A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Listening Prayer
Become a Teachable Student of Jesus
“Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them
that they should always pray and not give up.” (Luke 18:1)
I love Jesus’ exhortation to “pray and not give up” and have been blessed immensely when I’ve done that. Like many of us, I’ve experienced countless times when my prayers have not been answered after months or even years of praying hard.
I’ve discovered that when I finally stop and say to God, “Ok. I’ve been praying and praying with no answer. Please show me what’s going on. Please teach me, Lord. Help me see this from Your perspective,” that’s when things change.
For me, having a teachable, tenacious, yet surrendered spirit where I am the Jesus’s apprentice is often when breakthrough happens. When I stop praying about what I want to happen and I become Jesus’ student, He guides me to answers. Sometimes He has me read a certain passage of scripture, or He leads me to watch a specific biblical teaching on YouTube. And once I’m there, it feels like I’m in the Holy Spirit’s classroom. I begin to see what my situation looks from a spiritual perspective. Other times, my stopping to listen to what God has to say is what causes a breakthrough. In each of these cases, I begin to have clear thoughts of what’ really going on. The Lord shows me what needs to shift or change in how I’m praying so that my prayers can be answered.
An Example of Listening Prayer
I was recently praying for a friend who’s been struggling with arthritis for the past few years. Let’s call him Phillip. Phillip’s symptoms have lessened over the years, but he still has occasional flare ups. The other day, after a workout at the gym, he began having excruciating sciatica pain in both hips. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest, he said his pain was a 7. That’s pretty high so I knew he was really hurting.
He was about to take 2 Ibuprofen tablets for the pain when I saw him. I’ve been praying for him over the years but his arthritis still bothers him every once in a while. This time, I genuinely wanted to give prayer another try, so I said, “I really want to pray for you again. Would that be okay?”
He agreed, so we sat down and I began praying like this: I praised God for who He is and I thanked Him for Phillip. Using the authority I have in Christ, I then commanded the pain to leave in Jesus’ name. I asked Phillip to walk it out to see if there was any change at all in his pain level. Unfortunately, his pain was still at a 7.
Parading Shift – Where Do You Put Your Trust?
I then asked Phillip, “Why do you think you’re having a flare up right now? Did you do anything differently in your diet or your routine?”
“No, not really. But I’ve run out of some of the supplements I usually take for my arthritis. I haven’t taken them for the last few days.”
“Hmmm…” I heard what he said and I went into a time of listening prayer where I ask God what’s going on and how I can move forward. After a few minutes, I got a strong sense that Phillip was putting all his trust in the medicines instead of trusting God. “It sounds like you depend on the meds to keep you well rather than trusting God. Is that right?”
“Well, yeah. Am I supposed to just stop taking my supplements?”
“No. God uses supplements and medicine to heal people. But he doesn’t want you to trust the supplements. He wants you to trust Him instead. Does that make sense?”
“Yes.”
I could see in his eyes that a paradigm shift had just happened. “God is trying to shift how you think about Him and how you think about the medicines you take. As you go through your day and your week, He’s going to be helping you make this shift in you mind about where to put your trust.”
“Okay, I understand that.”
Confess The Doubt
I sat in silence again with my eyes closed listening for God again, and I felt a hint of doubt pass by me. I confessed to Phillip that sometimes I doubt that God will heal his arthritis because it’s been going on for so long. “Do you ever feel that way?”
“Yeah. I mean I know God can heal me, but I don’t think He will.”
“Okay, we both need to confess that doubt to Him right now and ask Him to forgive us for doubting Him. After all, He’s GOD! He loves you so much and wants to give you good gifts because you are his precious son!” (Luke 11:13)
I confessed my doubt to the Lord, and then Phillip did the same. We both asked God to forgive us and to increase our faith.
Jesus said, “Everything is possible for the one who believes.”
Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe;
help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)
Take Every Thought Captive
I had a sense that Phillip was done praying, so I closed our prayer time with encouragement and something to do. “God wants you to trust Him, but the enemy will try to stop you. So as you go through your day say, ‘I trust You God’ out loud even if your trust is small. Declaring it out loud will help change the atmosphere and will increase your faith and trust in Him.”
“Faith comes from hearing the message…” (Romans 10:17)
“And if any thoughts of doubt come into your mind about how God can’t or won’t heal you, pay attention to them and stop them in their tracks. And one more thing. If you get any bit of relief at all, praise God for it. Thankfulness and praise brings more healing.”
“We demolish arguments and every pretension
that sets itself up against the knowledge of God,
and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
(2 Corinthians 10:5)
Delayed Answer to Prayer
At the end of our prayer conversation, God had still not answered my prayer for Phillip’s arthritis to leave. His pain was still a 7 out f 10. Even so, I was encouraged by the words God had spoken to me about Phillip’s situation and how He had directed us to pray.
About five hours later, I checked in with Phillip and asked him how he was doing. He said the pain in his hips had gone down from a 7 to a 1 and he never did take the two Ibuprofen tablets!
To God Be The Glory!
It’s too soon to know if this prayer took care of the remaining arthritis issues in Phillip’s body, but we give God all the glory for…
- the way He encouraged us to press into Him
- showing us a few key principles He wanted Phillip to change in his life:
- putting his trust on God, not medicine
- confessing doubt and praying for an increase in faith
- taking every thought captive
- relieving Phillip’s pain without the use of Ibuprofen
I hope this encourages you to “pray and not give up.”
Thank You, Father God, for loving us so, so, much!
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