So often, we tell God everything we want and need, and we throw up a few words of praise or maybe a bit of confession, but then we walk away. We end our prayers, and we have never even given the Lord a chance to speak. What a crazy concept! How would you feel if someone came up to you, talked your ear off for twenty minutes and then walked away–never giving you a chance to respond or share your thoughts?
On Saturday, our team devoted the entire day to listening to the Lord in prayer. We talked about ways to hear from God and how to test what you hear to make sure it is from the Lord, and then we spent the entire day going out in small groups and doing the things we had heard from God. Below are some stories from our team. Some share their experiences, and others just share what they have learned about how God speaks. Take some time to read through them and see what the Lord is doing. We are growing in our faith and obedience, and we are seeing the Gospel go out! — Hanna
STORIES:
From Lauren…
Coincidence? I don´t think so!
Until training camp, I had never heard of ATLs. ATL stands for "Ask The Lord" and it means ask the Lord and wait for an answer. I don´t know about you, but I was a little skeptical about this. I went into ATL day praying that God would help me hear Him and that I would be positive.
After listening to some ATL pointers, our team prayed for about 30 minutes and wrote down anything we thought God said. We had everything from tires to pizza to a trident. After praying for guidance, we set off to figure out what God had planned for us. I think we were all a little excited and really nervous. We found many of the things on our list (including a man to pray for near a tire pile and a group of kids to share Trident brand gum with while witnessing!) and prayed for lots of people. However, I still kind of felt that these were coincidences. But then, two little boys came up to us and asked us to buy them pizza. This was crazy because, while praying I had seen pizza. We had just laughed it off and said it was my stomach talking. Obviously not! So we ordered a pizza and spent the time it took to cook sharing Christ with the little boys, one of whom turned out to be a believer. It was so fun! I believed in talking and listening to God before, but now I believe that He really does talk to us every day. We just have to want to hear and listen!
From Lydia…
I prayed and listened and God showed me a man in a green and red shirt. Pretty random, right? Well, as we walked through the village, guess what I saw? A man at the front window of a restraunt wearing a green and red shirt! Right away we went over to him and asked if we could pray for him. His eyes swelled up with tears and after a a moment he said, "Yes, I would like that very much. Thank you. You are messangers from God!"
From Garrett…
Saturday was the first time I had done an ATL. We talked about it all trip long and I tried it in private every day but never heard anything so I wasn´t too excited. Before our ATL, we each partnered with someone from another American team we didn´t know and did listening prayer for them. I was so surprised when the Lord brought something specific to my mind to pray for the guy I was with and then he said that my prayer directly applied to his life. For the first time, I heard something from God, and it was true!
From Amy…
Listening prayer seemed uncomfortable and awkward at first, but then I had a few thoughts of what God wanted me to do for the day, nothing huge. However, my team stepped out in faith and walked around San Pedro. We ended up near the mudslide, a devastating place that I had visited days before and been really impacted by a man´s story there. This day, we were at the mudslide for a different reason. God provided deep spiritual conversation between our teammates and we grew more unified. Following God´s leading to this place caused me to have more confidence in hearing Him speak to me in prayer.
From Mari…
Saturday, our team did listening prayer to see what kind of adventure God would take us on. After a while, the others in my group were all coming up with stuff like "mudslide", "blades of grass in water", etc., but I was not hearing anything. We ended up going to the mudslide and worshiping together there. None of us really knew what to do next so we split up and walked around just talking to the Lord individually. Suddenly, I realized that God was telling me to change–change my ways and turn negativity into something positive for Him. He wanted me to stop trying to live for myself and to start living with Him in my heart. I talked to two other girls and a leader about this. They really helped me and let me know that they´re always going to be there for me. What I learned out of the experience is that God accepts me just as I am but loves me too much to let me stay that way.
From Emily…
While praying, my team heard many different things: team unity, worship, bottom of a volcano, water with grass growing through it, mudslide and surrender. I went into the day thinking that our whole team would end up together somewhere in worship and surrender, but that was not God´s plan at all. We started walking down a hill near the lake and ended up near a place at the foot of a volcano where grass grew in the shallow water at the bottom of the mudslide area. We prayed there and worshipped God. Some team members surrendered themselves more fully to God, and bonds were built between all of us. God´s purpose for our day was to minister to one another and grow in unity so that we would be better prepared to serve here. What a great day!
WHAT WE´RE LEARNING:
From Lizzie…
"I found out what it´s like to follow God when you don´t know where you´re going or why. I learned how to trust that God has a plan and will guide me even when I don´t understand."
From Anna…
"I have heard about God speaking back to people in prayer, but I never knew how it really worked. Learning about this brought me closer to God along with touching the lives of other people along the way. It was amazing to see the reaction of other people being thought of, pursued and prayed for."
From Kacie…
"At first, listening prayer seemed a little too cool, fun and hookie pookie to be true. After my own experience with it, God showed me that He does talk back and that listening to Him really works!"
From Allie…
"Starting out, I didn´t understand listening prayer and had my doubts about hearing the Lord. After our day of following listeing prayer, I know God has many things to tell and show me."
From Holly…
"God showed me through others that God is above all in the world, and we are truly his messangers sent from Heaven."
From Elliot…
"Listening prayer showed me that God will answer you if you call upon Him. It showed me to trust what God said to me and follow it. Our team ended up more unified because we listened to God."
