Most people discover how to listen to God through a practical question or a pressing personal experience. People want to know how to pray for healing, or they need some specific guidance in their lives, or they become tired of personal, formal prayer in which they do all the talking and never seem to receive a response. Each of these situations brings up the topic of spiritual growth through listening to God, for listening to God is the only answer to these questions and the only solution to these problems.

Take as an example a situation in which we want to know for what we should pray when we are praying for healing for ourselves. How do we know what should be the focus of our prayer? There is only one answer: We must ask God what He wants done and then listen for His answer; then we pray for that which He suggests. For, if we want our prayers to succeed, we cannot merely pray for whatever seems best to us. Daily, Christians pray the words, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” But if we are really praying for our will to be done, we have in our own minds deposed God and taken His place.   Also, if we pray for our will to be done, we are not sure our prayer can or even ought to be answered; for only what God wants will be done. Only He sees the total picture and knows exactly the best thing to do at any moment.

We must pray, then, for God’s will to be done; and to find out what He wants, we must ask Him. But another question quickly arises: When we ask God to reveal His will and we hear an answer within us, how do we know whether we have heard God’s voice? Could this not be our own thought?

Yes, it could. And that is the reason that we must learn how to listen for God’s voice. It is most important for us to be able to distinguish God’s voice from the many other voices of self within, especially if we want to learn how to pray for our own spiritual growth and inner healing.

The ancient teaching of Christianity is that, through the Holy Spirit and His gifts of faith, hope and love, Jesus Christ lives within us. Paul taught this truth many times.

If Jesus is living within each of us, He is there purposefully. One reason He lives within us is so that we can be close to Him and He to us. Our closeness is not a purely emotional thing – although it does have many strong emotions involved in it – but it is also practical.

More to follow about Listening To God and then about the Prayer of Quiet.