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Conversation with God Hearing God Holy Spirit Journal Ministry Prayer

Trouble Praying?

Photo by Sam Rios, through Unsplash

Does your mind wander? Do you have trouble keeping your attention on your prayer session? Do you get bored or not know what to say and do?

Is what you do or learned to do feel like an obligation that you are not keeping as well as you like?

When you have an honest and sincere two way conversation with God, prayer is empowering and exciting. Jesus surprises and delights; does not condemn. Accepts you and loves you as you are. Jesus equips you with whatever he calls you to do. It is never boring. Your mind will not wander. There is no sense of obligation. It’s natural. It’s supernatural. It’s as easy as a two way conversational prayer with our loving Lord.

How? First, by giving up any obligation or ideas about how you should pray. A good way to do this is to simply ask for – and receive by faith – more of Holy Spirit. Or simply deeply intend, right now, to put righteousness and the Kingdom of God first. Second, by conversing with God, having a two way conversation with our Lord.

Whether wondering how to minister, how to engage in spiritual warfare, or to experience more of the Presence of God, how to lead, even how to follow leadership, how to intercede for others…whatever you seek to pray for, there is a solution that is powerful, effective, simple and easy. If it’s new to you, the initial learning curve is not that long.

Here are valuable resources for knowing about how to hear God better, and how to have an effective two-way conversation with our Lord. Crucial key – alternating rhythms of talking, then listening. Write both down – short term memory, no matter how vivid and strong, can evaporate rapidly.

These approaches are so good that you will do well to learn them.

When you have an honest and sincere two way conversation with God, prayer is empowering and exciting. Jesus surprises and delights; does not condemn. Accepts you and loves you as you are. Jesus equips you with whatever he calls you to do. It is never boring. Your mind will not wander. There is no sense of obligation. It’s natural. It’s supernatural. It’s as easy as a two way conversational prayer with our loving Lord.

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Stop, Look, Listen, & Write

P.S. From Mark Virkler, above, he gives us these Four Keys to Hearing God’s Voice:

Very simply stated, the four keys to hearing God’s voice are:

Stillness: Quiet yourself so you can hear God’s voice.

Vision: Look for vision as you pray.

Spontaneity: Recognize God’s voice as spontaneous thoughts that light upon your mind.

Journaling: Write down the flow of thoughts and pictures that light upon your mind.

Virkler, Mark. 4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice (Kindle Locations 172-175). Destiny Image. Kindle Edition.

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P.P.S. From the Immanuel Approach above, we have these notes:

Immanuel Approach Pointers – from video notes, he repeats these in each video at the beginning.

-1.  Immanuel truth: God is always with us, god is always glad to be with us, and God always wants to connect with us.

-2. Relational circuits: We have circuits in our brains that serve as the neurological hardware for running relationships.  And we can connect with each other and with God much more easily when these relational circuits are online and strongly active. 

-3.  Positive memories and appreciation: We can predictably, reliably, and consistently get these relational circuits online and strongly active by recalling and connecting with positive memories and then deliberately generating, or stirring up, strong appreciation. 

-4.  Interactive connection with God: We can establish a living, interactive connection with God by inviting God’s presence into the positive memory, asking God to help us perceive His presence, and then noticing whatever comes into our awareness.

-5.  The special value of God-connection positive memories: 

-Our relationships are memory-mapped – our relationships are carried in our memories.

-Reconnecting with memory recreates, at least to some extent, the same mind-brain conditions that were present at the original experience.

-Using positive memories that include an experience of God’s presence takes advantage of these two pieced of brain science. 

-6 Our brains are designed to work best in community: 

-Describing out internal mental content, out loud to another person, helps us to feel it’s importance and to recognize it’s meaning. 

-Including this piece in our Immanuel prayer will enable us to perceive subtle manifestations of the Lord’s presence that we might otherwise miss, and enable us to recognize and receive subtle interactive content from the Lord that we might otherwise miss. 

-7.  Immanuel Approach safety nets: At the beginning of the session we set up a positive-memory, appreciation, connection-with-God “home base” and then we can coach the recipient to go back to this home base if we get into trouble at any point later in the session, or if we run out of time at the end of the session and the recipient is still connected to unresolved traumatic content. 

-8. Splinter-free memories: It is really important to use splinter free positive memories for the safety net.

From Videos in the Resource Page at: https://www.immanuelapproach.com/

3 replies on “Trouble Praying?”

You are sooo right, Teresa Welch!

Yet too many of us just talk *at* God, and do not think to listen.

Then wonder why we are not hearing more from God and thinking he is not already talking to us in loving ways.

You offer a wise perspective – no relationship is onesided. Succinct, to the point, and very valuable to remember. In every relationship!

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