Intro to Listening Prayer

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21 NIV)

Wouldn’t it be nice if prayer were a two-way conversation? What if we could ask God a question about what to do and get an answer, like they did in the Bible?

But wait—what if He does answer us—but we haven’t learned how to listen?

I will never forget the day I was driving to work at a job I couldn’t stand. Surely there had to be something better than this! I remember exactly where I was, at a traffic light on Semoran Boulevard in Orlando. I cried out in frustration, “Lord, I really don’t believe You want me to spend 40 hours a week doing something I hate. What do you want me to do?”

Have you ever had one of those moments when you knew that God was speaking to you? This was one of those moments. I heard the response in my head as clearly as if He was sitting in the car beside me.

God said, “I want you to pray.”

I got angry. Pray? Really? I’m asking about a career path and God says He wants me to pray? Faster than I could think about it, I shot back, “I meant for a living!”

Can you believe I was that snarky with God? The God of the universe actually answered my prayer, and I got angry. It’s a good thing that God is merciful, because I pretty effectively shut down the conversation at that point.

However, once I cooled down, I recognized that if I really believed that God spoke to me, I ought to follow His directions—even if it wasn’t the answer I was looking for. So, I started learning everything about prayer that I could so that I could become better at praying. I started a prayer group at my church. Well, I was the only one who showed up most of the time, so maybe it wasn’t really a group. But I faithfully went to church early every Sunday and prayed.

I led several small groups through Henry Blackaby’s study, Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God. People did come to those groups, and some even started groups of their own. With all of this practice, I did actually get better at prayer—especially the listening part.

Yes, I did follow God’s direction, and I prayed, even though God answered a different question than I asked.

Or did He?

My career path took some unexpected turns. I didn’t stay at that job I hated. I eventually went back to school and got a master’s degree in counseling, and then became a Licensed Mental Health Counselor.

Several years after that conversation at the traffic light, I was working with a Christian non-profit ministry that did inner healing prayer work.

This prayer work was far more effective than what I had learned in my years in college and as a professional counselor. When we prayed with people, inviting God into their trauma, their experience with God in the traumatic memories brought relief, healing, and the ability to move forward in their lives.

It wasn’t easy work. Prayer is not a magic wand, and walking with people through their trauma is not fun. But it is effective, and incredibly rewarding.

At that point, I had forgotten all about the conversation in the car. God had not forgotten. As I prepared for the annual “thank you banquet” for donors to the ministry, it was like the Holy Spirit tapped me on the shoulder. He asked me, “Dawn, what are you doing now?”

Then I realized it: I was praying with people—for a living.

All those years before, God really did answer the question that I asked. He knew what He wanted me to do. I’m sure He also knew that I would be stubborn and need to take the long route. Sometimes I wonder whether things would have happened faster if I hadn’t shut down the conversation. Only God knows.

But that was only the beginning.

The adventure with God has continued. I’ve learned far more about prayer, and about how God wants to be involved in every aspect of our lives. I even opened a business doing coaching and consulting work with individuals and organizations. Our signature service in that business is Strategic Prayer.

Several years ago, I was asked to help launch the Deeper Walk School of Ministry. Our Prayer Ministry Certification program trains pastors, counselors, missionaries and laypeople how to help real people with real problems by connecting with God through listening prayer.
In the next several blog posts, I will introduce several ways to begin listening to God in prayer. You may also want to check out some of our past free webinars on Listening Prayer in the Deeper Walk Learning Library here.

And, to help you get started on your listening prayer journey, I’ve created a simple tool to help you learn to listen for God’s voice through scripture. You can download it below.