I have to let you in on a little secret. I don't know as much about myself as I think I do.
Yesterday, I sat down to lunch with a guy and we chatted about God and everything in between. We talked about theology, the church, broken relationships, the Holy Spirit, different movements of God around the world, and an assortment of other things.
You know when someone says something to you that makes you look deep inside yourself? Yep… that's what happened.
After all that talk, he looked me straight in the eyes and said, "I see you have a sensitivity to the Spirit that most people just don't have. When did you get that and how?"
My immediate thoughts were, "Oh crap! I do? Uhhh… what do I say?"
My first verbal response, however was, "Hmm… Man! I'm not entirely sure how to answer this." So I rolled through a few things that surfaced in my mind then said, "…I always encourage people to ask the hard questions – ask the hard questions to people and to God. Don't ever stop asking questions and exploring the depths of His heart. It also comes from intimacy with the Father."
I'm going to be honest with you. It burns me to the core when I go into a church and they skim off the top or I have a shallow conversation with someone. Point blank – I don't like general answers. Here's the problem – I felt like I gave him one. I gave him a general answer by saying "it comes from intimacy with the Father." What's that look like exactly? Well, God knows that I don't like answers like that, and He decided to honor it and answer it for me.
As this man responded and I tried to stay attentive to what he was saying, God spoke. My eyes started to water and it took every last thread in my being not to burst into tears in this public restaurant with this complete stranger when God said to me, "Colby, when you pray, you rarely speak."
There have been times in my life where I have thought, "My prayer life just sucks right now – it just seems non-existent." Have you ever felt this way? Oh boy… have I ever!
We have this idea of what prayer is, and most of us think that it's talking to God (yap yap yap) all the time. Surely there's more to it than that, right?
Let me tell you what I learned.
God is OK with you not speaking to Him all the time.
There is a time to speak and a time to listen.
I seem to have come to this point without even realizing it myself.
"My sheep know my voice," Jesus said, and in listening, we know His voice. In knowing His voice, we are sensitive to the supernatural, the movement of the Holy Spirit, what's really going on around us, and the deeper things of God.
I encourage you – when you pray, rarely speak.
