Christin Thieme: Excellent. Well, thank you for that. And yes, we will link to both the book and the app in our show notes. So if you’re looking for those, search for them, or come find the link right in the show notes. Pete, thank you so much. The Prayer Course– Free video curriculum from 24-7 Prayer provides an eight-week journey through the Lord’s Prayer. Each session includes a video, a guide for small group discussion and practical ideas for prayer. The Prayer Course is based on Pete Greig’s book How to Pray Greig makes it quite clear that the Bible is the language of God’s heart, and therefore if we wish to hear what he is saying, we have to be immersed in the Scriptures. So he’s still pointing to the authority of Scripture, even though the greatest miracle ever has just taken place in his resurrection. How do we move from studying scripture objectively and hearing its message generally to receiving God’s word personally in our own lives? The most powerful tool I have ever discovered, one that has revolutionised my own personal relationship with the Bible and has become the model for the devotional I help to write, record and release each day, is the ancient tradition of lectio divina – the slow, prayerful reading of scripture which harnesses the power of imagination and meditation (see 24-7prayer.com/resource/lectio-365). 3. Prophecy

So I find that reassuring because I don’t find listening to God particularly easy. And I just love the fact that they clearly struggled a bit too. helpful. paetynn. And I know that you’ve shared in the book and elsewhere that this is something that can be developed over time, this idea of how do we sit before God? How do we engage with God and hear from God. And in fact, Pete, you and I were together in Orlando, just a handful weeks ago, we were about 2000 other people. So you didn’t know we were together. But we were in the same room at the exponential conference. And you spoke on this topic, but you didn’t just speak on the topic. Because as you’re kind of coming to the close of your time, you invited all of us to engage right in this whole idea of, of hearing from God. And I remember, I mean, I turned to a gentleman next to me that I’ve never met before in my life. And we introduced ourselves to one another. We, you know, talked, we sought God on behalf of one another, you know, I mean, and prayed over one another, shared, shared a word with one another. And I’ve got to tell you, it was a little, little odd initially, right? Because it was like, okay, you know, we’re gonna, but hey, there are a couple of 1000 other people doing it, too. So, you know, we’re able to dive in. And it was encouraging. But I’ve got to tell you that I I don’t feel I didn’t sense from from this other guy’s reaction, that I somehow dropped the missing puzzle piece into his life. And there was a massive revelation. Right? And he was encouraged. And so talk to us a little bit Pete about as we are seeking to hear from God, both for ourselves and on behalf of others. How do we how do we best kind of manage expectations of kind of what God is doing in that moment? Where we are because I for me personally going through that experience, which I’m very much appreciate and reading through your book. This is one of those those questions that I know for me personally and others. It’s something We’re trying to wrap our mind and our hearts around. How to Pray by Pete Greig – In this book, Pete offers honest encouragement and real-life methods to refresh your spirit and help you practice life-giving and life-changing prayer The issue is not whether or not God speaks to us today. The answer is yes. The issue is: how do we receive and process what God says to us? Nothing could possibly matter more than learning to discern the authentic voice of God, but few things in life are more susceptible to delusion and deception. When life falls apart and we need God's comfort; in moments of cultural turmoil when we need God's clarity; facing formidable decisions when we need God's guidance; desiring a deeper faith when we need God to say something, anything, to turn the monologue we call prayer into a genuine conversation.The driver who’d seen my thumb and swung into the lay-by offered to take me all the way from Bordeaux to Paris. For a hitchhiker, this is a dream-ride and I settled in for a long journey discussing the pen of my aunt and the price of local cheese in my best schoolboy French. It all seemed to be going rather well until our conversation turned towards homoeopathy and the geology of Scotland (a country my driver apparently loves). I talk in the book about the ABC as a principle of how you know if it’s God or not. Is it Affirming? Is it Biblical? And is it Christlike? If it’s those three things, then it is probably God. When praying for justice, I try to begin by sitting quietly, wordlessly holding the situation before the Lord. In these moments of stillness I may sigh deeply, allowing the situation to affect my own heart and becoming aware, as I do so, that God is neither distant nor dispassionate. This is an expression of lament.

Christin Thieme: Yep. And your new book, “How to Hear God: a Simple Guide for Normal People,” is brilliant. Thank you for giving this gift to all of us. And we’re going to talk more about how God does speak, because you said it’s not always audibly. But one interesting thing about the book that is kind of a thread throughout the whole thing is Jesus’ encounter with a couple on the road to Emmaus, which you said in the book is a masterclass for anyone seeking to learn to hear his voice. Can you share a little bit more about that encounter?

Hearing from God is primarily a discipline that we learn to distil through practice and obedience. The more we say ‘yes’ to Jesus, the more familiar and precious his voice becomes – and in time we will be able to say, like Cleopas, ‘ Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked?’ And as a preacher, I’ll say it’s much more to do with how we listen than how God speaks. When we’re hungry, when we’re desperate, when we’re attuned to God’s voice, we receive with faith. I think that’s what it means to have ears to hear. Jesus is saying, “Hey, don’t just listen with your physical ears, but listen with your spiritual ears.”

The most important conversation of our lives – the one we call prayer – can sometimes be a lot like that awkward exchange on the way to Paris. We feel self-conscious and tongue-tied, as if speaking a foreign language – especially when praying about big, hairy, confusing subjects like systemic injustice and global poverty. Feeling ‘overwhelmed’? Am I willing to make hearing from God on behalf of others a part of my developing spiritual practices?

Others heard his words but didn’t understand them. So I think having ears to hear means that we don’t just, as it were, hear the sounds of what God is saying, but we receive them into our hearts by faith and they affect us. And so it’s like at church, some people just listen to the sermon. They listen to the talk, and it just kind of washes over them. They’re there because that’s what you do on a Sunday. But others it’s like their hearts are ripped open and they’re responding. Pete Greig: Yeah. One of the tools that I give in the book is an ancient practice, an ancient approach to the Bible that has really, really helped me, which is called the Lectio Divina. Some of you listening to this will be familiar with that. Literally just Lectio means read, and Divina means sacred or holy. So it’s the holy reading, the sacred reading. And the Lectio Divina is a 3,000-year-old approach to not just reading the text of the Bible for information and education, but learning to pray the Word of Scripture for revelation and conversation with God. It’s very simple, but very powerful. Bible Gateway interviewed Pete Greig ( @PeteGreig) about his book, How to Hear God: A Simple Guide for Normal People (Zondervan, 2022).

Most people insist of hearing God’s voice on their own terms. Perhaps we need a newfound willingness to take counsel from a brother or sister, as a mark of humility and surrender. Sometimes he waits for us to humble ourselves.

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Personally, how am I seeking to be attuned to God’s voice ? Is this a consistent part of my journey with Jesus? If not, what steps will I take to develop this area of my spiritual life? We also hear his voice through the discipline of prayer, which is of course a two-way communication. Greig introduces the reader to the ancient approach known as lectio divina; harnessing the power of imagination and meditation. The four main steps of lectio divina, the author made highly popular in ‘ How to Pray’, by using the simple acronym, P.R.A.Y: Pause, Read ( lectio), Reflect (meditation), Ask ( oratio) and Yield (contemplation).