Growing your Faith and Relationship with God through Journaling

Do you ever feel like everyone else hears from God and you just don’t? Have you been a Christian “all your life,” but you still feel like you don’t have a rich history with God?

I felt this way for much of my life – I would say at least all the way through high school.

Right out of high school I joined a discipleship program with my church. Despite having been a Christian longer than some of my classmates, I felt like I was way behind when it came to my maturity in the faith.

Sometimes it seems to work that way. There’s so much that we take for granted if we are raised in the church. Somehow we miss the significance and never fully dive in to the invitation to go deeper.

During this post-high school period of my life, I learned a tool that really helped me: journaling. It was almost like the training wheels I needed to learn how to fully ride my bike.

I’m not suggesting journaling was this novel concept, but there are three specific forms of journaling that I believe to be really helpful in building a solid foundation in the faith:

Asking God questions and waiting for His response: learning to hear God’s voice
Keep a record of what God’s done: documenting your history with Him
Keep a record of prophetic words you have received: holding onto His promise for your future

These three together encapsulate present, past, and future relational bond with God in a really beautiful, complete way.

Asking God questions and waiting for His response…

Learning to hear God’s voice:

This journaling method is one I learned from Mark Virkler.

I have to admit, when I went to his conference all those years ago, I was not very impressed. The presentation was so practical it struck me as underwhelming. I wasn’t fired up about it and it didn’t feel all that “spiritual.”

However, I cannot deny that his method legitimately helped me get to where I knew I actually could hear from God.

In the past, I rarely, if ever, felt like I heard things like words or sentences from God. More often, I would see something random and take it as a “sign” for what I was praying about (not the best life strategy).

So ultimately, I felt a disconnect. I knew God loved me and wanted to speak to me but I thought I just couldn’t hear Him.

The method:

Mark Virkler’s method (at least distilled down to how I have used it) is pretty simple.

Just open your journal, write (or type) a question, and listen/wait to hear an answer.

Write down/type what you hear or sense without second-guessing. You can go back over it after and examine if it seems to line up with scripture and the fruits of the spirit.

Pretty simple, right? I can’t explain why, but it really works. Countless times I’ve heard things that I know weren’t me and were full of wisdom/insight.

I have gone through seasons where it’s been harder to hear. Many times I second guess if it was really Him. But there’s so much grace in the learning process. He really loves to show up and help us learn to hear Him better, especially when you’re new to the “method.”

When I’ve gone through times of it not working so well, it usually seems to be for one of these reasons:

He’s inviting me to meet Him in a new way
I haven’t done something He’s asked me to do (or stop doing). As a result, I don’t have a clean conscience before Him

Overall, though, this tool has helped me tremendously. I’m more accustomed to what it feels like to hear from Him. I’m also more apt to hear Him when I ask questions and I’m not at my journal.

If you try it and you are struggling, follow this link for the full method! Some of his extra tips might help you out.

Keeping a record of what He’s done…

Biblical basis:

Have you ever read Hind’s Feet on High Places, by Hannah Hurnard? If not, I highly recommend that powerful allegory about the Christian life. There’s a concept in the book that inspired me in another form of “journaling” I’ve adopted that has strengthened my Christian walk.

The concept is scriptural, based on the Old Testament practice of building an altar where God showed up miraculously.

This example from scripture isn’t specifically an altar, but it illustrates the concept:

“When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, and command them, saying, “Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests’ feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.”’
Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, ‘Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, “What do those stones mean to you?”then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.’”
– Joshua 4:1-7

My approach:

From this principle I created a log that I call “Stones of Remembrance.” Each entry is an instance where God has shown up miraculously in my own life.

Truly, God has shown up for me a lot more than I tend to realize most of the time. There are key impactful moments in my life, throughout my life, and they often drift into forgetfulness unless some random thing triggers the memory. Whenever that happens it’s always a moment for me where I marvel at the fact that I had forgotten.

In certain regards I think we can have a negative bias. We know that negative comments or feedback can stick more than the positive. Similarly, it seems that sometimes negative memories can come up easier than the positive.

Think “triggers”: you’ve been driving for years, but you get in one accident and all of a sudden it feels like an accident is imminent every time you drive.

Perhaps we just feel safer “preparing for the worst.”

Whatever the reason, I think it takes extra effort to build up the positive reinforcement of the amazing things that have happened to us.

Any time I’m feeling hopeless or discouraged about my life, when I read through my “Stones of Remembrance,” it really helps. It reminds me of all the ways God has shown up in my life. It’s so encouraging! My emotions (more accurately probably “the enemy”) tell me that God doesn’t or won’t show up. But looking at factual evidence from my own life contradicts that lie.

From there, my faith builds to believe for Him to do it again. It’s a win-win.

Keeping a record of prophetic words…

In practice:

The last form of journaling that I recommend is writing down prophetic words you receive. Certainly, you should at least record the audio. (We all have handy recording apps on our smart phones with us at all times now, which works out great).

However, after you’ve recorded it, it’s a good practice to listen to it again and write it down.

When you write it down, it helps take it out of the voice of the person who gave the word. Then, if you compile your words in one place, it’s easier and more practical to remember to go back through them from time to time. This also helps you locate specific things you want to revisit.

I think it also helps identify patterns or themes in what God seems to like to tell people about you prophetically and/or to remind you about.

To be honest, I’m really “behind” on accomplishing my journaling goals on this front. I started writing down my prophetic words, but then changed my approach and wanted to do something more creative with them.

Bill Johnson (pastor out of Bethel church in Redding, CA), says he keeps his prophetic words in a binder (I believe). He revisits them regularly to remind himself and to remind God of the promises over his life.

While I haven’t fully realized my vision for this, I truly believe in it as a practice. And I have every intention to finish.

Note about the danger of over-emphasizing the prophetic:

I want to make some clarifying points here. I do not advocate for putting a lot of weight on prophetic words from the standpoint of trying to live your life by them or unto them.

The most important thing is to live out each day, one day at a time, in obedience and communion with Holy Spirit.

I think prophetic words are super encouraging. They can serve as awesome confirmation that we’re on the “right track” so to speak. But I think it can be dangerous to take it and try to make it happen.

The highest call is to draw you closer to Christ in your daily walk – even in the seemingly mundane. It is not necessarily to send you off toward some goal that you try to pursue on your own. See my post about discovering your true calling in Christ for more discussion around this topic.

Don’t let the end goal distract from the journey or you’ll be missing the substance of your life.

To summarize…

Journaling is a powerful, foundational tool that I’ve used to fortify my faith for past, present, and future.

Asking God questions in my journaling and practicing hearing from Him in the moment strengthens my present faith. Developing this skill in journaling then translates into hearing from God throughout my day, as I continue to ask Him for guidance and insight.

Going back and recording the ways that God has shown up for me in key moments throughout my life strengthens my faith that is founded on past experience.

I used to think I hadn’t experienced any miracles in my life. Recording these things when I remember them helps me not only to continue remembering more, but builds my faith to see miracles again, which leads to more miracles and even more entries to refer back to. It’s like spiritual compound interest!

Writing down/revisiting prophetic words gives me more faith and hope for my future. At times it also helps me connect more dots with what I’m facing in the moment.

The present is the most important, because that’s where God meets us and speaks to us – in real time.

Notice that the prophetic words and the stones of remembrance also help us in the present. Don’t let yourself get distracted from what He’s doing right now, but don’t miss these tools that, though forward or backward looking, will strengthen you for what you need in the present.

Get yourself some journals and have fun!