I suspect that I miss alot of the times when God is speaking. Sometimes I am not looking. Sometimes I am distracted. And if truth be told, sometimes I am avoiding God. It doesn’t happen too often that I am avoiding God, but every once in a while I get in a slump of sorts and find myself resisting time with God. When I am listening though here are ten ways I have noticed God responding to prayer.
 

1. Through the Word

I had a friend who was growing in prayer and one of the first conscious experiences of knowng God was trying to speak to him came when he had verses of Scripture ‘coincidentally’ come across his path in rapid succession. For example, he would pray about something and a verse would pop up in his life three times in the next 24 hours from totally divergent sources. The phenemonon recurred enough eventually he could no longer call it coincidence. I don’t necessarily experience a single scripture multiple times, but it is not unusual for me to pray about a concern only to find in my devotional reading the exact guidance, inspiration, comfort or conviction that I need.
 

2. Through people

God will use people to speak to you. Someone will share a story or call you just when you need it the most. Don’t be surprised if you pray for guidance and God sends you a person with the answer to your question.
 

3. Peace that passes all understanding

When I am facing a choice I often times sit in prayer with both options before me. Often times there is a very clear sense of peace about one choice over another. You can almost physically sense this peace. For me it is much like the sensation of release you have when you struggle to remember something and then it comes.  That sense of knowing is important to listen to.
 

4. Through signs

Scripture speaks many times of signs. I recall when I was considering my ministry call to Texarkana. I felt very confused. I had been through some similar searches with dissappointing and confusing results. I was beginning to doubt my ability to know where God was calling me. Twenty four hours before I went to my second interview and knew that the committee was going to be asking me to come to this church, I went off to my sit spot in the woods to pray. I prayed for a good hour. I finally said, “God, I need some clear undeniable sign to guide me in this. I am not certain what you want me to do.  I need it before we go to that interview tomorrow.”   That evening a member of the church, who was unaware of my situation, called to tell me that he had been on vacation and kept feeling like God wanted him to call me and tell me something.  Specifically he said, “You need to leave. You will never be able to fully use your gifts here. It’s time to go. I don’t want you to leave, but you need to leave.” That to me was a pretty undeniable sign. There was no ambiquity whatsoever.
 

5. Through dreams

Scripture contains many examples of God speaking to people through dreams. God will warn, comfort, and instruct through dreams. I have had a couple of experiences in which God spoke rather dramatically to me through dreams. Dreams from God have an uncharacteristic clarity to them. They are so vivid that they feel more like memories than dreams.
 

6. Visions

Visions like dreams are revelatory experiences attested to by Scripture.  They are also similar to dreams in that they tend to be extremely vivid.  If you have not expereinced a dream or visions by God you might be prone to think of these as extremely subjective.  The qualitative difference though between a revelatory experience of God and ordinary dreams or thoughts is undeniably distinct.
 

7. Circumstance

When you pray for guidance, it is wise to pay attention to what opportunities open up and which ones close.  Sometimes God leads us by opening and closing doors.
 

8. No, not now

God doesn’t seem to always respect my day timer.  I recall asking God for guidance on a retreat once about my vocation. Through a series of signs God slowly answered my prayer, but took three years to do it. Each sign was quite obviously from God, but each one only pointed me forward to the next step. All of the pieces didn’t clearly make sense until three years later and then the chain of response was evident.
 

9. No, not in the way you expect

I often times make very specific prayers to God. I find specificity to be very helpful. However, I always try to stay open to God answering in ways I never expected. I call it coming before God with an open hand agenda. I try to make a very clear request, but I don’t hold on too tightly. I know that God is capable of exceeding my thoughts on what is best. I do my best to trust.
 

10. No

Some Christian authors are very hesitant to say that God says ‘no.’  I am confident that God knows best and at times  my request is contrary to God’s will and God says ‘no.’  That’s okay.  When God says ‘no’ or I can’t see God’s ‘yes’ that is when I turst and lean on God the most.
 

11.  A resounding undeniable ‘Yes’

I recall praying once about about needing a mentor and a mentee.  Within an hour my phone rang and a young man called and asked if he could come shadow me at work because he was considering going into ministry.  Shortly after that I had lunch with a man who volunteered to mentor me in a massive project that I had undertaken.  Neither of these people were people I sought out.  They spontaneously asked to be mentor and to be my  mentor. 
 
These are  not the only ways God responds.  I am sure that you can think of others, but I hope by reflecting on these you will be influenced to be actively looking more closely for God’s  presence in your life.

Peace from The Practical Disciple

“This soul weariness shines through a few lines of sarcasm one minister wrote in his journal: “If I wanted to drive a manager up the wall, I would make him responsible for the success of an organization and give him no authority. I would provide him with unclear goals, not commonly agreed upon by the organization. I would ask him to provide a service of an ill-defined nature, apply a body of knowledge having few absolutes, and staff his organization with only volunteers. I would expect him to work ten to twelve hours per day and have his work evaluated by a committee of 300 to 500 amateurs. I would call him a minister and make him accountable to God.” (H. B. London, Jr. and Neil B. Wiseman, Pastors at Risk, p. 54)”

The email also mentioned that this isn’t the whole story of being a pastor but it’s definitely part of it.  The subject line simply said, “Have you prayed for your pastor?”   Praying for your pastor is a spiritual course of action that can make a difference in not just the life of a person but a body of believers.  I have been in ministry now for a little over fifteen years.  It’s not forever, but it’s long enough to have experienced not just moments but lengthy periods of feeling what the pastor in the quote so aptly expresses.  I want to share with you, part of what I shared with the dear church member who sent me this.

Several years ago, I nearly left ministry because the weight of all of those things expressed in the quote was all too real to me.  I had no grand theophany (appearance of God) that kept me going.  At least not in any old testament, fire, smoke and wind sort of way.  I slowly turned to a small group of people who met me with grace.  I worked as diligently as a wounded human can work at what I call my core four: eating, sleeping, staying connected to people, and stayiing at least moderately physically active.  

I also started having a sabbath of sorts on Monday’s, off in the woods with just me and God.  During those Sabbath’s I always included two prayers.  I prayed that God would help me to be a blessing to others with the blessings I had received.   I also prayed that my being and my doing would be integrated and as that came together I prayed I would be more Christ-like.  You see part of the pain I was feeling was trying to fit numerous peoples’ expectations of what a pastor ought to be and do, that didn’t necessarily fit with whom God made me to be.  I was living outside of myself in too many ways.  To add to the pain, day after day an emotional gun would be cocked and placed to my head.  The cock of the trigger sounded something like this, “We can’t afford to loose one more person.”  ”If they do this, then I will leave”  ”If they do that, then I won’t give.”  ”You need to bring in more members are we’re going to die.”  Every day was life-depleting.

Over time healing occurred.  I know God sent angels my way.  Some brought me to lunch and said, “Don’t quit.”  Others, asked me how I was doing and meant it as more than a social nicety. They listened when I began to tell them.  Probably the most important silent saints of all were the ones upholding me in prayer and I didn’t know it. 

The sentiment of the pastor in the quote above is epidemic. I know so many pastors who are weary.   I count myself very blessed that God helped me through that time back to a place of ministry.  I am glad that the healing came before I felt it was time to move on.  If it hadn’t, then I may have been running away thinking that geography could fix the pain.  That would have been a lie.  I was blessed though to find healing right where I was.  As a result, I could move on when my work was truly done.  I am blessed to have been where I have been and I am blessed to be where I am now.  Most of all I am blessed when people pray for me.

If you are not praying for your pastor, do so.  Those prayers make a sustaining difference.  Those prayers uphold and build the kingdom of God.  Those are no small prayers.  If you are a pastor, do not grow weary of the good that you do.  If you are weary, then get help. Turn to God.  Turn to brothers and sisters in Christ, whom you can trust.  Get people praying for you.  Take a Sabbath and lean on the Lord for He is with you.

Blessing to You from The Practical Disciple