15 “Listen, Listen to Me …”
“LISTEN, LISTEN TO ME …”
My computer has company this morning. But then, it has company every morning. A Bible rests on top of the CPU. A hymnal leans companionably against the monitor. A well-thumbed Book of Common Prayer lies within easy reach on a shelf above. On a lower shelf, flanking the keyboard, a book of Christian poetry props up against a volume on the name of Jesus.
These are tools that help me listen to God.
As in anyone’s day, I’m constantly shifting gears from one task to the next. But I dare not rush between jobs without pausing to thank God for what was just completed … and to ask Him for guidance on what is to be done next.
That means pausing to listen. That means raising my spiritual antennae to discern His clear directional signal.
How do we do that here at the office? Maybe Francie and I will flip open a hymnal and harmonize on “My Faith Looks Up to Thee.” Or we’ll grab a coworker on her way to the copy machine as she passes by the office door, and have her join us on a verse of “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” We’ll take a minute to consider one of the names of Jesus. Counselor. Word of God. Bread of Life. Ancient of Days. Then maybe we’ll take a long sip of coffee, hold hands, and pray … which always includes keeping “ears tuned” to what the Lord thinks ought to be accomplished in the next task, whether it’s an article or a letter or part of a manuscript.
You might call it priming the pump. I call it listening to God. I listen for His voice. I wait. I take the time. And He has never failed to meet me at that place of listening. He gives me instructions. Impressions. Convictions. Directions. Gentle rebukes. Affirmations. Whether I turn to the right or to the left, my ears hear a voice behind me, saying, “This is the way; walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21).
Don’t turn back, He tells me. Don’t turn aside. Come straight ahead, and I will be with you.
It’s the same in my painting studio. I wheel into the room, and the illustration board stares back at me. Big, blank, white, scary. It’s intimidating. It’s frightening. I sometimes feel suddenly weak, or dull, as if I could never come up with another idea as long as I live.
“O God,” I whisper, “help me! What do I do? What do You want me to do?”
And in the quietness of my little studio, I do very much the same as in front of my blank computer screen. I read some Scripture. Sing a hymn. Murmur a prayer. Listen to some classical music. Leaf through some big art books, letting my eyes linger on the works of the masters. Surround myself with color. And then … listen. I just listen for His voice. I wait to see where He wants me to begin, what He wants me to do.
I wheel back away from the easel, so I won’t be tempted to charge in and start throwing paint around prematurely. I let the room become very, very silent. And wait. And wait. Until I hear something. And then I say, “Yes, yes. Of course. That’s the way I want to begin. This is the way it should be.”
Waiting for God to speak can be stretching at times. In different places around the world, I have been backstage waiting for my introduction and really not certain of what I was supposed to say. Days before my speaking engagement, I ask Him again and again, “What do You want me to communicate here? What do these people need to hear from You?” As the engagement draws near and He doesn’t tell me, it gets tense. And there have been times—an hour before I have to speak—in my hotel room, when I cry out to Him, “But Lord, You haven’t told me yet what You want me to say.”
Yes, the answer comes. It always has. The words are there when I need them. But not always when I want them!
To listen in prayer is to mentally absorb divine instructions concerning the matters of the day. To listen—to find true intimacy with your God—is to not take the day in one fell swoop, but in hourly or even moment-by-moment increments. The day’s schedule which looked organized in the morning can, like a deck of cards, be shuffled by noon. Circumstances can shift. Plans can change. That’s why keeping your heart’s ear cocked hour by hour is so important.
Listening implies confidence that God truly desires to speak with us. Only as we learn to hear the voice of the Father can we learn to shut our ears to the voices of the world.
It’s always easy to hear our own voices, because we are basically selfish people. But it’s a matter of tuning—fine-tuning the ear of the heart—to discern God’s desires and intentions.
You cannot have intimacy with heaven apart from this firm determination to listen for God’s voice. It means, as Scripture says, inclining your ear to what He has to say, just as He inclines His ear to our prayers. I sometimes imagine a little girl pulling on her dad’s trouser leg. And that big man gets down on his knees and looks into his little daughter’s eyes, and says, “I’m listening. What is it, honey?” If that’s the way God listens to my voice, I want to hear every word that He has to say, too.
Our usual tendency is to march into prayer with our own agenda, assuming that whatever is on God’s heart will for certain match what’s on ours. To be honest, our tendency is not even to be concerned about His heart’s desire for our prayer time—hence, our lack of interest in listening.
We cover over His voice with a lot of noise and frenzy and motion. We hear the Holy Spirit speaking a quiet word to our heart, but then finish His sentence assuming we’ve caught His drift. Or receive His message but are too busy or too distracted to make sense of it. We tell ourselves we’ll go back and double-check it later, but by the time we get around to it, the moment is gone. The voice is silent. The opportunity is passed.
For many of us, prayer has become a one-sided, one-dimensional recitation of our needs and wants and thoughts. And yes, it’s true, He loves to hear us speak. But He also loves to speak in return.
That’s the way it is with intimate friends.
A Step Closer
“Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.”
JOHN 6:45
“The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice.”
JOHN 3:29
“Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.”
ISAIAH 55:2
Add a half hour to your time with the Lord today—
and dedicate it to quieting your heart and listening for
His voice. If the weather allows it, go for a walk and
ask Him to walk with you and speak to you.