“Lynne, I want to be alert to the Holy Spirit’s promptings,” you might say, “but I just can’t seem to sense them the way I should. I can’t distinguish His voice as clearly as some Christians do.”
If that’s the case, it’s certainly not because you don’t have the capacity. Jesus told us that as His disciples, we know and recognize the Holy Spirit. As His sheep, we know His voice. So if you’re born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit, you can rest assured that you have the ability to perceive the leadings of the Lord.
The problem is the distractions of the natural world and the noise of your flesh are drowning out the sound of His still, small voice in your heart. Your spiritual senses are overwhelmed by worldly clatter and clutter so they can’t effectively do what God designed them to do.
Think about it in natural terms and you’ll see what I mean. Imagine you are sitting with your best friend in a perfectly quiet room. You can hear every word she is saying. You can pick up on every inflection of her voice. Because you know her so well, you perfectly understand everything she is communicating to you.
Now imagine the room begins to fill up with people who are all talking at once. Your friend is still speaking and you can still hear her, but you can’t discern what she is saying as easily as you could when the room was quiet. You might miss a few words and misunderstand a few things.
Now imagine a construction crew comes in with some hammers and a buzz saw. You look at your friend and see that her lips are still moving, but there is no way you can figure out what she is saying. With so much noise in the room, you are unable to distinguish the one sound that is important. You are unable to hear the voice of your friend.
To some degree, that’s the situation many of us as pray-ers are in spiritually. Our flesh and the natural concerns of this world are making so much racket that we can’t clearly hear the one voice that’s truly important: the still, small voice of God.
Scripture Reading: Psalm 131:1 –3
Excerpt permission granted by Lynne Hammond Ministries
On the chilly March night in 1972 when Lynne Hammond took her first step into a life of Spirit-led prayer, she had no idea what was about to happen. All she knew was the hunger in her heart for God wouldn’t let her sleep. In the few short months she’d been born again, her desire to fellowship with Him had grown so strong she could hardly contain it. “Help me, God!” she cried. “I want to know you. I want to be able to talk to you. Please, teach me to pray!”
Suddenly, a heavenly presence flooded the room. Lynne sensed waves of spiritual fire sweeping over her and a beautiful language began to flow like a river from within her. Although she’d never heard of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, she knew instantly, without a doubt—this was God!
What began that night soon blossomed into a life of prayer that ultimately became a ministry of prayer when, in 1980, Lynne and her husband, Mac, founded Living Word Christian Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Under Lynne’s leadership, the prayer ministry at Living Word has become an internationally recognized model for developing effective pray-ers in the local church.
A teacher and an author, Lynne publishes a newsletter called Prayer Notes, has written numerous books, and currently serves as the national prayer director for Daughters for Zion. Her passion for inspiring and leading others into the life of Spirit-led prayer continues to take her around the world to minister to believers whose heart cry, like hers, is “Lord, teach me to pray!”