I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because He inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on Him as long as I live. Psalms 116:1-2
Do you know He hears your prayers? Are they from the core of your inner man or vulnerable honest heart? Or are they ‘religious’, with lots of religious ‘speak’ and flowery words? Do you repeat a lot of the same lines in your prayers to God? Stop. Search your heart. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you find the right words to pray, He wants to help you, and show you your actual heart and what you are really dealing with inside of your soul.
Prayer is spiritual communication, so it should be a two-way conversation between you and God. Can you hear His responses and the questions He wants to ask you? Can you sense His gentle leading to deal with certain issues in your relationships? Treat prayer like it is a conversation with your best friend. Take your time. Listen intently. Don’t be quick to leave the conversation. Take His responses and questions to you very seriously. Understand that NO ONE loves you more than He does. Receive His advice. Ponder His questions. Don’t be quick to answer Him … because He already knows the answer and He wants you to discover it on your own if possible. The Holy Spirit wants you to mature and ‘grow up’ in your soul and mind.
This relationship with the Holy Spirit is the most important relationship you have – right now this moment, and while you are still here on earth. He is the One whom Jesus promised to send us, to take His place here on earth.
When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that He will take what is mine and declare it to you. John 16:13-15
Do you want to become who the Father created you to be? Do you want to find love, joy, and peace and everything that is good and right? The Holy Spirit is YOUR Source of those things. He is the relationship that should take precedence over ALL others in your life. How well do you know Him?
Do you want your prayer life to become richer and more valuable in your life? Then it will be the intimate conversations you have with the Holy Spirit and LISTENING to what He is saying to you, that will grow you spiritually more than any other practice. Do you want to understand the scriptures better? Why not ask the One who actually guided the hands of the authors with the words to be written? The scriptures are there for you to learn the heart of God for you… personally. The relationship with the Holy Spirit isn’t so much a mystery the more you converse with Him.
Can you ask Him the ‘scary’ questions that roll around in your soul and mind? Are you open to Him showing you your sin and iniquities? How much do you actually trust Him? Do you actually believe He loves you? What actually is the result of His work in your life? (Galatians 5:22-23)
Now is the time to have that conversation with Him.