“And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the
mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not
in the wind. And after the wind an
earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord
was not in the fire. And after the fire
the sound of a low whisper. And when
Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the
entrance of the cave. And behold, there
came a voice to him…”
–
1 Kings 19:11-13
Ten months ago, I began the Race determined
to discover if God still speaks to His people. In John 10:3-4, Jesus asserts that His sheep
know His voice. Why didn’t this seem to
be true for me, I wondered? What does it
look like to hear from God? What is His voice? Is it a vision or a
thought? Is it audible? You see, I had no problem praying to God, but
my prayer life was one-directional. I
presented my requests to God, believed that He heard me, and then wrapped
things up with a hearty, “Amen!” But,
deep in my soul, I knew that there was more.
I thought of my relationship with my earthly father, and pondered how
much intimacy I would miss out on if he never spoke back to me. Ten months later, I know that God has
answered my prayer to learn to hear His voice.
Let me share this journey with you.
I have always understood that the
primary way that God speaks to me is through His Word. What unfathomable treasure is found in the Bible! Yet, I believed that there was more, that my
relationship with God extended beyond what could be found between two book covers
and in unilateral prayer. I believed
that His living and active Word, and the Holy Spirit inside of me, somehow worked
together to unveil a door of greater intimacy with God. But what the heck did this look like? For so long, I reduced “hearing from God” to
one of three things: supernatural encounters beyond the reach of normal Christians, some vague notion of
Him guiding my thoughts, or, seriously, schizophrenia.
Then, I heard about listening
prayer. In World Race lingo, “listening
prayer” is the belief that God communicates back
to us in prayer, and the practice of allowing Him to do so. I sat down and attempted to “listen” for the
first time in Malaysia. It was my initial
month of squad leading, and I was determined to operate by the Spirit and not
my own strength. So, Chelsea, Courtney
(the other two squad leaders) and I found a quiet place, prayed that God would
silence our thoughts, took out our journals, and sat before God for 45 minutes
asking Him questions and writing down what we perceived to be His reply. Questions were anything from, “Is there
something that is hindering my relationship with you?” To, “Is there a specific way you want to grow
my character?” And, “God, what is my identity as your son?”
To be honest, I struggled to
focus. I felt like I was tuning in an
old TV with rabbit ears and only finding static. After about fifteen minutes, I decided to
seek some dreams and visions and I went to sleep. Yet, despite my failure, it was a worthwhile
first experience, and the other squad leaders thankfully received more than I! In the following months I tried to make
listening prayer a normal part of my morning quiet times, if even for a few
minutes. It became an increasingly more
fruitful part of my communion with God!
Let me share two stories as examples.
Example 1 – South Africa
In
South Africa, we had 4 teams and all the squad leaders together for the month
in Coffee Bay. About two weeks into the month,
we all underwent a huge spiritual attack.
Out of nowhere, it seemed like there were pressing conflicts on every
team. We weren’t doing a good job as a
squad of honoring and preferring one another.
Even our contact was undergoing severe trials. It literally felt like things were falling
apart around us. So, I went to God and
asked Him what we should do. I felt like
He was telling me to read Jeremiah. I
picked up my Bible and started to read. In Chapter 13, there is a story where God tells
Jeremiah to bury a loincloth near the Euphrates and dig it up days later to
find it ruined and destroyed. God says, “Thus
I will spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.”
I
knew that our pride and selfishness were allowing the devil to sow division in
our squad. I felt like God was calling
us to repent. I shared this with Chelsea
and Courtney, and then called together all of the team leaders for a
meeting. We all spent time in silence,
asking God to speak. Afterward, we
shared what we felt like God had said. It
was beautiful how each of us heard something that contributed toward a common picture
with insights that could not have been our own.
We decided to call the squad together for a night of repentance and
reconciliation. During this time, God
moved powerfully! It was messy, but great unity was restored
amongst our squad as we rejoiced in grace!
The spiritual attack we were facing was completely countered.
Example 2 – Swaziland
In
Swaziland, Chelsea, Courtney, and I spent time in listening prayer before our 8
Month Debrief. I asked God what His
plans were for debrief. During this
time, He brought to my mind a story in Joshua 17:3-4. In this account, a man named Zelophehad, who
had only daughters, asked Joshua to give his daughters their God-given
inheritance of land. Joshua then called
them into their inheritance. Through
this narrative, God spoke to me about the power that men have to call women
into their God-given inheritances and identities. I presented this story to the men on the
squad. We decided to prepare a night at
debrief where we called our sisters into their identities as beloved daughters
of God. I honestly did not expect it to
be so powerful! As I watched our women
moved to tears by the truths spoken over them, I thanked God for the fruit of listening
to His voice! This would not have
happened were it not for listening prayer!
How do we Discern?
These
are just two examples of how God has spoken to me this past year. There are many more. One of the main realizations I’ve had is that
God is often speaking to me in a
gentle whisper, just like He did to Elijah.
This whisper is not new. I’m sure
it has always been there. For the first
time, though, I have started to recognize this whisper as God’s. For the first time, I’ve began to differentiate the whisper of His Spirit from my thoughts. For
many people that I’ve talked to, this is one of the biggest
challenges to listening: How do we discern what thoughts are God’s and what thoughts are
merely thoughts? Well, I am only beginning this journey, but
let me share some things that I’ve found helpful.
1. Come to Him with a clean heart, pray for
things that are not of God to be silenced, and simply listen!
Proverbs 20:27 “The
spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts.”
This verse really
encourages me. God uses my spirit as his
lamp, and shines light in particular areas (giving me particular thoughts) for me to then step out in obedience. I simply need to STOP, quiet my busy mind, and take time to
LISTEN. For me, I first confess any sin that I am aware of so that I can come before Him with a clean heart. I then command in Jesus’ name any thoughts or voices that are not from Him to be silenced. After this, I wait
in silent expectation for thoughts that I believe are from Him. When He
speaks, I sometimes ask for clarification or just praise Him for His wisdom!
2. Believe that God speaks, and be determined
to walk in obedience and faith once He has spoken.
Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust
in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own
understanding. In all your ways acknowledge
Him, and He will make straight your paths.
Kris Vallotton,
pastor at Bethel church in California, once discussed his
first attempts at listening prayer. He said
that God often spoke to him things like, “I want you to stop and pick up the
trash outside of the grocery store on your way home from work.” He had to learn to walk in obedience to
these little things before God spoke to him about greater things. We must be faithful in the natural before we
are faithful in spiritual. We
must be trustworthy in the small things we are given before we are entrusted with
much! Do not discount the little ways that God speaks!
3. God speaks to develop character.
Many times I’ve
gone to God asking for specific guidance regarding some decision or another. I want Him to tell me if I should go through
Door A, B, or C. While God definitely
does speak specifically in some instances – I believe the majority of God’s speaking
is aimed not at telling me which choice to make, but at developing my
character. For example, the goal of a
father is not to give his child a list of things to do – to command his every
step. Rather, his goal is to speak to
his child in such a way as to develop his character (his love, discipline,
integrity, etc.) so that he learns to make the best decisions on his own. Thus, when thoughts pop into my head saying, “You
could show love (or faith or courage etc…) by picking up that trash or praying
for that sick person.” Then that thought is probably from God and I should be
obedient.
4. God never contradicts Himself.
God will never
speak in a way that contradicts His character or His Truth revealed in
scripture.
Final Thoughts
While I
believe it is so valuable to dedicate specific portions of time to listening
prayer, I am convinced that listening prayer should continue throughout the
normal course of our days. How exciting
it is to think that as we walk with God throughout the day that we can expect
to hear His voice! This is definitely
one aspect of what Paul means when he encourages us in Romans 8 to, “Live by
the Spirit…”
For those of you who have made it
this far, I hope that you are somehow encouraged to pursue greater depths of
intimacy with God, and to learn the discipline of being still before Him and
allowing Him to speak! I am a fellow
pilgrim with you on this journey – and I know that I have taken only a few
initial steps down the path. How
exciting it is, though, that God is alive, and that He speaks to us as sons and
daughters! World Racer’s – don’t wait
until month four to begin practicing listening prayer, and to be obedient to what you hear! Thank you, Jesus, that you call us to walk in the authority of Kings and the intimacy of
priests! What an amazing adventure it is to live for Your Kingdom!
