In this episode, Marnie and Cynthia Ruchti discuss a different way to enter into the holiday season this year. Could we see and hear Him differently this season? This conversation centers around our longing to know God’s presence in all of our days – even the busiest, hustly-bustly holiday ones and the good news that part of hearing God louder is noticing the ways He is already here. 

Today’s conversation begins with Cynthia’s story of learning how God speaks into her life, and how she wants to live a life of noticing. We discuss her new book, The Spirit of Christmas, and how noticing where the Holy Spirit is in the Christmas story helps us to see and hear Him more clearly in our everyday.

As we begin this holiday season, and we find ourselves in checkout lines and at Christmas parties – what if we carry with us, into all those places, the truth and the joy that He is always speaking right where we are? Because noticing God and hearing His voice go together -- not just during the holiday season, but for every day long after the season ends.

Marnie and Cynthia discuss: 

• How noticing God leads to hearing God.
• How asking God one simple question can help us to see and hear Him more clearly.
• How “praying unceasingly” can look a lot like “listening unceasingly.”
• The possibility that we can come out the other side of this holiday season more spiritually healthy than we entered.

Cynthia Ruchti tells stories hemmed in Hope through her more than 50 novels, nonfiction, and speaking events for women and writers. She draws from three decades writing and producing a radio broadcast heard on 48 stations across the country and internationally online. Her tagline is: I can’t unravel. I’m hemmed in Hope. She and her husband of a billion years live in the heart of Wisconsin. Grab your copy of The Spirit of Christmas: Discovery His Presence throughout the Advent Season and connect with Cynthia at her Website and on Instagram.

You can connect with Marnie through her Website, Instagram, Facebook, and reach out by email. Marnie also offers a FREE resource to help you listen for Jesus – get your copy: Three Steps to Finding Quiet: A Guide to Listening for Jesus.

In this episode, Marnie and Rachael Groll discuss what we can learn about how God speaks to His daughters from the stories in our Bibles. God has always spoken to and through women. We discuss Rachael's book, Knowing God's Voice, which highlights women like Miriam and Hulda and Deborah and Anna, who heard and boldly obeyed God’s voice. When we study how God speaks to others, we are also learning more about how He’ll speak to us. We can lay down our insecurities about hearing God and know that He will invite us to join Him in His plans.

Marnie and Rachael discuss: 

• The insecurities that we can carry and believe about whether we are hearing from God.
• How we can test what we hear when we’re seeking to hear Him.
• How the enemy can use fear to keep us from hearing God.
• How He is always FOR us and will speak to our hearts in similar ways to how He spoke to His daughters in the Bible.

Rachael Groll is an author, certified life coach, missionary, and podcaster with a heart for sharing Jesus with anyone who will listen. She has served in various full-time ministry capacities both locally and globally, including starting outreach programs for women, creating curriculum, teaching, and speaking. Her podcast, Hearing Jesus, has remained on the Top 30 list for Christian Podcasts in the US for the last year and ranks in the top 0.5% percent of all podcasts globally. She holds a BA in ministerial leadership from Southeastern University and an MA in Bible exposition/theology from Biola University/Talbot School of Theology. You can find Rachael at her Website and grab her book, Knowing God's Voice, here.

You can connect with Marnie through her Website, Instagram, Facebook, and reach out by email. Marnie also offers a FREE resource to help you listen for Jesus. Get your copy: Three Steps to Finding Quiet: A Guide to Listening for Jesus.

In this episode, Marnie and Asheritah Ciuciu discuss practical ways to calm our hearts and minds to hear God louder. We discuss how we can find space to listen for Him EVEN in the fullness of our days, and how there isn’t a one size fits all way of listening for God’s voice. She walks us through a prayer practice that will help us when we’re distracted in our prayer time. And get ready to take notes as she walks us through a technique for praying and listening for Jesus that follows the acronym R-E-S-T AND three different ways to help us cultivate mental stillness. Asheritah’s insights and ideas will help you in your journey in listening for Jesus.

Marnie and Asheritah discuss: 

• Asheritah’s name and its meaning -- and the power of knowing what our names mean.
• How we can learn to listen for God even in the fullness of our days.
• A prayer technique for when we get distracted in prayer.
• A prayer framework, R-E-S-T, that guides us as we pray and learn to listen for Jesus.
• Three ways to cultivate mental stillness, to help us to quiet ourselves, notice God, and listen for Him.

Asheritah Ciuciu is a national retreat speaker, YouTube Bible teacher, and bestselling author of ten books, including Full, Prayers of Rest, and Unwrapping the Names of Jesus. Growing up as a Romanian missionary kid, Asheritah helps people worldwide delight in Jesus through creative Bible habits. She and her high school sweetheart raise their three spunky kids in NE Ohio—and anywhere they adventure together in their camper. You can find Asheritah at her Website. Sign up for the 5-Day Prayer Dare here and order Prayers of Rest here.

You can connect with Marnie through her Website, Instagram, Facebook, and reach out by email. Marnie also offers a FREE resource to help you listen for Jesus – get your copy: Your Guide to Listening for Jesus.

In this episode, Marnie and Beth Guckenberger discuss how listening for Jesus can bring questions. God promises that He will speak to us, but sometimes we feel unsure of what we’re hearing. After discussing Beth's journey of learning to hear God’s voice, we walk through a handful of “listening scenarios” – questions that can come up when we’re seeking to hear Jesus, like what do we do when we don’t hear Him? What happens when we do what we thought we heard, but it didn’t turn out how we hoped? What if what we hear and what someone else hears don’t match? Beth’s stories and experience and wisdom will encourage you for when you have these same questions.

Marnie and Beth discuss: 

• How she learned to recognize God’s voice, even as a teen
• Practical ways we can learn to listen for Jesus.
• What to do when we don’t hear Jesus.
• How to reconcile being faithful to do what we think we heard, yet seeing an outcome we didn’t want.
• How to handle when two people hear differing direction from God.
• What we do when God answers us way outside the box we put Him in.

Beth and her husband, Todd, live with their family in Cincinnati, Ohio where they serve as Co-Executive Directors of Back2Back Ministries. After graduating from Indiana University, the Guckenberger’s moved to Monterrey, Mexico where they lived for 15 years. Between biological, foster, and adopted children, they have raised eleven children.

Beth is the author of thirteen books including adult and children’s titles. She travels and speaks regularly at conferences, youth gatherings and church services about reckless faith. You can find Beth at her Website, on Instagram, and at Back2Back Ministries.

You can connect with Marnie through her Website, Instagram, Facebook, and reach out by email. Marnie also offers a FREE resource to help you listen for Jesus – get your copy: Your Guide to Listening for Jesus.

In this episode, Marnie and Judy Dunagan discuss our battles with fear and anxiety. During a time when things feel so loud and heavy in our world, this conversation offers peace for your heart by pointing you to God’s truth and practical steps to hear His Word and His voice louder. A mere whisper from Jesus can quiet the enemy’s lies. Judy’s wisdom and personal stories will make you feel like you’ve found a friend who understands the anxieties and fears we battle.

Marnie and Judy discuss: 

• Judy’s stories and experiences with fear and anxiety.
• Practical ways we can battle the lies we hear and how we can tap into God's protection.
• How we hold onto God’s victory when our circumstances don’t feel like victory.
• How we reconcile our instinct to blame God for things we don’t understand.
• How to see prayer as a gift.
• How God will speak into our fears in deeply personal ways.

Judy Dunagan is a speaker, Bible teacher, and the author of The Loudest Roar: Living in the Unshakable Victory of Christ. A wonder seeker of God and His Word, Judy is passionate about discipleship and making God’s Word and prayer come alive in everyday life. She serves on the Board of Deeper Walk International, and recently retired from Moody Publishers as an Acquisitions Editor. Judy and her husband, Rick, live in Colorado and are the joyful grandparents of six grandchildren. You can connect with Judy at her Website. 

You can connect with Marnie through her Website, Instagram, Facebook, and reach out by email. Marnie also offers a FREE resource to help you listen for Jesus. Get your copy: Your Guide to Listening for Jesus.

In this episode, Marnie and Amy Seiffert have a chat (in between a lot of laughing) about the most beautiful truths, beginning with how hearing Jesus changes us. His Word and words change how we think, which then changes: how we show up in all of our places, how we see ourselves, how we live life with others, how we walk through uncertainties, and yes, even how we send off our college kids. And we talk about how our position, as His beloved daughters of the Most High King, cannot change. Ever. When we let that truth take root deep, we walk out all the things differently.

Marnie and Amy discuss: 

• How to hold space to sit with Jesus even on the off-and-running days.  
• A quick and simple spiritual practice we can try to connect with Jesus.
• How and why we can “keep our spiritual receipts” to grow our faith in God.
• How to listen for God in hard places – like dropping off your firstborn at college.
• Why understanding our worth to God matters.
• How to battle the lies we hear by listening for Jesus.
• A powerful story from scripture of how God spoke to and used one of His daughters in a big way.
• A personal story of how God is faithful to lead us and those around us (and how we don’t have to be mini-shepherds).

Amy Seiffert is an author, speaker, and monthly YouVersion teacher. She also serves as the Pastor of Coaching and Content at Soma City Church. Previously was a Team Leader with Cru at BGSU and worked with them for more than fifteen years. Amy is currently a graduate student at Denver Seminary in the Masters in Biblical and Theological Studies program and is working on her next book project with Bethany House Publishers. Weaving biblical wisdom through her presentations, Amy inspires, teaches, and humbly invites any willing spiritual pilgrim to walk alongside her in the pursuit of truth and the knowledge of God. Amy is married to Rob, and they live in Bowling Green, Ohio, with their three kids. You can connect with Amy on Instagram and grab her book and sign up for her newsletter at her website.

You can connect with Marnie through her Website, Instagram, Facebook, and reach out by email. Marnie also offers a FREE resource to help you listen for Jesus – get your copy: Your Guide to Listening for Jesus.

In this episode, Marnie and Jennifer Dukes Lee kick off a new season with a conversation that’s packed with goodness. We talk about the peace that comes in asking questions of ourselves and God, and how we can listen for and learn from Him inside those questions. And we discuss how our springs and summers and falls and winters all hold purpose and growth, even when we can’t see it. When we unhurry our hearts and open our ears, we can learn and grow in all of them.

Marnie and Jennifer discuss: 

• How (our shared) background in journalism began a practice of asking questions and listening.  
• How looking at the way Jesus asked questions offers evidence that our own questions can move us closer to God.
• How listening for Him can bring peace, even in situations we don’t choose.
• A single sentence that changed Jennifer’s perspective on how she listens for Jesus in the most ordinary places.
• How to come out of “hurry sickness” and how unhurrying our hearts can help to open our ears.
• The importance of all of the different seasons of our lives and how every season holds purpose, growth and opportunities to listen for Jesus.

Jennifer Dukes Lee is the bestselling author of several books, including Growing Slow, It’s All Under Control, and Stuff I’d Only Tell God. She’s a fan of queso, bright lipstick, and singing too loudly to songs with great harmony. She lives on a fifth-generation family farm in Iowa, where she and her husband have made a life of growing crops, pigs, two beautiful humans, and an enduring faith. You can find Jennifer on Instagram and Facebook and sign up for her newsletter at jenniferdukeslee.com.

You can connect with Marnie through her Website, Instagram, Facebook, and reach out by email. Marnie also offers a FREE resource to help you listen for Jesus – get your copy: Your Guide to Listening for Jesus.

Welcome to the final episode of the Summer Book Club, a special series for the Hear Him Louder podcast that features three guests and three books in three episodes — all focused on helping you to hear Jesus louder.

Do you have quiet, unvoiced questions for God? What if asking God our questions can strengthen our faith?

Marnie and Niki discuss all of this as part of her book, God, Can We Chat?  In this episode, we talk about:

• Reimagining our doubts
• How our questions can strengthen our faith.
• Reframing the lies we’re believing
• Replying to Jesus’ invitation to come to Him, even with all of our questions.
• Niki’s four-step C-H-A-T prayer format (and listen to her read an excerpt and walk through the C-H-A-T format).
• How to listen after we ask God our questions.

In addition to God, Can We Chat?, Niki Hardy is also the author of Audi Award-nominated, Breathe Again and One Minute Prayers for Women with Cancer. Niki has been featured in places like the Hallmark Channel, Life Today and Premier Radio. Having left corporate life, been to seminary, moved continents, planted churches, started businesses and nonprofits, and navigated loss, cancer, church hurt and painful uncertainty, she firmly believes God loves a cheerful doubter. Niki lives in North Carolina with her husband and ridiculous Doodle, Charlie, who is the main reason their three grown kids come home.

Grab your copy of God, Can We Chat? here. You can connect with Niki on her Website or on Instagram, and check out Wildly Known on Substack.

Marnie would love to hear from you! You can connect with Marnie through her Website, Instagram, Facebook, and reach out by email. Marnie also offers a free resource to help you listen for Jesus – get your copy of How to Find Quiet: Your Guide to Listening for Jesus.

Welcome to the second episode of the Summer Book Club, a special series for the Hear Him Louder podcast that features three guests and three books in three episodes — all focused on helping you to hear Jesus louder.

Do you have “What do I do” questions for God?

In this episode, Katie Reid and Marnie talk about these kinds of questions, as they’re the backbone of her new Bible study, God, What Do I Do?  

This study asks the very same questions we ask: God, what do I do when I’m unsure? When I need help? When I’m in a battle? When I want to give up? God will meet us in these questions. If you have questions for God, this episode will help as you seek to hear Him louder.

Marnie and Katie discuss: 

• What we can learn from Judges 4 and Deborah on how to walk through an intimidating battle. 
• Why listening and obedience must go together.
• A personal story of obedience and what Katie learned from trusting and doing what she heard.
• A principle to follow when we’re not sure we’re hearing God.
• How to lean into God in our questions of suffering.

Katie Reid, a Bible teacher and the author of Made Like Martha and, the Bible study we’re talking about today, God, What Do I Do? Trained in education, Katie teaches around her kitchen table, in the classroom, and around the country. She co-hosts The Martha + Mary Show and runs the Martha + Mary Show Sisterhood group on Facebook. Katie is a pastor’s wife and worship leader. Following Jesus, marrying her husband, and being a mom to five are the best decisions she’s made. Connect with Katie at her website or on Instagram. Grab her Bible study here.

You can connect with Marnie through her Website, Instagram, Facebook, and reach out by email. Marnie also offers a FREE resource to help you listen for Jesus – get your copy: Your Guide to Listening for Jesus.

Welcome to the Summer Book Club, a special series for the Hear Him Louder Podcast that features three guests and three books in three episodes — all focused on helping you to hear Jesus louder.

How would you listen differently if you couldn’t see?

In this episode, Karen Wingate and Marnie talk about Karen’s story of being born legally blind and how she used her ears as her eyes. With her limited vision, listening well to the world around her and for God within her became how she saw.

Karen shares her story of how hearing and seeing in her physical world taught her about spiritual hearing and seeing.

Marnie and Karen discuss: 

• Her journey of leaning into her hearing because of her limited sight. 
• How she learned about God’s character through what she could hear in His creation.
• The truth that noticing what we can hear helps us to hear more.  
• A personal story of how God spoke words of hope to Karen during a difficult medical situation – words she still holds onto today.
• How He speaks to us in so many creative ways, all the time.

Karen is author of With Open Ears: 60 Reflections on the Wonder of Sound from a Woman Born Blind. She has also written the award-winning book, With Fresh Eyes, and Grateful Heart: 60 Reason to Thank God in All Things. You can buy Karen's book and find more about Karen and her resources at her website. 

You can connect with Marnie through her Website, Instagram, Facebook, and reach out by email. Marnie also offers a FREE resource to help you listen for Jesus – get your copy: Your Guide to Listening for Jesus.