Today’s conversation with Janet McHenry is the second episode in our “real talk about prayer” series. Today, we’re examining how we pray differently based on our personalities, and how understanding our praying personality can change how we talk to and how we listen for Jesus. 

What if we can hear Him louder when we’re connecting with Him in ways that feel natural to us – in ways that line up with how He has created us? Janet shares four different praying personality types she finds in scripture that may help us to connect with God more naturally and more deeply. When we learn our praying personality, and meet with God from that understanding, we’ll grow in our connection and relationship with Him. 

Friend, if you want to discover how to better connect with God based on how He created you, this episode is for you.  

Marnie and Janet discuss:

• How we struggle with prayer “comparison.”
• The truth that there is no one-size-fits-all way to pray.
• How we pray differently based on our personalities.
• FOUR different praying personality types.
• How understanding our praying personality can change how we listen for Jesus.
• How prayer is more about access than answers.
• Simple, practical ways to listen for Jesus in prayer.

Janet McHenry is an inspirational speaker and the author of 27 books--eight on prayer, including the bestselling PrayerWalk and her newest, Praying Personalities, which was a Christian Book Award finalist last year. Janet leads the prayer ministries at The Bridge Church in Reno and is part of the leadership team for the National Day of Prayer in California. She and her rancher hubby Craig live in the Sierra Valley in northeast California, where they raised their four kids. Prayer and specifically, prayerwalking, are her passions because they have fostered a Looking Up! perspective in her.

Take the Praying Personalities Quiz here and grab a copy of Praying Personalities here. You can find Janet at her Website or over on Instagram and Facebook.

This is part two in our "Real Talk About Prayer" series. Did you catch Episode 36 with Barb Roose for four principles that will change how you pray? 

And to help you get into a practice of listening for Jesus in your everyday, Marnie created a FREE resource for you: Find Your Listening Rhythm with Jesus. Marnie would also love to hear from you. You can connect with Marnie through her Website or on Instagram.

Today's conversation with Barb Roose will change your prayer life. Have you ever had these thoughts: Is prayer worth it? Am I doing it right? Why don’t I feel closer to God? Why isn’t God answering?

If you’re feeling stuck in how you pray and your soul is longing for connection with God, this conversation is for you.

Today we talk about the ways we tend to relate to God (and all the grace, friends!), and four principles and truths that will change and re-shape how we pray. We’ll talk about repetitive versus persistent prayer, five behaviors we might choose over prayer, and how to listen for God in our prayers. Our entire conversation wraps around Barb’s Bible Study, Matthew: Pray Like This. Friend, if you’ve struggled with how to pray, you’ve landed in the right place. 

Marnie and Barb discuss:

• Common prayer hang-ups.
• Three ways we tend to relate to God in prayer.
• Four truths to re-shape and revolutionize our prayer mindset.
• The difference between repetitive and persistent prayers.
• A single sentence prayer that changes our grip on outcomes.
• Five behaviors we can choose instead of praying.
• How to listen for God and receive His truth in prayer.

Barb Roose is a popular speaker, author who is passionate about teaching women to live beautifully strong and courageous so that they experience God’s great adventure of faith and purpose for their lives. Barb speaks in the US and abroad at women’s conferences and events, including national platforms like the Aspire Women’s Events, She Speaks Conference and the UMC Leadership Institute.

She is the author of eight Bible studies such as Matthew: Pray Like This, and five books including Stronger Than Stress: 10 Spiritual Practices to Win the Battle of Overwhelm. Barb is the host of the Bold, Brave & Beautiful podcast. She lives in NW Ohio and is proud mother of three adult children. Whenever possible, Barb prefers to eat dessert first.

Check out these resources from Barb:

• Barb’s Digital Prayer Board 
• Matthew: Pray Like This 

And connect with Barb at her Website, Instagram, and Facebook.

And go grab this from Marnie: To help you get into a practice of listening for Jesus in your everyday, Marnie created a FREE resource for you: Find Your Listening Rhythm with Jesus. You can connect with Marnie through her Website or on Instagram.

In today’s episode, we celebrate the one year anniversary of the Hear Him Louder Podcast! And today, the tables are turned! Becky Keife steps into the host role to ask Marnie all the questions.

They discuss Marnie’s own story of how she discovered that Jesus speaks to us, the backstory of this podcast, and how listening for Jesus can help guide us through all of the January things. If your heart is craving encouragement and clarity around listening for Jesus as we make our way through another January, this conversation is for you. Because all of these things matter and listening for His voice and guidance is the starting point for well, everything.

Marnie and Becky discuss:

• How Marnie learned that God still speaks to us today.
• Two key learnings about God's character after one year of Hear Him Louder episodes.
• The one word that is the most important posture in listening for Jesus.
• How to invite Jesus into your January and all of the January things you might be sifting through. 
• How God can speak promises and peace without answering the question we’re asking.
• A story that comes with the promise that God will take us higher.

To help you get into a practice of listening for Jesus in your everyday, Marnie created a FREE resource for you: Find Your Listening Rhythm with Jesus. You can connect with Marnie through her Website or on Instagram. 

And a huge thank you to our host today, Becky Keife, who is the author of A Verse A Day For The Anxious Soul, as well as a Bible teacher and speaker who is passionate about helping people hear God’s voice, embrace their true identity, and step into their purpose. A dedicated mental health advocate, Becky equips individuals and churches to understand anxiety biblically and experience Jesus wholly. She loves long naps, puffy clouds, and shady trails. Becky lives in Southern California with her husband and three always-hungry teenage sons. You can connect with Becky at her website or on Instagram. And you can grab a copy of her book here.

In today’s episode, Marnie and Becky Keife talk about how the start of a new year can feel like a loud mix of hope and pressure. Maybe your calendar is already crammed, your mind is racing with goals you “should” accomplish, or anxiety has followed you right into January. 

If your soul is craving calm and clarity, this conversation is for you, as we cover how to establish simple, soul-anchoring rhythms that make space for God’s peace not just for the start of the year, but also for whatever the months ahead may hold. Quieting that "New Year" swirl begins with tuning your heart to the One voice that matters most. God is near and His voice of love can be louder than the anxious noise we feel and hear.

Marnie and Becky discuss:

• How to invite God into daily rhythms that help us to manage anxiety.
• Becky’s own journey with anxiety.
• The gift Becky found inside anxiety. 
• How listening for Jesus can help us to find peace.
• Fourteen practices that center around listening for God and how they can help us calm the chaos.

Becky Keife is the author of A Verse A Day For The Anxious Soul, as well as a Bible teacher and speaker who is passionate about helping people hear God’s voice, embrace their true identity, and step into their purpose. A dedicated mental health advocate, Becky equips individuals and churches to understand anxiety biblically and experience Jesus wholly. She loves long naps, puffy clouds, and shady trails. Becky lives in Southern California with her husband and three always-hungry teenage sons. You can connect with Becky at her website or on Instagram. And you can grab a copy of her book here.

You can connect with Marnie through her Website or on Instagram. 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 special Christmas episode, we talk about what we can learn about listening from the shepherds in the Christmas story. Then we walk through four simple steps we can follow, just as the shepherds did, to listen for Jesus. Those four steps form a listening practice we can use during Advent and beyond. 

What if we can learn how to see and hear God in new ways this Christmas? What if we can learn from and follow the shepherds’ lead from that very first Christmas to hear Jesus louder today?

In this episode you’ll: 

• Learn the four choices the shepherds made after the angel appeared.
• Discover how those same four actions can help us listen for Jesus this Christmas and beyond.
• Hear a simple four-step practice of listening for Jesus during Advent -- a practice you can follow in just 10 minutes a day. 

Part of hearing God louder is first seeing what He is doing. When we see, we hear. When we hear, we respond. When we respond, we are changed.

Marnie walks through her FREE Advent Listening Guide, a simple resource to help you listen for Jesus during Advent.

You can connect with Marnie through her Website, Instagram, Facebook, and reach out by email.

And be sure to grab your free Advent Listening Guide here. Merry Christmas! The Hear Him Louder Podcast will be back in January 2026.

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.