Wow! I felt a nudge from the Holy Spirit this morning to focus on the word LISTEN. For a long time, I can admit that I prayed and prayed and never understood why things remained the same. I was missing a piece of the puzzle that God intended for me to put to use. Listening.
Prayer is a two-way conversation. I pray and God responds. But for a long time, I think I was primarily vomiting out my prayers just to release them because it was the right thing to do. Just as we grow through life, I had to learn to grow closer to the Father and through this experience, my prayers matured. God wants a relationship with us as He had with Moses. We can compare that relationship today to our connection with our parents; spouses or a confidant and such. Why do we make it so hard to have this same communication with God? What’s the difference? When we are talking to a friend, do we listen and then respond?
When we listen to God after doing all the talking, the Holy Spirit fills our being and it’s instilled in our hearts. We know the answers. They may or not be what we want to hear. God not only uses our time of prayer, but he also places others in our path to confirm with us. He may show us a pattern of things in our daily lives or come to us at night in our dreams. But, we have to have the hunger to listen. Listening makes all the difference with your relationship with God. There are at least 80 passages in the King James Version of the Bible about taking “heed”. I would say that taking “heed” is something that God is pointing out to us throughout scripture. This is something we must learn to do. When you take heed, you are paying close attention. To pay attention you need to listen. Listening is part of being obedient to the Father and by mastering this tool that God is giving us we will be able to move forward into our destiny.
We have the choice to stay stagnant and ask the same questions and get the same responses or we can change the scenery. We can make it a priority to get to know God with more depth by coming silently to Him, waiting with fervency and expectation as He reveals to us His heart. Be still in the moment. Allow your spirit to utter what you want to say. Allow the Father to speak first. Release your thoughts to Him and listen. Then, the burden placed upon your heart or the idea placed in your mind, is the start of a beautiful conversation that will continue to grow and mature. God is full of wonders, and He has so much to release to us; if only we will slow down and listen. Choose today to attune your hearts to the one who has so much in store for you. Choose to hear the still small voice of the Lord that will push you into your destiny. May God Bless you and give you ears to hear, eyes to see and faith to walk it all out!