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Listening to God
by Joyce Huggett (Hodder and Stoughton) |
Before we start, I have to declare an interest: This book has helped transform my own prayer life and has helped me to develop a closer relationship with God. So, I warn you now, this might not be a very balanced review! But anyway, here goes:
Joyce starts off by looking at what comprises three different Christian traditions:
- Evangelical – which focuses on studying the Bible;
- Charismatic – with a focus on the work of the Holy Spirit;
- Contemplative – which focuses on encountering God in person.
These traditions have largely gone their own ways within Christianity, but she argues strongly that we should aim to learn from each tradition and see how their strengths can be used to bring us closer to God and more able to hear what he is saying to us. In particular, she tries out contemplative approaches to prayer to great effect. She concludes that the evangelicals should learn to be still, simply ‘to be’ and not to focus so much on achievement. She goes on to suggest that charismatics should stop talking, praising and clapping, at least long enough to listen to what God is saying to them. And she urges the contemplatives to study their Bibles a little more and get away from ‘fossilised’ forms of worship.
This is surely good advice, and the bulk of the book concentrates on her own personal journey to try to put this into practice. This journey started with her being a ‘God botherer’ where prayers were simply ‘asks’ for God to deliver. I’m sure we have all at some time decided what we think God should provide and then ask him to deliver. Her task was to see not how to dictate to God, but to tune into what God is saying to her about the issues she raises in prayer. She looks at how to recognise God’s voice, not necessarily as an audible voice, but as an inner awareness of something you’re being asked to hear and most importantly act upon.
All good stuff, but how? Fortunately, she provides some very practical tools that can be used to tune into God’s voice, which can be used as a basis for prayer:
- Find a quiet place at a regular time each day where you can get rid of the everyday distractions by either writing them down, or training yourself to let them float past you.
- Invite the Holy Spirit to be with you and to help you pray.
- Relax and simply ‘be with God’. She coins the lovely phrase of ‘wasting time with God’.
- Offer everything back. Since all we have, such as our work and possessions, are gifts from God, if we offer them back to him, we will find it easier to de-clutter our thoughts and concentrate on what he’s saying.
- Identify any barriers. Ask God to point out any situations or attitudes that may be coming between us. We need to say sorry for these and ask for forgiveness. It’s also important that we accept his forgiveness without guilt, as this actually represents a form of self-indulgence and self-centredness that makes it harder for us to put God at the centre of the relationship;
- Praise and give thanks
- Raise issues that you want to bring to his attention. Importantly, she suggests that rather than asking for your own solutions, you should ask God to lead and point out what, if anything you can do about the issues you raise.
The last point depends on us being able to hear what God is saying to us, and she goes on to explain how he might do this through one or more of the following means:
- Images or pictures that he puts into our mind, sometimes called visions;
- Dreams – whilst we sleep;
- Audible voices – rare, but no less real;
- Angels – who come with messages or to protect us;
- Nature – where the countryside reflects God’s creation;
- Our imagination – where our own thoughts are inspired by the Holy Spirit;
- Tongues – through spontaneous expressions of praise;
- Words of Wisdom – where God inspires us to speak appropriate words in key situations;
- Words of Knowledge – where an insight about a person or situation is given to us by God;
- Prophecy – where a person is given a message by God for the wider community to hear.
Some of these means of communication are unfamiliar and challenging. She admits, for example, that she really didn’t want to believe in angels. An open mind, and heart seem to be the key to hearing what God has to say. But, how do we know if this inner voice actually comes from God? First, she accepts that we will all make mistakes. Then she urges us to ‘test the spirits’. If you think it’s from God, ask him to confirm it three times, through the Bible; through circumstances; and through other people who know nothing of the issue/situation. She suggests that as we get more practiced, God’s voice becomes more recognisable. She also suggests that we use our own intelligence and common sense, rather than demanding supernatural intervention when we are capable of understanding situations on our own. She warns us not be like the woman who won’t get dressed in the morning until God tells her what colour socks to put on.
To gauge how it goes, she keeps a prayer journal to write down the issues and to record any messages from God. She also explains how her journey has been helped by music, a mentor, a listening group and weekend escapes. She is careful to link all this back to the Bible and suggests new ways to invigorate the words we receive from it.
Overall she likens her journey to a relationship between a husband and a wife. It takes four stages from the first meeting to being able to trust your life to God:
- The first meeting – if you go looking, eventually you’ll find him;
- Getting to know eachother – often led by emotion and passion;
- Being together – quiet intimacy without needing lots of words;
- Trusting your life to him.
Putting it like this made me realise how I was still barely coming out of stage one, but the tools suggested give us the means for moving into the subsequent stages of the relationship with God, and I for one, have found them really helpful in at least starting the process.
There’s loads of additional advice and examples in this excellent short book, and I’d certainly recommend it to anyone who is keen to get to hear what God has to say in our lives.
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