Breakthrough Praying for Breakthrough Living-The Voice of God!

"Those persons who know the deep peace of God, the unfathomable peace that passeth all understanding, are always men and women of much prayer." R. A. Torrey

When I was a young person I prayed. I would pray and pray and pray. When I was a young person I was frustrated. I wondered why God never answered me. I would ask myself, why do other people "hear" His voice and I don't?

Have you asked yourself this question? Perhaps, you are like me when I was new in my faith. I think I was waiting for a burning bush or more likely a booming voice from the sky. What I realize is this. God in fact, was answering me. I did not know how to listen.

Do you know how to listen to God? When we discover the voice of God, His active and present voice in our lives, we will pray differently, we will live differently.

Discerning the voice of God begins with knowing God. How do we know God? Remember our first two lessons? It is through reading His word and prayer. (Click here) to read this series from the beginning.

In previous posts I reminded you that I am not the authority on prayer. There are many Christians who have written tons of books about the voice of God. However, what I will share with you is my personal and real experience of how I listen and hear the Lord speak to me.

There are several ways I hear from the Lord. The most common way is through reading His word.

You are aware by now that I sit with the Lord every morning to read the bible and pray. During this time as I read, the Lord will stir my heart. He speaks words of wisdom, advice, correction, and direction to me personally. Freaky but true. Awesome and humbling.

As I am reading, (this is difficult to explain exactly) I will finish a sentence and in a split second I feel or receive an impression. By this I mean, in the center of my chest, I feel something and immediately I receive a thought that was not mine. I will write it down in my prayer journal that is sitting next to me as I read.

Let me see if I can give you an example of how this works.

Daily Bible, February 22

This particular day included a passage from Psalm 39: 1-13. I began reading this:

(David speaking) I said to myself, "I will watch what I do and not sin in what I say. I will curb my tongue when the ungodly are around me."

Immediately the Holy Spirit impressed me with a thought and I wrote the following in my prayer Journal: Lord, this scripture is for me. I will watch what I do and not sin in what I say. I will curb my tongue when the ungodly are around me.

It appears I am just repeating the scripture but in fact, I am praying it now as a request and commitment to the Lord. The Lord desires me to pay attention to this passage. I am surrounded by unbelievers in my neighborhood, extended family, close family and in my own home. The Lord is specific here, directing me to pay attention, my words are more important than I realize. They affect the unbelievers with whom I interact. WOW! I mean WOW! It can be a heavy assignment, especially for me but the Lord will empower me to curb my words.

I hope this example reflects how the Lord speaks through His word. This same experience occurs while I am praying. I am impressed with a thought that is of the Holy Spirit.

It took time for me to learn to listen to this still small voice. It requires a personal relationship with the Lord and time with Him, lots of time. It requires a quiet environment. If you are praying or reading the word in a distracting place, you will struggle.

1 Kings 19:11b-12 Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

Remember the Lord's voice was not in the wind, neither in the earthquake nor the fire but in the whisper. Afterall, when was the last time you saw a burning bush that did not burn?

I hear from the Lord through His word and during prayer but I have also heard from Him in rare and profound moments of intense need or protection. He will make Himself known through a strong impression usually at night. God likes to wake me up. I think it's because that is the only time I am not running on high octane aka Starbucks and going a million miles a minute.

The Lord wakes me with a strong impression to pray. I pray for the person He places on my heart by name. Prayers of protection, intercession, love, etc. I am often wakened to pray for my unsaved husband. Until God decides I have prayed long enough, I can't return to sleep.

In addition, I wake from a sound sleep when He gives me something to write. You should know I write very little without His help.

The last time I woke from a sound sleep was in late November of last year. You probably didn't know but at that time but I was enduring one of the biggest battles with the enemy over a physical stronghold in my life. This battle had been brewing for years but became nuclear two weeks before this encounter below:

At 4:45 a.m. I woke from a dead sleep. I literally sprang straight up in bed as if I had been injected with 20 cc's of adrenaline. I flung the covers off, jumped from bed and ran to my computer. The Lord had given me a message I was to share with 1Petere3Living. At 4:45 a.m. on an early November morning, I was cured. Cured I tell you. Released from a bondage I was unable to escape by myself. It was supernatural. It was humbling. I am forever thankful.

Suffice it to say, this experience occurs rarely in a believers life.

I am convinced that because I have listened to the Lord in the small things, I was able to experience this major big thing.

Assignment: This is the week to read God's word and let Him speak to you. Don't rush through your reading. Some of you need only take a single verse to work through for the entire week. Write the impressions that come to you. Check them with scripture, pray over them asking the Lord to clarify and direct you regarding the words you are reading.

Questions:

In what specific instance did you know the Lord was speaking to you?

When the Lord speaks, do you obey?

Are you praying more of you Lord, less of me?

What an amazing time we live in. We have the GIFT of the Holy Spirit and can actually hear the Lord talk to us. Amazing. Humbling. Fantastic!

Have a wonderful week listening to the Lord. Write me and tell me about how you have heard from Him this week.

Next week, interceding for others. Still to come, praying dangerous prayers and our closing. Thank you for hanging with me through this series. Your time is a valuable gift and I am honored you choose to spend it with me. Be Blessed, Lynn

Comments

[Kathleen Marie]

This is just awesome! Seriously excellent information and a great study! Thank you and God Bless!

[Rosheeda]

Lynn,
I can't begin to describe to you how amazing it is the hear the Lord. I've heard Him, through impressions or thoughts most of my life. But I also have begun to 'hear' Him. The first time I remember this happening was on the way to work one morning. I had a 30-40 minute commute at the time and I used that time to pray. I don't know what I was praying about, but I DO know that the Lord spoke. It was a booming voice, reminded me of thunder. And what He said was: Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And that was it. I was too stunned to keep going. I drove the rest of the way in relative silence... That was almost 5 years ago.

I do obey - sometimes quicker than others, but I obey. And yes, I'm praying more of You less of me.

The Lord spoke to me this week. And took my breath away. The same deliverance you experienced, I did as well. I woke up with thoughts that I knew weren't mine. And the more they played across my mind, the more I got a sense of the spirit behind them. It was cold and sinister.Calculated and uncompassionate.And it was telling me to do what the Lord had previously not allowed. But it made sense. Logical, reasonable, and COLD. The coldness is what made me think twice about obeying the thoughts.I knew they weren't mine, but I wasn't sure if they were the Lord or not. Between leaving home and getting to work, I was nearly frantic because the attack was relentless. I asked a friend to help me discern - and the Lord gave us two TOTALLY opposite answers. The confusion and frustration that gripped me was surprising, so I started praying and I asked my friend to do the same. We prayed over me for quite a while. And as we prayed the Lord started letting me understand what was happening. He revealed the spirit to me.And gave me the words to fight it. And my friend did the same. The more I obeyed, the more the Lord guided my prayer. By the time it was all said and done, the surrender that I had been fighting for a week or more was had, and a generational curse (or two) had been broken in me - and in someone connected to me...

I was pretty blown away.

This has been a great series, Lynn.

[Bernadine]

Another beautiful post Lynn. There are times when I'm reading the word and he speaks to me through that and there are times when I'm just aware of him speaking directly to my mind almost as if his voice is a part of my own thoughts (I don't know if that makes sense) I'm not always a quick to obey as I should be but I've learnt over the years that obedience really is better than sacrifice.
Have a great weekend.

[Patricia]

Like a previous commenter, I hear the Lord as part of my own thoughts, but there is something about these particular thoughts that are much stronger (for lack of a better word)...when I hear them it's almost as if someone is taking me by the shoulders to keep me still so that I "hear" it. Just tonight, after a very trying day with my 3 yr. old, I was trying to get her to sleep & she just wouldn't...I was getting so frustrated & felt the impatience rising in me, when, I got that feeling & heard, "Be calm, this will pass"...sounds like a common thought to have, but it wasn't my thought voice...it was definitely the Lord's! I immediately obeyed that one! lol!
ANd yes, shortly thereafter, my daughter was sound asleep! :)

[Dineen Miller]

This is so awesome, Lynn. I'm so glad you really delved into "hearing" God. I think we tend the skirt around talking about it out of fear that people will think we're nuts. LOL! But God does communicate in so many ways, unique to each individual.

[Marsha]

Hi Lynn! It's so nice to get caught up with this wonderful study after being on the road a good bit the past 2-3 weeks.

Oh my, do I ever have the stories of times the Lord has pressed me to pray - sometimes all night. Sometimes it has been during the illness of a friend or loved one. Other times it is clearly praying because of danger and turmoil. And still other times He will place a name on my heart and just say pray. I don't know why, but I do until He tells me to stop.