Conversation with God

Introduction

Good morning church,

Today we are starting a new series called Prayer and Listening.

We’re looking at this for several reasons … firstly, last year we read a book together called the church of tomorrow, which I think many were inspired, encouraged and challenged by … and one of the key topics that John McGinley looked at was being a people who prioritised prayer. So I thought it would be good to look at this a bit more deeply.

Secondly, we are at the start of Lent, and Lent is a season where we take time to focus on ‘self-examination and repentance; prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and reading and meditating on God’s holy word.’

I think as a church we want to be a people who listen to what God is saying to us, and then do it - is that fair? So, hopefully in this series we’ll sharpen our skills in prayer and listening.

We’re going to be following a study guide in our small groups (show), but this is also suitable for individual study, so if you’re not in a small group - there’s a couple of options - if you would like to be in a group, please let me know, or if you would like to follow this individually, please contact the church office, and they can give you the details of where to buy the booklet.

I’d like to pray for us ...

How is it possible for us to have a conversation with God?

The topic for today is Conversation with God.

Now, for some of you this may feel like second nature, for some it might be something you find quite hard to grasp, and for others this might be a completely new idea.

So, I thought we’d start with ‘How is it possible for us to have a conversation with God?’

Firstly, we are known by God

Psalm 139:1–4 “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.”

Loved by God

1 John 3:1 “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

Filled with the Holy Spirit

Acts 2:17–18 ““ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.”

If we look at the life of Jesus, we are invited by him into the same sort of relationship with the Father that he had.

John 14:15–21 ““If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.””

As we read this passage, we get the sense of an intimate and close relationship between Jesus and the Father, and we are brought into this relationship - where we know the Father, for he lives with us and will be in us - where we understand that Jesus is in the Father, we are in Jesus, and he is in us. I mean don’t try and understand how it all works physically, I don’t think that’s the point, but if we were to think about the closeness of relationships that we have. If we think about family members that we are very close with, or even friends that have become family to us, we sometimes use that sort of language. Sometimes people say when they have lost someone very special that it feels like they have lost a part of themselves. It’s this kind of closeness that Jesus is getting at I think. This is the kind of relationship with God that we are brought into.

So, we are known by God, we are loved by God, we are filled with the Holy Spirit, and we are brought into the same sort of relationship with the Father that Jesus had - and this makes conversation with God possible.

What does conversation with God look like?

You may have noticed in the newssheet that against today the reading was Genesis. And the reason for that is because there are several points in Genesis where Abraham has a conversation with God - we see it in Genesis 15, Genesis 17 and Genesis 18. I didn’t think it was fair to read all of those passages, so we just heard the first, but feel free at some point this week to look at the other ones.

What we see in those three chapters is that there are different phrases used for how God communicates with Abraham.

In chapter 15, we heard that ‘The word of the Lord came to Abram ...’

And firstly it was ‘in a vision’ … we don’t know any more than that, but I would imagine that Abraham was awake because later we read

‘Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him’ …

Then in chapters 17 and 18, it says that the Lord appeared to Abraham

In chapter 17 it was just God, it says that Abraham fell facedown and God said to him … In chapter 18, he is visited by 3 men, and he falls facedown, we don’t know exactly what happened ... but but if he fell facedown in chapter 18 where there are three men, it may be that God appeared as a single person in chapter 17 … so Abraham’s response to God appearing and there being physical people is to bow facedown. In both cases we don’t exactly know who appeared to Abraham, perhaps they were angels, some have even suggested that the first one was a unique one-off appearance of Jesus before his birth, we don’t know - but either way they were physical appearances of God’s servants.

And interestingly, whether it is a vision or a physical appearance of God, the same type of interaction follows.

Abraham has a conversation with God … it goes back and forth.

God speaks to Abraham, he delivers a message, he tells Abraham what he is going to do. But Abraham is able to respond, it’s not a one-way conversation, and God responds to Abraham. Later in chapter 18 we read about how Abraham even negotiates with God - he negotiates for God to not out-rightly destroy Sodom and Gomorrah whilst Lot’s family are there.

So what we see is that God has a conversation with Abraham. He knows him, and he speaks with him, he allows Abraham to respond … there is conversation and even negotiation. And God invites us into this sort of relationship as well.

We may not have times when we have a visit from one or three angels, although that could happen, but whether it is that, or quietly communicating in your spirit, maybe hearing an audible voice, maybe having a vision or a picture of something that God wants to show you, maybe it is just a sense from God.

We can pray, we can have conversation … and God can and wants to communicate with us, and we can respond.

How we can foster a conversation with God

If this is something new for you, or something that you haven’t done in a while, I think the key thing is making a start.

Start talking to God … whether it it outloud or in your head … maybe you are the sort of person who likes to write stuff down in a journal. Whatever way you choose - make a start.

The big challenge is often around making time I think - so start making time

Start small

Don’t go into this thinking that you are going to become the greatest person of prayer ever or going to have the most amazing spiritual life … just start small and begin to communicate and listen.

Takes about 40 days to build a habit - we're looking to build a habit rather than have a one-off chat - because we’re looking at building relationship.

One way you can do this is by building a habit around something you already do - hang it on that … so you may find that you have some time around your morning cuppa, or whilst you’re sitting having breakfast, or if you’re rushed in the morning, maybe in the evening. You could create a bit of time around an activity you already do.

One Brother Lawrence

Like central heating - more needed to heat from cold, but warming up from cooler requires less