The art of listening

We have an Alpha course running in Redeemer at the moment, and it has been a big learning curve for all of us involved. This is the first time I have been involved in Alpha, and I am finding huge value in going back to the very basics of Christian faith, talking them through, asking questions, and hopefully finding some answers along the way.

This week and last week, we’ve been talking about how God communicates with us, through his word and through prayer. One of the things we’ve really honed in on is that prayer is much more than us communicating our concerns to God. We’ve had really enjoyable discussions on prayer as a two-way mechanism, and one in which God has much to say to us.

It’s a point that we are very quick to forget. God WANTS to speak to his children. He has much to say to us – whether to encourage us, direct us, guide us, discipline us, challenge us… God’s desire is to communicate with his children. But learning to listen to God requires a little bit of effort, and it’s not always easy to do.

I remember hearing someone speak a few years ago about the importance of listening to what God is saying, before we open our mouths to say anything. He described a situation in his church where there had been a crisis – a prominent and well-loved individual had been rushed into hospital, and things weren’t looking good. The church got together to pray for this individual. The speaker explained that when he arrived at the prayer meeting a little late, he took some time to walk around the different groups of people who were fervently praying. He noticed that many of them were praying different things – there was a lack of consistency and coherence in what they were praying. He said that he started wondering which particular prayer God was going to answer! Surely when we all pray different things for the same situation, someone will get a positive response, and someone a negative? Is that really the way it is meant to be when we pray?

This guy pulled a few people out from the main prayer meeting, and got them together in another room, and explained his concern about the lack of consistency in their prayers. He asked them all to take a couple of days to spend time individually in prayer, asking God what his will was in the situation, and listening to what God had to say. When people met together a couple of days later and compared their notes, they saw that there was a consistent message in what God had been saying to them individually. They believed that they had heard God’s will for the situation; they wrote a prayer together, presented it to the church, and the whole church prayed the same prayer. Incidentally, the prayer was for healing, and the individual concerned was fully healed. There was power in praying for God’s will, rather than everyone praying for their own will.

I love that story, because it encourages me that if I am truly seeking God’s face, seeking his will in my life, and in my community around me, then when I pray in line with his will, he will answer my prayers. God’s decision to answer our prayers has nothing to do with our ability to articulate our requests, as if we are somehow trying to convince God to come round to our way of thinking. Prayer is essentially about hearing God’s heart for a situation or circumstance, responding to that in commitment, and seeing the outworking of prayer as God responds and transforms our situations.

Prayer works differently for everyone, and everyone approaches prayer in a different, personal way. But I do think that for most of us, we need to learn how to listen to God. I used to hear people talking about ‘hearing from God’, and the idea seemed entirely alien to me. I didn’t get it. What did they hear? How did they hear? How did it all work? I think that secretly, I thought they were just making it all up! But I knew that there was supposed to be a two-way communication between me and God, and yet I felt like I was just praying to the ceiling. There never seemed to be any response.

Then I went to a workshop that quite literally transformed the way in which I engage with God. It was entitled ‘How to listen to God’, and was run by a group of 20-something American students who were in Belfast to support a local church for a couple of weeks. I was skeptical, but my intrigue about how to listen to God outweighed my skepticism, so I went along. The very first exercise they got us to do was to find a quiet spot in the room to sit, they put some music on, gave us a pen & paper, and left us for 20 minutes. They recommended that we get some image of Jesus in our minds that we could focus on. I love the passage at the end of John where Jesus barbecues fish on the beach for the disciples, so I had that in my mind, and pictured myself sitting with Jesus, on a beach in front of a fire. (Might seem bizarre to some of you, but bear with it). Then they recommended that we keep focusing on that image, and then just ask Jesus, ‘What do you want to say to me?’ Like I said, I was skeptical, but I went with it. And God started to flood my mind with truth. Wonderful truths about how he viewed me, how much he loved me, how pleased he is that I am his daughter. I had some self-confidence issues at the time – these weren’t thoughts I was usually willing to embrace. But God spoke them right into my heart. I didn’t hear any kind of audible voice – I think that would have scared me if I had!! But I felt an assurance in my heart, and certainty that God was speaking these truths to me, and that this is exactly what he wanted me to hear. I wrote them all down – I still have it – that was the first time I’m consciously aware that God spoke to me. And all it took was for me to take a few minutes to focus my mind on him, and ask him what he wanted to say.

God has much to say to his children. If you are someone who feels like God seems to speak to everyone else, all the time, but never to you – please don’t settle for that. That is not God’s heart for you. He isn’t selective about his children – he doesn’t chose to speak to one and not another. That’s not how he works. He speaks to ALL his children. I think some just get better at listening, and others of us take a little more learning.

The more I learn to listen, the more I depend on it. My prayers have greater value when I am praying in line with God’s will, and not my own. So I try to listen first. I don’t always manage it well. I realised some years ago that I’m often very rude to God – I barge in with my prayers and petitions, without listening to his heart, and then I rush off without even giving him a chance to respond. I don’t want to be rude to God. I’ve learned that the more we give room to God to speak to us, the more we will hear his voice. He is our heavenly Father who loves us. He loves to hear your voice. And he loves it when you take time to listen to his. 

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