You want to invite God into your everyday life choices but don’t want to run around over-spiritualizing everything! How do you discern God’s voice through our daily life and “nonspiritual” issues? How do you know where God is leading when there isn’t a direct Bible verse that tells you?

Here is a recent example from my life with five practical steps on including God when making a big “nonspiritual” decision.

If you would like my free resource guide on 8 Biblical Ways God speaks can  you, get that here.

Last month, my old big red Hyundai SUV finally died on me. Rest in peace, friend.

My wife Laurel and I had to decide whether to replace the entire engine, lease a new car, or buy one.

We had no idea what to do. So we invited God into the situation.

Step 1. Invite God in.

Does God care about what kind of car I get? The answer is both yes and no.

No, He does not care in the sense that it is not a moral or a sin issue. If you choose a truck over a sedan, God doesn’t mind.

Yes, He does care, in that He is a good Father who takes delight in every detail of our lives. He loves being included in the process.

Psalm 37:23 NLT

²³ The Lord directs the steps of the godly.

    He delights in every detail of their lives.

Laurel and I stopped and prayed, “Lord, we don’t know what to do. What do you think?”

Then we waited and listened.

I felt we should buy an old clunker, and she thought we should lease a new car. And neither one of us was confident if we heard God!

What do we do when we obviously “heard” opposite things?

We asked again. (If you want to get answered prayers, learn in this post on prayer). 

The second time we prayed, I felt like I heard this phrase, “get something that represents what you want the next season to hold.”

I had no idea if that was God or not. But I wrote it down.

Besides that, we got nothing. We decided to wait on the Lord.

Step 2. Wait on the Lord.

If my wife and I are not in unity, we will press pause and not move forward.

“Lord,” we prayed, “we don’t know if we are hearing you. We invite you to show us what you want us to do this week.”

The word “wait” in the Bible does not mean to do nothing. It means to “wait with expectancy.”

Psalm 27:14  “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” (ESV)

Lamentations 3:25 “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.” (ESV)

Practically, while waiting, I did a lot of research, seeking different options and expecting one to stick out to me.

Step 3. Look for God’s Confirmations.

After we decided to wait on the Lord, a friend asked if we wanted to borrow his car for three weeks. Then another friend offered his vehicle to us for two weeks! This bought us five weeks of wait time!

We took this as confirmation that God was providing for us to wait.

The number one way to hear God is in scripture. (Learn how to get the most out of your Bible time here). But what do you do about something not in scripture, like what car to buy?

Another great way to hear God’s voice is through the body of Christ. We purposely asked people we respected for their opinions and prayer.

Proverbs 11:14 ESV ¹⁴ Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.

One friend prayed for us and said, “I feel like you should buy something that represents where you want God to take you next season.”

I was shocked! That’s what I wrote down when I prayed earlier! This confirmation gave us faith to dream bigger, not settle for an older clunker of a car.

We went home and wrote down a list of everything we would want in a car for the next season of life. We want to travel, so we wrote down a “road trip car.” We want to start a family and wrote down a “safe family car.’ We want to be adventurous, so we wrote down “a vehicle we could camp in, tow bikes and kayaks, and go on mission trips to Mexico.”

My wife wrote down “leather seats” because she was thinking about stains from future children. I wrote down “green” for the VERY spiritual reason that green is my favorite color, and I always wanted a green car. I asked God for all the car records to help me know nothing was secretly wrong with it.

We then held this specific list before the Lord and prayed, “God, we want whatever car you have for us, but this is a list of what we would love in the next season.”

Step 4. Ask, Where is God Providing? 

We quickly realized that we had an issue with this list.

Money.

We could not afford any car that looked like the car on our list! We prayed again.

“God, everything we see is way out of our price range. Please show us if we aren’t hearing your correctly or provide a way.”

The next week, three people contacted us and said God put it on their hearts to donate money to us for a car!

Where God guides, God provides. This was major confirmation that we were on the right track!

Where is God opening a door in your life? What practically makes sense and where does it seem like there is provision?

2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

Step 5. Move Forward with the Faith you have. 

Many people say, “Just have faith,” but there are different measures of faith, and we must be realistic with God about the faith we currently have. 

Express to Him where your faith is, and then ask for more! I went to the Lord and said, “Lord, I am asking for a car that fits all our needs for this amount of money. If I am wrong, please increase my faith.”

Mark 9:23-24   ESV

 And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” ²⁴ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” 

We then looked for cars that matched our price range and even test-drove a few. But nothing matched our list. 

We kept waiting. 

Five weeks later, a car that looked similar to our list appeared at a dealership. I immediately called them, and they reassured me that this car was very rare for them to have, and if I wanted it, I should come tonight before it was gone. 

My wife and I already had commitments that night and refused to be motivated out of fear. (If you fear the future remember these 6 things).

We prayed again. “Lord, if this is you, and this is our car, hold it for us until we can get there tomorrow after work.” 

To the dealership’s surprise, the next day came, and the car was still available. We went to test drive it, and within 5 minutes, my wife and I looked at each other, and both said, “This is it.”

The car matched every single check mark on our list. The car was the exact price we felt comfortable with. The downpayment was the same amount we had. They had detailed records of everything done to the vehicle.

And it had leather seats and was even GREEN!

Every prayer point matched this car; we were united and had peace. 

We would have settled for a beat-up old car if we were unwilling to invite God into the process. If we did not ask the Lord, we would not have gotten the phrase that guided us. If we did not ask the community, we would not have had confirmation that what we heard was from God. If we were not willing to wait on the Lord for five weeks, we would have had half as much money, and we would have never found this car because it came on the market five weeks later. 

Many ask, “How do we discern God’s voice for nonspiritual practical issues.” God used all of these different ways to guide us.

We prayed many times! We wait in faith. We asked the community. We followed God’s provision. We listened to our unified peace. We knew this must be the Lord when they aligned and pointed to the same object.

I am so thankful we invited Him to speak into our “nonspiritual” decisions like buying a car. 

Try applying these different ways to discern God’s voice to your life and let me know what happens!

Also, I have an entire Bible Study course that dives deep into studying 12 different ways God speaks! If you are interested in learning more about that check it out here.

How do you discern where God is guiding when you have a “nonspiritual” practical choice to make? Let us know in the comments!