How Do We Listen to God?

Post Author: Bill Pratt

Oftentimes you’ll hear pastors or priests tell us to listen to what God has to say to us, but how exactly are we supposed to do this? Should we expect God to communicate in a booming voice, much like he spoke to Moses on the mountain? If not like this, then how are we to understand this command to listen to God?

Christian philosopher Peter Kreeft introduces the concept of listening to God in his book Prayer for Beginners. An important step in learning how to pray is learning how to listen to God. So, how do we go about listening to God?

In a conversation, if you are the wisest, it makes sense for you to do most of the talking. If the other person is wiser, it makes sense for you to do most of the listening. The wiser the other is, the more listening you want to do. Well, prayer is conversation with God, and it makes no sense for us to do most of the talking. We ought to be listening most of the time.

But, you may object, we cannot hear God’s voice as we can hear the voice of another human being. True, but we can hear God’s voice in other ways. We hear him in nature, which is his art. We hear him in his providential directing of our lives, and in the lessons in human history, and in the “still, small voice” of our conscience, God’s interior prophet. We hear him loud and clear in Scripture, his inspired Word deliberately given to us. One way of praying is listening to God’s voice in Scripture, reading Scripture as God’s Word—which is exactly what it is!

And the best listening, the listening that gets the closest to God’s heart, the listening that hears the most total revelation of God, is listening to Christ, God incarnate, God in the flesh, “very God of very God”. “The Word of God” means the Bible only secondarily; primarily it means Christ. In the words of the Catechism, Christ is “the Father’s one, perfect, and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there will be no other word than this one” (CCC 65). Praying by reading the Gospels prayerfully and “listeningly” is one of the very best ways to pray.

Let’s review the ways we listen to God. Kreeft introduces 6 ways of listening to God in order of their effectiveness and importance:

nature
providential directing of our lives
lessons in human history
conscience
Scripture
Christ in the Gospels

The implication of this ordering is that those who listen primarily in ways 1-4 are missing out on the 2 best ways to listen to God. They are starving themselves of his fuller revelation. There is nothing wrong with ways 1-4, but we mustn’t stop there. If we are going to hear the most from God, if we are going to get the “closest to God’s heart,” we must take seriously the reading of Scripture, and especially the reading of the Gospels.

Tags: listen to God, Peter Kreeft, Prayer for Beginners

This entry was posted by Bill Pratt on Wednesday, February 8th, 2012 at 9:00 am and is filed under Prayer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Bill Pratt

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Anonymous

Nature? Come on. Where is there evidence that nature comes from god rather than natural selection writ large? (attribution)

Providential directing? Except for all the accidents and unnecessary deaths and injuries that result. (assumption)

Lessons in human history? We take from history what we put into it. (attribution)

Conscience? Account for the bicameral brain, please and show this ‘ghost’ in the machinery. (attribution)

Scripture? Why so many factual errors in each of the supposed Holy Books? Please account for the lack of a coherent message, delivered in a timely fashion, to reveal a concise divine agency. (assertion)

Christ in the Gospel? You mean Jesus? The hater of fig trees and bringer of eternal damnation and everlasting torment? (assertion)

None of these reveal a kind of message that can only be explained by a divine interventionist agency. But we DO know is that intercessory prayer is not efficacious. This is a important clue…
Cedric Katesby

The beauty of such profound advice is that it works for inanimate objects too or even invisible beings made up purely from fantasy.
Behold:

“In a conversation, if you are the wisest, it makes sense for you to do most of the talking. If the other person is wiser, it makes sense for you to do most of the listening. The wiser the other is, the more listening you want to do. Well, prayer is conversation with a jug of milk, and it makes no sense for us to do most of the talking. We ought to be listening most of the time.

But, you may object, we cannot hear a jug of milk’s voice as we can hear the voice of another human being. True, but we can hear a jug of milk’s voice in other ways. We hear it in nature, which is it’s art. We hear it in it’s providential directing of our lives, and in the lessons in human history, and in the “still, small voice” of our conscience, a jug of milk’s interior prophet. We hear it loud and clear in the labeling on the jug, it’s inspired contents and fat level deliberately given to us. One way of praying is listening to the jug of milk’s voice in the label, reading the label as the jug of milk’s Word—which is exactly what it is!

And the best listening, the listening that gets the closest to the jug of milk’s heart, the listening that hears the most total revelation of the jug of milk, is listening to the cream at the top, the jug of milk incarnate, the jug of milk in the flesh, “very jug of milk of very jug of milk”. “The Word of the jug of milk” means the label only secondarily; primarily it means the cream at the top. In the words of the dairy company, the cream at the top is “the jug of milk’s one, perfect, and unsurpassable Word. In it, it has said everything; there will be no other word than this one” . Praying by reading the label prayerfully and “listeningly” is one of the very best ways to pray.”

The best optical illusion in the world!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk6ILZAaAMI

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