Pray Network Forum

Nothing is more important for praying together than a listening heart. Do you remember the story of Solomon's prayer in 1 Kings 3? The Lord told Solomon He would give him whatever he asked. In 1 Kings 3:9 Solomon asked God for a “discerning heart.” The Hebrew word translated “discerning” is “shema.” Some of you have heard of the Jewish prayer called “The Shema.” Shema is the first word of Deuteronomy 6:4. “Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Shema means to listen or to hear. I do not object to translators rendering this word, discerning, here. But literally Solomon was praying for a listening heart. Listening is the foundation of spiritual discernment.

Listening is crucial for praying together. If you come into prayer full of what you want to say, you will miss what God is saying to you. C.S. Lewis gave us a poem in Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer.

They tell me, Lord, that when I seem

To be in speech with you,

Since but one voice is heard, it’s all a dream,

One talker aping two.

Sometimes it is, yet not as they

Conceive it. Rather, I

Seek in myself the things I hoped to say,

But lo!, my wells are dry.

Then, seeing me empty, you forsake

The listener’s role and through

My dumb lips breathe and into utterance wake

The thoughts I never knew.

And thus you neither need reply

Nor can; thus, while we seem

Two talkers, thou art One forever, and I

No dreamer, but thy dream.

When we pray, especially when we are trying to pray together, we need to be able to listen for what God wants to breath through our lips and into the group prayer. And of course, God will speak to you as others in the group pray. As you learn to listen to others you will hear what God is showing others in the group, and what He is saying to them. Soon you realise that God Himself is speaking to you through the prayers of the others.

Such listening hearts are indeed a work of God in our midst. And it is a thrilling evidence of His holy presence in our prayers.

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VERSES:

" Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren"....Deuteronomy 4:9

PRAYER

Oh most merciful and loving God in Heaven, we worship You in spirit and in truth and in gratitude for Who You are and What You have done. We have seen Your Hands, the Work of Your Hands, the Wonder of Your Love and the Grace from Your Heart, as the winter of our discontent, the wickedness of our hearts and the wandering lost nature of our souls were rescued from sin, death and hell. You did that, oh Lord. We are living proof, I am living proof, of the unseen Hand of God, Whose Arm is never too short, to reach into the depths of depravity and despair and pull us out by the root to replant us in the Garden of Grace.

 

We know, in every fiber of our very being, what You have done in protecting us from danger, keeping us from falling and from the wolves and sure death out there as the angels You sent, kept us from "dashing our foot up against a stone". Father, I remember those days. I remember the fields of dirt, thirst and hopelessness You took me out of....just like You took the little shepherd boy away from the flocks who slew great giants and became king David of Israel. As Your Faithful servant, meek yet strong, Moses urged all believers for all times, I purpose to "take heed" and wear Your salvation of my soul on my sleeve that others may gain. I take particular, punctilious, painstaking, rigorous, care in, as Your Apostle Paul says "working out" that salvation....not to be "saved again" but to build on what You have given me, in Grace through Faith, to a daily maturing in that Faith....in the spirit of boldness, power, love and a sound mind!

 

It is only by staying, abiding and walking close to You, Abba Father, that I can be, that we can be, of any use to the Kingdom of Your Great Son, King Jesus the Lord of Heaven's Armies and the real Commander in Chief of the world! It is only by constant prayer, intercession, and letting the Word of God, the Bible richly dwelling in us day after day, month after month, year after year,  that Your servants can be effective in leaving a legacy of Lordship not just to our children from their birth to their maturity, but from their teenage years until they themselves become parents and then, if we are blessed with clarity of mind and good old age, we too can share what God, through Christ has done for us.  Lord, give us this day, not just our daily bread, but the daily power, strength, boldness, discernment and wisdom to execute every statute You laid out in this Scripture from this verse above, so that we will be able to do just as You commanded,  to not just leave but LIVE a legacy of love, and the Knowledge of the Goodness and Wonderful Works of our Lord, to those whom we will one day temporarily leave behind. We ask this in the Precious Name above all names - Jesus, our Lord, amen.

Holy Bible, Book Divine

Precious Treasure, Thou art mine!!!

Amen

I want to return today to a crucial facet of prayer that I have written about before. I want to encourage you to develop the habit of praying for people everywhere you are. You can pray for people you see in the bank or the grocery store. You can pray for people you meet as you walk down the street or even as you are stuck in traffic.

Of course the first question that arises about this is “What do I pray for total strangers?” I have given people guides that they can use to get started, but in fact, I think the best way to pray is to be open to whatever the Holy Spirit brings to your mind as you pray. You will discover that you can often see needs at a glance on people’s faces. Also, I often see a person who reminds me of someone I do know. I pray briefly for the person I see and then at length for the person who is called to mind.

I need to admit that this does not come naturally to me. I have to remind myself again and again to be praying for people around me. Possibly the most important thing I can do to prepare to pray for people everywhere I go, is to begin my day with a sustained devotional time and devote intermittent times to prayer throughout the day. But I still have to pray regularly for God to remind me to pray for people as I go through my day. You may find this comes more natural to you. But even if it does not, you will find this to be a powerful blessing in your life.

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A friend emailed me recently, concerned because she wonders if she heard God wrong. I won’t go into specifics because hers is a very common concern among people learning to listen to God. It’s one I also experienced when I was first starting out in my two-way conversations with God. The dangers of hearing wrong seem huge:

• We could fool ourselves into hearing what we want to hear, which sets us up for disappointment or confusion
• We could hear something that leads us down a wrong path
• We could hurt someone by sharing or acting upon wrong information we supposed was from God

I wanted to reassure my friend that she had heard accurately. But I have no way of knowing that. I’ve been listening to God for quite a few years now, and I don’t have 100 percent confidence yet. Listening to God like any other aspect of the Christian life is, after all, an act of faith. I doubt that I will ever be 100 percent sure that I always hear God right. But there are several things the Bible assures me of that help me.

Jesus’ sheep hear His voice. If we’re His sheep, communicating with Him is our birthright. He wants us to hear Him speak to us. As sheep, we need to hear from Him for our own well-being and protection; The witness of Scripture. The Bible is full of stories of people who engaged in two-way conversation with God. God speaks often, personally, and specifically to people—and all the more so in these post-Pentecost days when His Spirit indwells us.

The alternative stinks. If we do not hear from God, then the best we can do is to “lean on our own understanding,” which the Bible explicitly warns against. I’ve tried that before—and that to me is far scarier than chance of hearing wrong. I figure that Jesus wants me to hear His voice, He takes responsibility for me as my Shepherd, He expects me to listen to Him, so when I intentionally invite Him to speak to me, I can trust Him to safeguard me from horrible mistakes.

Still, there are several things I do to improve my confidence about hearing God accurately.

• I saturate myself in the Scriptures. By doing so, I have developed a good sense of God’s ways and His character. When I hear something, I ask, “Does that sound like God’s character, based on how the Bible reveals Him? Does it sound like the way He does things?” If not, then I hold what I’ve “heard” very lightly.
• I dialogue with God regularly, nearly every day. I do not just jump in for big decisions. I do not use God like a crystal ball so I can know my future. To me, hearing from God is all about the relationship. And as a relationship, I want to engage in conversations about all kinds of things, frequently. Developing an on-going conversational relationship with God safeguards me from mistakes and deception because, over years of regular practice, I know how God speaks to me. I know how His voice sounds when He is talking to me personally.
• I try to follow through on the things God leads me to do or the things He invites me to try. When my goal is friendship with God and bringing joy to Jesus, I have a built-in protection against deception.
• When it sounds like God is giving me a directive or a promise about some specific situation, I usually seek confirmation. Especially when following through on something I’ve heard God say requires action that involves others, I really want to make sure I’ve heard Him correctly. So I ask Him to confirm His message to me. Or I ask someone else who has a lifestyle of hearing from God well to help me discern. I give it time until I am sure I have heard Him right. God is okay with this. He patiently gives us what we need to trust Him.
• I realize that God’s ways are higher than mine, and that He often operates on an entirely different timetable than I do. In my early days of hearing from God I sometimes would hear Him say something, but then when it didn’t seem to come to pass in the time or manner I thought it would, I would decide that I had heard wrong. Eventually, however, I discovered that what I had heard was often accurate—I’d just made assumptions about it that went beyond what God had actually said. These days, I try not to put God on a schedule or to picture in my mind the specifics of how He will do what He has said He would do. I try to just wait and keep the conversation going. Often He gives clarity as we go along.

I’m glad my friend asked her question. It’s an important one. And she reads this blog—so I’d love for others of you to join in the conversation. How do you know you’re hearing from God accurately? Do you have any encouragement to share?