Are You Listening?

Josh 0:02
Most of the time, when people think about prayer, they think about what we say to God our requests our praises or intercession for other people, or thanks, or questions, maybe complaints, too. But what if there’s another side to the equation? What if prayer could also be about what God wants to say to us? Well, the fact is, it is. Prayer is also about listening. So in today’s podcast, Kate and I are going to chat about this neglected part of prayer. Why listening to God is such a central part of not only our ministry, but really central part of the Christian life, and how listening to God can actually bring healing some of the deepest parts of a person. So a kid, what are things I was thinking about in relation This is I was saying about some of my own past my early Christian experience and, and the role that listening to God either did or didn’t play. What was in your early Christian life? What was was listening to God a part of that was it was it? Was it present people talk about that. Did you experience that? Where did you begin with this? This part?

Kit 1:19
Really glad that we’re talking about this because it is so much I’ve learned so much about it since I’ve been at region and I knew so little about it. So really, No, I did not have any idea about it, any instruction about it and the experience with hearing from God when I was growing up. In fact, I just remembered kind of a funny story. So I grew up Catholic, my mom was a very devoted part of the church. And so we often use the rosary when we would pray. And I remember one time it was when I got my first menstrual period and my cramps were terrible, and my mom was rushing around with the other three choices. And she said, Here, take this, she handed me a heating pad and a rosary. And I

Josh 2:08
say to these and call me in the morning, and by the way, if I can just just interject for a moment, like anybody who signed up said, Oh, yeah, I want to hear about prayer. And we went to the first menstrual period. Come on high five right there. Just to keep

Kit 2:23
it real. Just real. I love it. So um, but that really was at the kind of at the heart of prayer, I think growing up was when you have a need, just, you know, buckle down and ask him to get give it to you was kind of what prayer was. What about you, Josh?

Josh 2:40
Yeah. The way I always felt about prayer, nobody put it this way. But I always kind of feel like the way that maybe even out of the way was talking about the way that we did prayer was, was basically kind of like writing a letter. You know, you say something to God. You might ask questions. You might ask for his intervention, you might even ask him something that you want to hear from him about. And then you kind of say Amen, and you, you walk away and hope that somewhere, sometime in the future, you’ll get an answer. So, you know, you kind of checked the mailbox or something, but there was no mailbox. And so you kind of just almost be like, I don’t know, just hoping that you’d run across a verse or somebody would say something to you or something like that. But there wasn’t really much modeling of, at least not directly around me, in my church growing up of like, you know, we’re asking a question there. We’re gonna stop and we’re gonna listen. Yeah. Although I should also say that my my mom, ever since I was really little, I remember I remember my mom talking about hearing things from God or God telling her things. Hmm. And so even though I didn’t necessarily the context of what that meant, I do think that planted a seed in me that there that there was something that God actually did that he actually spoke to us. So

Kit 3:55
it’s good because for that, yeah, that’s really good, because I don’t think I ever gave it a thought that there was any kind of a relationship? There was not this sense of, oh, there’s something that God might say to me, we might actually speak to each other care for each other have some kind of relationship. So I think I think I’m not alone in that. And so it’s great that your mom, you had some sense of that. But there was a lot more wasn’t there?

Josh 4:22
Yeah, I think so. I mean, and that’s that piece that you just pointed out. kit is I think why it’s so it’s such an important part of our ministry and such an important part of Christian life because listening to God, like being able to talk to God and be able to listen to God is a it’s a very important part of relationship. I heard just recently heard john Eldridge. I don’t know when this was recorded, but I remember him saying something to the effect of if I walked into my kitchen, and I said to my wife, Hey, honey. I really hope that sometime I hope that you would do the dishes today and I’m wondering what you think about me going to play golf and and this Question about we’re going to do with fat, you know, our money this year like our our budgets not looking so great. So curious about your opinion about that. If I were to say that stuff and turn around and walk out of the room, that’s good, I’m happy. But he and his point was we do. That’s what we do with God. And I was like, that’s, that’s fair. That’s fair. So there there is this relational component to it. And, and I’d say that I’d actually even go so far as to say, and we’ll talk some more stories later on in the podcast. But I’d go so far as to say that as we cultivate this, this aspect of listening in our prayer life, that that there’s something healing in just that there’s some healing in what what happens there. So kit, one of things I think happens for a chunk of people is they have some barriers to to why they why they don’t listen, either, either why they don’t think the guy will speak or why they don’t hear or why they don’t listen. And so I thought it’d be helpful for those in our listening audience who have barriers for us to just kind of name some of those? Yeah, at least at least briefly. And the first one dovetails with, for me dovetails with some of my experience growing up whether this was true in my Christian circle or not, it was my experience was that there’s kind of this faulty religious idea that God doesn’t speak today, that he that he, because we have the Bible, because the Bible is completed the completed canon of Scripture. Now God does not speak to individual people anymore. If you want to hear from God, then you go to the quote unquote, Word of God. And, and so that’s kind of some of the air that I was breathing some of the water that I was drinking growing up, and I think for a lot of people that’s that’s, that’s been either something directly talked to them or something they’ve kind of picked up on. Yeah. And are you familiar with that? Have you Did you hear that anywhere in your experience are no people who did

Kit 6:57
so I think that there is skeptical ism. And there’s the sense of, you know, oh gods in the Bible, God isn’t speaking to me like, that’s what happened before. And so there is like a disconnect, you know, like a disbelief and a disconnect as to whether or not God would actually speak to you directly versus just through the Bible.

Josh 7:20
Yeah. And the thing that happened for me eventually, I mean, there are other people involved in this, but but one of the real breakthrough things for me in that regard was as like I was a serious student of Scripture. And the more I read Scripture, the more I I saw that the God of the Bible was a God who maybe not always but he did most definitely speak to people, individual people. And so as a person who was taught to take the scriptures seriously and take them at their word, there was a kind of a cognitive dissonance to say that, therefore, you know, I’m also going to accept that this God doesn’t speak that doesn’t make sense to me and and then not only that, but you know, Jesus directly talked about his his people hearing about john 10 multiple times and john 10. But one of the things he says is My sheep hear My voice, I know them and they follow Me, My sheep hear My voice. And so anyway, I that, I think, blowing the lid off of that. And the I guess the other aspect of that for me, honestly, as I read stories in Scripture, about people hearing the voice of God, I also wanted that I found myself this desire rising up in me and I looking back I trust that was a god given desire, because that’s what I’m made for. That’s what everybody’s made for it to have that communication relationship with God. Yeah. So other other barriers kit that.

Kit 8:50
Yeah, I think that, you know, again, I think that people grew up thinking that the people who heard from God were the were the crazy people. You Know the kind of fringes you know, the people who were like shouting and screaming and you know doing crazy things in the name of God, you know, there wasn’t a an idea of a mainstream that this is actually something that very wise devoted Healthy People partake in and and trust you know i don’t think that was something that was really very common

Josh 9:25
I think a couple of that I think fears that people have about what God might say and so you know, whether like you were talking about if there’s some kind of spiritual abuse or or just you know, in the name of God this is happening and so you know, sometimes and this is in Scripture to sometimes God says things and it is unsettling but but I’ve heard from so many people and I definitely experienced this to resistance to listening because man, what if he tells me to do something that I don’t want to hear? But if he I mean, I think the classic one right like he’s gonna send me to be a missionary in Africa and I’m not sure I’m really up for that.

Kit 10:00
That is a huge one, you know, it’s gonna tell me to stop doing this or to do that or to break up with this boyfriend or, and I remember when I was in ministry at a church and we were doing was a big group of women, maybe 100 women and we asked them about, you know what their relationship was like with God. And like 85 90% said, I’m afraid to talk to God because of what he’ll asked me to do, or what he’ll tell me to do. Yeah, it was really quite, quite stunning. That that that’s a big, big thing for people. And right at the right

Josh 10:39
of the heart of that, if we really dig deep enough, there is it reveals that and this is an okay thing to have revealed and i squared exist. I know it exists in me. There’s a mistrust that God actually loves me and cares about me and will look out for me that he has my best in mind that he, there’s a, maybe a faulty sense for some, that if I listen to him, what he’s going to do is just use me and discard me like I’m expendable to him, as opposed to. He is a guy who cares deeply for us and the things that he invites us to do, asks us to do commands us to do come out of his love for humankind. And for us. There’s a So yeah, I think

Kit 11:26
that’s big. And it also sheds light on, you know, a related idea that, that this rebellion, that I don’t want to ask him anything because I want to do what I want to do. You know, so I don’t want to ask him because he’s not trustworthy, he might not he doesn’t love me, and I don’t want to have to hear him say something that I’m going to have to, you know, actually tell him I don’t want to do that, you know, but there is this rebellious part of us that really don’t want him to help us because Cuz we really want to do what we want to do.

Josh 12:02
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Isn’t that and that, that such is the human experience in a phone world. Yeah, the thing about all of these things that we’ve named so far and we’ve got one more we want to hit on one more barrier is that God can help us he is willing to help us with all of these things. And I think it’s been a startling thing for me. And I still I don’t trust this all the time. But in those places where I where I don’t listen or don’t want to listen, because I you know, I want things my way. It’s a startling thing to discover that that if we are willing to bring that to God, he is willing to help us even with that. Absolutely because because that’s that’s sin condition that Jesus came to deliver us from and so we can recognize kind of this rebellion in me I got this mistrust of view and I want to do things my own way and it seems right to me. You know, I do it right. What seems right in my own eyes, and I all of a sudden I’m like, many Many people throughout Scripture, and Jesus has come to rescue those people too. And I think here of the of the story of the prodigal son, and how, yeah, both the sons, that’s exactly what they wanted. They both wanted things done their own way. And, and Jesus shares the heart of the Father, for people who want to do things their own way, whether in a religious sense, or in a sexually immoral drinking sense, you know, so, yeah. So and then the last one, we talked about this beforehand, but the last barrier kit is how would you How would you describe that?

Kit 13:34
Well, just you know, that this guy, he doesn’t, or he won’t speak to me. You know, a lot of people who come in to regional say, you know, I hear about people always listening hearing from God, I want to hear from God. I don’t know everybody else does. And the fact is, that, oftentimes, they are, they just don’t recognize it. They think it’s gonna look a certain way. And it doesn’t fit in that box. And so they conclude that God doesn’t speak to them. And so, you know, just unpacking that, well, what does it mean to hear from God? And how might that look for you?

Josh 14:09
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that can come from a lot of different places. But, but it can, I think the expression you know, he’s, he doesn’t speak to me, he doesn’t want to speak to me, or there’s something wrong with me and I just can’t hear him. Maybe that’s for, you know, the highly religious or highly devout people, but it just won’t work for me. Yeah. And that’s, that, too, is something that that prayer can actually help with. Mm hmm. I was looking at yesterday as we were preparing for this, I was thinking about Samuel in First Samuel three, this young boy who is being trained by his, the older prophet Li. And the story goes that he’s sleeping there in the in the temple near the Ark of the Covenant and he hears this voice say his name calling him and three times a hears and he gets up and goes And says to aged Eli, you know what, what do you need? You’re calling me and he lies like I’m not calling you. And then finally, the third time that Samuel goes in Eli, it’s the scripture say, Eli discerned that it was the voice of the God of God who was calling him. And so he gave Samuel instruction. He said, it’s God speaking to you next time you hear it, say, you know, speak, Lord, Your servant is listening. And so he like goes back, or Samuel goes back in. Sure enough, the voice of God speaks to him again. And that’s how we respond. And I, I think that there’s something in that for us, like, especially those of us who feel that God isn’t speaking to me won’t speak to me or that I just can’t hear him. It can really be helpful to to seek to hear God with somebody else who’s gotten a little bit more experience in discerning God’s voice. Yet Was there anybody like that for you along the way? Kitt.

Kit 15:52
Yeah, you know, I’ve talked about her before. This older woman in my life who was a real mentor to me and she, we didn’t listing healing prayer together. We didn’t do guided prayer together. But she talked to me about how, how God does want to speak to me and I probably hear from him and how would I go about recognizing that. And so she talked to me about, you know, if you hear something, if you’re talking to God about something and you hear something, ask, is it consistent with Scripture? Is the tone loving and encouraging, you know, convicting, but not condemning? And then, you know, if so trusted, and so she really taught me to be open to the fact that God can and does and help me recognize his voice and that was really helpful. What about you, Josh?

Josh 16:52
will be I’ve got a couple things I’ll share with that, but go back to those three those. So is it consistent with Scripture is it Encouraging

Kit 17:01
his tone you know is that let’s actually God’s voice is always encouraging. Loving. It might be convicting, but not condemning where the enemy’s voice will be condemning, discouraging, hateful, you know, and so we that’s, uh, you know whether it’s consistent with Scripture and whether it fits one of those two areas is a real helpful way to be able to and if you’re asking him to speak to you and you hear something that is consistent, and Dallas Willard in hearing God talks about this too. If you’re asking for him to talk to you, he says something that’s consistent with Scripture and consistent with his tone and character trusted.

Josh 17:45
And I love that. I think that one of the things that happens for people is that our experiences with human beings we end up without realizing we end up projecting those onto God. I think also, as you said, sometimes the enemy tries to sneak in a word as though he is speaking for God or even as though he is God He comes parading as an angel of light. Yeah. And that can leave us with some impressions of how God speaks. I just just the other day read a post by somebody who was saying that they were tired of confessing their sins to God because they felt like every time they came to him to confess, he was rolling their eyes at him. And God was rolling his eyes at this man and I, I thought, I thought Boy, that’s that’s not the heart of God.

Kit 18:29
Right?

Josh 18:30
Yeah. And I think I think one one quick litmus test there is to consider Christ on the cross and is the tone of the voice is the is the direction of the voice seem like it aligns with this God? who is willing to become a human being and bear all that all the all the crap that you can throw at him and all the crap that you’ve been through? Is it does that sound consistent with him?

Kit 18:52
Wow, I find that find that very helpful, really compelling that that idea Yeah, that’s good.

Josh 19:01
So for me, I went through guys actually like maybe two different chapters of my life that really launched me into listening to God and being willing to hear him and believing that I could. The first is what I mentioned before that as I became a serious student of Scripture, I was like, just overwhelmed with the number of people that that he spoke to in this desire to hear him. And so I remember going through a season in college right, I made the decision I said, You know, I, if I think that God is speaking, I’m going to listen to what he says and obey. And I’m going to see what happens I’ve I’ve lived long enough kind of saying like, well, was that really God wasn’t a god, I kind of wait for no way to know before I do anything with it. I was like, you know, for this season. If I think you speak I’m just gonna do it. And, and man that that sent me on some pretty I don’t know, interesting adventure sometimes. I can’t say that I I got it right 100% of time. But looking back, I do think that it was it was a fun and exciting adventure. And I do think that that the Something in it the please the heart of the Lord because I think it was it was a sense of humility that said I and a sense of desire, I want to hear you. And I think those things matter as we’re trying to grow in this. Yeah, the other the other chapter was later as I had a mentor, again through regeneration, not the regeneration only place that you can be mentored and listen to the God but but he he really spent time listening God with me and I remember one of my first experiences with him when we were actually praying for somebody else. And I thought I saw something because we are praying just an image, you know, came to mind in relation to what this we were praying for the sky about. And I just took a risk. I said, You know, I, I don’t know if this means anything. I mean, it’s not a word. It’s just a picture. And I shared the picture. And this mentor, Jeff, he looked across the table at me and he said, that sounds like the Lord to me. And I remember and then We kind of moved on, you know, it wasn’t about me in that moment. But I, but that was that was a powerful word to me because it was maybe the first time that I heard somebody in my life say, somebody I trusted say, it sounds to me like you’re actually discerning something from the Lord. So, yeah, so let’s, let’s talk, let’s talk a little bit cuz I actually kind of went there already. What do we mean? We’re talking about listening to God, that might help us a little bit too. And I think Jeff was one of those people who began helping me I know, Dallas Willard writes about this and hearing God which we should actually have that a link to that in the show notes, including just a brief kind of excerpt from that book where he talks about some of the barriers to listening and hearing that he he’s aware of, but that’s a good helpful book. Yeah, but what what do we mean we’re talking about listening is that you know, like, I sit down and I hear you know, Kitt Ballmer, you know, is it like the Bill Cosby? No, you know, he like so. What are you When you talk to people about listening to God in your office or in your own life, what do you mean?

Kit 22:06
Well, you know, there’s not there’s not just one answer to that question. It really comes in a lot of different forms, just like our relationships with God are really unique. There are a lot of different ways to listen to God. And so I would say that one of the ways that I like to do it in my life is, again, I do a lot of hiking and I, part of my desire when I’m out there is to connect with God to let kind of the ruminating thoughts go away. And so I’ll say, Lord, what do you want to say to me today? What would you want me to hear or understand or know from you today? And the other day, I was pretty tired. I was, you know, and all I heard him say, and again, it’s just a thought, but it was he was inviting me he said, rest in my goodness right? In my goodness, because I was worrying about a lot of things, you know, there’s a lot going out in the world and, and he it was just a beautiful thing. I thought that it felt so fatherly, it felt so strong and inviting and loving. And so that was that was really a gift. So there’s those kinds of moments. And then I also have moments with clients where we actually enter into a guided prayer, you know, we were actually going to a safe, beautiful place that they go to in their imagination, and it’s unique to them and I guide them there. And then we ask that God or Jesus comes there, and I walk them through what it’s like to be with him to see him. And that has been so beautiful, such a privilege on so many occasions for me because it’s it’s often it has been the first time someone has experienced God speaking to to them. And so though, one one memory that came back to me, as I was thinking about talking about this today was a woman who was, so several years ago, but she was really dealing with a lot of shame, and a lot of just just self hatred. And she imagined herself with Jesus. And suddenly she said, I’m wearing a white dress, and it’s snowing. And she started to cry. And Jesus was with her and she began to really receive this blessing of beauty and purity from Jesus, and I mean, she wept. And it was a it was a moment that will stay with her forever.

Josh 24:49
Hmm. Wow. See, I see. That’s what I mean when I say that, that this aspect of prayer listening to God, it can actually be something that can bring healing to us

Kit 24:58
very much

Josh 25:00
Because we’re talking about the one who sees us, most speaking to us revealing something in us or about us or Yeah, or for us. Yeah, some of those other things come to mind. I do think there are times where, and if you’re listening, I’d actually say, you know what Kate was saying before, about, you know, sometimes God is speaking, and you may not recognize that it’s him. So as we’re talking about these things, consider like, Has that ever happened to me? Might it be the God of speaking then? I think for some people, and one things that my mentor taught me, he said, he said, it seems like different people hear from God in different ways. Not that they can’t hear in a lot of different ways. But it’s almost like, there might be one main way or one or two main ways that God seems to speak. And I think that might have some to do with personality. It might have something to do with the way God’s wired. It’s like, you know, I actually speak to my children. There’s some things I say to all of them. But if I’m having a one on one conversation, they’re inside jokes and they’re things that we talk about again. One kid, where we love talking about language. And that’s just a part of a part of what we do and work together. Because we both get fired up about that. So I think so these different ways may just be part of how God is trying to reach individuals hearts. But I’ve heard you know, some people that hear him a lot through through Scripture, like as they’re praying and listening specific scripture verses will come to mind. Yeah, a friend of mine recently was having an experience where he, that this, this kind of, you know, very small verse from the Old Testament came to mind for him that he hadn’t read in years and years, and God revealed something new to him through it. He was like, Where’d that come from? Sometimes I’ve heard that some people I’ve never met anybody like this, but I’ve heard that some people actually will get an address, like, like a scriptural address, like, you know, first Corinthians or four, you know, first Chronicles 1012. And they’re like, what? And they go, they’re like, oh my gosh. So I’ve always kind of wanted that to happen around me. Sometimes, it’s It can be just an impression their ties regardless, to me through an impression is something that that comes that. And oftentimes, it’s a surprise, it’s not where my brain would typically go. Another way that he speaks to me often is through through pictures. And sometimes there’s a there can even be a dovetail between like, I’m seeing a picture and if I were to describe it to you, it wouldn’t quite be what the pictures about unless I also understand the impressions coming with it like this scene and it’s and it’s warm there or it’s there. So those are some of the ways that that God speaks is speak to me.

Kit 27:37
Yeah, it’s so can be so personal. I’m remembering a time when I was doing some guided prayer by myself. And, and there was a particularly time where there was kind of a lot of pain and a lot of longing in me. And when I imagined this place that the Lord helped me find a place that that make where I feel safe where I feel, you know, loved and suddenly, I’m This beautiful Creek near our house, but then all the dogs I’ve ever had in my life, and I’m a dog lover, were there with me. It was such a surprise. And it was such a gift. And it was just so sweet and so meaningful to me that God comforted me with the faces of each of the dogs that I’ve loved through the years, you know, and yeah, I just saw I think there’s so many ways that and healing came through that that was a healing picture for me.

Josh 28:30
Yeah. So I want to one experience I had early on in this journey for me was I remember being in the spare time that was especially moving for me and I, just for the point of the conversation, I’ll skip kind of what was so moving to me, but I just was feeling such love from God. And I remember turning to him in the prayer and at one point, after several minutes and saying, Okay, thank you. Thank you for that love. Now, what do you want me to do? And and I didn’t I just thought, you know, Like, that’s kind of the way my brain worked. And immediately I heard these words in my head. And again, it wasn’t audible. It was just an impression of words. But the reason I knew it was God was it. It came with such surprise, like it was nowhere in on my radar like I never expected the words to come. And immediately a verse came with the back that up so I knew that it was scriptural. What I heard was, so I just received this great love. And I said, Thank You, Lord, you know, now what do you want me to do? And the words I heard in my, in the kind of stillness in my mind were, do nothing, I didn’t give this to you. So you would do something I gave as a gift. Because I love you and, and, and then the verse that came immediately was was the, you know that, that we are saved by grace, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast and all of a sudden that the word gift just, it just kind of like blew open for me and was like, Oh, yeah, I have to do something for it. It’s Not a gift. And it’s kind of just like, you know, I mean, I’d read the verse a million times, but it now sort of meant something more. And, and that happened, gosh, 20 years ago, and it’s still a formational. Yeah, word for me.

Kit 30:13
And I think one of the things that would be important to say is that my time of prayer of, of listening prayer, didn’t start with the story I just told you, like, I it was years and years of wanting it, reading about it, learning about it from other people practicing it myself, practice it with other people. So it’s a journey, it takes time. So I don’t want anybody to feel discouraged if they sit down to do it, and they don’t have some, you know, some significant experience like yes, be patient with it, and just keep at it and, you know, let it let it develop over time.

Josh 30:56
It’s so so true. I mean, Like it like so many things in the Christian life. Listen, prayer can be something that we grow in bingo through seasons, you know, I yes, I have this conversation I’ll share you know, the times I heard from God, there’s so many seasons where I go to listen and I don’t hear anything. Yes, I think I like to think about listening prayers, kind of a almost like a posture. And I think about Mary, where she I mean, she’s just she, she hears these things from God experiences things that Jesus, Luke to this she this great passage, Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. Now that’s not describing a prayer moment, but she had heard about who her son is going to be. She’s experienced this miraculous, virginal birth. And then all these people start showing up at the birth he shepherds, these wise men and Mary treasured all these things, putting them in her heart. I think she was such a great example of this kind of receptivity before the Lord. Yeah. Want to hear anything I’d say is that there is a bit of a risk here. You know, we’ve heard that that old phrase, the willing suspension of disbelief, we use it when we watch movies like, you know, we suspend the things that don’t quite make sense. I think I think it makes sense to do that sometimes in prayer like that we will experience doubt. Yeah, it’s a normal experience. And so would we willingly suspend that doubt for a moment and just even ask the question, maybe back to the Lord, was that you? Or ask somebody else like I heard this just like you, john wimber, who is the founder of the vineyard church? I believe it was him he said, you spell faith. Ri SK. And I think that can feel like a riskiness is we’re trying to hear the voice of God for ourselves or somebody else, instead of just taking some risks sometimes, as we’re praying for somebody else, and listening or praying for ourselves and listening can be a helpful thing. So yeah, good. Well, with all that in mind, we’re out of time. But what my main hope in this I don’t know if we’ve accomplished it for those listening but my main hope This whole podcast was to try to evoke a bit of desire for hearing the voice of God. I know for me there are times, right, I’m not listening. And then I somebody talks about hearing God or I read something about somebody hearing God and I find myself going, Oh yeah, I want that. Lord, I want to hear from you. So I hope that some it’s something that’s podcasted both incited some desire and you and maybe also increased your faith a bit, that God does speak and in that light, I just want to close us in in a little bit of prayer. So God, thank you, you who are the word Jesus, we long to hear your words. Or your voice is healing for the nations or is your word goes out, like seed that brings life to the soil. God Your word is like a sharp two edged sword that can divide between joint and narrow soul and spirit. Hear it? Or do your word is like a sword. It’s the sword of the Spirit or through the presence of your Holy Spirit. Your word brings us comfort and leads us into truth, real truth that we can stand on. And Lord, we as relational creatures who speak and who listen. our ears, our hearts or minds long to hear from you, or teach us how to hear your voice. expose all the all the enemies and all the obstacles that keep us from really hearing you yourself. And Lord, certainly in this hour, both personally and collectively. Guy we need to hear from you. Jesus, would you share with us your ability to hear the father and Lord, would you also share with us your faith To receive and to respond. We prayed in your name. Amen.