Prayer Leads to Action

"Listening and Action go hand in hand."

Every Wednesday morning, I have had the privilege of hosting a Listening Prayer time for the past two-plus years.

The format is simple. We open in prayer, read through an assigned passage of scripture, listen to a worship song, and then sit in silence for 20 minutes with the passage of scripture and ask God a question about it. We then come back, share what God spoke to us about, and close in prayer.

That sharing time has become invaluable as each one shares what God spoke to them about. God tends to highlight different scriptures or aspects of the passage to different ones, and then by the end, we have a very good collective sense of what God is saying to us through the passage.

I have had a growing sense, though, that we have been missing something in our listening prayer times.

What do you do when you feel like you are lacking something?

Ask God, of course!

So I asked him, "God, is there anything you would like to change about our listening prayer times?"

When I ask God a question like this, there are times when he drops something in my heart straight away. Still, then there are other times when, over the next few days, I am talking to someone and the answer comes, or I'm listening to a podcast or reading an article, and God highlights something and says: "This is the answer you have been looking for."

In this particular case, it came through reading an article by Darren Cronshaw from Whitely College, University of Divinity, Melbourne. Darren's article is entitled: "Saving Souls and Listening Hearts: Implications for Missional Leaders from Richard Rohr's Immortal Diamond."

Essentially, this article is a review of Richard's book "Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self."

The article was a great reminder of the power of listening prayer.

One quote: "Listening implies withholding judgement and being attentive to the person in front of us - as they are not how we would hope they should be."

Reading this reminded me so much of how many times I read a passage of scripture, and because I have read it before, I have assumed what God wanted to speak to me about through it.

I have lost count of how many times in our listening prayer sessions people have said, "I've read this before. I know what it is about, but God showed me something very powerful this time that was different from what I thought."

Sitting with a passage, even a very familiar one, and listening to what the Father has to say to you about it, without judgement, without thinking that you know what God wants to speak to you about, is key.

Samuel's prayer in 1 Samuel 3:10: "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening" is simple but powerful.

This is the "humbling yourself" part of 2 Chronicles 7:14: "if my people, who are called by my name, would humble themselves and pray, and seek myself and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and heal the land." That humbling is laying down your own agenda, your own thoughts, your own expectations as to how you think God should answer your prayers!

Cronshaw's article also quotes Richard Rohr in saying, "His conviction is that "and" is the most important word in the title of his organisation "Centre for Action and Contemplation". That it is critical to hold action "and" contemplation together. The "and" demands that our contemplation become action. The "and" also insists that our action is also contemplative.

As I pondered this, I sensed that the change that God was asking of us is that in each session, apart from asking God a question about the passage, also ask God: "What action(s) do you want me to take as a result of reading this passage and listening to you today?"

This additional question has started to bring about the action from our time with God.

Three quick testimonies from last weeks with God:

One of the participant's brothers had his birthday that day. He said it is one of the few days of the year that I tend to talk to my brother. God encouraged him in the morning to talk about a specific change his brother had made. A result, he and his brother had a "God" conversation where we both opened up about "stuff". It was a genuinely blessed conversation. I'm so pleased to say that God is working wonderfully.

God had spoken to another participant during the action time about inviting people she knew around the morning tea. The feedback: "I have invited my first lady for morning tea tomorrow. We don't know each other very well. She is a lady I had met previously in the hospital while undergoing treatment. She said she would love to come to my place for morning tea, so she is really looking forward to it."

A third testimony comes directly from the passage we looked at Mark 1:21-39. Verse 35 describes how Jesus "very early in the morning, while it was still dark, got up, left the house and went to a solitary place where he prayed." It was in response to the crowds seeking Jesus out and crowding in on him. As the lady spent time with God around this, he said, "Get off the phone and spend time on the throne!". She needed to have time with her phone turned off as it was very distracting for her, and she needed to have times of solitude, and this was an easy way to do it.

Personally, I grew up in a Pentecostal church environment. We are very good at going to a prayer meeting and telling God what to do and leaving feeling like we have accomplished something. But what? What action has happened as a result of that prayer time? It is like we dump everything on God and then walk away saying: "you fix it!" and wash our hands of the responsibility for the outcome of the prayer.

Pondering this reminded me of when I was praying for the finances to go to a conference in Canberra. I feel like I spent the whole day praying for the funds but not listening to what God was saying about it. Finally, towards the end of the day, I took a shower to prepare to go to a function that night.

While I was in the shower, the thought dropped into my mind "check your frequent flyer points." That's funny, I thought. So I got out of the shower and checked, and it turns out I had enough points to fly down and back.

Then I said, ok, God, but what about the accommodation as it was all looking too expensive? As I asked him this, he dropped the name of a friend of mine into my mind, asking him if he knew someone with accommodation. I picked up the phone and called him. He said let me ask.

Shortly after, he phoned and said you can stay at this guy's house for free!

When the prayer stopped being God do this, do that, to having a conversation with him about his plans and then taking the appropriate action, the answer came.

So today, I want to encourage you. In your individual prayer time or in corporate prayer time, always ask God: "What action should we take as a result of this time with you?"

I would love to hear what God speaks to you about!

:)