Listening Prayer
Since I started my blog back in June 2017, I’ve mentioned listening prayer many times. So when I did a search for listening prayer on my website to link it with a recent post, I was quite surprised to find there were no results. This is why I’m posting it today, to have these resources in one post for easy referencing. Listening prayer is absolutely fundamental in developing an intimate, unifying, relationship with God and following His plan for our lives.
First, let’s define listening prayer. Technically, listening prayer is redundant since prayer is suppose to be a conversation with God as Jer 33:3 says, ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ However, growing up in a traditional church setting, this meant that prayer was more of a monologue - talking to God out there somewhere, and hoping something good would happen.
The mindset at the time is humorously described in the book The Answer Is Prayer by Morris L. Venden at the beginning of Chapter 2. Venden writes, “Someone once said that when we talk to God, it’s prayer; but when God talks to us, it’s schizophrenia. In no other area of life do we seek so eagerly for a response, and view the response with such suspicion when we get it! But the major premise of this book is that God responds. He not only listens; He replies.”
In retrospect I know God talked to me, but in July 1998 that old style of monologue praying radically changed for me to conversational praying. While reading a book about prayer that my mother had given me, and studying the topic in scripture, God asked me to give a message to our local church. The message was simply that prayer is not a monologue but a dialog and we needed to change our mindset about prayer.
This was the first major message God asked me to deliver, and the reason I believe listening prayer is the foundational key to developing a relationship with Him. Some rejected that the message was from God, some were indifferent, and some were very blessed and inspired. Since then, I’ve discovered this is the typical response, after delivering multiple messages throughout the years.
During this time, however, two life changing books were recommended to me and affirmed God’s message. The first one was Conversation With God by Lloyd John Ogilvie. The back cover says, “Dr. Ogilvie clearly and simply explains the many dimensions of prayer and provides a 30-day guide [with scripture praying] to encourage you to make conversation with God a part of your daily life.” This book helped me get through some very difficult times.
The second book was God Guides by Mary Geegh, given to me by one of the elderly ladies in the congregation who wanted to encourage me. The website description says, “The God Guides book is a compilation of Mary Geegh’s journal entries written while serving as a missionary. She shares her practice of having a quiet time which focuses on listening to God for his guidance.” This book has awesome short stories of how she would pray with people and the amazing things that happened as a result of those times of listening prayer.
Over the past twenty years I’ve read and collected dozens of books on prayer. However, my overall favorite book for teaching listening prayer is titled Four Keys to Hearing God’s Voice by Mark and Patti Virkler. It also comes in a pre-teen version (ages 8-11) and a children’s picture book version (ages 4-8). Both are excellent age appropriate resources for teaching on listening prayer.
The main reason the Virkler book is my favorite, besides the fact that it’s very easy and practical, is the fact that it’s based on the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk is a very short book spanning only three chapters, and I would suggest you take a few minutes to read it through. In chapter one Habakkuk starts out ranting and raving to God, (by the way God was OK with that), and ends with a beautiful song of praise. The four keys, however, are found in the beginning of chapter two.
Habakkuk 2:1-2 says, “I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guardpost. There I will wait to see what the Lord says and how he will answer my complaint. 2 Then the Lord said to me, “Write my answer plainly on tablets, so that a runner can carry the correct message to others.”
The four keys based on this scripture are as follows:
Key #1 - Stillness/Quiet - “I will… stand at my guardpost.”
Key #2 - Vision/Meditation - “I will wait and see…”
Key #3 - Spontaneous flowing thoughts - “What the Lord says…”
Key #4 - Journaling - “Then the Lord said to me, “Write my answer plainly on tablets…”
The Virkler book obviously expands in greater detail on these four keys, but’s it’s basically as simple as that. When we do listening prayer together as a family, this is the format we follow. It’s easy to do and the results are life changing. I’m so thankful to God for teaching us about listening prayer!
John 10:27 sums it up this way. “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” May you develop your listening prayer skills so that you will be blessed and be a blessing In Jesus Name!