A couple of weeks back, while we still were in Mzuzu, I was talking with a teammate, and I shared with them a realization that I had: God had placed Africa in my Race very intentionally. He did not place it as the first continent because I would have been overwhelmed by the closeness with Him, but He still placed it early in my Race so that I could having the learning experience, with plenty of time for practice before I return to the comfort of the States.
We spent the first two months of the Race in relative comfort in Eastern Europe. In that context, the Lord was able to begin His work in calling me to closer relationship with Him. He made sure to take baby steps – I say that because I can’t even tell you what He did to help me along that path, but I do know that by the time we made it to Malawi, I was ready for Him to speak to me.
Seth Barnes is the founder and director of Adventures in Missions (the parent organization to the World Race). Seth wrote a month-long devotional called The Art of Listening Prayer (ALP), which exposes you to and/or helps you practice the discipline of Listening Prayer. Listening Prayer simply is the practice of having conversation with God – dialogue instead of monologue. Historically, I generally prayed a very formulaic prayer: “Thanks you. Thank you. Thank you. Please. Please. Please. Amen.” It very much was one-sided. So I was interested in ALP, and put it on my reading list at the beginning of the Race, but there were one or two books ahead of it on the list. Coincidentally (or maybe not), ALP came up as the next book on my list within a couple of days of our arrival in Mzuzu.
So during our stay in Malawi, I worked through ALP (I missed a day here and there). As I did so, I began to hear God’s voice more clearly and more consistently. I also began to realize that He always had been speaking to me, I simply could not recognize His voice. I still am learning to discern His voice, and expect that it will be a continuous process through the rest of my life, but during those few weeks, I made considerable strides.
This is when I shared my thoughts with my teammate. I realized that in the environment of the Race, the Lord had been preparing my heart for His touch, and then in the context of highly spiritual culture in Africa, He reached out to me. But at that time, I only had scratched the surface. Now, I have finished ALP and am practicing Listening Prayer on my own. I still am a novice, but it is much stronger than even two months ago. Also, He has begun to speak to me in new ways: thoughts, impressions, visions, circumstances, displays of power, etc. I don’t always receive them clearly, but He and I are practicing.
*Note: Please recognize that even if we practice Listening Prayer for years, we still are human and are susceptible to the influences of the world, of others, and of the enemy. As such, we must learn to verify the things that we hear from God. One test that I have seen, and feel is valid, has five requirements:
- Does it exalt Christ?
- Is it scriptural?
- Do other Christians confirm it?
- What fruit does it produce?
- Does it come to pass?
