"Every time the Lord faced an important decision, He prayed. When He was being tempted to do things by the world's methods instead of the Father's, He prayed (Matthew 4). When it was time to choose His disciples, He prayed the entire night (Luke 6:12). If the Son of God required a night of prayer in order to determine the Father's mind, how long might it take us in prayer to clearly determine our Father's will?" Henry and Richard Blackaby

Let prayer set the agenda of your life. Many of us often worry about our lives. What should we do next year? Where should we live? What school should we go to? These are all good questions that need careful thought. But if most of us were honest, we would admit that we worry needlessly. It is right to get wise counsel and weigh out the options; however when concern turns into unnecessary anxiety, we are not trusting God, who knows exactly how to handle every situation we face. Life becomes simpler when we learn to seek God for every aspect of our plans. Our times spent in prayer will bring revelation of His agenda for us. We can be confident that in the final analysis, it is God who knows what is best for us and what will give Him the greatest glory.

Prioritizing prayer and letting God set your agenda brings great peace. We lived for five years in Asia and experienced the typhoons that are so common in the Indian Ocean. Primarily they move in circles instead of from east to west or north to south. Before navigators understood their movement, they would try to maneuver out of the storm and often suffered serious destruction in the process. With a better understanding of typhoons, navigators have learned to locate the center of the storm—where it is totally calm—and go there. This is much like prayer and discovering God's agenda. As we pray, we are able to circle in on God's agenda and find the center of His will. In this place, we experience His peace. When we try to get out of His will, we find destruction and chaos. Through prayer and renewing our mind in God's will, we discover God's perfect and pleasing will (Romans 12:2).

We must learn to pray about everything and trust in God’s wisdom, which far surpasses ours.  At times we may sense His direction and feel the peace that comes from the Holy Spirit even though nothing may look logical according to our human perspective. I remember a time when my husband and I began to pray about lengthening our ministry time overseas because we felt God might want us to extend our visit to certain countries. We had already been traveling for two months, we were tired, we had much to do in the U.S., and my father was ill, so an extension needed prayerful consideration. There were other reasons why going home would have been the right choice from a human standpoint. The problem is, often God's viewpoint is different from ours. He sees things far in advance and from His perspective, which far surpasses ours. 

Through prayer, we discovered God's agenda. We sensed His peace in staying longer, even though going home would have been easier and seemed more logical. In this case, we felt we had to go with the leading and peace of the Holy Spirit. The real key for us was prayer and waiting upon God, listening and hearing His voice. 
 
We may not know the full picture of why we were to extend our time overseas, but we do know that we had to take that step of faith that was guided and empowered through prayer in order to do God's very best. We knew that we were in the right place and that when we did return home, we had completed what God had for us. 

God loves to hear us pray with fervency and then listen and step out in faith according to His leading. Perhaps there is something you need to pray over regarding God's plan and purpose in your present circumstances. Praying through every decision, listening to His voice, and leaning upon His wisdom will enable you to determine His agenda. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Guidelines to Hear God's Voice in Prayer

"But as for me, I will look to the Lord and confident in Him I will keep watch; I will wait with hope and expectancy for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me” (Micah 7:7, Amplified).

How can we hear God when we pray? Here are some guidelines to help you hear His voice as you seek Him in prayer:

• Bathe your life in prayer - Pray about all the decisions in your life daily. Ask Him for direction so that you may fulfill His will for your life for that day. Continually bring major decisions to Him in prayer. Pray, listen, and wait with expectancy. 
  
  
• Believe that God does speak to you - Accept the promise in John 10:27, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." 
  
  
• Find time to be alone with God - Take time to pray and listen. Most of life is very busy, but time with Him is of utmost importance so we can hear from Him. Often the Lord responds with a thought planted by His Spirit into the mind or heart.
  
  
• Keep a journal of what God says - We can better evaluate guidance and see what God is saying when we journal on a regular basis. Journaling helps us to ponder our thoughts and impressions so we can clearly discern the path God wants us to take. 
  
  
• Test what you hear - What we think is God’s voice may come from the Holy Spirit, the enemy, or from our own souls. Ask the Lord to confirm what you think He may be saying. First John 4:1 exhorts us to test the spirits. It's good to seek confirmation from at least two other Christians before taking action, especially on big decisions.
  
  
• Carefully check all guidance with Scripture - God’s Word is truth. What we think God is speaking should line up with Scripture. This is why we should examine everything carefully with the Bible.  
  
  
• Obey God - We must be willing to act on what God has told us. When we obey God, there is blessing. If we still doubt what we think God is saying, it is good to continue to ask Him for confirmation until we sense His peace.

Let's follow these guidelines and practice listening to God. Let's learn to eliminate the distractions in our life.

"Jesus knew that His mission was not to attract a crowd, but to remain obedient to His Father. It was prayer that set the agenda for Jesus' ministry (Luke 6:12). Prayer preceded the miracles (John 11:42-43); prayer brought Him encouragement at critical moments (Luke 9:28-31); prayer enabled Him to go to the cross (Luke 22:41-42); and prayer kept Him there despite excruciating pain (Luke 23:46). Follow the Savior's example, and let your time alone with God, in prayer, set the agenda for your life." Henry and Richard Blackaby

• To help you to concentrate on prayer, see The Fire of Prayer new blog site.
• Books on prayer: Breakthrough Prayer, Ascending the Height in Prayer, Deeper Still, and 24/7 Prayer Arise.
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Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
International House of Prayer (IHOP) KC Staff
deb@intercessorsarise.org
www.intercessorsarise.org

“Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him… Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it’” (Isaiah 30:18, 21).

If ever we needed to listen to God and hear what He is saying, it is now. He longs to be gracious to us and wants to show us the way in which we should walk. This is so important because there are so many voices. There is so much negative static that strikes us from every side.

We need to listen to the heartbeat of God and not to what others are saying on TV or the internet. What is God saying about us? How are we to pray? How do we know what He is saying about the times we are living in? We must know how to clearly hear God. This is critical for us. Listening could save us our life! It saved one man from an awful, deadly crash.

An elderly man named Robert was in a terrible emergency situation. He was 81 years old and forced to land a plane with no flying experience. Can you imagine a worse situation to find yourself in? One day Robert Kupfreschmid and his 52-year-old pilot friend were flying from Indianapolis to Muncie, Indiana. While they were flying, the pilot slumped over and died at the controls, and the single-engine plane began to quickly nose-dive. 

Robert grabbed the controls and got on the radio, pleading for help.

Two pilots heard the call and immediately gave him instructions. Mount Comfort was the closest airport. Robert closely listened to every word as they gave a steady stream of instructions on how to climb, steer, and land the plane. The pilots circled the runway three times before inexperienced and frantic Robert was ready to land the plane. Emergency vehicles were called and ready for the approaching disaster. Witnesses saw the plane’s nose nudge the center line and bounce a few times before the tail hit the ground. The plane landed and to everyone’s amazement, this 81-year-old man was not injured.

Robert had listened so carefully and followed those instructions with such intense precision because his very life depended on it. Think about how our lives would be transformed if we listened and followed God’s instructions with such care as Robert did as he landed that plane.
 
God is always speaking to us, but many of us don’t take the time to carefully listen to what He says. 

The truth is that most of us are just too busy for God. We’re so often making our plans about what we think He wants, but we’re not really taking the time to listen. We proceed with a hurried prayer for His stamp of approval on what we want to do. But let’s stop for a moment and evaluate our hearing ability. We don’t want to be like the man who bragged that his hearing aid was the finest one available. His friend asked, “What kind is it?” He answered, “About 2:30.” He didn’t hear exactly right, did he? 

We so often fall into the disease of busyness. But how did Jesus live His life? He spent unhurried time in the Father’s presence listening, praying, worshipping, and carefully taking instructions every day for God’s perfect plan. He was in constant communion with the Father. Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing. He prayed what the Father wanted Him to pray. We must do the same. Many things will look good, but what does the Father want us to do? 

What is He saying?  

Listening to God and hearing what He is saying should be a daily experience. It’s not something we have to go on a retreat to do. Those times are good and beneficial, but if we can’t take the time to really listen to God on a daily basis, we have missed the boat. He may be in one place, and we have steered out of the center of His will and may not even know it. The challenge is going to get greater and the demands will only increase as the days get harder. We must learn this lesson today.

I write books on prayer and one day I was saying to the Lord, “Some people are too busy to read my books on prayer. They are racing around doing things all the time.” I felt the Lord say to me, “Don’t feel bad, Debbie. They are too busy for Me, too.” We need to listen to God every day. The Holy Spirit wants to guide us into all truth on a daily basis. Prayer is not only asking. It’s a two-way relationship. We listen to God and we talk to Him.

How can we put the brakes on and really learn to listen? There are certain basic things we must cultivate in our life that will help us to hear God’s voice. Here are several ways that will help you to cultivate hearing God’s voice. We read in Revelation 3:22, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Hearing God’s Voice

• Know God’s Word - God’s will is made known in His Word. It’s our final judge in our decisions. Learn to read, meditate on, and pray God’s Word. If we look intently at His Word, not forgetting it but doing it, we will be blessed in what we do (James 1:25).
  
  
• Look at your circumstances - God’s guidance is often confirmed through circumstances. Bring your circumstances before the Lord in prayer.
  
  
• Listen to your heart - What is it saying? The Holy Spirit is living in you. Examine your heart before the Lord, and ask Him for revelation (John 16:13; 1 Corinthians 6:19).
  
  
• Know God’s peace - Is there peace in your heart? Even if there is a storm in your life and you are going through a difficult experience, you can have God’s peace (James 3:17).
  
  
• Meet God’s conditions - God will guide us if we do what He says. Meeting His conditions will unlock His promises to us. Ask the Lord if you have any sin in your life that needs to be confessed.
  
  
• Follow God’s guidance even when it is difficult - It does not always feel good when we have to bear our cross. God breaks us and does not want us to become too comfortable. Commit yourself to His ways even when it is hard (Isaiah 55:8-9).
  
  
• Humbly seek God’s guidance daily - Humbly lay your daily and weekly schedule before the Lord. Stay humble and walk day by day with God (Psalm 25:9).
  
  
• We must have listening ears - God often speaks through a still, small voice. He may drop a thought into your mind. He is often guiding us when we don’t realize it. We must listen to these quiet thoughts and ask, “Lord, are You speaking to me?”
  
  
• Take action when you hear God - We must do all that God tells us to do. The Bible says that we should not merely listen to the Word and deceive ourselves; we must do what it says (James 1:22). There are times when we wait and listen carefully to God, and there are times when we must take action.
  
  

We need to develop this skill of listening. We don’t want to miss even a small nudging from the Lord in any circumstance of life. We don’t have to know all the details. Many times we will only see what is right in front of us. We need to carefully listen to God’s promptings just as this young man listened carefully to instructions.

A young man applied for a job as a Morse code operator. He answered the ad in the newspaper and went to the address listed. He entered a large, noisy office with a telegraph clicking in the background. A sign at the counter instructed all job applicants to fill out the form and wait until they were called to enter the inner office. The young man completed his form and sat down where seven other applicants were waiting. After a few minutes, he got up, went to the door to the inner office and walked right in. 

The other applicants were wondering what was happening. A few minutes later the young man came out from the inner office escorted by the interviewer. The interviewer said, “Gentlemen, the job has been filled by this young man.” Grumbling, one of them spoke up, “Wait a minute—He was the last one to come in, and we never even got a chance to be interviewed. Yet he got the job. That’s not fair!” The employer responded, “I’m sorry, but all the time you’ve been sitting here, the telegraph has been ticking out the following message in Morse code: ‘If you understand this message, then come right in. The job is yours.’ None of you heard it or understood it. This young man did. So the job is his.”

We need to learn to listen like this young man did. He got the job because he was listening carefully. We need to learn to listen to God’s voice carefully. He has a big job for those who know how to hear His voice and obey His Word. Hearing God takes a lifetime. It’s a skill that grows as we develop our relationship with Him. 

A Geiger counter is an instrument for detecting the presence and intensity of radiation. The closer you get to the radiation, the louder and faster the clicking noise becomes. In the same way, when you cultivate hearing God’s voice in your life through His Word, your circumstances, His peace in your heart, etc., the pieces begin to come together. You have the inner witness of the Holy Spirit, and His divine guidance system helps you. He shows you when you are getting closer to His will. Like the Geiger counter clicker, you sense the power of His guidance as you begin to touch His perfect will for your life.

It is an awesome responsibility and privilege to hear God’s voice.

“As you study your Bible, you may sense that God has something to say directly to you through the verses you are reading. Take a moment to consider the awesome reality that the God who spoke and created the universe is now speaking to you. If Jesus could speak and raise the dead, calm a storm, cast out demons, and cure the incurable, then what effect might a word from Him have upon your life?^” Henry and Richard Blackaby

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Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
International House of Prayer (IHOP) KC Staff
deb@intercessorsarise.org
www.intercessorsarise.org