In this series of posts we are considering the “hearing aids” in prayer we have received from God. We want to hear Him and understand what He is speaking, especially in our times of prayer. But, so often we just don’t get it without ears opened to God’s voice. So, to answer the cry of our hearts, God helps us by giving us spiritual hearing aids.

SEE PREVIOUS POSTs:

• “4.1: If Anyone Has Ears to Hear“
• “4.2: Awe (Fear) of God“

Today, we are considering the hearing aid of The Holy Spirit’s Presence, or the heart’s fullness of God.

When Jesus ascended into heaven, after being raised from the dead, he didn’t leave his followers alone. He sent his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to come live IN our hearts and WITH us – in our midst! Because the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, he is equal in power and glory with the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ.

But more importantly for our topic today, HE is also the VOICE we hear, when we hear God. The Holy Spirit is God’s voice of truth and grace not only as the “voice behind us” through the Scriptures he inspired in the past, but for this moment. He is the moving of God to bring us into fuller, deeper fellowship with Himself and to mold us into a true reflection of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

John 16:13-15 ESV

The Holy Spirit present with us and in us is the ONLY reason we can hear God in prayer.

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

John 6:63

We hear his voice among us when he moves with power upon us, like the wind through the trees. We hear his voice within when he moves with grace within us, filling our minds and hearts with God-thoughts, God-yearnings, God-understandings.

He becomes the background music setting the stage for our actions in obedience to what we now know of God. He quiets our hearts with remembrances of God’s words and promises. And above all, He reveals Jesus to us in such a way that we want to be like him and out of love for him, to give all that we are and have to God. He is “God in the room,” filling us with awe and wonder at his majesty, sovereignty and glory.

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God…

1 Corinthians 2:12-13; 1 John 2:18-27, 3:19-24

But if you are led by the Spirit…If we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Galatians 5:16-25

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:14-21

Understand what the will of the Lord is…be filled with the Spirit

Ephesians 5:17-21

ALL of this makes it possible for us to really pray – to carry on a real-time dialog with God himself.

In the 1980s Julia and I had the privilege of helping to start and run Sugar Creek Camp, a summer camping program for the children and youth of the Evangelical Free Churches of Illinois and Indiana. We held the camps at the national training center of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in Marshall, Indiana. Next to Turkey Run State Park, the area was full of natural beauty that added much joy and wonder to lives of the young in our care.

One early morning, before anyone else was stirring, I was troubled about some challenging leadership questions and decided to have my quiet time with God out beside the fishing hole a short distance from the cabins. The pond was circled by tall trees – a glorious mixture of red cedar, pines, black walnut, elm, shagbark hickory, sugar maples and cottonwood. When I walked out on the pond’s small dock, it was utterly quiet. The birds that were singing already to welcome the dawn in other parts of the camp were quiet here. I had the “sense” that I was in a holy place with God.

As I began to unburden my soul to God, a strange thing happened, a breeze rippled through the trees going around the pond in a circular fashion from the right side of the dock to the left. It was just for a moment, but I felt at that moment that God was reassuring me that his Spirit was among us and moving to accomplish his good purposes. The birds began to sing, and I was at peace as I headed back to wake up my family.

Experiences like that are precious to us, but equally prized are those moments in a prayer circle when you notice that everyone is thinking of the same verse, or speaking the same theme in submission to the Lord — and you know HE is there. Equally treasured are those times when you don’t have words to pray, or can’t think straight because your emotions have you tied in knots and picking up your Bible, you read the words the Spirit has given us and are calmed, given understanding, and able once again to stand and serve our Gracious Master.

O, that we would have this hearing aid! Without it we are deaf to God’s voice and lost in ourselves.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Revelation 2:7,11,17,29; 3:6,13,22

To have this “ear to hear” we need:

• The right environment – quietness and trust, repentance and rest (Isaiah 30:15-22)
• Godly mentors – the writers of the Scriptures (Isaiah 50:4-5; 2 Peter 1:16-21)
• The right heart – surrendered to Christ (1 Samuel 3:1-10)
• Anticipation – expectation that HE is speaking and will speak to me! (Psalm 16:11, James 1:5-7)

Additional Resources:

• Pray in the Holy Spirit
• How to Discern the Voice of the Holy Spirit: 5 Truths from God’s Word
• Highest and Best Knowledge
• Spirit Lead Me – Michael Ketterer & Influence Music
• The Role of the Holy Spirit
• Speak, O Lord – Keith and Kristyn Getty
• In Whom Do You Now Trust?
• Psalm 139:23-24 Song (NKJV) “Lead Me in the Way Everlasting” (Esther Mui)
• Like a Dove
• Speak, Lord, In The Stillness

POSTS IN THIS 2021 SUMMER SESSION OF THE HUDSON VALLEY SCHOOL OF PRAYER:

• “4.1: If Anyone Has Ears to Hear“
• “4.2: Awe (Fear) of God“
• “4.3: Fullness of the Holy Spirit (Presence)”
• “4.4: Spiritual Hearing Aids for Everyday Living, Part One (by faith loving Christ)“
• “4.5: Spiritual Hearing Aids for Everyday Living, Part Two (forgiveness)“
• “4.6 Spiritual Hearing Aids for Everyday Living, Part Three (grateful obedience)“