"Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening."
It's stamped on nearly every page of Scripture, from Genesis to the Prophets, from Jesus to the Apostles' writings - God communicates directly with His children. Adam and Eve heard His voice; Moses conversed with Him "as a friend"; Abraham, David, Solomon, Jacob, Noah, Jeremiah, Samuel, Ezekiel, Gideon, and Elijah, as well as Peter, Paul, John, Ananias, and Philip all heard the voice of God (just to name a few).
Through the practice of "listening prayer," we can hear God's voice just as surely as our heroes of the faith heard Him. In fact, Scripture seems to strongly indicate that we should be listening for God's voice as part of our routine of prayer: Paul said "the Spirit helps us in our weakness" because "we do not know what we ought to pray for." (Rom. 8:26) James said "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God ... and it will be given to you" (Jas. 1:5), and Jesus said "[when] the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth." (Jn. 16:13) The Spirit of God gives us the wisdom and leads us to the truth of what we ought to pray for, and how we ought to pray.
For the past three weeks, we've been meeting at Ada Pathway on Wednesday nights to listen for God's voice in the practice of listening prayer. It's a lot less complicated than it probably sounds. We quiet ourselves, ask the Spirit to reveal what God wants us to hear, and then we simply listen. Sometimes God's voice comes to us in the form of a mental picture; sometimes it comes as a reminder of someone we need to pray for; most often it comes in the form of a thought. God uses all sorts of ways to communicate to us.
But listening prayer is only one half of the coin; obedience and action is the other half. When God honors our request to speak with us (and He always honors that request), we have to act on what we have heard. In our Wednesday night prayer meeting, we've been practicing this as well: praying for those things that God actively implants on our minds and in our hearts. When we do that - when we synchronize our prayers with the mind of God - something amazing happens: we start seeing radical results. We start feeling a closer sense of God's presence among us. We start seeing the "kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven."
Below are some of the results and stories that we've seen and heard about during our listening prayer meetings in the past three weeks. In John's vision of the last days, he saw that the saints conquered and overcame the Enemy "by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony." (Rev. 12:11) Our testimony and witness to the "mighty hand" of the Lord (cf. Ex. 6:1) is a part of what helps us defeat our Enemy, which is why we make time at these prayer meetings every week to talk about what God has been doing in our lives during the previous weeks.
REPORTS
- Two individuals, independent of each other, heard God saying to them, "I am with you, I am with you, I will never leave you or forsake you," which was exactly what those people needed to hear at that moment. Thank you, Father, for honoring your word to comfort us as a mother comforts her children. (Is. 66:13)
- We heard of an individual who was intending to pray for a friend who works in sales, that he would succeed in making sales; but through listening prayer, God indicated that the prayer should instead be that this friend would be given confidence. The friend later reported that he did indeed feel unusually confident, despite the fact that he did not make any sales. Thank you, Father, that the "facts" of the world are not as strong as the truth of your word.
- Another individual reported having experienced recent feelings of distance from God during prayer, and that participating in the listening prayer meeting helped to remove those feelings. Father, thank you for keeping the promise of your word that you will draw near to us when we draw near to you. (Jas. 4:8)
- One participant noticed that past feelings of "I don't want to go to prayer meeting tonight, but it's what I do, so I might as well get it over with" had been replaced with feelings of "I'm looking forward to prayer meeting tonight, I'm excited to hear what God has to say to me." Father, you show us again that your Son's yoke is easy, and there are indeed "eternal pleasures at your right hand." (Ps. 16:11)
- After hearing God bring a specific individual to mind, a participant saw a mental picture of the word "fear" and was led to pray against any fear in this individual's life. We praise you, Holy Spirit, for guiding us into the truth of what we ought to pray for.
- Another individual was led by God to pray for the "40 Days for Life" project, and specifically that God would intervene in the life of women who came to the clinic to have an abortion; the next day, the report came that a 20-year-old woman came to the clinic to have an abortion, but after an hour-and-a-half at the clinic, decided to keep the baby. Father, your word is indeed true, "My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way." (Is. 51:5)
- Another participant was led by the Spirit to pray for Youcef Nadarkhani, a pastor in Iran who has been sentenced to die for refusing to renounce his faith in Jesus; within 24 hours of that prayer, the United Kingdom Foreign Secretary, the German Foreign Ministry, the Europian Union, the White House, and several other international government officials denounced the impending execution, and there is now immense international pressure on Iran to release Pastor Nadarkhani. Father, you are truly a "Mighty Warrior who saves" (Zeph. 3:17), and we will believe you to complete the work you have begun by fully delivering your servant in Iran.
Wow! That's a lot to report after only three weeks of practicing listening prayer! But God is far from done, and I know that the month of October will bring even greater reports as we continue to allow God to speak His words, and to bring about amazing results as we keep learning to pray "in sync" with His mind.
I hope to see you at the next prayer meeting!
"Enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus." (Acts 4:29-30)
Jacob
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