God loves his children and wants them to communicate with him constantly through prayers. However, he knows the needs and desires of our hearts, but he wants us to believe in him enough to tell him our needs and worry by ourselves. Praying and relaying our needs is a form of exercising our faith in God and his son Jesus Christ.
When praying, we are to use worshipful, respectful, and loving words to our Heavenly Father. Praying reverently and using appropriate languages draws God’s presence closer to us.
We need to understand that Prayer is a communication between man and God. During the cause of this communication, a man speaks to God, and God, in turn, replies to man. Most Christians think the answer to their prayers should come afterward or after a while (days, months, years, etc.), but it’s not exactly so; sometimes, we have answered our prayers immediately, even while speaking to God. The problem is how to recognize when he is saying or replying to our supplications. This article is going to be listing out ways in which we can listen to God in prayers.
Answers to prayers can come in many ways. They often come through the Holy Ghost, speaking to our minds and giving us solutions to our troubles. In this instance, we may be confused about how to differentiate the voice of the Holy Spirit and the voice of our natural minds.
Below are five (5) stages in which you can practice hearing God when praying;
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Stage 1: Having Faith
This is the first and most crucial stage of praying. You need to have faith in the existence of God and believe he can hear and communicate with you before even going on your knees to pray. Having a strong faith that
God lives, and Jesus Christ, his Son and your Saviour will motivate you to pray and trust in his ability to resolve your issues and any challenge you face.
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Stage 2: Praying in a quiet place
To invite the Holy Spirit to our prayers, we need to pray in our closets or somewhere conducive and less noisy. Better still, an environment of total quietness. God loves when we reverence him, his spirit flows well in tranquility. When praying in this environment, there will be fewer distractions, and you will be free to pour out the real intents of your hearts to him in prayers.
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Stage 3: Staying Calm
When praying, you don’t have to be in a hurry to say everything you want from God all at once. Sometimes you need to be calm to hear his response to the ones you have started to him. Once you’re relaxed, you will find yourself meditating on your request, and the answers to those requests will come into your hearts through the Holy Ghost. Staying calm also brings to your heart the exact things to pray for at that time.
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Stage 4: Being Focused
When praying, there is a connection between you and God; staying focused will keep you more connected and allow you to flow well in the spirit. Make sure your mind is fixed on heaven, having a contrite heart with your purpose and intentions centered in his glorious presence alone.
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Stage 5: Listening
This is the last stage and most challenging part of the whole process. It is difficult because most people don’t know how to fully recognize God’s voice in their hearts or have the ability to differentiate between God’s voice and the voice of their natural mind. Your expectations might make you imagine an answer to your prayers in your mind already and assume it is God speaking. Sometimes you might know it is God talking to you, but because the response seems unfavorable to you, you then tend to compromise His message by mixing it up with your natural desires.
However, we must listen selflessly by keeping our natural desires aside and listening to what the Holy Spirit is saying to us at that point. The voice of the Holy Spirit is the voice of God.
In summary, God hears our prayers. He may not always answer our prayers the way we expect. But he will surely reply to us in His own time and according to His will for us because He knows what best for every one of us is. Following the above stages outlined in this article will help you hear God in your prayers. Thanks for reading!