The Power of Listening Prayer & How to Use it

Do you have questions in your life that are difficult to answer? You have areas, something going on that you need a solution to that. You just cannot quite get the direction you need. Well, on this episode, I want to invite you to use a practice that I call listening prayer.

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There are problems that there are no natural solutions for. Joseph in the Bible got answers from God for difficult problems that no one else could solve. Daniel in the Bible got answers from God for difficult problems that no one else could solve. And David in the Bible also asked the Lord for specific directions, directions on what to do in a specific situation, not just a general direction that he should go. Now we should get those, we want those, and I want to talk about this idea of listening, prayer, getting specific answers from God on how to handle a specific situation. This is something that in my walk with Christ, I have weaved in and out of and I recently heard some teaching on it from Christine Lee, who is in real estate and she talks about inviting God in and doing business with God, and the Bentham Brothers is where I got introduced to her through, and this is just. I'm going to use the framework that she gives because I think it just makes it so clear and straightforward. And but I've had this where I had, you know, a stressful relationship with a coworker in the workplace. They were very condescending and I didn't know how to handle it because it had gone on for months and I didn't get any answers from Google. I didn't get answers from people that I asked about it, and so I went to the Lord with it, which now I've learned to do first, and he gave me a very clear thing to say within minutes, and so I said give me the opportunity. The next day I walked in and what that person said first opened the door for me to say what God gave me to say. I said it. It unraveled the entire thing and it was something very simple, like hey, we need to have a good relationship. This is what's been going on, and you know, it's just very simple, something like that. But it completely unraveled. It was a supernatural solution because God put his anointing on it and it did something in the other person. It changed the atmosphere in the office and even on the whole manufacturing floor, with probably over 60 different people, and it affected the atmosphere. And so then the kingdom came in and I got that solution from the Lord, and hundreds of hours of talking would not have gotten that solution, and so I partnered with the Lord in that, and so I want to invite you to partner with God and whatever is going on with you Now. Even David I mentioned. He asked God about attacking the Philistines multiple times. Should we fight the Philistines? Will you give them into our hand? And he did that. In 2 Samuel 519, david inquired of the Lord shall I go and attack the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hands? 2 Samuel 5, 22 to 23,. Once more, the Philistines came up. So David inquired of the Lord. He didn't assume that the answer God gave previously would be the same this time. He's still inquired of the Lord Again. In 2 Samuel 23, 2, david inquired of the Lord saying shall I go and attack the Philistines? And then again, david inquired of the Lord shall I pursue this Rating Party? That's 2 Samuel 30, verse 8. So you can see, over and over, david is seeking the Lord. Should I go forward, should I do this? And he got a specific answer. Well, there was a time where Joshua did not do that. In Joshua, chapter 9, verses 14 and 15, it says they did not ask the Lord what they should do. Joshua made peace with them this is the Gibbonites and made an agreement with them to let them live, and the leaders of the people made a promise to them. See then, joshua, that was in Joshua 9, 14 and 15. And then in chapter verse 22,. It says then Joshua, some of the Gibbonites, and said why did you deceive us? Well, surely if Joshua had inquired of the Lord, god could have easily told them do not make this agreement, you're being deceived. So we need to inquire of the Lord. There are things, that solutions that God has that he wants to reveal to you, that are just waiting for you to ask. And so how do we do that? Well, first, real quick. There are situations that there is no natural solution for. There are things going on in culture today that there is no natural solution, no natural approach. You must have a supernatural solution, you must have direction from the Lord. We must be tuned in, on the same page with Him, so that we can hear from Him, because times are coming, turbulence is coming, perilous times are coming, deceit is coming, and we need to be ready. So we need to learn to hear from the Lord right now. So let's get into this. Five steps to making decisions with God. This is from Christine Leigh Ann. I'll put a link to her info in the show notes. So step one get in a quiet place to see God, and step two is quiet your mind. So these together, we're coming in and actually taking time to settle your mind. It's really hard to hear what God is saying with all this noise, and so you may need to take some time and just write out what's on your mind. Just do a brain dump, get everything out, settle your mind, and it may take a few minutes or it may take 30 minutes or an hour, but as you do this, you'll be able to get there more quickly and then you'll just walk in a place where you are more settled and able to hear from the Lord in an ongoing moment by moment basis. So get in a quiet place alone, solitude. Turn your phone off, put it to the side, set it down whatever you need to do in another room, get a pen and paper ready and just relax. Write the Lord in and ask Him to just give you, to reveal to you what it is. You're going to ask Him about the direction he wants you to go, and you can just visualize clearing your mind and doing that. And I'm not getting into any new agey stuff, it's nothing like that. This is just to settle your mind. All needs to be in accordance with God's word. So step three is to ask a specific question. Now we can seek the Lord for general directions and just general ways to handle things, and that's great and we should do that, and the Bible gives us lots of directions on that but we need to ask Him specific questions. So, like I gave an example, what do I do with this situation? Do you want me to go to this place? Do you want me to go to this conference? Do you want me to speak at this place? Do you want me to invite this person to be on the podcast? Do you want me to write about this? How do you want me to handle this? Do you want me to make a big deal of this with my manager? Do you want me to let this go? How should I handle this? Lord, can you give me peace in this? So ask the Holy Spirit. You can even ask the Lord. What questions should I ask you about? If you feel overwhelmed, then ask that and the Holy Spirit can reveal it to you. And then just listen, step forward, listen, be quiet. If you have a couple man and a woman sitting together and one is talking for 20 minutes and then they get up and leave the room and the other one's like, wait a minute. Well, wait a minute, I got something to say. Well, how many of us treat our prayer life like that, like we just sit down and talk to the Lord, say what we got to say, make our request and then we leave, we split and we don't actually give a chance for Him to speak. So we need to listen, have childlike faith, write it down. Write down whatever comes to mind and this is where the importance of having a settled mind becomes critical so that you can actually discern and hear. And don't worry if it's overwhelming and you're not sure. Just do the process, go through it and you will become easier. So expect an answer. I mean expect an answer. If your child came to you and asked you for a direction on something, would you not give them the answer? So how much more does God want to do that with us? And step five you can ask, follow up, ask for details. If he gives you something, god, ask Him, god. Is there anything else Can you make it clear? And so these are just a few ways that you can do that, and you can do your own variation of this, but really the goal is to get settled, get into place and actually ask a specific question. Ask a specific question and then expect God to say something and wait to hear. So if you want help with this, I've got a free devotional that can help you get more of these anchor habits in place. What I call these anchor habits like things that an anchor keeps a boat from floating away and going where it shouldn't go, and that's what these anchor habits can do, and so you can go to get in the link in the show notes. I've got a free devotional of 21 days to a spirit led life and you can check that out. So, all right, we'll help this. Bless you. Make sure you're seeking the Lord in listening prayer so that you can get solutions, these divine solutions, partnering with God, to these problems that no one else can solve. It's you and the Lord. God bless, and we'll see you in the next episode.