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What Listening prayer is not! Listening prayer is not a ritual. You do not need candles, labyrinths, mantras or anything else. It is also not a tool to make you a 'super-spiritual Christian'. It is not a passport to a hassle free life. It is not a guarantee that you will avoid all future problems and trials. What it is - the key ingredient to a vibrant, living and joy filled relationship with God. It is the element that turns prayer from a monologue to a dialogue. It is the part of prayer that brings God's power and purposes right into the living room of our lives.

A prayer life that is only one sided -( a monologue) is ultimately boring and often self-focused A prayer life that includes actually hearing from God is exciting, full of surprises and full of intimacy with the love of God and more focused on God than self.

It is part of God's plan that we have the same intimate relationship with Him that Jesus did. Read John chapters 14 - 17. How can you be intimate with someone you have not listened to and got to know? It is also part of the mission of the Holy Spirit to ensure that we do hear God. He takes from what is Jesus' and makes it known to us.

No matter whom you are, God wants to speak to you. He loves you and desires your company. Are you willing to spend the time to wait on God and see what he has to say to you?


Before we get to learning about the listening part of prayer we should have a firm, Biblical understanding of prayer itself. We need to know what prayer is, why prayer is necessary, how prayer works and when to do it. The ('what, why, when, where, and how')

To read more..... http://www.outbackjack.info

OBJ - Jusst one question - don't we "hear" from god via His Word?  His Word (the Bible) contains volumes and volumes of His Words to us.  Ought we not to consider it His communication to us?

Did you read the whole of the study? You will see that it is scripture based and that I stress the need to be in the Word. You wont recognize God's voice from the others without it.

The Word of God is our primary source that is a given but there are times in your life when you need to hear Him. I can think of over 100 times in my life where hearing God speak into my heart met an important need for myself or others.

Once I was leaving work and as I was driving out I felt the really strong impression to go visit a person I knew. I repleid to this impression that I would go but first I wanted to go home and get clean. Immediately I thought this a strong thought came "Go Now". So I went. When I got there the ambulance was there. My friend had tried to commit suicide, she had three young kids there and no family members to watch them. I sat with them until the family members could get there.
My friend survived and the children had someone to watch over them which left the ambulance people free to take her to hospital.

I could go on and on with times like these where God has required me to 'hear Him'. I don't always have a Bible handy and how could you use scripture to do this kind of thing?

But like I said at the begining you need to be Word filled....it is explained in the study. http://www.outbackjack.info/outbackchristians.html  http://www.outbackjack.info/prayer

By the way which Scripture did Jesus use when meeting the woman at the well to tell Him about her past with men? He must have heard it from God, is that not why He spent so much time in prayer.

How true that is, yes we do have the Bible to tell us how God has been and is working out His will, and His plan of salvation, but there is yet that still small voice that tells us other things. I well remember Margery trying to phone a friend up, and no matter how much she dialled she couldn't get through, instead an old man was on the other end of the line, after about the fourth call, this chap said he wasn't feeling well so Margery got his address and we both went round. We got our doctor out, and he diagnosed pneumonia, and got him to hospital, much later and he would have died, if God through a still small voice directs you to do something, do it, you may well have become an angel of mercy, but it will always bless you in a thoroughly mighty way, Michael.