In this lesson, we will explore the art of carrying on a conversation with God. In this conversation, we will become familiar with the "Voice of God", His guidance for our lives, and His intense desire to relate with us personally. We hope to break that awkward silence that seems to characterize much of our Christian experience.

Scripture Focus: Matt 6:5-15; Luke 11:1-13

Scripture Memory: James 5:16

Have you ever wondered what was missing in your understanding of such Scriptures as Matthew 7:7-8?

7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (NIV)

(see also: Matt 21:22, Mark 11:24, Luke 11:9-10, John 14:13-14, John 15:7, John 15:16, James 5:16, and I John 5:14-15)

Are you convinced that the Lord hears your prayers or do you harbor nagging doubts? Have you read about the conversations that men of old had with God and wished that you could experience that level of clarity in your talks with Him?

Do you have "Ears to Hear"?

Why do so many Christians fall short of really communicating with God? One reason is that some of us are "hard of hearing". Often Jesus would finish a parable or an instruction with "he who has an ear to hear, let him hear..." (Matthew 11:15; 13:9; 13:43; Luke 8:8; 14:35; Revelation 2:7,17,29; 3:6,13,22) There is a lot wrapped up in His statement. Part of it is addressing our ability to hear. (1 Corinthians 2:10-16) Another part is addressing our willingness to hear (i.e. follow the instructions we do hear). (Proverbs 1:20-23)

The first aspect of our hearing problem is an inability to hear. In citizen band radio jargon, have you got your ears on? (i.e. Is your radio on and tuned into God’s frequency?)

1 Corinthians 2:9-16

9 However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"--

10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:

16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. (NIV)

Unless the Spirit lives in you and has made your spirit alive in Christ, you have no capacity for hearing. The things God has to say seem foolish and indiscernible, because God speaks to us and relates with us on a spiritual level. The spirit of a person is the deepest part; it transcends intellect, emotions, and physical characteristics. It is the only aspect of a human being that can even begin to comprehend the thoughts and words of God. Our intellect alone is much too limited, and our emotions alone are too fickle. So we have received the Spirit who is from God. He communicates with our spirit that we might know the mind of the Lord. Our spirit, when touched by this communication, renews our minds, floods our emotions, and transforms our lives. He is Spirit, and when He speaks, He speaks in Spirit. When we are attentive to His "Voice", we respond by worshipping Him in spirit and truth.

I do not mean to say that God is constrained and can only communicate to us in one way. He is all powerful and completely able to reveal Himself to us any way He chooses. He has been known to speak in visions and dreams. He certainly speaks to us from the Scriptures. He has, at times spoken through other people to us, and once in awhile, He even speaks audibly to people. But the everyday conversations that either you or He can initiate come from the Holy Spirit to your spirit and dwell in the deepest part of your being. We receive His answers to our questions as soon as we voice them. He is eager to reveal Himself and His will to us. He is constantly speaking to us to warn, to reprove, to console, to encourage, to instruct, and to say I LOVE YOU. Do you have ears to hear?

When you became a believer in Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit filled you and gave rebirth to your spirit.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

(NIV)

At that point you became a sheep of the Good Shepherd, and the sheep of this fold know their Master’s voice. (John 10:4) If you are not in Christ, please ask the Lord to forgive you for your sin. Jesus died to pay your debt of sin and He rose again to give you new life. Receive this payment and new life, unreservedly, right now! All you must do is reach out in faith and ask Him to save you. You must entrust your life to Him. Repent and relinquish the attitudes of independence, rebellion, and stubbornness and give yourself to Jesus! Do not wait and do not hold back! He loves you and longs to walk and talk with you unceasingly.

If you have the capacity to hear, but still you don’t hear what the Spirit is saying, perhaps you are unwilling to hear. When the Lord tells us to do something that is contrary to our will, we have to choose. Will we obey and follow God or will we turn away and follow our own inclinations. We may have ears to hear, but at times we may choose to ignore what we are hearing.

Proverbs 1:20-33

20 Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares;

21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech:

22 "How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?

23 If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you.

24 But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand,

25 since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke,

26 I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you--

27 when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you.

28 "Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me.

29 Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD,

30 since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke,

31 they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.

32 For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them;

33 but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm." (NIV)

Those who have ears to hear, but refuse to listen are characterized in Proverbs 1 as naive, scoffers, and fools who hate wisdom and knowledge. This could not be said of a disciple. A disciple is one who is seeking to learn from the Master. Those who manifest these characteristics are not seeking to learn at all. They love simplicity. They have become contented with their understanding of God; their Christianity fits neatly in their lives, and they scoff at anyone that would challenge them to expand their thinking.

These scoffers would not accept the counsel of God. Can you believe it; there are actually people who know very clearly where God is leading them, and yet they refuse? When He attempts to change their hearts, they spurn His reproof! This has to be the height of foolish arrogance!! I can say this with such conviction only because I am an arrogant fool. I recall times in my life that I have received counsel from God and ignored it. I say this to my shame and hopefully to your gain. When I have refused to listen to God in the past, it has always been due to a foolish belief that I love me more than God loves me. I become afraid that He will not keep my loved ones and me safe, well cared for, and happy. Imagine that?!? God sent His only Son to die in my place just so I might live eternally in close relationship with Him. It is inconceivable that He who demonstrates this much love toward me would ever treat me in a manner that is inconsistent with this love. If you have been or still remain an arrogant fool as I have been, there is forgiveness in Jesus Name! Repent, change from your rebellion and turn to obedience. Jesus has paid for this heinous sin, and He no longer holds you guilty. If you turn from your ways, He will pour out His Spirit on you and will make His words known to you. Your life can be lived in conversation with Almighty God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, who longs to relate to you as Abba - Loving, Caring Father.

Perhaps you have the capacity to hear and to the best of your knowledge you are not rebelling nor ignoring His voice, but you still have difficulty communicating with God. Where is your primary focus of attention? Are you concentrating so intently on something other than God that you are unaware of His speaking to you? Have you ever found yourself to be so engrossed in a book or the newspaper, that you failed to hear someone speaking to you? My wife knows someone that has this happen to them all the time! I used to think I had really good powers of concentration. Now I have resigned myself to the fact that I simply cannot focus my attention on more than one thing at a time. When my wife wants to talk with me, I simply have to set the book down and listen to what she has to say. We need to do the same thing with our communications with the Lord. Where is your focus of attention? Another problem that many of us face when it comes to communicating with the Lord is that we get distracted. This is somewhat like having our focus of attention on other things, but is often less easily identified, and therefore can be harder to correct. We are in control of where we choose to focus our attention. We may become distracted without choosing to be. What are some of the distractions that get in the way of our communications with God?

Discuss with your partner the condition of your hearing. Do you have the capacity to hear? Are you distracted or focused on something or someone other than God? Do you hear His voice, but choose to ignore it because you are afraid are just unwilling to follow Him? Commit with your partner to allow the Lord to open your ears in these areas.

Effective Communication

Prayer is communicating with God, and it should have all the characteristics of effective communication. Communication requires a transmitter, a receiver, and a message. That is to say, we need to focus on Him to whom we are speaking, speak with clarity and purpose, and listen intently.

When you pray, to Whom are you speaking? When you say Father in Heaven, you are acknowledging that you have a unique, eternal relationship with the Sovereign Ruler of Heaven and Earth. You have walked into His Throne Room and spoken to Him as a beloved member of the family. Let your spirit look around. The splendor surrounding Him is more magnificent than anything our eyes have seen or our ears have heard. The heavenly hosts are singing Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD. His Glory radiates from the midst of them all and out shines the brightest light we can imagine. In Him you behold power that knows no bounds. Before Him your unworthiness is keenly felt, and your slightest transgression appears wretched and detestable. Yet, above all the splendor and power, and in spite of your unworthiness and guilt, you are overwhelmed by His outpouring of love for you. You are His child and He is Abba, Father. His love has no strings attached. It is completely undeserved and can never be quenched. He simply and completely loves you for He is the personification of LOVE. The love and acceptance from One so powerful is without equal. You might tremble at the raw POWER, but you are drawn to His pure LOVE for you. You have come home; this is where you belong. In His presence, you find fulfillment for your deepest longings. Now you are ready to pray. Now your focus is upon Him and you are less likely to become distracted.

At times, my prayers consist of sweeping generalities. I have said things like:

• watch over us all,
• bless us Lord,
• be with us this day, and
• protect us.

When I take the time to realize that I have entered into the very presence of Almighty God, and there begin to bask in His Love, I realize that all of these general requests are useless. He has and continues to fulfill each of these. In fact, when I clearly see the Lord, my own requests and questions are not the first thing on my lips. My first response is hallowed be Thy Name. I simply stand in awe of Him, and if I say anything at all, it comes out as praise and adoration.

Before I purposely came before His Throne, I might have been struggling with my own willfulness. Now, in light of His Utter Magnificence and Love, the only thing I want to do is surrender myself and my will to Him. I want His Will to be done in my life here on Earth just like His Will is done in Heaven. I find at this point that the real reason I was wanting my own will and way was that I thought I knew what was best for me, but here I stand before Ultimate Wisdom, and I find I don’t know the half of it! I somehow had found myself in a struggle with God because He wanted something to occur in and through me that I resisted. My resistance was based on mistrust in my Heavenly Father. In my arrogance and darkened mind, I wasn’t sure God had my best interests at heart. I was fearful of the path to which He was leading, but as I stand before Him and witness Love like I have never known, this fear is cast out. It can be replaced, however, with a new fear. What if the direction I think is from God, is really not from Him but from my own feeble mind or worse yet, from Satan?!? Every believer that I have known who is truly seeking to know God’s Will has come to this place. Thy Will be done, but what is Thy Will?

Step back and let your spirit appraise this situation. Consider the three primary sources of the thoughts in your head. This notion of guidance you are sensing is coming from either God, Satan, or you. The thoughts that originate from you are generally the most familiar and tend to be focused on your well being. They are often self centered and seeking to minimize personal distress and maximize happiness. They are often the promptings dealing with exterior things rather than things of the heart. God will deal with the exterior also, but He usually does this from the inside out and brings lasting results in the process. The Lord will not reprimand you, however, for asking Him for the things you need. This includes your daily bread, your need for wisdom, your healing from disease, and similar daily needs that are felt by you and those you love. When you ask, try to be specific, not so God better understands the request, but so you understand the answer. He has blessed you with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus so you can be sure that He wants to make you truly happy, but what He knows that perhaps some do not, is that the true road to happiness lies in forgetting self by becoming absorbed in the lives and needs of others. So His promptings are those that move you out of yourself and deeper into Christ. Satan, on the other hand, is only interested in your destruction. Sometimes, we can be momentarily confused by this deceiver who likes to masquerade as an angel of light. His "voice" can sound familiar too, but it usually carries some characteristics that distinguish it from your own thoughts and certainly from the "Voice" of God. Satan cannot consistently hide his true motives. Look for that familiar feeling of temptation. If there is any question in your mind, take this thought into the Throne Room and see how it feels there. Satan’s promptings, when melted down before the eyes of God always leave a residue of shame and the stench of death. Therefore, we must always be on the alert and frequently ask our Father in Heaven to protect us from the wiles of the Evil One. God’s promptings are always consistent and completely in line with the Scriptures that He has inspired which are profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.

However, there are times when the Evil One tempts me and I a succumb. Father, forgive me for my mistrust and inattentiveness toward you. Likewise, I still remain too self absorbed and trespass on the rights and feelings of others. Father, forgive me for these trespasses, and Lord release me from the guilt and shame of my self centeredness in direct proportion to my willingness to let go of the hurt that others have caused me. Father make me clean and free of any of the debris of sin and make me an effective servant of reconciliation rather than a grudge bearing retaliator.

One of your assignments for this week was to write a paraphrase of the prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray. If you started with the New International Version of the Bible, you would have noticed a familiar sentence was missing.

"For Thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever."

This statement was not in the earliest manuscripts, but was added later I suppose to comply with Jesus’ instruction recorded in John’s Gospel:

John 14:13-14

13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.

14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

(NIV)

Today, many of us feel as though our prayer is incomplete unless we say, "in Jesus’ Name I Pray, Amen. What are we saying in that phrase? What does it mean to do something in your own name? When you write your name on a document, like a draft on your checking account, you are authorizing the custodian of your money to give the sum noted on the draft bearing your signature to the person or organization designated as the payee. In this case, in your name means in your authority. When we pray to the Father, we come in the authority of the Son of God and on the basis of His Atoning Sacrifice, which has redeemed us from sin and reconciled us to God. We are, because of Jesus, citizens of the Kingdom of God. Thine is the Kingdom; It is in Your Authority, Lord that I come boldly to the Throne and pray.

Another aspect of doing something in our own name is found in the Frank Sinatra song, "I Did It My Way". When we set out on a course of action and operate entirely upon our own, independent of any support, we are operating in our name, that is in our power. Jesus said in John 15:5 that apart from Him we could do nothing. Yet we find in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ, Who strengthens us. It’s your choice. You can stand alone and sing - "I did it my way" and accomplish nothing, or you can operate in Jesus and bear much fruit - Thine is the Power!

If all of the authority and power originate in Jesus, then certainly He gets all of the GLORY. He is worthy of all praise!

Why Did Jesus Pray?

The best way to learn the art of conversation with God is to simply do it. If you want to learn the Voice of God, then you have to listen for it. Jesus, the Son of God, found it necessary to converse with God often. Why did Jesus pray? Look through the Gospels to find out.

List examples by the following categories: A.) Interceding for others. B.) Seeking guidance, power, and support, C.) Thanking His Father, and D.) Conversing with His Father (when no distinct purpose is given)

Jesus was very in tune with His Father. This awareness was essential since He never relied on His own ingenuity to do anything (John 5:30). Being the Son of God and One with the Father, we may tend to think that Jesus had little need for prayer; yet, He would frequently go off to a quite place and there converse with the Father perhaps all night long. By looking at the passages of Scripture that point to the prayers of Jesus, we have seen that He prayed for the needs of others; He prayed for power and grace to touch lives and endure suffering, He thanked His Father for His many blessings, and He simply spent time being with His Father.

If you have or ever had a close personal friend, you can relate to the kind of prayer life that Jesus had with His Father.

• What do you and your closest friend talk about when you are together? (share mutual interests, exchange ideas, ask for advice, express admiration and gratitude for one another, make plans...)
• Is it difficult to find things to talk about with a close friend?
• Are you able to maintain a close relationship without communication?

Follow Jesus’ example in prayer. Stay in tune with God. Often find a quite place to simply talk with Him. Develop a conversational relationship with the Lord!