The Time of Prayer // How Can I Hear God Speak to Me?, Part 3

If only I could hear God for myself. If only I knew what He was thinking. Ever thought that to yourself? I think we all have. And yet let me ask you – how much of your day is set aside to quietly get away – to be alone with Him? How much of your day, do you spend quietly with God?

It’s just fantastic to be with you again today. We’re chatting about how we can hear God speak to us. So many people want to hear God for themselves and if you’re going to have deep intimate relationship with Him, well, that makes a lot of sense. And yet how we do that? Is it just some dry cerebral thing or is there more?

Well yesterday that one of the main ways that God speaks to us, in fact the main way is through His Word, the Bible. It is an awesome thing and as I said back then, the simple habit of reading God’s Word, even if it’s just a few verses every day, has utterly changed by life. And it’s my passion, not only that I should have close intimate relationship with Jesus, but to share God’s Word, God’s truth, with you in a way that leads you into a dynamic relationship with Him too. A relationship that transforms us, changes us.

So the very first book I ever wrote was called, “How to Get Close to God” but it’s the second book that followed on from that really amazes me. That book was called “Unlocking the Power of Prayer”. And for me to write a book like that, second cab off the rank, was completely and utterly bazaar. Why? Because I’m just not a natural pray-er. That’s why.

There’s an amazing contradiction that so many people are living out in their lives. people who believe in Jesus. Here’s how it goes. On the one hand these people really would love to hear God’s voice. They’d really like to know that He’s there with them and that He has some practical words of wisdom for them and some guidance on decisions they need to take. That’s on the one hand.

And yet these same people so often are the very same people who are too busy to sit down for twenty minutes or half-an-hour or even three quarters of an hour most days and spend some time in prayer with Jesus. Too busy! Too busy! Too busy!

Well, fair enough. I know all about that. See, I’m one of those type A action oriented people too. We’re more focussed on doing things and getting outcomes than on spending time in relationships. So anyone who says to me, “I’m just too busy to pray” truly, I really do understand, I really relate to that.

But the problem that comes out of that is that we hare off into our day and we confront all these issues and tensions and decisions and all the stuff of life, and we are so immersed in it all. And then right in the middle of that we think, “Where’s God? Why isn’t He talking to me and guiding me and comforting me?”

Well, I’ll tell you. God was waiting for you this morning. He was waiting for you to get still before Him and spend some time with Him, reading His Word the Bible, listening to what He has to say and then chatting with Him in prayer.

Have a listen to this psalm. It’s one of my absolute favourites. Psalm 46 starting at verse 1:

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we won’t fear though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea, though it’s waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with it’s tumult. There’s a river who’s streams make glad the city of God, the Holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of the city. It won’t be moved. God will help it when the morning dawns.

The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter. He utters His voice. The earth melts. The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. Come; behold the works of the Lord. See what desolations He has brought on the earth. He makes wars to cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear, He burns the shields with fire.

Be still and know that I am God. I am exalted amongst the nations. I’m exalted in the earth. The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.

It’s a powerful truth. Verse 1. God is our refuge and our strength in the middle of this mess. We don’t have to be afraid of the mountains shaking and falling into the sea and roaring waters and calamity and upheaval and uproar. The sort of things we go through in the rough and tumble of life, we don’t have to be afraid. Why? Because there’s a stream flowing right through the heart of our city that makes us glad. The nations may well be in an uproar, but God is the God above all and when He speaks the melts before Him.

Well that’s a great theory, but when we’re in the middle of this calamitous uproar, when tensions are running high at work, when we’re hard pressed on every side in life, when we’re running through life at a million miles an hour, how are we meant to experience this joy of the Lord? Come on! How are we meant to hear Him and know Him and not be afraid because He’s there with us in the middle of the roar, when all this stuff is flying through the air. What’s the practice?

Well the answer comes to us in verse 10 of the Psalm. The Psalmist writes, “Be still and know that I am God." See I don’t care who the relationship is with. If we don’t make time away from the hustle and bustle just to connect, just to spend time together to talk. Whether its husband and wife or work colleagues or friends, if we don’t do that, if we don’t get still and focus one on one on each other, then the hustle and bustle is going distract us from the reality of the relationship with that other person. Isn’t that right?

We forget in our experience how wonderful the love of our wives or our husbands is. We forget the joy of a friendship because our dominant reality, the thing we’re focused on, is the busyness and the battle of life right at the moment. And friend if you and I want to know this God we have to get still with Him. It’s as simple as that. And that’s what prayer is – getting still before God.

I talked yesterday about the habit of spending time every day reading the Bible. Well, the flip side of that coin is praying. Here’s how it so often works for me. I pray a bit. I ask God to speak to me and then I open the Bible and read the next bit that I was going to read – the next chapter in Luke’s Gospel or whatever it is for that day. And in reading that, the Spirit of God actually speaks with me. And I get this sense that God’s up to something here.

But I need to chew it over. So I put the book down and I pray about. I ask God, “God what are you saying to me today?” And I think about and I get still and I listen and I just wait expectantly on God. And that is the place where God so often speaks with words of reassurance, with words of correction, with words of guidance with some specific direction.

I had that happen again this morning in fact. I had a difficult situation and some difficult decisions to take today and after spending some time in God’s Word and thinking and praying and listening, well, the answer was as plain as the nose on my face. So often I’m confronted with a “to-do” longer than my arm, I can’t possibly get it all done today. And so I go to God and say, “God what’s your priority? What do you want me to get done today? What has to be done today? And that’s where the important things drop out into my lap. So I go and do those ones and it’s a gift from God.

Friend, if we want to hear God speak right into the realities of our lives we need to get still before Him. There’s no other way. And little He starts to speak. And day by day we’ll learn better how to recognise His voice. That’s the way it’s meant to be.

Be still and know that I am God.