvis Presley, of course. And if that doesn't make it any more clear, it's about an hour and a half from Memphis and an hour and a half from Birmingham. And we invite you and your family to join us for the Activate Summit. This time we are talking about issues related to family. I actually will be there. I am one of the speakers and it is a fantastic speaker lineup. You are going to feel very engaged, encouraged and empowered. It is July 16th through the 18th in Tupelo and you can register by going to afa.net/summit that's afa.net/summit there's event for kids. And even kids can come. there's that your kids can come. There are options for them. So check it out [email protected]/summit

How do you hear God speak? How do you discern God's voice?

And today we are going to talk about an issue that impacts every family and every person. One of the most common questions that I get that people are wrestling with is this question, how do you hear God speak? Is God speaking? And how do you hear him? Because there are people who will say, yeah, God spoke to me. And I know there's people out there who wonder, like, what exactly does that mean? Have I heard God speak to me? Is it audible? Is it not audible? How do I know if it's God's voice? If he. How do I know that I'm hearing him? How do I know it's not something Else, it's not just my own thoughts. Well, life doesn't always unfold the way that we expect. And sometimes faith is tested in small ways, and sometimes it is tested in very big ways. We live in a really complicated, fallen and broken world where people experience deep loss and trauma and tragedy and trials and seasons of waiting and where it seems like heaven is silent and we don't have the answers that we're waiting for. And in these moments, discerning God's voice can feel really complicated. It can feel out of reach. It can feel a little bit weird if we're being honest. To some people who think, I've never heard that, and you're hearing God speak to you, like, what exactly does that mean? Are you. Are, you know, are you okay? These are questions that we have, and especially when we layer on emotions and the weight of our circumstances and the heaviness of doubt, all of those things compete for our attention. And today's guest has walked that road personally and come out with a deeper, scripture rooted understanding of how to hear Jesus with clarity and confidence.

Rachael Groll is the author of Hearing Jesus

So joining us today, I want you to help me welcome Rachael Groll She is an author, a Bible teacher, and a speaker with a master's degree in Bible exposition. Did you even know there was such a degree? From Biola University? And Raechel's journey includes overcoming a childhood that was shaped by poverty and addiction, as well as walking through the heartbreak of disrupted international adoption when the child that she hoped to bring home was tragically trafficked. Now, out of that season came a deeper dependence on God and a powerful message about discernment and trust and spiritual growth. She's the author of Hearing Jesus. I've got it right here with me. 365 daily encounters with Jesus. This is a devotional that is designed to help believers confidently recognize and respond to God's voice through scripture, reflection, and prayer. Raechel, we are so glad to have you here today. Thank you so much for joining us.

Rachael Groll: Oh, it's a pleasure and an honor. Looking forward to chatting a little bit with you this afternoon.

Rachael grew up in a family that was the opposite of a Christian family

Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, Raechel, you know, in your introduction, we talked about some pretty tough stuff, and I really appreciate people who will use their lived experience to encourage others. And when you've walked a road, it's very different than just saying, oh, hey, God spoke to me and gave this message for somebody else who's walking through heart things. I haven't walked through our things, but if you are, here's what God told me to tell you. It's really different when you come through those things, and then you can share the hope that you have received. And so I would love for you just to, give us a little bit of your story and tell us about your life's journey and how it brought you here to this moment of sharing this message with us about hearing Jesus.

Rachael Groll: Well, thank you so much for the opportunity to just kind of dive in. I always appreciate the longer questions and the space in the room to unpack some of that, especially when, we're talking about these kind of deeper things of God. I think for me, I. Like you mentioned earlier, I grew up in a family that was the opposite of probably what you would think of when you think of a Christian family. And while I had grandparents that had faith, that wasn't necessarily translated into an actual relationship with the Lord. And the. The family, my family of origin, the family I grew up in with my parents. My father, from probably way before I was even around, was really heavily addicted to alcohol. He was an alcoholic. His father was. All of his brothers were. And so there was that kind of mess, lots of other addictive kinds of behaviors that come alongside of that. And then my mother, she had had drug addiction, up until the time that she died. She was heavily addicted to, opioids. And so I don't even know really how I survived the pregnancy, let alone childhood. But what that meant for me was that I grew up pretty much fending for myself. And at the young age of, I think I was about 13, I had five jobs because if I didn't, I couldn't have socks and I couldn't have food and I couldn't function. I couldn't buy soap. And so, you know, there were people. My grandparents were, later, in my life were pivotal, and I credit them to me even surviving. But growing up, when you don't have your needs met, like your physical needs, it doesn't even leave room for most people to think about God, you know, when you're in survival mode. And while I might have thought about God because there was so much abuse on top of the neglect and all of the other things that were going on in my life. And it was hard to think about God because if I had even had somebody mention something about God being a loving God or a good God, I thought, well, okay, then there must be something wrong with me because that's not my experience of God. And I'm just not good enough for God. Or, you know, he skipped over me when he. When he got to that part. And so I was probably about 15 years old before I came to faith in Jesus. And I think for the longest time I just maybe thought somehow God just was not around up until I got saved up until I made the decision to follow him fully holy with my heart. At age 15, it was easier for me to think that he was just not around. He was not there. He didn't even know what was happening because I hadn't surrendered my life to Him. And truth be told, I. I carried that belief with me until probably my mid-30s when I was in a therapy session with a Christian therapist that said, that is not true. God grieved what you were going through, what you went through was the result of sin and the brokenness of this world. But he grieved that it's not that he was absent. And I think for me, that was a perspective shift. And while I had become a believer and had learned how to pray and to have this actual relationship with Him, I think there was freedom in that because, it got me to this place where I recognized that it wasn't that God was absent. It's just that I didn't know how to hear his voice at that point in my life. Even though I followed Him, I still didn't fully understand what that meant. And so fast forward, to where my husband and I, you know, we have. I have three girls, three beautiful, beautiful girls. But we had also suffered three miscarriages in between those healthy girls. And it was never confirmed medically, but I just assumed, and I would say, oh, I must not be able to carry boys. And in my mind, it was the only thing that made sense. And maybe that's true, maybe it's not. But I remember the Lord convicting my heart and saying, you are going to have a son, and he is going to be a mighty warrior, and he's going to be worth the wait. And it was one of the first things that I ever remembered the Lord saying to me, where I knew it was the voice of the Lord. And I was getting ready to go to a, region of East Africa, and we started to pray about it. And my husband and I at the time just thought I was going to get pregnant again. And so we started praying for our son. And my husband said, well, if we're going to have a son, we're gonna, that's gonna be a mighty warrior. We're gonna name him Gideon, and we're gonna start praying for Gideon. And what I didn't know what was gonna happen is that when I walked into a children's home, on day one of my trip to. In East Africa, to this East African country, I was gonna meet a little boy named Gideon. And that began the journey of five years of working with international government and the whole process of bringing him home to our family. And at the end of five years, with 30 plus thousand dollars and trips and time and court cases and all of those things, we're at the very end of the process. It was a Friday afternoon. It was my birthday, and our lawyer went to go pick him up at the children's home, and he was gone. And the pastor called me and he said, rachel, we believe that Gideon has been involved in trafficking. And I couldn't even wrap my mind around that. Like, I thought my mind went to. Yeah, like, my mind just went to drug trafficking. Because, you know, we just. I just didn't even have a frame of reference for what he was talking about. And when he. He said trafficking, I said, like, they took him for drugs and they're like, no. Human trafficking. And I felt like the floor had just fallen out from underneath me. This was a child of my heart. This was a child that the Lord had spoke into existence before, into our family, before I even met him. This is a child who he himself had experienced a miraculous story of rescue. He should not have even been alive. This is a child that should not even be able to speak yet. He could speak three languages. we loved him. We love him still. And that started us on this journey of multiple years of trying to get him back. And. And the reality is, is right now, as it stands today, he is not in our home. He and multiple other children were part of a trafficking ring that was national. And some people were using it as an easier way for adoption. Some people were using it for much more nefarious reasons, as you can probably imagine. And so we worked with the government to shut that trafficking ring down. And they changed how they do death certificates and birth certificates. There was some corruption in the government. All of that stuff has been changed now because of our case. But I fought for him as a mother. You know, I fought for him as a mother. But bringing it back to kind of my relationship with the Lord, none of that made sense. None of it made sense to my theology. It didn't make sense to my experience.

Rachael Groll says believing God was still good changed everything about her relationship

It did not make any sense to who I understood God to be. You know, the Lord authored this. The Lord spoke this. And it was so confusing for me because that's really the question I wrestled with, was, did I dream all this stuff, up? Was that really The Lord's voice. How did, we even get here if that wasn't God's voice? And there were so many pieces along the way in that five years that if we had time, I could probably write a whole book just about that experience. But what it led me to was this place where I had to make a decision of whether or not I believed God was who he said he was. And if I believed. If God was who I said he was, if I said that God was good, if I believed that God's plans for me were good, then what, did that have to do with this pile of tears that my car. My carpet's literally wet from my tears on the floor? And I had to make a decision. Do I really believe God is who he says he is? And I think that was the most pivotal point in my life, where it was no longer about this casual relationship with God. It was no longer about, yeah, I'm a Christian. I go to church on Sunday, and I live my life for the Lord, and I try to do all the right things. This was really okay. God, do I believe you are who you say you are? Even though it doesn't make sense, it doesn't line up with what I understand. We're up against evil. We're up against all these things. How can I believe that you're still good? And do I believe you at his word? And when I made the decision to believe God was still good even though my circumstances weren't good, it changed everything about my relationship with Him.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Raechel. I mean, I just want to sit with that for just a minute, because what you have said is just so, unbelievable. I mean, really, to think of the things that you've gone through. First I would say, I'm so sorry that you experienced what you experienced as a child. And then to go on to experience what you experienced with Gideon. I mean, it. You said when you were sharing your story that it didn't make sense. And it doesn't make sense to me to hear you sit there and say those things, like, these things happened. And yet, I think it is always so compelling when you hear someone say that God is still good. You know, many people will know the song the Goodness of God, that's sung in a lot of churches now. And I remember hearing that song for the first time and singing the words, all my life, you have been faithful. All my life, you have been so, so good. And then real wrestling with that and thinking, wait, do I really believe that? Because there's been some really bad stuff that's happened in my life. And yet you've gone on to say no. You, you've seen both sides of it, and yet you're talking to us today about how do we hear Jesus in our own lives? We're going to dive into that. Listen, you don't want to miss it because of those of you who feel like God is silent, you're not hearing from him. We'll talk about that when we come back with Raechel Grohl. Don't go away. We'll be right back after the break.

An ultrasound provided by preborn helped Candace hear her baby's heartbeat

 : Candace talks about finding out she was pregnant. Thankfully, an ultrasound provided by preborn allowed her to hear her baby's heartbeat. The sonogram sealed the deal for me. My baby was like this tiny little spectrum of hope and I saw his heart beating on the screen and knowing that there's life growing inside, I mean, that sonogram changed my life. I went from just Candace to mom. Thank you to everybody that has given these gifts. You guys are giving more than money. You guys are giving love.

 : PreBorn currently has clinics that do not have ultrasound machines. Would you consider a leadership gift and sponsor a machine today? These life Saving machines cost $15,000 more than most sinners can afford. Your donation will save countless lives for years to come. Dial 250 and say the keyword baby or go to preborn.com/AFR

Look What You've Done by Tasha Layton: look what you've done? How could you fall so far? You should be ashamed of yourself. So I was ashamed of myself. The lies I believed they got some roots they run deep? I let them take a hold of my life I let them take control of my life. Standing in your presence, Lord, I can feel you digging all the roots up? I feel you healing all my wounds up? All I can say is hallelujah. Look what you've done? Look what you've done in me? You spoke your truth into the lies I let my heart believe? Look at me now look how you made me new. The enemy did everything that he could do. Oh, but look what you've done.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back. Welcome back, friends. That is look what you've done by Tasha Layton. And we're talking about what God has done in the life of Raechel Grohl. If you were listening in, in the first segment, she was talking about her very difficult and traumatic childhood and then pursuing international adoption only to find out that the child she was to have adopted was trafficked. And these circumstances are enough to make anyone think it's understandable to think that how could God allow that to happen in the world like this? And you Know, I say this quote all the time. I, heard it when I was a teenager, and I hold on to it. If God was small enough to be understood, he wouldn't be big enough to be worshiped. And Raechel has now written a book called Hearing Jesus365 Daily Devotions for Women. Daily Devotions for Women. But anyone Jesus talks to anyone. And Raechel, I want to talk with the foundation, talk about the foundation of this, because this is actually one of the most common questions I get. When people. People hear that I'm a Christian, or if I share that I've heard God speak to me, that he has spoken to me in my life, then they want to know, how is that? And. And is it God's voice? Is it emotions? Is it, you know, your thoughts that are just running wild? But there is a role that Scripture plays in this discernment. And so talk us through.

The primary way that God speaks to us is through His Word

Let's go to the beginning of how you started to craft this message of hearing Jesus. What inspired the title, and how do you hope that people will start that journey? Where should they even start if they're thinking, yeah, I want to hear Jesus in my life, but I don't even know where to start?

Rachael Groll: Well, I think for me, it really started in a place of insecurity. And I've heard that same insecurity echoed across the globe. Whether I've been in rural Africa somewhere or in Brooklyn or in local Amish country, Pennsylvania. It seems like it's a common insecurity for, not just for women, but for a lot of people where that's the question they're asking. How do I know? How do I know the difference between. Or tacos? Or is this really God's voice? And I think one of the things that we often overlook is that. Well, number one, the primary way that God speaks to us is through His Word. And his voice is never going to contradict His Word. And so often when people say that, express that to me, that they're struggling to understand that a lot of times it also coincides with somebody that isn't really reading the Word. They might casually read it, or they might, you know, take their Bible with them to church on Sunday. But Monday through Saturday, it, sits closed on their bedside. And while God definitely does speak to me outside of just the times where I'm reading my Bible, the way that I learned to recognize his voice was by digging into the Word. Because the Word reveals His character and his nature and how he speaks to us. So that when we hear his voice outside of those moments, when we're in prayer or we're convicted about something, or we're looking for wisdom about something, we recognize what his voice sounds like because we've spent so much time reading it. And you know, I think for a lot of people, we recognize this when it comes to our human relationships. You know, when my husband and I first got together, if he called on the phone, this is back before we had the days of like caller ID and we knew who was calling if he called. I didn't necessarily know the difference between a telemarketer and him because our relationship was new. These days I would recognize, recognize his voice anywhere because I've spent a lot of time in relationship with him, talking to him, hearing him, conversation back and forth. The same is true in our relationship with the Lord. But what that actually looks like practically is it starts with reading the Word. But the other aspect, I think sometimes we forget we know this, but practically we forget this is that God created us to be in relationship with Him. That's as the Creator, as our Creator, he designed us to be in relationship with him, which means he wants to have those conversations with us. He's called the Word for a reason. He's given us the Scriptures for a reason, because he wants to have this ongoing communication relationship with us. And often I think we don't necessarily understand that until we experience it. And maybe in the beginning it looks like, like with my 15 year old, this is one of the things we've been talking about a lot with her, where it's very practical. I want you to start reading and I want you to read an entire chapter and I want you to pay attention to see if there's one verse that just maybe sticks out a little bit more than the rest of them. And, if that happens, I want you to highlight it and then we'll go back and we'll think through. Okay, what does this mean? What does this say about God? What is there something for me to obey in this? What does this reveal about how God loves people or his. His character, his nature? What is this teaching us about who God is? And that's how it starts. You know, often I think we want to fast forward through that part. We want the easy side of it where we just can recognize his voice. But the way we train ourselves to recognize his voice is by spending time and disciplining ourselves in the Word of God.

Dr. Jessica Peck: It's so true. That's how I first started hearing the Lord speak to me through His Word. And I started memorizing Scripture and I Used to be a very fearful person, Raechel. I was afraid of everything, afraid of my own shadow. And I would start to just hear that scripture come back to me. God has not given you a spirit of fear. I think, oh, I'm afraid. And then it just immediately would come to my heart. God has not given you a spirit of fear. God has not given you a spirit of fear. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your path. I would hear that when I would think, what should I do? I'm going to trust in the Lord. And you emphasize that God's voice never contradicts his word. And I think that's a really important principle. And that's how we can tell even when we're looking and trying to discern maybe influencers who are saying, oh, God told me this, or, or somebody comes to with a message to you. God's voice never contradicts his word. Can you walk us through that?

Rachael Groll: Well, you know, there's been times in my own life where I've had people come up to me and say, well, God has a word for you. God told me a word for you. And what that word has done is induced fear or chaos. And what I know is that is not consistent with the nature of God, especially considering the timing. I mean, one time I was getting ready to go up and share in front of a woman's, event. There was a thousand women there, and I was getting ready, literally steps away from the stage. And this woman came up. She was part of the host team at the church. And she said, I want to pray for you real quick, which is a normal thing. And then she gave me this word and she actually told me something that was pretty horrifying about one of my children. And she's like, do without what you will. And I thought, and thankfully, yeah, it was crazy. But I had, in a split decision, split second decision to make. Am I going to go leave and go check on my kid, or am I going to get up on this stage? And I checked in with the Holy Spirit and I had peace. And that's the benefit of having our own relationship with the Lord versus depending on other people. But thankfully, the Holy Spirit said, no, go. You good, you're good. I got you. Which I knew meant either he was going to take care of my daughter or there was nothing to worry about, but either way, he still wanted me to go. I can't say that I wasn't concerned about my daughter. While I was also ministering to that group of women. But at the end of that event, there was a lot of women that made decisions to put their faith in Jesus for the first time or recommit their lives. And there was a spiritual moment that was taking place that had I not stepped onto that stage, wouldn't have happened. It was too late for them to get another speaker. And lo and behold, after that was done, there was nothing that was going on with my daughter. There was absolutely nothing that was going on. And I later found out that this woman was somebody that had a lot of trauma, a lot of childhood trauma that was kind of, you know, she had been kind of taught in a really faulty way how to understand and minister in that way. And it taught me a lot about how, how what I need to do in order to make sure that my relationship with the Lord is solid enough that I can trust him, even when the noise of the world is saying something different. And I, I think for her, and I can't speak for her, but I, but I have been around people like that enough to know that even if God were to give me a word for somebody, a cautionary word or something that I would want to help them with, usually it's done, number one, within the context of relationship. You know, typically if, if I'm out of line, there are people in my life that hold me accountable. My pastor or my husband or my friends that are going to say, hey, Rach, like you need to get back on the road. They're not, it's not typically coming through a perfect stranger. Or number two, well, I guess maybe even superseding that. I have my own relationship with the Lord. So the Lord will convict me or he'll, you know, he'll. He'll intervene. But also it's not typically done in a way that, that brings fear or chaos or would have prevented other people and been it from coming to him. Meaning, would have been an obstacle between those people that got saved that day. And like the way the timing of all of that, you have to be really sensitive to the timing and, and really kind of lay surrender your own thoughts or, or opinions or agenda aside to be obedient to the Lord because of the timing of it. Because if I had something to deliver to somebody, I certainly wouldn't do it seconds before they got on a platform to go share the gospel. And so you, know, I was really young in my faith and not, not necessarily young in my faith, but I was young in my understanding of the spiritual gifts at that point. And so it sent me on this path to fig for myself, because, number one, I'm responsible for teaching a lot of people. You know the book Hearing Jesus? It's called that because my podcast is called Hearing Jesus. And the Lord has given me an opportunity to. To speak and teach in a lot of different contexts. But I take that really, really seriously because it's not just for me. I, also have the Hearing Jesus for Kids podcast. I was a children's pastor for a long time. I'm creating resources for families. So it was really important to make sure that I really, truly understood this at, its core, the way God designed it. And for me, what I have learned is it always goes back to the Word of God. You know, if I feel this impression that the Lord is saying something to me, I go back to the Word of God and I make sure that it lines up with Scripture. It always has to be our litmus test, because I think the danger and what you and I and probably your listeners know is that hardly a month goes by that we don't hear of some spiritual leader abusing somebody in their church in one way, shape, or form. And there was one that came down the pike not too long ago where it was within this idea of hearing from the Lord, and it was like a prophetic ministry where the guy was actually data farming on Facebook and then going and pretending like he got all those words from the Lord. That is incredibly dangerous. And I think the antidote to that is making sure that we have our own relationship with the Lord, so that if somebody comes and tells us something because it's manipulative or it's abusive or it's because of their own trauma or whatever the reason is, we can check in with the Lord and have peace to say, you know what? That's not the case. And I'm not dependent on somebody else's relationship with the Lord, because I have my own.

Dr. Jessica Peck: I'm so grateful that you shared that story, because I think there are a lot of people who can relate to that. And I'm thinking of what. There was one specific instance where someone told my pastor something that was clearly not of the Lord, but that they proclaimed it to be a message from God. And I remember him being very confident, very gentle, very kind, but very confident and saying, I choose not to receive that from you because that is not consistent with what I know to be the character of God. And I thought, man, that's just such a simple way to say it. But just like you just described Raechel, in that moment, you had to make a decision, were you going to receive that or not receive that? And because, you know, thinking of what you know now and the ways that you can put that straight, to compare it with the consistency of the character of God and His Word, it makes it easier because a lot of times, like you said, that that brings fear, that brings emotion. There's a lot of times where our emotions can really play tricks with our minds and our. We can all of a sudden become slaves to our emotions. Almost like we just are, just feel completely powerless.

Rachael Groll: This.

Dr. Jessica Peck: How do you see that emotional battle playing out with, with the, with the clarity of hearing from the word of God? And like you said, some of the mess that can come from when our emotions take charge or our minds start racing.

Rachael Groll: Well, similar to what we talked about in the first segment when I had to make the decision to believe God despite my feelings about the situation, our feelings often lie to us. Our feelings are our feelings that our emotions are all over the place based on our circumstances. And I think often what happens is we have this human tendency to let our feelings become the filter that's in front of our eyes and it taints how we see God. I think instead we need to lean more on what we know to be true. True. We know the word of God does not lie. We know the word of God is true. We know the character of God does not change. And I think when we can take a step back and recognize the truth of who God is, is who he says he is in His Word. And we can believe that over our emotions. I mean, our emotions are loud and they, they can sometimes really compete for that. Sometimes we have to stand on what we know, know, and we know that the word of God is true. So again, it goes back to God's Word. I mean, there have been times in my life where again, things do not line up in the physical. What I'm seeing and what I'm experiencing and the way I feel about it is not consistent with what I thought God was going to do or how I thought he was going to operate. You know, we live in a broken world where we can be praying for somebody to be healed and they still die. You know, they were healed on the other side of heaven, but that's not how we wanted that prayer answered. And so if, if we're not careful, we can look at that situation and say, well, God didn't answer my pray prayer. He must not love me, or I must not have been praying the right way, or God's not good because this person still died. He answered our prayer in a different way. That person is now healed and whole if they were a believer. But it's on the other side of heaven. I think we have to back up from our emotions and kind of look through the lens of who God says he is, because that's the the solid truth that we stand on as believers.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Raechel, I have a lot more questions, and this is such a great conversation. I don't hear people talking about this very much other than just to ask out of curiosity, how do you hear from God? And then there's usually not a lot of back and forth. And I hope this will open up some conversation around the dinner table tonight for families and ask your family members, how do you hear from God? Does God speak to you? What does it feel like? What does it sound like? How do we know to learn what God's voice sounds like in our life? We'll be right back with more from Hearing Jesus by Rachael  Groll. I'll see you on the other side of this break.

As an AFA insider, you'll stay up to date on important issues

 : So you're scrolling through your social media news feed when you happen to run across a story about a bill that would remove safeguards that protect your kids from adult content online. You think, boy, it's a good thing I saw that. But then you realize the story is a week old and you missed the window to do anything. It's so frustrating. But it doesn't have to be. As an AFA insider, you'll stay up to date on the issues that are designed to destroy our families and our freedoms. And you won't have to spend hours online combing every corner of the Internet for the latest developments. There's no more accidentally running across a story or overhearing enough of a story to pique your interest than leaving you wondering about the important details. You'll be the one in the know and you'll be equipped to take action, helping keep our families and our freedoms safe. It's easy to become an AFA insider, so why not do it today? Visit afa.net/activism afa.net/activism

Fight On My Knees by Evan Craft: Feels like a whisper, but in heaven it's loud. Don't give up. Don't give up on the ones you love. Oh, just a little faith is enough. help me to remember m My help comes from heaven. God, when I surrender, I find all I need me Strengthen every weakness in the, name of, Jesus.

Rachael Groll shares her testimony about hearing God through traumatic experiences

Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is Fight on My Knees by Evan Craft. And I'll tell you I hope that you have a thriving prayer Life, that is one of the core four spiritual disciplines we talked about on Fridays. Every Friday, we talk about a healthy habit, 52 habits for healthy families. And those core four spiritual disciplines were reading God's word, praying, getting plugged into a Bible believing church, and really using music as a discipleship tool to set the thermostat in your home. And those things are really going to help you to learn the word of God and to learn when God is speaking to you. We're talking today to Raechel Grohl, and she's been sharing her. Her very powerful testimony about hearing God in her own life through a very traumatic childhood, through a traumatic international adoption experience where the child she adopted ended up being trafficked and still here today to tell us that she hears from God and that God loves her, that he is good, that he is for her. And as I'm holding this devotional, it's so beautiful if you see it here on the video. It's called hearing Jesus. 365 Daily devotions for women. This would be a fantastic Mother's Day gift. Mother's Day is coming up on Sunday, so here's your friendly reminder if you have forgotten and you could probably order this online and have it come in by the time Mother's Day is here. It's called Hearing Jesus. And Raechel, you've just been convicting me so much as we're talking and just really encouraging me because I think hearing the voice of God is something that seems so. Just far off, so unattainable, so out of reach, so somewhat mystical, if we're being honest. But you have shared with us God's voice never contradicts his Word. And discernment grows as we know God's character through scripture, through the Word of God, not through our own understanding, our own intelligence, our own interpretation. Truth today just feels like it's something that people seek and it's secret. But God speaks plainly. And understanding how God speaks is one thing, but trusting him when life falls apart is another. And so what, what? Tell us more about your journey, Raechel. Hearing Jesus and how that has changed over time and how your faith has grown and matured and what that looks like for you now to hear from Jesus.

My relationship with the Lord has grown over time, through experiences

Rachael Groll: Well, I think for me, just like any of our human in person relationships, my relationship with the Lord has grown over time, through experiences. You know, I've been so blessed to travel when I've worked as a missionary in lots of different places, globally and locally here in the States and because I believe, because I've had A heart open to serving and being obedient. To do the things that God has called me to do or to go to the places that other people don't want to go. I've had the incredible privilege of witnessing and God do some amazing, incredible things. And because I've seen those things, of course that builds my faith to know that he is absolutely true. You know, one of the trips that we were in, East Africa for, in one of the, East African countries, I physically saw people healed of blindness and deafness. I saw it with my own two eyes as I was praying for people they were getting healed. I saw that up until that point in my life, my life in the States, I believe that God could do that. I mean, God can do anything. I'm not going to doubt, I mean, he's God, but I had never seen it. Once you see something like that, I'll never doubt God again. And God has blessed me in so many ways to be able to see that and be involved in that in many different ways, in lots of different environments. But because of those experiences with the Lord, because I trusted him, because I was obedient to him. You know, when God calls you to go to Africa, I mean, I remember my kids were young when I first felt the Lord call me to go to Africa. And I was like, I, I think I'm going to get trampled by an elephant. I, I don't. That gives me so much fear.

Dr. Jessica Peck: What do you mean?

Rachael Groll: Like I have little kids at home and but yet I knew that the Lord was calling me to go. And I believe that because I was obedient to do something that didn't make sense. We didn't have the money for me to go to Africa. But yet God provided in miraculous ways through things, crazy things like refund funds on insurance, insurance we had four years ago. All of a sudden there's a twelve hundred dollar refund that pays off my flight balance to the church so that I could, you know, the day before the deadline the money was due and I had no idea where the money was coming from. Like all sorts of different kinds of miraculous things like that that would happen. So I believe God and I made those steps to be obedient, even though it didn't seem to make sense. So when we didn't have the money, I didn't think I had the time because I owned my own business at the time, and yet I was able to carve out this time. I had little kids at home and I didn't know who was going Help because my husband had to work. And yet God provided people to help every step of the way. And then when I'm in country, I'm seeing God do miracles, legitimate miracles. So much so that it changed my view of who God was. And so, you know, I, I think back to that time in my life. It was so formational for me because I think when you're at a place where you 100% know you're all in. God is real. Real. I know he's real. I've seen him over and over and over operate and do things that only he can do. I don't have doubt anymore. So if anything, the obstacle is me. The obstacle is my own fear, my own insecurity, my own lack of obedience, whatever it is. And I've learned over the years that delayed obedience is still disobedience. And so one of my core values is quick obedience, even when it's uncomfortable, comfortable. Because I've learned the hard way that if I'm not obedient, there's going to be consequence. And that consequence might not necessarily be like discipline for me. The consequence might be that I miss out on the blessing of what God wants to do. You know, recently my husband and I were in Guatemala. My daughter was, part of the world race. And it's a, it's a like almost a year long missions program. So she was gone for nine months. And we as the parents got to go visit the kids in Guatemala. And, and one of the evenings we were all kind of gathered around in prayer and the Lord gave my husband something that he knew he was supposed to share with the group. And he sat on it because it was a new group. We didn't really know them, we didn't really know how they would feel about that. And he sat on it and he didn't do what the Lord was calling him to do. And there was another gentleman that stood up and said the exact same thing, that the Lord had spoken to my husband. And, and when we kind of got back to our room that night, my husband said, you know, I forgot that God's going to do what God's going to do. And I missed out on the blessing of being used by God because he has an agenda. He invites me into his agenda, but he doesn't have to use me. God's going to do what he's going to do. I may have to make the choice. Do I want to partner with God? Do I want to be a part of what he's doing? Well, yeah, the answer is yes. And what I've learned, and that is a very clear example that we just experienced last month, delayed obedience is disobedience. It doesn't necessarily stop what God's going to do, but it does rob me of the blessing of being part of what God is doing.

Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, when you talk about that your children, you're a mom, Raechel. And what does that look like in your family for talking about, you know, how God is speaking to you? Because this is something we want to model for our kids. One of the healthy habits that we just did not too long ago was talking about parents and grandparents and other caring adults. Adults who are in kids lives to model their faith not in a showy way, but to show them what those, what their walk with the Lord looks like. To show them. Yeah, I get up in my more in the morning and I open my Bible and I'm going to read it. And this is where I pray and when I pray and this is how I hear from God and how I discern his voice, how I think reading your Bible, praying, those kinds of things, we're like, okay, we get it. How do you work hearing God's voice into your family discipleship and help your kids understand and recognize God's voice?

Rachael Groll: Well, I was a children's pastor for a number of years and so this is an area that I have long spent in working and developing resources for families and I'm passionate about. But even when I was a children's pastor, I would tell the parents, you know, I would get the kids one hour a week, you have them the whole rest of the week. And so I think you hit the nail on the head when you talk about modeling. And now that my kids are on the older end of the spectrum, my youngest is almost 16 and then I have an almost 19 year old and an almost, almost 23 year old. And so they're on the other end of that. But what I have realized for all three of them M is when it comes time and there's a different age for each child, I think when they make that decision, but they have to make a decision that their faith is going to be their own relationship with God. And not because mom and dad have taken them to church their whole lives, but because they want a relationship with God. My kids from the time they were very young were part of anything that we did ministry wise. And so I had a ministry for children, children called Sidewalk Sunday School. When the kids were little where we would go out into like the low income housing communities and we would Take the gospel and do a whole program. Take this truck down there. The kids grew up on the sidewalk Sunday school truck making peanut butter jelly sandwiches and handing out school backpacks. Or if we were doing food pantry, the kids are right there handing out the grapes. Or if we were doing homeless ministry, they were right there handing out the sleeping bags. We always took the kids with us. And so while they may not understand or remember even some of the things that we took taught them in kids class, they might not remember the Bible verses that they memorize. They, they remember a lot of them, but they might not remember all of those lessons. What they do remember is the reality of what it looked like for our family to serve God and the difference that made in people. And then, you know, if you think about the biblical model, the first miracle that Jesus did, the wedding at Cana, the first people to witness the miracle of God was the people that were served, serving. And I think, you know, there's this theological principle called the law of the first mention. And what that means is anytime we see something mentioned in scripture for the first time, we have to pay special attention to it because it kind of sets the tone for the way things are going to happen through the rest of the scripture. The first time we see a public miracle of Jesus, it's revealed to those that are serving. That's been true in my life, it's been true in my family's lives. They've seen the miracle that happens when you are faithful and you are obedient and you are surrendered and you're serving the. Serving the Lord. Lord. And so because they've grown up seeing God provide and do miraculous things and provide in ways that didn't make sense to us, I can't take that away from them. And so, yes, it's about modeling that, but it's also about giving them opportunities to serve. And so maybe for some families that looks like helping at the food pantry, maybe for some families that looks like something creative, like I know one family that will take quarters and they'll go down and put them in a little bag and they'll tape them, to the washing machines at the laundromat and put a little note in there or a scripture or something. I mean, it can look different ways for different families. And you know, create, create resources to help families kind of figure out what that looks like for their family. But I think as my kids have gotten older and we've had some of those conversations, they have expressed to me that most of the way that they've learned about God is just by watching our own relationship, a real relationship with God. And not just a Sunday morning relationship with God, but what's a Thursday afternoon relationship with God look like? You know, one of the stories that I tell that I think encompasses this really well is during that season, that we went through with Gideon when we found out, like, okay, this is it. He's not coming home, he's not going to come to our family. Like, we had to tell the kids. And when we told our youngest, she was very young at the time, we told her we're trying to explain it to her in very elementary terms, not to scare her. You know, how do you explain trafficking to a six year old? But, but we tried to explain all of that to her in a way that she could understand. And she just looked at me and she said, well, we need to pray for the bad guys that they would come to know Jesus. And to be perfectly honest, I did not want to pray for the bad guys. I wanted a lot of things to happen to those bad guys. So prayer was not on my top of my list. And I remember just thinking like, in this simple, childlike faith, she's doing what we taught her to do, she's doing what we've modeled for her. And it was so convicting for me because, you know, she of course didn't have all the emotions and all the details and all those kinds of things. But we are called to pray for our enemies. We're, And I didn't want to do that. And yet the Lord used her to minister to my heart. And she led the prayer for our family that night. And to hear your six year old pray for the bad guys that were responsible for, for this message, it broke my heart in ways that I couldn't even understand because I realized even then, when we were still going through it, that the Lord doesn't waste pain. He doesn't waste anything. There's nothing wasted in the kingdom. And so while I definitely don't think that God authored any of that story, I do believe that he's the Redeemer of all things. And the way he's used it in my life and the way he's used it in my children's lives. Lives, they know he's real. They've seen it. They've seen it over and over again. And so I think for parents, the best thing you can do to help your kids know who God is is to pursue him yourself in a way that's real and honest. Even when life is lifing well, you

Dr. Jessica Peck: have been real and honest with us today, Rachael and I'm so grateful for the gift gift of that honesty, for sharing your story and for sharing the hope that you have found. The book is called Hearing Jesus. It's by Rachael Groll. And where, Rachael can my listeners find your podcast?

Rachael Groll: Well, the podcast is called Hearing Jesus and it's available anywhere. You get your podcasts on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, all the places. The book is also called Hearing Jesus. And then we have the Hearing Jesus for Kids podcast. And as of last week, the book is at Walmart. Not all Walmart, okay, but a lot of the Walmarts. You can look online to see if yours has it. But if you need that last minute Mother's Day gift, yeah, Barnes and Noble, I think has it now and Walmart has it.

Dr. Jessica Peck: So Barnes and Noble, Walmart, you can Amazon, you can get it on Amazon. It would make a fantastic Mother's Day gift. Rachael I've been so blessed by my conversation with you today. And I know my listeners have, have and I pray as I always do, that the Lord will bless my listeners that will bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and give you peace. I'll see you right back here tomorrow.

Preborn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion

We'd like to thank our sponsors, including PreBorn. PreBorn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion. And every day their network clinics rescue 200 babies lives. Will you join PreBorn in loving and supporting young moms in crisis? Save a Life today? Go to preborn.com/AFR the views and

Jeff Chamblee: opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.

Rachael Groll, author and host of the "Hearing Jesus Podcast", talks with Jessica about hearing from Jesus in those times that test our faith.

https://www.rachaelgroll.com/