One of the blessed certainties of the Christian life is that God hears our prayers.

I cherish that certainty. I don’t walk around like the guy in the TV commercial, asking, “Can you hear me now?” Scripture is very clear: God’s ears are attentive to the cries of His children (Ps. 34:15). Even before we call, He has prepared a specific answer (Is. 65:24). He not only hears me, but He responds to me (Jer. 33:3).

It’s the last part that used to throw me: God responding. Consequently, I had mostly one-sided talks with Him. I was doing all the talking because I couldn’t hear His response.

Let me illustrate. Last summer I was driving to a late-night ministry meeting, and I had forgotten how to get there. I called my wife for some last-minute directions. As she was patiently talking me through the maze of cul-de-sacs, terraces, and lanes, her voice suddenly was gone. She was cut off in mid-sentence.

“Honey, are you there?” I pleaded with my cell phone. “Honey?” My phone suddenly felt and acted like the plastic ones we bought for our kids. I couldn’t hear my wife or her directions. My guidance system was down just when I really needed it. My wife later told me that she could hear every desperate “Honey?” I uttered that evening. But, for some reason, I couldn’t hear her.

Our connection problem was resolved that night by hitting redial. But what about my connection with God? How can I maintain a dependable, unbroken, two-way dialogue with the One I long most to hear from, and the One who apparently longs most to hear from me?

I’m not alone in this craving for divine dialogue. Scriptural examples abound:

• Job: “I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer” (Job 30:20).

• Jacob: “Then the man [God’s representative] said, ‘Let me go, for it is daybreak.’ But Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me’” (Gen. 32:26).

• Gideon: “Gideon replied, ‘If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me’” (Jdg. 6:17).

• Elijah: “Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again” (1 K. 18:37).

• David: “Hear my voice when I call, O Lord; be merciful to me and answer me” (Ps. 27:7).

• God (!): “But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’” (Gen. 3:9). And, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20).

Early in my Christian life, someone urged me to try “two-way prayer” during my quiet time—to speak to God and then listen for His response. Another person saw my hunger for God and gave me a book on listening prayer.

I’m sure I did hear from God during those earnest attempts to know Him more intimately. I’m sure, in His great love and compassion, the Lord did use those searching times to direct me. But distinguishing His voice from the clamor of my own fleshly impressions—sorting through for the insights that were truly Spirit-inspired—was a confusing and tiring process. Some people have learned to hear God well by using these techniques. But I never looked forward to it, and not looking forward to it made me feel guilty. Furthermore, I was never absolutely sure if it was the Lord who had spoken…or just me.

THE BREAKTHROUGH

For me, the breakthrough to divine dialogue came in an unexpected and unintentional way. I had decided to read Proverbs, chewing slowly through it with the goal of digesting its truths. It was a wonderfully rich time of growth in my life as a Christian. But it was also painful, because I couldn’t get through more than a few verses without stopping to pray for forgiveness! It seemed as if every other verse was written exclusively to me! I became so convicted of my bent toward “self” (self-will, self-gratification, self-fulfillment, etc.) that I would read a little, pause to acknowledge my guilt, read a little more, beg for life change, and so on.

At some point in that edifying process, I realized what was going on. I had discovered divine dialogue! I was conversing with God! He was speaking through the proverbs, and I was hearing. Then I was talking and He was listening. I couldn’t wait for morning quiet times!

In order to remember these discoveries, I began to write my responses to God in the margins of my Bible, alongside the Scriptures He had used to speak to my heart. Soon there wasn’t enough room. So I began to use a notebook. Here’s how it worked:

God would speak to me as I read: “Son, if you had responded to My rebuke earlier I would have poured out My heart to you and made My thoughts plain to you” (Prov. 1:23).

Then I would answer: “I know, Father. I have heard You mercifully calling me to the right path, but I have taken Your patience for granted. I have made the mistake of believing that what I want is what’s best for me.”

Then God would speak again: “Son, honor Me with your wealth” (3:9).

And I would reply: “Father dear, the way I use the money You allot to me often does not honor You. Help me to see my purchases as statements of loyalty to You and to Your desire to further Your kingdom.”

Then my encouraging Father would say: “Son, listen to My instruction and be wise” (8:33).

And I would respond: “O Lord, with Your empowerment, I will always immerse myself in Your Word and listen! I want to hear you! I love you!”

The Lord and I talked like that all the way through Proverbs. It was life changing. He didn’t use every verse to speak significantly to me, but His Spirit highlighted certain ones He would use in my life.

CREATED FOR DIALOGUE

Eventually, I realized that it has been the Father’s heart desire since the foundation of the world to experience this intimate interaction with His children. That’s why He sought out Adam in the garden. His Word became flesh for that purpose (Jn. 1:14). Not surprisingly, He created us in His image, instilling in us a longing for divine dialogue. Through the indwelling Spirit of Christ, He gave us the means to experience it.

When I read a biography of George Müller, an awesome man of faith and prayer who ran orphanages in England during the 19th century, I knew I’d found a man who had discovered divine dialogue. Müller said, “When we pray, we speak to God. The season when prayer can be most effectively performed is after the inner man has been nourished by meditation on the Word of God—when we find the Father speaking to us.”

We were designed for two-way dialogue with our Creator. We are incomplete without it. We were intended to find our meaning in it. I think Isaiah knew this when he said, “He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught” (50:4). So did David: “Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul” (Ps. 143:8).

My prayer for you and for me is that we will find meaning and grow more complete in Christ as we experience the divine dialogue for which we were created.

MIKE ANDERSON is pastor of congregational life at Olathe Bible Church in Olathe, Kansas. His favorite book on prayer is The Way of the Heart by Henri Nouwen, because it shows how crucial solitude and silence are to prayer.