Our ability to hear from and speak to God seems quite supernatural but is in fact the natural way the relationship was meant to be-a guiding compass by virtue of our nature as Human beings.
Like many great questions I have had over time, the question ‘What is Prayer’ came to me while doing the most mundane thing, taking a shower. I know, the mind really does choose interesting moments to reflect upon deep or existential issues. Anyway, this question came to me and persisted in perturbing my thought patterns until I focused on it and tried to think it through. Naturally, I had responses like:
- Prayer is setting time apart to talk to God
- As a Christian you must pray
- This is how we communicate with God
- Prayer brings us closer to God
- Prayer brings peace
And many others filled my mind. I could see the truth in all these responses. They all are what prayer does, they are its aim, but the question persisted; God is sovereign and all knowing why tell him what you want? Why present your worries n problems and all that. Why do we need to worship him, to exalt HIM as we do when we pray. He is GOD and none of those things are necessary to make him so. Therefore, the question remained, “What is prayer?’ and why do we pray?
In the end, I realized that hearing from God usually happens in a place of prayer but to hear from God we must truly understand what prayer is and why we pray.
Prayer is not just saying the words, reciting our father or singing a worship song or crying out about a hurt or a painful situation with your heart in the right posture. Yes, all of these can happen in the place of prayer, but we must understand that prayer goes beyond that. It is communing with God. Often, we would go on our knees, say the words in the most earnest way, Amen and wait for God to respond. This is part of prayer true, but the point I am driving to is we must know a person, really know them to commune with them. When we really know a person, we can discern their intent. Prayer, as I have come to understand, is very much the same.
Prayer is discerning the will of God. It is knowing God so well, so intimately that we can discern his thoughts in that pain, in that difficult situation, in that miracle, in that heartbreak in whatever situation it is we put forward in the place of prayer because we know that God’s thoughts are his words and no word from God shall be void of power (Lk 1: 37, Is 55: 11). Therefore, prayer is decerning the will of God, accepting it and therefore being a willing vessel through which His grace can be made manifest.
Dr. Miles Munroe put this in a rather interesting way. He said, ‘Prayer is God receiving license from man to interfere on planet earth’. While this speaks to our dominion, purpose and the steadfastness of the GOD we serve- A whole other message we will unpack later, we see that in our duality as a physical and spirit creation God works through us in this physical realm. Because we can commune with him in the spirit and manifest that in the physical. We can pray.
So, how do we discern the will of God? it is through all the ways we have previously talked about in our previous articles for this theme (If you have not had a chance to read them do go back, read and be blessed) but summarily it is through building a relationship with God, through trust in his promises, gratefulness for his blessings, obedience to his commands and spending time with his word. This is how we hear from God.
In doing this, we let our spirit lead, we let our spirit seek the Lord and thus we can hear him in all the many and varied ways he chooses to speak to us- dreams, intuition, quiet whispers, visions and so forth. However, our message today is one to draw us to an understanding of the depth and devotion that lays beneath intentionally seeking to hear from God.
We are praying for you dear reader that the will of God may be made manifest in your life.
We hope that this journey you are on leads you into the assurance and peace that comes from talking to and hearing from God.
Remain blessed.
Amen 🙏🏿