16th September 2019
Index:
Part 1: Where Does Wisdom and Understanding Come From?
What Is Wisdom?
What Is Understanding?
Part 2: Who Do You Ask For Advice?
Why Ask Them?
Write A List Of Pros And Cons?
Part 3: What Would Jesus Do (W.W.J.D.)?
Is It In Line With What The Bible (God’s Teaching) Says?
Who Should You Ask For Advice?
Part 4: Praying About It – Talking To God, A Two Way Conversation.
God Answers Prayers – Yes, No, Not Yet.
Praying About It – Talking To God, A Two Way Converstaion:
This is an interesting topic to say the least. We get told by Spiritual Leaders, in Churches, in Bible Studies, as well as other places, to pray. But how do we do that? Is it, that we say words aloud and hope God is just listening out at the right moment, like calling upstairs to your children, hoping the music isn’t to loud for them to hear you? I think at one time or another, we have all felt that way… “Is God Listening?”, “Are You There Lord?”.
Prayer is an important part of a Christian’s life. It is a way to talk to your Heavenly Father, who loves you unconditionally and knows your inner most thoughts (Psalm 139: 1 to 4 NCV).
Now, if God knows you so well, does that mean you don’t need to pray? Of course you need to pray. God may know you inside and out, but like any healthy relationship, if you don’t invest in time with God, you won’t get to know Him, and God’s desire is to have a personal one to one relationship with you, through a two way communication. That means you talk to Him and He talks to you. The more you talk to God, the more you listen to Him, the better the relationship will be. It will evolve into something beautiful.
Now people talk about prayer and what you need to do. What I’ve noticed with these “How To Pray” guides, is they don’t tell you how to listen to God. an example of this is in counselling, where you are are taught to “Actively Listen” to a client. So for example, if you’re talking to someone who is trained in active listening, you’ll hear them every so often say things like, “okay”, “hmmm”, and nod their head and even repeat back to you, some of what you said. However, active listening to God isn’t like this, we have to understand “How God Talks To Us”.
This was best explained to me many years ago, by a minister and a man I knew understood God. He said “God will talk to you in one of five ways. He may talk to you in more than one, but usually in one. These are linked to your five senses”. These are:
- Sight = Visions and Dreams.
- Hearing = Hearing the voice of God/Angels.
- Smell and Taste (These are linked) = Smell and Taste go together, I’ve heard it explained, that when Jesus is around it smells like the sweetest roses, and when a demon is around, it tastes like burning sulphur in the back of the throat.
- Touch = Sense.
Now Touch is how God talks to me, so I can comment on this a little more in detail. From this, I hope you’ll see a pattern and how God talks to you. Which ever way He talks to you.
Now touch is a sense, you have senses in your fingertips, and you can touch corse wood, or smooth glass, soft petals and even tough cold steel, and you can distinguish between them, even blindfolded, you could probably guess them. All these bring to your mind a certain sense. Now imagine, when the Holy Spirit spoke, instead of hearing words, you physically felt those words, or a sense, where if someone was trying to mislead you, it was a sense of alertness, with sirens and big flashing lights, a bit like an airlock about to open on a space station or spaceship, you’d see in the movies, warning you of danger, and a gut churning, feeling sick in the pit of your stomach, when something is wrong, and I’m not talking about gut instinct, that’s something different. However, when the Holy Spirit speaks and wants me to go a certain direction, its not like He is shouting and pointing, saying GO THAT WAY, but more a gentle nudge, which could be easily missed if I wasn’t use to feeling Him speak, and yes this took time.
It reminds me of a story, I was once told about a man from the countryside visiting his friend in a big and busy city like New York. There are vehicles of different sizes travelling around with engines humming and honking horns, people talking on their mobile phones, people shouting back and forth, hundreds of footsteps and the hustle and bustle of city life. Then as the two men were walking down the street, the man from the country, stopped and said to the man from the city, “Do You Hear That? It’s a cricket”, the man from the city scoffed and said to his friend, “how could you hear a cricket with all this noise?”, at that moment a cricket landed on the city man’s shoe. Now the reason the countryman heard the cricket, above the city noise around him, is because he was a tuned to the country sounds. This is how we must be with God, just like this countryman with nature. Knowing how God speaks to you is important, and just as important is making sure you are tuned into how He (God) talks to you, so that in the hustle and bustle we call life, we hear Him (God) clearly.
God Answers Prayers – Yes, No, Not Yet:
If you ask different Christians, you’ll get different responses regarding To prayer. I want to clear this up for those who feel God doesn’t listen, or doesn’t answer their prayers, or Feel their prayers are somehow not strong enough to break through the clouds, or have to yell or pray aggressively, for God to hear you.
“GOD ALWAYS ANSWERS PRAYERS”
Like I said, I want to clarify this. The way God answers prayers is in one of three ways,
Yes, this is the one we always hope for as a Christian, It means when you pray for healing God will perform a miracle and hay presto, you’re healed. It isn’t just healing we see this happening in and so called immediate miracles. An example of this is when I heard a friend of mine several years back, who had two small children and she was struggling to pay her bills and rent, prayed God could intervene, as she would have lost her home. The very next morning another friend of ours had popped into see her and said God told me to give you this, but you’re not to open it till I’ve left. He gave her a sealed envelope with the exact amount of money she needed to pay her bills. Down to the last penny. Now this other friend, didn’t know anything about the dire issue our female friend was in, no one told them about it, and the only message they got was from the Holy Spirit, who said put X amount of money in an envelope, seal it and give it to this lady in the morning. When my female friend told him and his wife at church on the following Sunday, how it helped her with her bills, the couple was amazed. By listening to the Holy Spirit, they helped keep this family in their home.
No, this is the one Christians hate to get, and some Christians believe their prayers are justified and right at all times. Well, as I said before in this series, you are human, just like me and guess what? That’s right, you make mistakes. God knows this. That’s why He sent His ONLY Begotten Son to die for your sins. I want you to know this. Just because God says “No” to a prayer request, doesn’t mean He doesn’t love you or care for you. After all, if you saw a small child trying to touch a hot pan of water on a stove, you would tell the child not to touch it. In the same way, God has your best interests at heart, even if we don’t see it, and God will always have something better planned for you
Yes, But Not Yet. As human beings we are impatient, and in some cases immature, and yes I also mean some Christians too. When we get this answer, we can at times take it as a “No Answer”, or if we take it as a “Yes”, we expect it to be done now, right here, right now, give it to me now. However, as I pointed out earlier, God knows you intimately, and because He knows you so well, He will grant your prayer requests, but you may need to learn something first, or if for example, it is a wife or husband you are asking for, God may be working in them to make them ready for a marriage, hence the “Not Yet” part. So when you get the Yes but not yet answer from God, ask God what He is trying to teach you, so that the yes, not yet becomes a Yes.
Here is an approach to prayer I use, which you may find useful.
- I find a quiet place. You don’t need to kneel or have a cross or a photo of the Virgin Mary or anything like that (Matthew Chapter 6: verse 6 NCV). It needs to be somewhere you can clear your mind and focus on God, without distractions… So turn your phone off lol.
- Sit comfortably, I take a few deep breaths to relax my body and get my breathing at a steady pace. You wouldn’t rush an important telephone call, so don’t rush talking to your Heavenly Father.
- When you talk to your dad (God), pray expectingly, pray in faith that He will answer you, in other words, believe He will answer your requests.
- Give Thanks. Be thankful, you can come before Him and go into that secret place (Psalm Chapter 91: verse 1 and 2 KJV). Give thanks for all the things God has blessed you with. Not only the physical things, but the spiritual things to. I thank God daily for my Spiritual Gifts and revealing new and wondrous things to me. This leads to a “Thankful Heart”.
- Ask God to forgive you for any sinful (things which go against God’s will) things you have done, which you know and don’t know about, thoughts you’ve had, etc and ask God to help you to be more like His son Jesus, to renew your body and mind. Ask Him to also help you forgive those who have done wrong against you (Matthew Chapter 6: verse 14 NCV).
- Ask God to then speak into the situation/s you are facing. Pray expectingly, that God has everything in hand and will work to prosper you (Jeremiah Chapter 29: verse 11 NCV). Ask God to give you Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding and Strength to get through, what you are going through.
- Add anything else you feel you need to add. You know what’s weighing on your heart and going on in your life, including the lives of others around you.
- End with saying “Amen” (amen means “It is so”, or “So be it” and is derived from the Hebrew אָמֵן āmēn, and is a concluding word or response to prayers).
If you struggle with what to say, you can pray the “Lord’s Prayer” found in Matthew Chapter 6: verse 9 to 14 KJV, you can find a more modern wording of it in the New Century Version.
In part 5 of Decision Making, we will look at:
- Listen To The Holy Spirit.
- Your Will Or God’s?
“Lord, Thank you for being our God, Thank you for the people reading this, and for the wisdom, knowledge and understanding you have have blessed me with about you, to pass on to others. Open up every heart who reds this, and help them to find a deeper, more meaningful life with you, at the centre of their lives. Bless those who have continuously prayed for your healing touch. And show your children, how you talk to them, so they can converse with you more. Bless those who find themselves in difficult situations, who are hurt, broken and damaged, and show them you have your arms wide open to invite them in and help them heal. Be with those who struggle day by day with temptation, and show them the route to overcome it. Bring those who do not know you, to you Lord, show them you are the Truth, The Way and The Life Eternal. In your name I ask this, Amen”
BobOnLife 
You must be logged in to post a comment.