Listening to God in Prayer

Introduction

Good morning church, it’s really good to see you all.

May I add my welcome to you all too, whether online or in the building, and especially if it’s your first time with us, you’re really welcome.

I want to confess something at the start of this sermon, and that is that when I was planning this series, I forgot that today was Mother’s Day. We sometimes on a Monday in our staff prayer time look at the passage for the next Sunday, and someone did ask - how on earth do you link that with Mother’s Day - and it was one of those moments where you think … oh no …

And I did try to think if I could crow-bar it in somehow, but I’m not sure I can … so if you see an overlap, please tell me afterwards, but otherwise we’ll just carry on as normal!

Maybe - David with his heavenly Father - God has both maternal and paternal characteristics - although we refer to God as Father, which is how in particular Jesus has made him known to us, God is definitely beyond human gender, and we see feminine atributes to God mentioned in Scripture.

So far in this series on Prayer and Listening, we’ve looked at prayer being a conversation with God, we’ve looked at being authentic when we pray, and last week we looked at how we bring our requests to God.

This week is the first one that looks particularly at the Listening bit of Prayer and Listening.

For a little bit of background, 1 and 2 Chronicles are some of the history books of the Old Testament, and although there are two books, they are really one whole story. You can split the story of Chronicles into three sections:

STRUCTURE OF CHRONICLES

1 Chron. 1:1–9:44 From Adam to the restoration from Babylon

1 Chron. 10:1–2 Chron. 9:31 The reigns of David and Solomon

2 Chron. 10:1–36:23 From Rehoboam to the restoration from Babylon

‘The structure of the book is intended to focus on the situation of the community in Judah after the exile.’

Samuel and Kings - both history books, focus on different sections, different angles - different purposes

How does David listen to God?

In the passage we just heard, David prioritises listening to God

After David is anointed king, a neighbouring nation, the Philistines, who had often been at war with Israel, decide to attack Israel. And they do this on two separate occasions. David goes to join the army to confront the enemy forces, but on each occasion, before he decides what their battle plan is going to be, he decides to ask God what he should do. And there is a pattern that emerges:

9 Now the Philistines had come and raided the Valley of Rephaim; 10 so David inquired of God: “Shall I go and attack the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hands?” The Lord answered him, “Go, I will deliver them into your hands.” 11 So David and his men went up to Baal Perazim, and there he defeated them. He said, “As waters break out, God has broken out against my enemies by my hand.” So that place was called Baal Perazim.

13 Once more the Philistines raided the valley; 14 so David inquired of God again, and God answered him, “Do not go directly after them, but circle around them and attack them in front of the poplar trees. 15 As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the poplar trees, move out to battle, because that will mean God has gone out in front of you to strike the Philistine army.” 16 So David did as God commanded him, and they struck down the Philistine army, all the way from Gibeon to Gezer.

So this is the pattern that we see:

David inquired of God (he asked God what he should do) - The Lord answered - David did as God commanded - (in the process of David doing what God said) God acts - (In the case of these battles) the result is Victory

We could also simplify the pattern like this:

Ask God - Receive Answer - Obey - God Acts - ‘Success’

How do we listen to God?

Well, if we were to follow David’s pattern, surely all that we need to do is the same thing:

Ask God - Receive Answer - Obey - God Acts - ‘Success’

Sometimes, I would say that it can be that simple … we pray about a situation, we get a sense of how we should respond, and we obey God, and things fall into place.

For example, the other day I was listening to a Premier Praise, a Christian radio station, whilst I was driving, and they were doing a financial appeal, and a lady wrote gave to the appeal and she wrote that as she had been listening, she was thankful for the ministry of Premier Praise, and she felt what she called a ‘holy nudge’ to give, and so she gave what she felt able to, and that contributed to Premier reaching their goal to help the ministry continue.

So, I’m not sure if she directly asked God, but she got an answer of sorts - an encouragement to give, she obeyed, and God was at work in others helping a ministry that shares the good news of Jesus continue.

Sometimes it can be that simple … we ask God, in the quiet of our hearts, and God answers … maybe it is through a sense of what we should do, maybe we are reminded or led to a verse of the Bible that shines some light on the situation, maybe we are given a sense of peace that God is in control … whatever the situation might be

But, it’s probably fair to say that it’s not always that easy … sometimes the situation that we are faced with can be quite challenging, maybe we find it is emotionally or mentally really tough, whatever it is … for any number of reasons … this pattern, although simple, could be really challenging to outwork

I would say that this is a discipline … it’s what many Christian writers call a spiritual discipline … it’s something that takes practice, which means that we don’t get it right every time. Sometimes we forget to ask, sometimes we forget what God has said, sometimes we don’t hear what God says correctly …

So, as with any discipline, it takes practice

David has been following God for many years. He was thirty when he became king, and so he has learnt over many years how to listen to God, and he still makes mistakes when he is king, so he’s not perfect at all, but he has practiced for quite a while.

It sometimes takes a community

We have firstly talked about hearing from God in individual terms, but for David, it may not have just been a process of him asking God in prayer what to do a hearing an answer, it could quite possibly have involved others.

In the Old Testament, there was a practice that God created to find out his will for particular decisions, often of national importance when the way forward was not clear, and that was through two stones - the Urim and Thummim stones. These two stones, were held in the ornate breastplate of the High Priest, and they had a yes and a no side. So David may have ‘enquired of God’ by going to the High Priest to ask the question: ‘Shall I go and attack the Philistines’. And when the stones were rolled, two ‘yes’s meant a definite yes, two ‘no’s meant a definite no, and if it was a mix - God has not spoken. So, David may have asked God in this way, and then there was further clarification given by some priests or prophets who were prayerfully seeking God’s will with Daivd.

It can be tempting to think that because we each have the Holy Spirit and can hear God for ourselves that we don’t need others. Sometimes, maybe in the smaller things, God will just speak clearly and directly to us, but sometimes, maybe in the larger things, God will use different people to confirm or cause you to rethink a decision.

In the New Testament, we see that the Holy Spirit gives gifts to all of the people of God - we all have different gifts - some speak in tongues, some prophesy, some have gifts of leadership, of grace, of healing, of administration … of many other things - no one has all of the gifts, we need each other

We see in the New Testament we see times when God uses different people in the process of listening to God and working out what to do.

One pastor splits the process up into three steps:

Revelation - Interpretation - Application

And I think this is quite helpful, and interestingly, he suggests that often the process can involve more than one person.

In Acts 21, there is a story of a prophet bringing a prophecy to Paul when he is in Caesarea.

Acts 21:10–14 “After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’ ” When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.””

Agabus has a revelation - maybe it was a picture or a vision that he saw of Paul being bound.

Agabus then comes to Paul and shares the revelation with an interpretation - Paul, when he goes to Jerusalem is going to be bound by the Jewish leaders and handed over the Gentiles.

Then all the people make an instant application - Paul should not go because it is not safe for him.

But interestingly, Paul has a different application - he knows already that God is sending him to Jersualem, so although this is a revelation of what is going to happen, Paul knows that he must still go.

e.g. picture in France - Pete, interpretation - me, application? Confirmed by the pastor that it was on point

Listening to God in Prayer

Desire of our hearts - seek and obey

Practice

Do it individually and together