Now that’s a good question!
I can be confident that Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, wants to lead us. I can’t be as confident that you or I will recognize His voice and respond to it. It has been my prayer for years and years that I would be more sensitive to His Spirit. That I would recognize the voice of the Shepherd and respond well to it every time He speaks. I don’t know where you are in this process. I know that even though I have such a long way to go, I am better at this now than I was years ago. For me, this is an ongoing prayer and process.
A verse I have often prayed is the last portion of John 15:5. There Jesus makes it very clear, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” Here is what I have come to believe about this verse. It is not that I can do nothing apart from Jesus. I can do all kinds of things apart from him. That is precisely the problem! I have preached enough to be able to preach without Him. I have facilitated prayer enough to be able to facilitate without Him. But when I do things apart from Him, it really does add up to nothing! I don’t want to live or especially facilitate corporate prayer apart from Him.
Another verse applies this directly to prayer. Romans 8:26 says that the Spirit of God not only helps us because we are weak in the area of prayer, but also that we don’t even know how or what to pray. We are so helpless that we can’t even ask for help without the help of the Holy Spirit! But that does not leave us hopeless. When we cooperate with the Holy Spirit, He will provide the help we need. He will speak in ways we can hear and understand. He will guide us in our prayer. He is very willing to lead us.
So, will we hear His voice? Will we follow His leadership if and when we hear it? I think the most honest answer to this question is, “Yes, we will seek to. Therefore, we will try to be completely dependent on Him. And when we hear Him, we will do our best to respond to what He says.”
*Blessed by Doing – Pray a prayer from the two verses above (John 5:15 and Romans 8:26) stating your complete dependence upon the Lord and relate it directly to when you pray and/or facilitate prayer.
Taken from “United and Ignited”. Click here for more information.
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