Listening Prayer

In the Western world, much of our prayers are focused on what we are saying to God, but if you’ve been following along with these posts over the past month, then you know that I am a big proponent of quietness. I think this is because it’s often so loud in my own mind.

Listening prayer is the practice of shutting our own mouths so that we can hear God speak. When I worked in college ministry, I had a student ask me how I “got so good at listening to God?”

So I asked my self these questions. How did I learn to hear God’s voice? What were the steps I took that got me from where I used to be, to where I am now? 

I’ll share here what I shared with that student, plus a few thoughts I’ve had since then. When you’re done reading this would you do me a favor? Would you share your experience with hearing God’s voice – what has it been like for you and how did you learn to hear His voice?

God has revealed who he is in his written word, the Bible, but he also speaks to His children everyday through the Holy Spirit. This world is so noisy though, so we need to be willing to get quiet enough to hear him speak. 

The first step in listening to God is knowing what He sounds like. Jesus said in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” If we don’t know what his voice sounds like, then we won’t be sure when he’s speaking to us.

We learn God’s voice by spending time reading the Word, especially the Gospels because Jesus was the perfect representation of the Father. “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,” Colossians 2:9 and John 12:45 “The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me.”

God has revealed so much about who he is and what he values in his written Word. It is our responsibility to read it, study it, meditate on it, and through the Holy Spirit, understand it. This may seem like an overwhelming task at first, but with daily practice and prayer, you can grow to understand who God is. (Drop a comment below if you’d like to see posts on how to study the Bible.)

The unique aspect of Christianity that isn’t available in other religions is relationship. We’re not simply studying an antique sacred text, we are engaging in relationship with a God who wants to know us and wants to be known by us. We are engaging in intimate relationship with the One True God. There is no other.

The second step we must take is to surrender our will to his. As we read his Words, the Holy Spirit will reveal to us areas of our lives that are out of line with his best design. In submitting these areas to him, changing our minds about our behaviors, and walking in his design for us, we will receive spiritual blessings. Often the direct result of this change of mind and behavior is peace and joy. 

The third step is mentioned in the second step, obedience. You see, Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep my commandments.” John 14:15 When we read the Gospel of John, and especially chapters 14-16, it’s very clear that God desires relationships with us. He doesn’t want mindless robots, obeying him because they have to, he wants loving friendship with you and then out of that love relationship you’ll obey His voice. 

John 15 tells us of the account of Jesus inviting his disciples, and consequently all believers, to abide in him and let his love and words abide in us. If you haven’t ever practiced this – I encourage you to begin immediately, the post ‘The Purpose of Prayer’ expounds on this topic.

Out of this intimate place of abiding in Jesus, deep love is born and personal knowledge of him is produced.

As we obey his voice and experience his presence, then we are better able to identify his voice when he speaks to us. 

So, the steps to hearing God’s voice are:

  1. Get to know what his voice sounds like
  2. Surrender your will to God’s will
  3. Obey when you hear Him speak (begin with abiding in Christ)

Now, a few notes and final thoughts – first, I have given you three ‘steps’ to follow to learn how to hear God’s voice. But, this is not a formula. As I mentioned earlier, you are in relationship with the One True God – the Savior and Lover of your soul. He is personal and intimate, just as your own relationships with other people are not the same in every circumstance, neither are our individual relationships with God the exact same.

The same truths apply, but he is a personal God, and he wants to engage with you personally. So don’t put a timeline to this process and think that following three simplified steps will get you some kind of instant result.

This relationship is a journey, and the goal at every step should be to know Christ more.

As Paul said, “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” Philippians 3:7-11 (emphasis mine)

Second, not all the voices we ‘hear’ are from the Lord. There’s our own inner voice, the voice of our Father God, the voices of the world and the voice of the father of lies/his minions. The enemy’s goal is to distract us from listening to God and get us to believe his lies. And he’s pretty good at what he does. Ephesians 2 calls him the ‘prince of the power of the air.’ Satan is not everywhere but his lies sure are.

However, as God’s children, we do not have to fear the evil one. We belong to God and the evil one truly has no power over us. His strongest weapons are deception and discouragement, and he uses them to get us to disconnect from God. 

Because we have an enemy actively working against us, we need to be diligent to follow the three steps above every day. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says that “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,” 

When we hear a voice, we must take it captive, and take it to the Lord and see if it lines up with who God is. We know who God is because we spend time in prayer and reading the Bible. So, we can compare what the voice is saying with the truth of the Word. Does it line up? Is it close, but slightly off? This is where practice and discernment come in and also your fellow believers. If you hear something, or feel an impression that might be true, bring the word to someone you know and trust who is faithfully walking in step with the Holy Spirit and in the Word daily. (Galatians 5)

One more verse: Romans 12:1-2, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

This verse sums up the three steps from above: 

1. Renew your mind (Get to know what His voice sounds like)

2. Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God (Surrender your will to God’s will)

3. Do not conform, but be transformed (Obey when you hear him speak) 

So what about you? What has your journey with listening prayer been like? How have you learned to hear God’s voice? Let me know below!

 

Originally published By Sarah Bernard on June 15, 2021 on the Dare Blog