Growing up, My devotions were dry, routine affairs. I’d whip through a chapter in the Bible. I’d run down a list of prayer requests, and I’d check that part of my day off the list. What a contrast with, say, a date with my girlfriend. When I took her out for dinner and a movie, sometimes we missed the movies because we couldn’t stop talking. Our conversations had a momentum all their own.
How discouraging that the relationship that was supposed to be the most exciting and wonderful in my life had become a check on my to-do list.
Maybe you are like me – you grew up having monologues with God and have never heard before that he wants to talk to you. You’ve not really learned how to hear his voice.
I remember the first time I heard his voice. It was years later; I was desperate. I had been betrayed by someone very close to me and I needed to know that God cared. I asked him if he would share with me what he thought of me. The next thing that happened changed my life forever. God spoke inwardly to me in a way that might as well have been audible. He said, “Seth, I love you.”
Listening prayer is about that kind of dialogue. To learn more, check out this article I wrote. Or, buy the book, “The Art of Listening Prayer.”
Seth Barnes
I'm motivated to join God in his global reclamation project. He's on the move, setting his sons and daughters free from their places of captivity. And he's partnering with those of us who have been freed to go and free others.