Are you a left brain or a right brain kind of person? Personally, I am more of a left brain type. Although I work in what is normally thought of as a creative industry, I really line up more comfortably in the left brain camp. I am, for the most part, a more logical thinker; and I typically prefer to do things in a specific order. I like to make lists and do the first thing on the list first. When I have to make decisions about things in my life, I, for the most part, don't make them based on emotion or feeling. I'm the same way with worship. Emotion and feelings, however, are an important part of having a relationship with our heavenly father.

While I know God loves me and He hears me when I call to Him, I'm not always sure how to hear Him and know when he’s getting back to me. It's not like He's sending me a text!

So how do we know when God is REALLY communicating with us and it's not just last night's enchilada?

Lucius Malcolm, author of the book "The Word Speaks," did a great job in my interview with him of taking me through some baby steps to learn how to tell the difference between hearing God and...well...something else.

Lucius begins by sharing the importance of getting quiet. That means turning off the phone, and all the other distractions in our lives, and actually getting in a place where we can focus completely on Jesus. Finding a place to be quiet is different for everyone, but you get the picture.

Meditation is also important, but not the" clear your mind of everything" meditation. He suggests focusing on a scripture and then actually visualizing a place in your mind where Jesus can come and sit with you.

Moment of total honesty here: At first I thought this was a little touchy feely, and I wasn't sure how comfortable I was with his suggestions. But as he explained it to me, and shared his own experiences and his personal testimony of how this worked in his life; I began to see how I could put his examples into practice in my own life.

When I was reading Lucius' book, I couldn't escape the feeling that I had accidentally taken someone's journal off their nightstand. Lucius said that was exactly what he was hoping the feel would be. The book is Lucius' personal story of listening to the Holy Spirit, but it's also a "how-to" guide for readers to do the same. For Lucius, journaling was an important part of the hearing-from-God process, and he urges us to do the same. This serves two purposes: first, as a record of what you feel you heard from the Lord, but second, and most importantly, as a way to document and then take to another person for verification. The most critical part of this whole process is being grounded in God's Word. God will never tell you something that goes counter to his Holy Word.� Having others who are also deeply rooted in the Word verifying what you felt was God, can help you be certain the message is accurate.

My take-away from my time with Lucius was that I need to push back all the stuff going on in my life. I need to spend time focused on the most important person and relationship in my life, and that's the one I have with Jesus.

Learn more about how to hear and discern the voice of God in my podcast interview with Lucius Malcolm. If you'd like a copy of his book, it's available online at Barnes and Noble or Amazon.