Prayer is such an intimate time with the Holy Spirit. It’s not a time to primarily pray for all the things you desire. It’s a time to listen and learn as the Divine Mentor teaches you what He desires.
Once I wake up in the morning, I invite the Holy Spirit into my day. There is a big difference between inviting and commanding. Sometimes I hear Christians commanding the Holy Spirit to come as if He is a servant to believers. I’d rather invite Him. Everyone likes to be invited to something; no one likes to be commanded.
My scheduled time of extended prayer is in the morning. In college I was challenged by Mark 1:35, “In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.” That doesn’t mean everyone needs to pray during the morning, but it does mean a disciple needs to engage with God through prayer. My advice is to pray when you are at your best, meaning when you are most awake. In other words, give God the best part of your day.
What I do in the morning is make a cup of hot water, sit in my office and I dialogue with Him (the Chinese use the term, “Yum cha” or “Drink tea”; today we would say, “Let’s go have some coffee” – it’s an invitation to be with each other). I let Him know what I’m thinking about, what I’m struggling with, what I’m confused about, and a number of other things. Then I wait. This is important because if you do all the talking, it’s not a dialogue, it’s a monologue. I wait and listen. Sometimes for a long time. Then when I feel an impression from the Holy Spirit I write it in my journal (the same journal I use for Bible devotions).
Just this morning I was laying before Him the number of things on my plate and I asked Him for clarity, where to invest my time for the next three months. And over a course of 20 minutes of back and forth, questions and answers, writing a number of things in my journal page, He gave me an answer.
One of the things I integrate into my prayer time is to lay out my day before Him: where I’m going, what I’m doing, who I’m seeing. Then I’ll say this, “Holy Spirit, I give you permission to rearrange my schedule in any way you see fit as long as it brings you glory.” Thus I hold my schedule loosely, anticipating some unexpected diversions along the way.
Then throughout the day I’m constantly inviting the Lord to whatever I’m doing. As I walk into the college I work at, I invite the Lord into the school and say, “This is Your school, your staff, your students, your instructors, your alumni.” As I’m driving, “Lord, I invite you into this ride home. I invite you to speak for your servant is listening.” This means I’ll be intentional to turn my radio off while driving and tune in to Him.
Throughout the day I’m constantly listening to what the Holy Spirit is saying. It doesn’t mean He speaks all the time, but it’s up to me to be mindful of the Spirit’s presence in my life throughout the day.
At the end of the day I invite the Lord into my sleep, asking him to cause me to dream dreams that will glorify Him and things I need to pray for in the morning.
Some may ask what the Holy Spirit sounds like. It sounds different to each person but here’s what I’ve discovered. Do you remember a time before we had caller ID’s on our cell phones? I’m talking about phones that were hooked up to the wall and you either had a rotary dial or a push-button phone. If your friend was calling, you would hear the ring, pick up the phone, say, “Hello?” and your friend would say, “Hey!” and you knew exactly who it was. Why? Because you recognized your friend’s voice. How did you recognize the voice? Because you had spent time with your friend.
The same goes with the Holy Spirit. The more time you spend with Him, the more you recognize His voice.
Sometimes we don’t have good leaders who last because they don’t spend time with nor recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Questions to Think About
Do you have an elongated, daily time of prayer?
Can you recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit?
© Gary Lau 2013
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