[This reflection by Brian Alton was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 06/Aug/2023]
‘What is standing between us and a sweeping move of God, is not us proving to God that we want it bad enough, as if we’ve got to talk God into our agenda … of course, God wants Awakening far more than we do. Every great move of God throughout history has occurred when a community perceived what God was up to and got in on it.’ Tyler Staton.
For the last couple of months our homegroup has been reading through ‘Praying like Monks, Living like Fools’ (PLMLLF) by Tyler Staton, a pastor in America, heavily involved in 24/7 Prayer. The book has had a profound affect on my prayer life, and quiet time discipline.
Staton suggests that recognising God’s voice when He speaks helps us perceive God’s plan (1 Samuel 3); and that we learn to recognise this by practising listening in stillness as a spiritual discipline.
‘Many confuse stillness with waiting for revelation… But that’s not the purpose of stillness. The purpose is consent. It is the daily practice of consenting to the work of God’s Spirit, which is deeper than understanding or words.’ (PLMLLF, ch2)
Pete Grieg says in The Prayer Course (session 7) ‘It’s important we build time for quiet, reflection, retreat and contemplation into our daily, weekly, and annual rhythms. Because those are the times when we can hear God’s still small voice a bit better’.
Staton says ‘Resist the urge to decide if this practice of silent prayer is ‘working’. Don’t evaluate if you’re getting anything out of it … Practice silence as a sacrificial offering to God … It’s about giving something of yourself to God, not getting something from God’. (PLMLLF ch2). Trying to do this has transformed my experience of prayer.
I’m soon going to start wearing hearing aids, to the relief of many! Regaining lost capacity to hear will hopefully make me less distracted, and more involved in the things going on around me. Similarly, I’m praying that I also get better at hearing when God is speaking to me – with the spiritual hearing aids of stillness and quiet.
One scholar has said ‘everything God speaks to you until your sixties is preparation – if there’s fruit that’s a bonus’. There’s still time!
So, what is God saying to me, and you? How can we join in and partner with Jesus? Where will the next Great Awakening be? Why not in Horley? Why not at HBC?
Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 46:10
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Last week’s reflection: Were Not Our Hearts Burning Within Us? by David Makanjuola
Contributed by Brian Alton; © Brian Alton