Pray – Listen –Obey
Pray – Listen –Obey
By Tony De La Rosa
Listen - Pray - Obey. Do you pray, are you listening, will you obey?
A wonderful Reformed missionary to India, Mary Geegh, gave us a small booklet "God Guides" a keen insight focused on the journey to pray with expectation, listening with endurance, and to obey with power and authority. It is a journey; this is a testimony to her work and our opportunity to see "thy will be done".
There is a simplicity to prayer that many fail to grasp, it is just talking to God. For many the ways we are taught or have experienced have been formal and structured, however some things we just need to talk to Abba. This conversation has to be both ways, meaning we also have to listen. This works as our God is an awesome listener and as we grow in intimacy with our Father God, understand the grace of Jesus our Savior, and drawing upon the gift of the Holy Spirit, we learn to spend time in stillness at the foot of the throne. We learn to ask what would God have us do, in the moment, the hour, the day, or the walk out to something unknown.
The prayer can be shaped with words focused on praise and adoration, repentance and confession, thanksgiving, and/or supplication or petition. The question has to be is it from your heart? Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer as a model and there are times when we just want to cry out to the Lord. Sometimes as the Word says we are unable to speak and the spirit speaks for us.
No matter what, we are called to be in communication with God. So, we pray in whatever way we are able, but today let’s just pray with the intent to listen to what God would reveal for our actions.
Here is a testimony, in a triad, we started by each praying in turn for what to lift up before the Lord on behalf of the brother next to us. As I asked this very quickly, I was given that this brother needed prayer over his anxiety. I prayed a simple prayer knowing that this word came from God. After our prayers were finished, the brother that I prayed for spoke about the very need that my prayer for him addressed. Pray – Listen – Obey. Here is a prayer that can guide you from Mary’s booklet; Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus Christ, Your Son, and according to James 1:5 I am seeking wisdom for _____________.
To be still, to listen, to wait, to be anxious for nothing, to have endurance requires only the ability to let go, and surrender your agenda. Mary, rightly points out that it is not easy to set aside time in favor of what the Lord would bring. Psalm 46:10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Luke 11:28 … “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” Listening can mean stop everything and wait upon the Lord. It can also be demonstrated with moving in life but keeping our mind focused, 1 Corinthians 2:15-16 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. Pray – Listen – Obey.
To obey does not mean, when I get time or when it suits my pleasure. To obey is an action word and it requires us to act as directed by the Lord. It means that we submit to the King of kings for his purpose and glory. It also means we do not get to change the direction to suit an agenda or some idealized or selective response. God is telling us a response to our request. Our action is to act in faith and do what Father says. Jeremiah 42:5-6 Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the LORD your God sends you to tell us. Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the LORD our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the LORD our God.” Pray – Listen – Obey.