Patrick Morley, the author of The Four Voices, discusses how you can build your sense of self-worth, improve relationships, and grow by mastering your thoughts.
Table of Contents
The Four Voices
You have four distinct voices competing for attention over your life. There’s the voice of the world, the flesh, the devil, and the Holy Spirit. So how do you discern among the four to let the Holy Spirit lead you in a life worth living?
Man in the Mirror Founder Patrick Morley has some answers. He says that the key is to learn to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit and follow His leading. “The voice of the Spirit is always character building, edifying, encouraging, and motivating,” Morley says. “It will never lead you into sin or compromise.”
So if you’re wondering which voice to listen to, ask yourself: does this choice build my character, edify others, encourage me, or motivate me to do good? If the answer is yes, then it’s probably the voice of the Holy Spirit. Follow His leading and you’ll be on the path to a life worth living.
We’ve talked about self-talk on Beyond the Rut, but never like this. What if the conversation in your head is more than just self-talk? Is the loudest voice the right voice to guide you?
The Voice of the World
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Romans 12:2
The world is filled with dangers, vices, and comparisons that can tear you down and remove all hope. We are told that we are not strong enough, handsome enough, rich enough, or smart enough.
The world would have you believe that if you pursue a career, money, fame, or become the “alpha”, then you have arrived at manhood.
As Patrick Morley says, “The world doesn’t mind if you become a Christian as long as you keep living like you’re not.” What if you’re called to live differently than you have before? What if a new life is exactly what you are seeking?
The Voice of the Flesh
The flesh is impulsive, and selfish, and can lead you to do things that undo what you have built. Temptation can lead to an affair that rips apart a family. The flesh can lead someone to make a greedy decision that hurts others.
We all struggle with flesh desires and the voice of the flesh.
Of the four voices, this one is very personal. It’s where we want to avoid accountability and try to say, “The devil made me do it.”
Struggle with sin is a normal part of the Christian experience. Pride is something to be aware of because it can lead us to become modern-day Pharisees thinking we are more valuable than others.
When has your pride gotten the better of you?
The Voice of the Devil
Make no mistake, a big part of the Christian faith is knowing that there is a devil who introduced sin to mankind. He cannot touch you, but he can do his best to influence you to stay out of the fight. He’ll also work hard to influence you to get into the fight for all the wrong reasons causing more harm than good.
“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.” Luke 22:31-32
Patrick Morley’s book, The Four Voices: Taking Control of the Conversation in Your Head, discusses what Satan is like and how to recognize his work. Patrick also shares what we can confidently know about the devil.
The Voice of the Holy Spirit
Have you ever seen those movies and cartoons where you have the devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other encouraging you to do good or evil? That’s the simplest way to describe the Holy Spirit.
Without going into details about a triune God, the key thing to note is that the Holy Spirit is meant to be our guide through life.
Patrick Morley says in The Four Voices, “True conviction is the Holy Spirit convincing a person that he or she has fallen short of what God intended,” but not to keep you in shame or guilt.
The Holy Spirit is described as our Paraclete, our helper.
In This Episode
- Faith and science side-track conversation
- How Man in the Mirror Ministries began
- How to tackle and conquer imposter syndrome
- The Four Voices: Taking Control of the Conversation in Your Head
- The voice of the world
- The voice of the flesh
- The voice of the devil
- The voice of the Holy Spirit
- What the Christian man can do to build the next generation
- The leadership model at Man in the Mirror and books in a box
Patrick Morley, the Founder of Man in the Mirror Ministries
PATRICK MORLEY started a weekly Bible study in a bar in 1986—a study that now reaches thousands of men around the world every week at mimbiblestudy.com. That gave rise to the first of his 22 books, The Man in the Mirror, named one of the 100 most influential Christian books of the last 100 years.
Patrick is the founder of Man in the Mirror, an international ministry impacting thousands of churches and millions of men. He graduated from the University of Central Florida and Reformed Theological Seminary. He has earned a Ph.D. in management, completing postgraduate studies at the Harvard Business School and Oxford University. He lives in Winter Park, Florida with his wife, Patsy.
Resources and Links
Order a Book-in-a-Box set of The Four Voices from Man in the Mirror today, and share it with your Christian men’s group, or start a group at your local church.
If you want a copy of The Four Voices: Take Control of the Conversation in Your Head for yourself to preview before sharing with a group, click here to buy a copy from Amazon.
You can also view the weekly bible studies for men I mention in this episode at MiMBibleStudy.com.
Do me a favor and leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts for this show if you are an Apple Podcasts listener.
Episode Credits
Host, Editing, and Production: Jerry Dugan
