BridgeWay has launched into the deep of a 40-Day Prayer Adventure. Each day we’ll provide a variety of devotionals, verses, and prayer prompts to encourage you in your pursuit of the Lord. Dive in! The water’s warm, deep and inviting.
A second lesson we learn from Moses’s friendship with God is that in his prayer life he allowed God to speak into his life.
Exodus 33:9 says, “When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses.”
Most people think of prayer as them speaking with God, but prayer is also God speaking with you. There is a listening component to prayer which cannot be overlooked. If in prayer we do all the talking, then we have not prayed.
Most people who treat Christianity as more a religion than a relationship never allow God to get a word in edgewise. Much of this is intentional. Because once you start letting God speak to you about your life, he’s going to start meddling. And tinkering. And asking you to do things that will take you way out of your comfort zone. Religion is a much easier game to play.
But a boring one as well. When we call this 40-Day experiment a “Prayer Adventure” we mean it.
Our friend Pastor Mark Batterson, whose great book on prayer, Draw The Circle, is one of our trail guides, tells us that the Celtic Christians sometimes referred to the Holy Spirit as the ‘wild goose’. Mark explains why: “When you follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, you never know who you’ll meet, where you’ll go, or what you’ll do. But one thing is certain: it’ll be anything but boring!”
If in prayer we do all the talking, then we have not prayed.
So how do we hear the voice of the Holy Spirit? If it’s a subject that interests you, in chapter 8 of our book Communion With Christ is a short section called “The Listening Side Of Prayer – How To Hear The Voice Of God” that you’ll find useful. But here are some quick tips:
First, you must turn down the noise in your life and listen. God says to us in Isaiah 30:15, “In quietness and trust shall be your strength.” So put the phone away. Slow the roll of your thoughts (and your breathing too). Be attentive, (the word mindful is used a lot today, but it’s not a bad word.) Then listen.
Second, the #1 way God speaks to us is straight through his Word, so you need to be in the habit of reading it. If you’re doing so in the right way, each time you read, a word or verse will loom large in your thoughts and grab your attention. Sometimes those words will even seem to jump off the page for you. Write those words down in your quiet time journal. God could very well be the one drawing you to those words.
Mark Batterson agrees with me. “The first thing to do is open your Bible. When you open your Bible, God opens His mouth. The surest way to get a word from the Lord is by getting into God’s Word. God will speak to you.”
Third, pray about what you’ve read, then pay attention to your thoughts, because threaded to them is often the voice of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” Of course there are all kinds of caution flags and caveats to raise here (and again, chapter 8 in Communion With Christ will give you a half-dozen safety tips.)
But as you begin to act on those prayer nudges, you’ll come to realize that many of those thoughts in your head aren’t all yours. That’s when the wild goose of the Spirit will take flight in front of you.
Mark writes, “The plans of God are only revealed in the presence of God. We don’t get our marching orders until we get on our knees…When you pray to God regularly, irregular things happen on a regular basis.” His book is filled with stories that bear that out. Maybe you’ll have some stories of your own to share once these 40 days are over.
But it begins with praying, then listening.
God is calling us all by name. The final scene of this video almost always brings the tears.