Learning to Listen

Our society has trained us to find it next to impossible to be still and silent. Try setting aside one whole minute of silence next time you are in a room of people. It will feel like thirty, because we are so used to noise. And the Enemy loves the chaos—the mental checklists and to-do lists that take up so much of our minds. The simple act of sitting in silence to listen for the voice of God runs directly in contrast to every time waster the Enemy would love to put in front of us.

A couple of years ago, our church’s elders started an experiment and invited others in the church to join us. For thirty days, we set aside fifteen minutes a day to simply sit and listen to God.

Now, on the surface, fifteen minutes doesn’t sound like a terribly long time. But when the assignment is fifteen minutes with no Bible, no journal, no music, no memory verses, and no talking, fifteen minutes can feel like an eternity. In the beginning, I was discouraged at how quickly my mind could wander all over the map. But over time, as I grew in the discipline of sitting, I became more skilled at a quick prayer to refocus my mind on the exercise: listening.

I never heard a voice out of the blue, but the unintended reward (at least for me) was that I became more in tune with the voice of God throughout the day. I could feel the Spirit telling me what to do, what to say and not say, and how to react in ways I had not before, all because I had grown in the discipline of listening.

The better we are at listening to the Spirit, the more easily we can discern what is of God and what is of the Enemy. And the closer we are walking alongside Jesus, the more clearly we will know the right next step in each situation we find ourselves in.

Father, teach my heart to listen for you. When I come to you in the silence, come close to me, so I can know your voice and your Spirit.

Application Question:
One tactic Satan loves to employ - which is quite effective today -is distraction. Do you find it easy or difficult to get rid of what is unhealthy in your life when it comes to distractions?

Was this plan helpful? We adapted this plan from Your Story Has a Villain: Identify Spiritual Warfare and Learn How to Defeat the Enemy, and the companion Your Story Has a Villain Study Guide: Put on the Armor of God Each Day by Jonathan "JP" Pokluda. Check them out for more.