God is Speaking, Here’s How to Listen

We know that Scripture is the primary way God speaks to us—but many of us still wonder how to recognize His voice in everyday life. In this episode of Imagine Yourself, we revisit a powerful conversation with Kelli Shelton, co-founder of Seek Well Ministries, who joined us to talk about how to quiet the noise and truly listen for God.

Kelli’s insight is both deeply spiritual and refreshingly practical. She reminds us that hearing from God isn’t about striving harder—it’s about slowing down, being still, and letting His truth guide our hearts.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this conversation:

1. 🕊️ How to create space to hear from God in the middle of a busy, noisy world.
2. 📖 Why Scripture always remains the foundation for anything we believe God is saying.
3. 💭 Ways God speaks beyond words—through peace, conviction, and quiet nudges.
4. ❤️ What to do when God feels silent, and how to trust that He’s still present.
5. 🌿 How to practice spiritual stillness so you can become more aware of His voice.

If you’ve ever wondered whether God is speaking—or how to recognize His voice—this episode will give you clarity, peace, and a fresh perspective on what it means to truly listen.  

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"Imagine Yourself" is hosted by Lanée Blaise and Sandy Kovach—two dynamic voices with a passion for inspiring and uplifting others. Lanée, a TV writer, producer, motivational speaker, and podcaster, brings powerful storytelling and insight. Sandy, a radio personality, voiceover artist, and podcaster, delivers warmth and wisdom with every conversation. Broadcasting from the Detroit Metro area, they welcome guests from around the world to share valuable perspectives on health, career growth, faith, and personal transformation. Tune in and imagine the possibilities for your life!

Transcript

Sandy Kovach [00:00:00]:
We know that scripture is the primary way God speaks to us and anything we sense him saying will always line up with his word. But if you've ever longed for prayer being a two way street to understand how God speaks in a personal way, God speaking into our circumstances, God helping us to make a decision. God leading us on his path, knowing his will. There's so many things that God can communicate with us. We're going to talk about that. We're revisiting an episode we did a while back with Kelly Shelton. She leads Sequel Ministries alongside her husband. Kelly shared some beautiful practical ways to recognize when God is speaking and how to quiet the noise so you can actually hear Him.

Sandy Kovach [00:00:44]:
It's a very eye opening perspective that still speaks to us today and we think will bless you. I'm Sandy and on behalf of Lanee and I, welcome to Imagine Yourself.

Kelli Shelton [00:00:56]:
I know that there are a lot of listeners thinking when they first clicked on this episode, how do I hear from God? And I know that a very elementary answer would be by stopping to listen to God. But it's easier said than done. People tend to want to push out their thoughts and as opposed to sitting still and quiet and listening.

Kelli Shelton [00:01:24]:
And there's something that has happened along the way, I think in a lot of our faith journeys where we are learning information about God or about Jesus. And so we know a lot about him, but we don't know him. We don't know him in an intimate way and that's why he created us. That's his desire for us. And I think deep down it's our desire. We want to be known intimately and we, we want to know him. But if we never connect that piece of listening and allowing him to speak, we're going to always lack in that relationship. So I do, I think it sounds like a very mystical thing.

Kelli Shelton [00:02:09]:
And if it's something that people aren't familiar with, they're like, whoa, that's weird. But truly, if I were to phrase it as Sandy, if one of your family members or closest friend calls you and you pick up the phone, you don't have to go, oh, who's calling? You know their voice. You recognize their voice. It's just that, you know, so often God is speaking to us, just don't recognize his voice. We just haven't learned his voice yet. And once you do, one of the girls that was at our experiences, she had said, I realized God loves to talk to me while I'm doing the dishes. And she said, I'm just standing over my sink looking out the window. And I recognize his voice now, even then, not only when I have my bible open and I'm sitting in my quiet time, it's all throughout the day.

Sandy Kovach [00:03:04]:
So when you say recognize his voice to be clear, many times we're not really hearing like an audible booming voice of Morgan Freeman. Saying things like that would be really cool. But that's not usually how it happens, right?

Kelli Shelton [00:03:18]:
I love that you asked it in that way because I always feel like I need to clarify. It's, it's usually not audible and I don't think if someone was sitting next to me they would hear what God's saying to me. It usually sounds like a whisper in my mind, almost in my own voice. So almost what a thought of mine would sound like. But how I clarify, like is that God speaking. It always speaks to me in the most loving way. And I think for a lot of us my self, talk is not nice. And the soundtracks I have going through my mind and the way I think or talk, it isn't loving.

Kelli Shelton [00:03:59]:
And so when I hear from God, it's something that I wouldn't, I would never say to myself. It's higher than my thinking. It's something I wouldn't normally have in my thought life and it always lines up with scripture. It's not going to be anything outside of that. And so I was listening one day with my daughter, she's just turned 14 and, and middle school is tough, right? And her and I in our listening time, she was just dealing with some insecurity. And one of the things she said she heard was that God told me I'm worthy. And I'm like, that's not in our language. My 12 year old at that time, she was like, what is worthy? Doesn't even know what that means.

Kelli Shelton [00:04:47]:
And so it's being communicated to in the most loving way.

Lanée Blaise [00:04:53]:
I want to share something as well along those lines. Back a few Easters ago, I was having a situation where my husband and I just kept having little arguments, nitpicking it, little tiny things, just frustrating and then shutting down and then going off to our corners and things like that. And I was sitting in church and I heard God say, and even by this wording, it's something I'll never forget and it's not the way that I talk. And God said in regards to your husband, stop finding fault with him and he will stop finding fault with you. And I knew Linnae does not talk like that. And it was at a moment when of all things, I was at church looking over to see if he was paying attention properly to what the pastor was saying. And when that word dropped down upon me, it helped. It blessed me.

Lanée Blaise [00:05:51]:
I was able to obey it. I was able to recognize it. And like you said, it's because of the relationship with God. It's because of over time, beginning to hear. I've definitely gone through seasons where I've heard some terrible things that first I thought, like, gosh, maybe it's God saying, that's not God talking to me. He's not saying these terrible, mean things to me. That's again, that negative self talk. But the beautiful, uplifting, comforting, strengthening things that come from God in almost language that you don't even use is very beautiful and very comforting and very helpful to those who are trying to search for their own ways of hearing from God.

Kelli Shelton [00:06:31]:
I love that and I love that you knew it was God, because I feel like in those moments, we can't jump the tracks. We're just headed in this direction. It's like we can't get over there. And so for him to say, hey, I'm going to jump in here and help.

Lanée Blaise [00:06:49]:
I'm going to help Linnae and her husband. She's at church messing up over there, you know, looking to see what he's doing instead of stop finding fault.

Sandy Kovach [00:06:58]:
He dropped it right at the right time.

Lanee Blaise [00:07:00]:
Absolutely.

Sandy Kovach [00:07:02]:
Is that how that works? I mean, obviously we're studying scripture. We can hear God's voice through his word. With studying God's word and listening in general, this is how we prepare for those moments to happen, by slowing down. Are you saying that if we're not really looking for it or praying about it, it's just not going to happen?

Kelli Shelton [00:07:21]:
God can speak to us anytime. I think where we get it wrong is when we don't allow space, especially in the beginning, if that is something that you are hoping for or longing for. Creating the space is a huge part of that and practicing that and practicing having that space. A great example. I got my girls off to school one morning and it happened to be sunny and it happened to be warm. And I thought, I'm just going to grab my dog and get out for a quick walk because my day is going to get away from me before I get to work. And so put the leash on my dog, headed out and I was like, oh, I have a friend that sent me this great podcast. And so I'm going to pop that in.

Kelli Shelton [00:08:04]:
And I feel like God was like, hey, wait, don't multitask. Just walk and be present while you're walking, but also be with me. And I feel like as I continued my walk, I got to see this neighbor and have a quick little sweet conversation with her. My AirPods weren't in, so I was present with her. And then I turned the corner and I noticed there were, you know, a couple of buds on the tree. And I'm like, oh, look, rain's coming. And then I turn the other corner, and I could see the sky and what the sun looked like that morning. And it's like I experience all these beautiful moments when normally I'm like, oh, let me just get some steps in real quick and crank out this podcast and then get on with my day.

Kelli Shelton [00:08:44]:
So I do that sometimes. I get in the car and then I turn on this, and then I get home and I'm like, well, I got to cook. And now I'm going to turn this podcast on. I'm going to turn this music on. And it's like, I don't have a quiet moment in my day. And so if we're used to having all that white noise, then we're drowning out. We're drowning out God. We're drowning out maybe some emotions that are rising to the surface.

Kelli Shelton [00:09:06]:
We're drowning out some of the feelings that we have and maybe some of the things we need to think on or process through.

Lanée Blaise [00:09:12]:
You have me thinking of something else that has become very popular in both the secular world, the religious world is mindfulness, when people decide to really sit and savor and enjoy what's coming through their senses, what they smell, what they see, what they're feeling. I feel like if we want to expand upon it in a Christian way, we can use some of those same principles of being still and being mindful, but being quiet in a new way. This is another one I want to share. When I was a little girl, I really wanted God to talk to me. I mean, I was little. I was 7 years old, and I was so determined. And because I was a little girl, I didn't have any cynicism attached. I just thought that it could happen.

Lanee Blaise [00:10:02]:
And we had a Sunday school teacher that I never met before and I never saw again. I don't know where she came from, where she went, but she told us that God could talk to us and that we really needed to take time in a quiet place for about 10 or more minutes every day and wait to hear from God. It's not like she was trying to put together a formula, because I know lots of people try to do a formula, but it was something where like you're saying, Kelly, she wanted us to carve out that time with no distractions and remember, we're little kids. So she's not necessarily talking about meditating, she's not necessarily talking about mindfulness. Plus this was back in the 70s, so, you know, but, but basically she told us to focus on the scripture in Revelations 3:20, it's like, behold, or here I am, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me. And she said to focus on that scripture and to really see it happening, see your heart opening up, see Jesus standing at the door of your heart and your soul and let him in. And I did this as a little girl for like two weeks straight, about 10 minutes each day in a broom closet because that was the quietest place.

Lanee Blaise [00:11:22]:
I have lots of siblings but. And it did begin that journey of being able to hear God's voice. And then like I said too, I eventually had to learn authority so that when these negative, nasty, condescending, condemning remarks came through, my mother told me, those are not God. That's not God, that's not Jesus, that's not the Holy Spirit. That's either you or I don't know. But ignore those and gently get yourself back to listening for God. So it's just again, not a formula. But it is so possible and I just think it's so important for women and men to talk about their pathways there to give encouragement to those who are still seeking.

Kelli Shelton [00:12:06]:
What's beautiful about what you shared is you were open minded about hearing from God and you think about the heart of a child, that they are very open and they're quick to believe and they see authenticity, right? All of those things.

Lanee Blaise [00:12:23]:
I thought I could be Wonder Woman. I thought I could be a mom with 12. I thought I could do anything. I thought anything was possible. And I don't want to be a mother of 12 kids or wonder Woman, but I did.

Kelli Shelton [00:12:33]:
You know, the God part is great. And you know, as we get older, we become more close minded. I think what happens is when we are close minded or we think that isn't something for me, then we will put up a wall like for self preservation and go, I'm not going to go there. One of the men that came through one of our experiences was like, I just, I just don't hear, hear from God. I don't hear from God. And he kind of walked through one of our entire, you know, weekends and was like, I just don't think. But then when we lay it out differently and say, well, how does God speak to us? Yes, he speaks to us through his word. Yes, he speaks to us through wise people.

Kelli Shelton [00:13:16]:
Yes, he speaks to us through creation. Yes, he speaks to us in our mind, audibly to us, right in our thoughts or. Or something impresses on our spirit. There are all these different ways. And for some people who come to our experiences, we'll say, now we're going to be still, you know, for our listening session. And for some people, they panic because they're like, I can't sit still. But one of my best friends, she hears when she's moving and when she's walking. And my husband, when he is out in the woods, someone might need to be in a.

Kelli Shelton [00:13:53]:
A cozy couch with a warm blanket. Someone wants to be sitting by the fire. It's beautiful to see the people at our experiences disperse and, like, you go engage with Jesus the way you're wired and the way you're created. And so the man who was leaving the retreat, that was like, I just didn't hear. And it's like, when it was painted in that way, he goes, oh. I mean, God's been taking me the whole time then. And sometimes we're waiting for that one moment or that one word where it's like, oh, my gosh, he. And what you said that spoke so deeply to my heart.

Kelli Shelton [00:14:29]:
He's speaking that to me, too. Yeah.

Lanee Blaise [00:14:32]:
Music sometimes.

Kelli Shelton [00:14:33]:
Yeah, absolutely.

Sandy Kovach [00:14:36]:
So I'm wondering if maybe, you know, I don't really get words dropped on me, but I guess definitely through, you know, hearing a message or something that Lynae says or you say or a friend says, can be something. And maybe it is because of the mind blocks. And maybe I can't get 80s lyrics out of my head, you know, when I'm sitting there and thinking about weird songs, you know, from back in the day, I'm one of those people that just can't quiet myself. So I may need to try different practices. One thing that I loved when you came and shared with women's Bible study at Northridge, was it the lectio divina? Was it where you. And this does involve scripture. It's probably too long for us to go through, actually, here on the podcast, but could you tell us what that is?

Kelli Shelton [00:15:23]:
Absolutely. I don't know if any of you have ever read something, closed the book, walked away and been like, I have no idea what I just read. I read the chapter I was supposed to, but I have no idea. And so I Am notorious for that. And what lectio divina is, is it allows us to read scripture and not skip over one word. It's taking a very small. It could be two verses, it could be one verse, but it's reading it not even for understanding, but to read it in hearing each and every word. And then oftentimes we have.

Kelli Shelton [00:16:09]:
We read it slowly, intentionally, and we read through it three times. And there's always a word that kind of rises up to the surface, and it could be the word with in a verse, or it could be the word rescue, but there is always a word that's just going to stick out to you. And that's a really great launching place in settling and just hearing God's word and. Right. Letting it wash over you. And then maybe taking that as, what do you want to say to me about that word? With what do I mean? Why is that word on my heart? And kind of diving into that a little more. A really great example, actually. When God was talking to me years ago, years before sequel even existed, that was something he said to me when I was driving.

Kelli Shelton [00:17:07]:
My girls were really little, and I remember just being so excited to be alone, and the radio was off. Like, I just wanted to be alone and quiet. And he said, seek well. And I was kind of like, me, what does that mean? Do you want me to seek? Well, what. What is seeking? Well, tell. Like, I. Tell me everything. And that's all he said.

Kelli Shelton [00:17:29]:
And I just kept thinking on it. And when I would sit down, I would doodle it. And I was like, I wonder what the Bible says about sequel or what it says about seek. And I just began this deep dive into every verse. Like, what. What are all the verses that talk about seeking, Seeking and you will find me just over and over again in the Bible. And I was like, well, I'm just going to study these and just see what he reveals to me next. And so when we're able to take that one word and journal that has been transformative in my life, because I'll think things and they'll come and go, and I'm so forgetful.

Kelli Shelton [00:18:05]:
But if I write that down, then I can go back to that and see. Oh, God, you were talking to me about this. Okay, where are we going next? What do you want to tell me about this?

Lanee Blaise [00:18:15]:
And it turned out to be a full movement that you and your husband built a whole ministry upon. Those two words, seek?

Kelli Shelton [00:18:23]:
Well, absolutely. Yeah.

Lanee Blaise [00:18:25]:
I really believe that the purpose of us coming together today is to really encourage people to make sure that they are slowing down the way that they need to. And like you said, staying open minded to the possibilities of God's ways of communicating with them. And sometimes I think we say hear or talk, we are thinking of it that way versus some people are very visual people. They may be able to see something that God is showing them in a visual way or like mentioned too in a musical way. Even Jesus had to go off, away from everybody when it was still not even sunlight yet in the mornings and be with God as a human in order to get that reflection, get that wisdom in. And I just think a lot of times people maybe don't realize that because God's ways are so much higher than our ways, things may not look and sound the way they expect. Because I know that that's another element. Too many times God will say something to us that is not really what we asked.

Lanee Blaise [00:19:35]:
It's not really the answer or the foretelling of am I going to end up getting to move out of this house and get the house of my dreams? And then God says something like seek well. And you're like, wait, what? And it's just, it's like, it could be confusing or maybe even if we're honest, it could be frustrating because you want a direct answer from, you know, now that you have this ability to listen to God, you want a direct answer. And many times God is giving you what's for your best, even if it's not the most convenient, efficient, straightforward answer to your problems. And that's my experience.

Kelli Shelton [00:20:11]:
So many times I have even to our experiences with an agenda. And it's like, do you want me to take that job? God, I just want to come here and I want you to tell me the answer to this big question. And I'll sit down and he'll go, I want to talk to you about how short you were with your kids today. What's going on? And I'm like, I don't, I don't want to talk about that. You know, I feel awful. And so then taking that rabbit trail of why was I so short with them today? What do you want me to know right now? Oh, I'm short with them because I jam packed my schedule and we're all running at breakneck speed. Right? So you're absolutely right. I want to hear what I want to hear.

Lanee Blaise [00:20:56]:
Yeah.

Kelli Shelton [00:20:57]:
And sometimes in the most gentle and loving ways, he'll say, why are you not spending time with me? But you're okay with scrolling Instagram and starting your day that way? And he'll say it in a loving and gentle way, but it's that redirection where he's like, yeah, I want to talk to you about those things, but I also need to talk to you about this over here because I love you and I can feel how destructive that could be in your life if you're not walking closely with me.

Lanee Blaise [00:21:24]:
That's right.

Sandy Kovach [00:21:26]:
So we've got rest, slowing down, listening, we've got being open, open minded, realizing that people hear from God in different ways. I think my problem with this has always been I hear stories about people hearing from God and I'm thinking that it's going to happen in a certain way. So maybe that's what people need to do who are blocking maybe because they think, well, this is something like weird that your neighbor does and you're not really sure if it actually happened, but. And you do hear good stories about it and you believe it, but yet it's not really happened for you. So then you're feeling like, is there something wrong with me or is it all, you know, just.

Kelli Shelton [00:22:07]:
And that forms a narrative of maybe what we're believing about God. That's not true. Because I think that there are people who have not heard from God that are really hurt or they feel uninvited into that space or excluded. And you know, I look at a lot of people and think, of course pastors would hear from God. That's what they do for a living. Right?

Sandy Kovach [00:22:35]:
Right.

Kelli Shelton [00:22:36]:
It's for them. But I'm a teacher, so it's not for me. So there's all of these things maybe that get knit together that are not true. And when we are in agreement with that, we actually dive into that. In some of our sessions that we do when we're believing something like that that's not true, then we've agreed to that almost with the enemy. Then we're not allowing God to work in that space. So if I made that agreement and said God will never speak to me, or God doesn't, he doesn't love me because he doesn't want to speak to me, then we're allowing that narrative to shape us, inform us. And we're like in a handshake with the enemy saying, deal, okay? And God's like, well, if you're in agreement with the enemy, then I can't work in that place.

Kelli Shelton [00:23:28]:
So I'm not free to come into that until you've broken that and reopen that for me to come and work in that place. And those moments happen when we are stressed or overwhelmed Right. Completely unregulated. Those things come in. And we might say that we might speak that over our marriage. I'll never have a happy marriage. Agree. Right.

Kelli Shelton [00:23:52]:
We're making that agreement and not allowing God my. I'll have. I'll never have a good relationship with my kids. Our words then, like, they have power and that can be an agreement. And again, it's keeping God from that space and not allowing him to freely work in that.

Lanee Blaise [00:24:12]:
I never thought of it that way. That is very powerful.

Kelli Shelton [00:24:16]:
Unlike the enemy, he's a deceiver, he's an accuser. He would love to shape our narrative in that way. And it does. The things that we believe show, so the things that we think, those shape us because we're trying to understand it, therefore, telling ourselves a story so we can understand it, and it's oftentimes not true.

Sandy Kovach [00:24:42]:
So that negative self talk, like what Linnae was speaking about earlier, whether it comes from the enemy, whether it comes from us, but as long as we're agreeing with it and forming our own narrative, we're putting up roadblocks is what you're saying.

Kelli Shelton [00:24:55]:
Absolutely. Think I can't work in that just as much as unforgiveness. If he forgave us and he's calling us to follow him and forgive and live like him, if we're harboring unforgiveness, that's a roadblock. Just like you said, Sandy, that puts something there. There's something between us and him and we're limiting what he can do. It's free will. He's a gentleman. He's not going to force himself into that.

Kelli Shelton [00:25:23]:
Obviously he wants us to forgive, but if we're unwilling, that's keeping him from that space. I want him to be in all of it. And I'm like, how is unforgiveness working out for you, Kelly? Not great. Right. It actually turned to bitterness, and now I'm bitter, and now I'm withholding who I am from this person who hurt me, who I'd love to be in relationship with, and so on and so on, where it's like, no, we need to let him into all of those places so we can fully live life in what he created us for.

Lanee Blaise [00:25:56]:
Because you mentioned some people are out there feeling that they have been uninvited to this great way of life. But maybe those are the people who haven't invited fully, like wholeheartedly invited God into their life and minds and into that talking and listening relationship. Because let's say you have a cousin that you haven't really been in touch with. And will you send that person an invitation to your wedding or your, you know, retirement party, whatever. They may or may not show up, but give a wholehearted invitation and believe that it is possible that they'll show up. And I bet it opens it up because again, that, that just brings that verse again with here I stand at the door and knock. And if you open the door, so you go with the intention of opening the door and you'll just have to get what you get and see what happens. But a wholehearted invitation to God into your life and almost that part like, like a child with a childlike anticipation, which is difficult because we're, we're not kids anymore.

Lanee Blaise [00:27:08]:
We've got bills, you know, but, but, but a wholehearted invitation to hear from God with just a new. I never thought of it with that handshake aspect that you are. By saying it, you're kind of making it a deal. So to be conscious of that and to flip it, it's just very hopeful.

Sandy Kovach [00:27:27]:
I love this. This has been a big learning session and I hope that, and actually, I don't even just hope. I'm confident that it's blessing a lot of people that are listening to this. So, Lanee, do you think it's time for takeaway time?

Lanee Blaise [00:27:43]:
Yeah. So, anyone listening and Kelly, yourself. At the end of every episode, we like to ask our guests, what is it? If there's just one thing that someone takes away from this entire episode, what is it that you want them to take away? Hold in their heart, live in their lives, change their lives. From what's being said today, what do you have to drop on us?

Kelli Shelton [00:28:09]:
Fantastic question. The God of the universe wants to speak to you, and what he has to say to you is going to be your heart's deepest longing and it will change your life. However, you have to make time and space to listen and then allow him to speak. And don't come with your agenda and don't come with all of the hurts or maybe things that you're believing that are not true. But come like a child. I love that we got to that place, that analogy. But come and listen and let him speak to you.

Sandy Kovach [00:28:55]:
You can learn more about Kelly Shelton and sequel ministries@seekwell.org and we'll have that link in the show notes along with all of our Imagine yourself info. If this episode spoke to you, be sure to subscribe or share it with someone who might need a little encouragement today. Thanks for spending time with us. Until next time, Take a breath, listen for God's voice and imagine yourself living in his peace.