Listening Prayer

1. Listening Prayer is a Foundational Dialogue with God.

Knowing that Jesus is truly Emmanuel, God with us, and learning to hear His voice is vital to becoming spiritually mature.

A two-way conversation. Prayer is not merely speaking to God, but a dynamic dialogue where we also listen for His response. This ongoing conversation is central to a vibrant spiritual life, allowing us to apprehend the transcendent and receive wisdom from above. It transforms prayer from a monologue into an intimate exchange.

Rooted in Scripture. The Bible serves as the primary source for understanding God's character and will, discerning our hearts, and guiding our prayers. It is the "imperishable seed" that, when hidden in our hearts, enables the Holy Spirit to speak truth and seal it on our minds. A low view of Scripture can lead to dangerous, gnostic listening.

Three vital steps. Effective prayer involves a sequence: first, meditating on sacred texts to internalize God's Word; second, responding spontaneously to God through our needs and the Spirit's prompting (oratio); and third, actively listening for God's specific response to our prayers and questions. This prepares us to hear Him throughout our daily lives.

2. A Prayer Journal Provides Structure for Deepening Your Spiritual Life.

Keeping a journal that gives shape and direction to this immensely important activity seems, if possible, even more rewarding at these holiday times.

An organizational tool. A loose-leaf binder with dividers for "Word," "Praise and Thanksgiving," "Intercession," "Petition," and "Forgiveness" helps organize our thoughts and prayers. This structure brings divine order to our spiritual lives, keeping priorities straight and ensuring no aspect of prayer is neglected. It's a "lifesaver" for maintaining focus.

Daily dialogue record. The "Word" section is central, serving as a space to record our daily dialogue with God, noting salient points from Scripture, personal responses, and insights received. This practice "exercises" our spiritual ears, preparing us to receive God's word throughout the day. It transforms fleeting thoughts into tangible spiritual records.

Treasure troves of insight. The other sections house prayer lists, Scriptures, and insights that boost faith and guide specific prayers. These lists evolve naturally, capturing God's guidance on what and how to pray, preventing valuable insights from becoming "buried treasure" and forgotten. Guarding the journal's privacy ensures honest, intimate communication with God.

3. Embrace All Forms of Prayer: Praise, Intercession, Petition, and Forgiveness.

Although we do not need to pray all these parts of prayer every day, or necessarily in the order given here, they hold within them the principles of a well-rounded prayer-life.

Praise and Thanksgiving. This is our "highest exercise," thanking God for what He has done and praising Him for who He is. It lifts us from earthly concerns to a universal, eternal perspective, hallowing His name and enthroning Him in our hearts. This practice allows us to "put on" God's character and take in Christ's mind.

Intercession for others. Praying "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" means identifying with the world's afflictions and praying for the advancement of God's kingdom globally. It balances personal petitions, keeping us from egocentric prayer. We focus on "the Lord of the harvest," not the overwhelming needs, trusting Him to lead.

Personal Petitions. These are our "daily bread" prayers, laying out our personal needs and desires before God. Far from selfish, this practice helps us understand our own hearts and grow in wisdom, often leading to self-acceptance and a deeper alignment of our will with God's. Perseverance in petition is key to receiving His abundant answers.

Repentance and Forgiveness. Confessing our sins, forgiving others, and seeking deliverance from temptation and evil are central to Christian life. This section helps us root out unforgiveness, acknowledge our sins, and receive God's forgiveness. It's crucial for personal healing and wholeness, breaking the power of sin over us.

4. God Communicates in Diverse Ways, Beyond the Merely Audible.

God speaks as Father, as Son, and as Holy Spirit, and we usually know who of the Trinity is speaking.

Multifaceted revelation. God's communication is not limited to a single mode. While the Bible is paramount, He also speaks through audible voices, direct experiences (visions, dreams, theophanies), angelic messengers, and His "still, small voice" impressed on our thoughts. The mode is less important than our openness to receive.

Dreams and visions. These can convey panoramic truths and symbolic messages that are difficult to grasp otherwise, often coming at crucial times of change. They require prayerful interpretation and discernment, as they can reveal hidden wounds and guide healing. However, literal interpretations or reliance on neognostic frameworks can lead to serious error.

The Holy Spirit's gifts. God speaks powerfully through the spiritual gifts (charisms) like words of wisdom, knowledge, discernment, and prophecy. These gifts facilitate listening, especially a prayer language, which bypasses the rational mind to edify the intuitive. When exercised in community, these gifts are multiplied and tested, fostering collective wisdom.

5. Spiritual Maturity and Friendship with God Stem from Listening Obedience.

To listen to God is to obey Him.

The fruit of wisdom. Listening to God in prayer cultivates wisdom from above, enabling us to apprehend the transcendent and grow spiritually. Like Samuel, we learn to quiet ourselves and say, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening," forsaking our "Martha work" for "Mary work" – simply being in His presence.

Christ's perfect model. Jesus consistently modeled listening obedience to the Father, doing nothing on His own but speaking what the Father taught Him. His life demonstrates that true listening leads to fulfilling one's divine vocation and accomplishing God's will. We are called to participate in this same union and obedience.

Friendship with God. As we listen and obey, we enter a blessed state of friendship with God, just as Moses and Abraham did. This friendship entails a "unity in thought and spirit" with God, where our will aligns with His. It's a profound relationship that calls forth our "real I" and frees us from man-centered, need-dominated distortions of the gospel.

6. Overcome Hindrances by Prioritizing God's Presence Over Experience.

A firm principle in acknowledging that God is always with us is that we seek God alone and never an experience of God, including any word He might send.

The head-heart split. Many modern Christians suffer from a "Post-Enlightenment" split, accepting conceptual knowledge about God but denying intuitive ways of knowing Him. This leads to an inability to hear God's voice, as they are separated from their own hearts. This intellectual block must be overcome by affirming God's real presence.

Beyond sensory experience. Confusing the experience of God's presence with the objective presence itself is a common pitfall. We must seek God Himself, not merely the sensory feelings or "high impact" encounters. True faith acknowledges God's constant presence, whether or not we "sense" Him, freeing us from an experience-driven spirituality.

Full initiation into Christ. Incomplete baptisms, lacking a full "dying to the old self" and "rising in the Spirit," hinder listening. We must ask for and receive whatever has been lacking in our initiation, allowing the Holy Spirit to indwell us fully. This empowers us to walk in the Spirit, free from the "laws and regulations" that bind.

7. Guard Against Egoistic Subjectivism and Neognostic Listening.

The deadliest Pharisaism to-day is not hypocrisy, but unconscious unreality.

Self-talk vs. divine voice. Egoistic subjectivism, where one's feelings speak so loudly they block out all else, is a primary danger. This "practice of the presence of the self" leads to a deep spiritual deception, as narcissistic mutterings masquerade as "words from God." It's the isolated self communicating with itself, losing touch with objective reality.

Vertical listening. Wisdom from God descends from heaven, transcending our unaided minds and imaginations. Like sunflowers turning to the sun, we must lift our souls to a "decidedly vertical position" to receive this pure gift. Worldly wisdom, generated from the fallen mind in isolation from God, operates on a horizontal plane and ultimately leads to the demonic.

Neognostic pitfalls. Modern neognosticism, often disguised as "Christianized" secular psychologies (e.g., Jungianism), assigns innocence to sin and evil, reconciling them. This leads to an idolatry of self, where personal feelings and "stories" replace objective truth and divine revelation. Such "spirituality" is rooted in paganism and leads to spiritual deception.

8. Community, Humility, and Testing are Essential for Authentic Listening.

We cannot thrive apart from the body, separated from the fellowship and community of the Holy Spirit.

Correction through others. We are fallible and do not always hear perfectly. Therefore, we need to weigh what we hear with trusted Christian leaders and prayer partners. This communal discernment, including the gifts of exhortation and discerning of spirits, helps correct our blind spots and prevents us from slandering God by misattributing our thoughts to Him.

Humility in reception. It is crucial to approach listening prayer with humility, acknowledging our fragility as "jars of clay" holding divine treasure. We should say, "It seems that God is saying..." rather than "God told me..." and be open to correction. Spiritual pride, which claims God's wisdom or success as our own, is a subtle but deadly vice that hinders true listening.

Unity in truth. Authentic corporate listening thrives in unity, not in a false unity that reconciles good and evil. This unity comes from being "one in His truth and love," holding each other accountable, and speaking truth fearlessly. Without such prayer partners, our listening can become anemic and ineffective, lacking the power that flows from shared spiritual purpose.

9. Embrace Incarnational Reality: Christ's Life Within Empowers Our Obedience.

The central secret of the Christian life is that we are adopted into this relationship as children of this Father...

God's indwelling presence. Incarnational reality means Christ lives within us, linking us to the Father and making us partakers of His divine nature. This "piece of God" within us is the platform from which we are heard in heaven, enabling us to obey God with "amazing ease." It's not an abstract doctrine but a concrete reality that empowers our spiritual walk.

Dying to the old self. Our freedom in Christ comes from fully taking our place in His death and resurrection. This means effectively putting to death the "old self" (the self-in-separation) and receiving the life-giving Spirit. This ongoing process of conversion allows us to live from the "locus of the true self," which is in union with Christ and hears God.

From loneliness to solitude. The "primal loneliness" of separation from God's voice is a universal human condition. Through listening prayer, this "desert of loneliness" can be converted into a "garden of solitude," where the true self flourishes in friendship with God. This transformation frees us from demanding that creatures fill our void, allowing us to find our identity in God alone.

10. True Repentance and Forgiveness are Crucial for Unhindered Communication.

Daily forgiveness, such as we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer, is necessary to ongoing fellowship and conversation with God.

Cleansing the heart. Unconfessed and cherished sin erects a barrier between God and us, hardening the heart and making it deceitful. To listen aright, we need daily repentance and confession, allowing God's light to shine into any "dark crannies" where we may be cherishing iniquity or failing to forgive others. This ensures our listening remains untainted.

Deliverance from evil. Forgiveness extends to those in the grip of evil, but we must hate the evil itself. This involves confessing their specific sins against us, which breaks the power those sins have over us, without excusing the perpetrator. It also means setting proper boundaries to protect ourselves from destructive influences, speaking truth objectively and judiciously.

The gift of battle. Learning to love and forgive our enemies grants us "the gift of battle," enabling us to withstand spiritual warfare. This gift, rooted in divine love (agape), allows us to hate sin but not the sinner, speaking truth in love. It's a powerful, strategic prayer that asks God to expose demonic influences and salvage what is good in our enemies.