Friday 1 June 2012

...hearing God

At the heart of Christianity is a relationship with God which is why prayer is the most important activity of our lives.

A wise man once said said... ‘The power of prayer depends on our apprehension of who we speak to.’  

When we pray, we speak to an awesome God!... The story of the Voyager 2 spacecraft which set off in 1977 helps illustrate this..12 yrs after launch, travelling at 90,000 mph it reached Neptune, then it left our solar system…it will be 958,000 years before it reaches another star like our sun.  There are 100,000 million stars like our sun in our galaxy and our galaxy is one of 100,000 million galaxies… the Bible says in Gen 1:16 ’he also made the stars’ ...such is God's power.

The Bible assures us we have a God who hears us and who answers our prayer (Matthew 7:7-11) -incredible!  The Bible also teaches us how to pray (Matthew 6:5-15).  It says we also need to learn to listen to God by finding a quiet place.  It's an awesome reality to be able to hear God speaking to us!

Many people have found many ways to hear God.  Prayerfully reading the Bible is a major way (see blog on the Bible below).  Another way is using an Ingnatian exercise (named after a Spaniard called Ignacio Lopez) called LT3F which is an acronym to help remember the exercise which is to be done at the end of the day:

  1. Light -pray for God's light to illuminate the moments of your day and guide your thinking
  2. Thanksgiving -thank God for all the good things that have happened in your day
  3. Feelings -walk back through the moments in your day remembering how your feelings in each moment
  4. Focus -ask God to help you focus on one or two of those feelings from moments in the day.  Ask God why you felt like this.  Do you feel you were working with God or resisting God in some way
  5. Future -ask God what this means for the future.  Do you need to do anything in prayer or action?  How will you handle the situation again if it occurs?  Commit it to God in Jesus' name.  

Silence is hard... but it is something that the Bible encourages to use as a discipline to hear God and hear ourselves.  If you want to look at some further exercises to practice silence and to hear God click here for some exercises.



Praying together. History has shown that, when a few who are committed embrace and live out the principles below, countries are not only moved but changed for the better.
Centrality of Christ: Following Jesus Christ means trusting in him and so learning what it means to think like Jesus talk like Jesus and act like Jesus.  As we commit ourselves to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, we discover God's calling, purpose and pattern for our lives.

Committed friendships:
Relationships are the heart of the teaching of Jesus.  His example inspires us to share our lives with a few others on a regular basis for encouragement, accountability and prayer.  We are also challenged to respond to opportunities to help others in their discipleship as well as seeking out those older in the faith who can stand along side us as mentors and encouragers.


Career calling:  Every individual is thus called as an ambassador of Jesus Christ in all situations.  He is able to direct us into vocations in which we can use our talent and expertise while having an impact for Jesus, both in work place and society as a whole.

Compassion for those in need:  Love is the most powerful force in the world.  Jesus Christ modelled unconditional love, acceptance and forgiveness.  The more we get to know the Jesus the more we care about the things which are on his heart.  Therefore, if we love as Jesus loves, we will be motivated to reach beyond ourselves to those who are hurting and in need.

A further tool for supporting committed friendships in encouragement and accountability can be downloaded by clicking here.  


Finally, it's worth knowing that we're all different and that means we find different ways to pray.  Have a look at this list of different spiritual pathways and think about exploring your pathways further.


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