The Introduction to Listening Prayer course was offered online in Nov/Dec 2020. The course is based on biblical examples supported by practical experience. In this 5 week course we learn accountability and best practices in rightly and effectively hearing God speak. We cover topics like how God communicates to his people, how we can develop godly practices in hearing God speak, and how we can minister to others with God’s heart and word pouring from our lips.
Below you will find some testimonies from the course. We hope to run the course again soon. Watch the monthly e-News and/or read the Inspire blog for news.
I really enjoyed our first session; just sitting in God’s presence and giving him a chance to be heard is so underestimated! I feel He speaks a lot but I don’t listen most of the time.
The reasons I find for people not listening is more to do with not expecting God to speak because they are used to Bible stories where God speaks before major events and not feeling that God sees them as important enough to speak to. The major strength of the course was in the exercises and in the relationships built up in our little groups. Although the exercises were all quite daunting, they worked and God spoke some amazing things to me through those groups.
The question of why God heals some and not others has inhibited me from asking for healing. I’ve been struck by the connection between healing and listening. As I listen and hear God, I am being healed from faulty beliefs and wrong teachings about the character of God and healing places where I have doubts and unbelief.
I think up until recently I didn’t recognize God speaking, and just thought it was my own common sense. It has been helpful for me to learn about this part of how God speaks and practicing that in my own Fellowship Bands or House Fellowships.
I think this course is encouraging me to be a little more confident in hearing God, but a long way to go in learning the skills of lovingly sharing what I sense God may be saying for someone else.
Receiving prompts or hearing something from God is a wonderful way of reassurance and feeling the relationship with Him is growing and deepening.
I can see the benefits of learning to use listening prayer in Fellowship bands and Fellowship meetings and will hope to encourage this to happen.
(After one of the Listening Prayer sessions), during worship time in our home church this week, I offered first to spend some time in silence, listening to the Lord before praising and singing to Him. I found it preciously important to sit silently in front of the Lord and just be still. In mind and in the heart. I got some very exciting feedback after we finished our time of silence. It sounds so obvious – to just listen – but this fast and active world makes it almost impossible.
I also enjoyed practicing Listening Prayer in my band. The Holy Spirit reveals the real worries and struggles in the hearts of my band members and mine as well.
