Anchor Me in You: Knowing God And Hearing His Voice

By Beth Harrison

Have you ever heard God speak to you?

All of us have times in life when we need to know which way to go, what choice to make. We also just need to know how to have peace and purpose in our daily lives.

God knows all of this, and He knows you. He wants you to know Him and discern His voice.

He created each of us with a good plan

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Aug 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685566906

Beth Harrison

Beth Harrison is a writer and speaker.She grew up with the desire to live at the beach and God brought that dream to pass.A former flight attendant, Beth has also held positions in two Fortune 500 companies and wrote a featured column for an island publication. She and her husband Lance have traveled speaking at conferences and [e-mail]

Book preview

Preface

The anchor of steadfastness and peace that we all look for in life can be found in knowing God and hearing His voice.

The pursuit of knowing God has always drawn me. I grew up in a formal denomination, which gave me some basic footing, but my purposeful nature fueled an inner hunger to go deeper spiritually. I don’t know where specifically, but at times I recalled hearing people say something like they heard from God or God told them, and I was intrigued. I always innately believed that God created us with purpose, so it made sense to me that He could somehow communicate with His creation, and I wanted to know what God would say to me.

Jesus said in John 10:27 (KJV), My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And He also said in John 16:13 (ESV), When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

One unsuspecting wintery February morning, I had a moment of awakening. With sunlight pouring through a large window over my shoulder, I heard God say to me four words: Anchor Me in you. That encounter pivoted me into living life from that moment with the ongoing awareness that God does speak to us, and we can hear Him! In that moment, His voice in my heart directed me to live life anchored in Him by having Him live anchored in me.

And that is the best way to live. To know God through His Word, to experience walking with Him through life, receiving His love and doing His will. And it’s our inheritance as God’s children to hear Him. His voice strengthens us, giving encouragement, comfort, wisdom, truth, purpose, guidance, and peace.

This book is written to inspire and equip. To encourage living life anchored in God who knows us best. He will then unveil steps on the path that He’s always had for us through recognizing His voice.

Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.

Jeremiah 33:3 (NKJV)

But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

2 Corinthians 3:16–17 (CSB)

For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

Romans 8:19 (NIV)

Chapter 1

Inheritance and Access

I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of Me in their hearts, that they may not turn from Me. I will rejoice in doing them good […].

Jeremiah 32:40–41 (ESV)

And giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of His holy people in the kingdom of light.

Colossians 1:12 (NIV)

God wants us to know Him, not just know about Him. We get to know someone by spending time with them, don’t we? God, who creates all life, authored by His spirit a life manual for us called the Bible. He gave us the Word made flesh, Jesus. His Word is living and alive. And He sent us the Holy Spirit, the Helper, to live inside of us as our teacher.

In His three-year earthly ministry, Jesus said, […] Whoever has seen me has seen the Father […] (John 14:9, ESV), and at the release of His spirit on the cross, […] the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom […] (Matthew 27:51, NIV), signifying that now […] we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19, ESV). The invitation was given to all to be restored to God and given access beyond the veil into His presence.

This offer has been made to us all. To be given access to accept Jesus through which we receive salvation, total forgiveness, adoption by Father God, and the Holy Spirit to live in us. There is a rich inheritance and empowerment that followers of Christ have if they step into it. Jesus willingly died in our place and completely paid for our sin, but that is not the fullness of what He died to give and gift us with.

In my early twenties, I heard something vague about spiritual gifts, but I didn’t know anyone knowledgeable about them or where to begin figuring that out. Years later, I began experiencing the realm of the Spirit, and that was the key for me to knowing God more fully and feeling loved by Him, something I had struggled to feel for a long time. I always had reverence for God and a fullness for Him in worship, but His love for me was many times more of a head knowledge. Through new experiences in knowing Him, His Word, His spirit, and His people, He gave me understanding I wasn’t able to get any prior way.

We are living in days where people are hungering for things at a level that can only be attained by knowing the Lord experientially and being filled with His spirit. Things like: love, peace, freedom, acceptance, value, identity, abundance, healing, wisdom, security, joy, and eternal life.

Many don’t know Him. Many have been introduced to inaccurate portrayals or stereotypical religious renditions. And many who do follow Jesus don’t know how to get to the fullness and freedom they innately sense is their birthright as a son or daughter of God.

The Plans I Have for You

Every life was created by God with purpose and destiny. The Bible says, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Ephesians 2:10, NASB).

None of us are random. God purposed for each of us to show up on the earth right when we did for the purposes He Himself planned. He created us skillfully and carefully.

I will give thanks and praise to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well (Psalm 139:14, AMP).

The plans that He has for each of us are good but not automatic.

In order for that perfect plan God intended for us to come to pass, we have to know and be known by Him. We activate His plan by choosing the paths of wisdom in His Word and aligning our ways with His. We collaborate together through life, enjoying the privilege of His company and doing His will. As we do our part, then He can do His. The Bible says it like this, Draw near to God and He will draw near to you (James 4:8, ESV). That’s His design. As we reach out to Him, He will reveal more and more to us; the well of revelation in the kingdom of God is limitless.

Two aspects in our relationship with God that we should be aware of to expand and grow in: for us to know God and for Him to know us, and for us to talk with God and to discern His response to us.

Think of how things originally were in Eden. The incredible awareness of being in God’s presence. The harmonious unity of creation knowing and talking with the Creator. A relationship of honor, beauty, trust.

At the core of a relationship, it is dependent on our heart’s position. Meaning, what is the value of this relationship to us? What is our intent? What is the truth about it? Where do I want it to lead? When we’re full throttle ready for that pursuit, God will roll out a path before us out of His abundant flow.

It’s Time for You to Be Led

In my case, the point of full-throttle happened in my thirties. I was living near the beach at the New Jersey Cape, married for fifteen years, and had two small children. My husband, Lance, worked as an accountant, and I worked part-time at a boutique during the summer tourist season in a harbor town. What’s not to like? That sounds ideal, doesn’t it? Well, there was a lot about it that was, but I was also a daughter, sister, and friend living 600 miles away from those important relationships and missed being near them. I was from Michigan, and in my early twenties, I made a tempting career change from corporate business to being a flight attendant, which relocated me to New Jersey. For some reason, I thought I’d live there two years, upon which time I’d move back and aim to work closer to home. But I met my husband, got married, and for many years we were unable to do life and celebrate occasions with my family in Michigan.

I had many conversations with my husband about this, and even though it would mean unsettling the life we worked so hard to settle, we decided to relocate back. It was exciting! Good thing because then came months of orchestrating moving details for ourselves and our young children. At times we felt that the hurdles would never stop coming. We’d be tempted to glance back that only nine years prior, we had had our first baby, and a close friend built our brand new house on two-and-a-half wooded acres bounded by state-protected wetlands. Now we were facing the reality of finding new jobs, housing, schools, etc. At times it all weighed heavily on us, and for me, the worst aspect was the uncertainty of wondering, Are we indeed doing the right thing for all of us?

But what we didn’t know at the time, and would later become apparent, was that for us, it was an appointed time. That, in retrospect, what we had been stepping into was the time God was drawing us to begin walking more consistently led by the Spirit. There were new facets to our faith that He wanted to cultivate in us because His plan was to take us somewhere we had not been before.

The plan God has for