Encouraging prayer God offers an open invitation for his people to talk with him at any time about anything. On encouraging prayer, Dr. James Banks, author of the best-selling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer, provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray. And now, here's James.
Well, how fun today on encouraging prayer. We're going to talk about listening to God and Not just necessarily the words that are said, right, James? Yeah, and I love this topic, Robbie, because normally when we think about listening to God, we think about. words. We think about You know, something perhaps that we sense in our spirit as a word.
Or sometimes people have even said they've heard an audible word. Think about Samuel. You know, speak, Lord, your servant is listening. Um Yet, the truth is that there's a lot of communication that is nonverbal. That happens with human beings in terms of you know, body language and and facial expressions and I it's really, I think, A parallel to what happens when we communicate with God.
sometimes. Again, it's not just the words, it's really, you could say, the tone. in which God communicates to us. That is, that's fascinating. It's intriguing, actually, because immediately when you brought that up.
I remembered an incident where I was in prayer. And God was showing me some things. And he was answering a question. Or he was responding to it, a question that he had answered, that I had answered, and he said, Do you? But it was the sense I got in my heart, and I can't tell you it was tone or what it was.
but the amazing thing was that there was no shame attached to it, although it was about my own behavior. Yeah. Yeah. And and that's the the cool thing here, is that God is able to communicate so much love. And so much tenderness.
I mean, in just a life-changing way. that I think we miss and We often miss it. for a few reasons. One, Um We're so busy. And taking a moment to actually listen just feels for uh foreign to us.
You know? It's like, okay, now now I'm going to... Stop and listen to God. And then perhaps we're expecting: well, what do I hear when I'm listening? And it's not just hearing.
It it's also Touching. Right, I mean, and again, not that this is palpable, but in the sense that. In which God draws near to us, are we alert if we're to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, strength? Are we almost on tiptoe, if you will, with not only all of our senses, but our spirits? in being before him.
Because if we are, If if we put ourselves there, Sometimes, oh, there are things that we'll encounter. That I almost have a sense, as John Eldridge talks about, that we're ruined by the Internet, that we expect everything in half a millisecond. If it takes. More than a minute to download something, we're having a nervous breakdown. And so in prayer, we expect something.
And I just, I was thinking about it this week. How many times on my walks with God You know, I said, can you show me something, whatever? but part of the joy is the weight. In anticipation, in faith, knowing that he does have something he wants to share.
Well, Jesus said in John 10, 27 that, you know, I know my sheep, my sheep know me, they hear my voice. And you know, that's something that I think we can rest in. This isn't something that we should try too hard in. I think it's a matter more of letting go than making happen because listening is always kind of a form of letting go, right? It's a form of letting go of words or letting go of You know, all the all the metal noise that's going on.
Yeah. I mean, that's almost always my problem in prayer. But also, it's a solution that when he hits me with something I wasn't like, I did not see that coming. That's kind of a flag to me that, oh. That's you, isn't it?
Yeah, exactly. I had that happen just this morning. As I was reading a prayer that someone had written, and then the verse comes up about the kingdom of God being a matter of righteousness, joy, and peace, and the Holy Spirit. And it was like the opening of floodgate. You know, it was just oh.
There's the love. There's the love. And There are so many things that inhibit our ability to listen. We mentioned the noise, we mentioned our having to do something. uh or anticipating words sin.
of course, is something else that that can inhibit our ability to listen. But Beautiful thing about God. Is that if we go to him, and this is why just praying matters so much, if we put ourselves before him intentionally. Even if we're doing most of the talking. He still has a way of breaking that down.
Mm-hmm.
Now you went to Medlin. Mm-hmm.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my goodness, Destiny. You know, it's true.
It's true. And I again, I think so much of this has to do with love. Because uh Again, if the kingdom of God is a matter of Of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Well, Peace and joy are things that are felt. And righteousness is something that we do, it's something that's acted on, but You know, it it's It's His righteousness, not our own. It's a received, imputed righteousness. Through him. And so if we just place Go ahead.
No, no, I was just thinking at the end of the 16th Psalm, it says, In his presence. is fullness of joy. And and the experience of that bring simple words to something way bigger than words. Right? Just to say, well, I rejoice.
is nowhere near The same as experiencing his presence and being full of joy. It's just. That's right. And that's what this is all about. It's about just placing ourselves before him.
J just all of ourselves, just placing ourselves before him. And just just loving him. and sitting quietly in his love And what amazes me is how doing that for just a few moments and change the course of the entire day. Oh, you've intrigued me. I love it.
I think this would be a good time to pray. Go ahead. Lord, I thank you for this invitation, this invitation to just. sit in your presence without expectation. than to know that that you're God and that that that this It's just going to be an amazing thing.
And so Lord, help us to Take James up on this offer, but most of all take you up on the invitation to... to come to you. Oh, even if we're talking. Looking forward to being in your presence with fullness of joy. And we ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray.
