259. Listening Prayer on Behalf of Others

What if the most powerful thing you could do for someone you love or even someone you just met, it wasn't advice or it wasn't a perfectly crafted encouragement text or a drop off of a drink of Starbucks or Dutch Bros, even though all of those things are quite lovely.

What if the most powerful thing that you could do is simply get quiet and ask God what he thinks about them?

And that's what today's episode is going to be about.

And I promise you, by the end of this, you're going to want to try this.

Maybe this week, maybe this summer, or maybe the next time you are with your people or you're going out and doing errands.

Hey friend.

Welcome back to Holistic Hearts.

I am your host, Kristen Fields Chadwick.

And I'm so glad you're here.

You are here.

If you haven't had a chance to listen to the last episode yet, episode 258, I want to encourage you to go and listen.

Maybe start there.

But you can also listen to today's episode for, I mean really, let's be honest, it's a great time because we get to connect with the Father, the Holy Spirit and Jesus in each episode.

But last week we talked about how to start your own Holy Spirit led small group and what it looks like to open up your living room to women and men who are hungry for more of God.

And today's episode is a direct follow up because once you have created that group, one of the most powerful things that you can do within that group and practice inside that group is what we're going to be talking about today.

But you can also take this outside of your own Holy Spirit group and do this on the day to day.

Today we are talking about listening prayer and not just listening to God for yourself, but also learning to hear his heart for the people around you.

I think it's just as important to learn to hear his voice for yourself as for other people.

Graham Cook, he's a lovely speaker, pastor, teacher, and he says it this way, God doesn't shout.

He whispers to your heart, not to your head.

Let's learn to hear his still small voice.

And it's really learning to hear his heartbeat for his bride.

That's what we're doing today is talking about how do we listen to the heartbeat of what God's saying about his bride.

So learning to hear that whisper and then becoming someone who carries it to the people around you.

So I want to take you back to this memory I have of attending a retreat when I was first in my discovery and exploring and really just hungering to know more about the Holy Spirit.

Know, and this was probably about 10 or so years ago at this retreat.

One afternoon, we were invited to participate in these small groups where we would share our story and practice listening to the Holy Spirit on behalf of one another.

This was all super new to me.

So we were placed in these groups of three or four, most of us not knowing one another.

And that was done on purpose.

So here is how it worked.

Each person had 15 minutes to share their story completely uninterrupted.

No responses from the other people, no reactions, no interjections, which is real hard if you've never done that before.

It can feel a little uncomfortable.

So, as you can imagine, in this retreat where I'm experiencing this for the first time, they explain, it's up to you to share your story for 15 minutes out loud into a space where people are genuinely listening.

They are all in.

They are attuned to what you're saying.

And for someone like me, who is very much an internal processor, this was hard for me to just continually talk for 15 minutes about my story.

But so interesting to see what came up.

And it made me realize how completely rare it is for us to just share our story and to listen to someone else's story uninterrupted.

To be truly listened to without someone waiting for their turn to respond is a gift.

Now, I'm sure you're like, what does this have to do with listening prayer?

All right, so.

So we shared the story for 15 minutes of our own.

Then after that 15 minutes of sharing, the group had 15 minutes to ask questions.

Not advice, not like, oh, that happened to me too, but just questions.

Curious, open, gentle questions that helped us to go deeper into our own story.

After we did that for 15 minutes, the group practiced silence or listening prayer.

And that was five minutes of just listening, of silence.

We closed our eyes and we asked in our hearts to the Holy Spirit, what is on your heart for this person after hearing their story?

What do you want to say to them?

What do you see when you look at this person?

And then we wrote it down, and we also recorded it.

And we shared together what we heard.

And it was such a special time.

What is fascinating is how often in the many years that I did that at that retreat, how many times things were confirmed.

Like, one person would sense something or get a picture of something, and another person would be like, oh, my goodness, I actually, I saw the other side of that.

Or I saw the same thing, friend.

I Personally still have these words.

I kept most of those words that were written down and recorded because they were so powerful to me.

And that is really the power of community.

That is the power of community that takes time to listen to not only your story, but to listen on your behalf to what God was sharing.

One of the times that I was in one of these groups, I'll give an example or two because I always think it's helpful to hear certain stories and it increases our faith right, when we hear other people's testimonies.

So one time I was fairly new still, I think I had done this maybe twice in a group before.

And I was in a group with a gal that I was hearing, hearing her story and I was very afraid of getting it wrong, quote, unquote.

You know, when you're first starting out, you just get so nervous, like, what if I hear wrong?

What if it's not right?

But with the encouragement of people that were more seasoned, they were like, trust your gut, trust whatever you see and just say it.

So the vision that I had gotten for this woman was running off a diving board hand in hand with her husband and jumping into a pool and splashing and getting all these people wet on the side of the pool in their lawn chairs and disruption and.

But it was fun and it was joy.

It was like the most joyful picture in my mind of her and her husband making this disruption into the pool.

And so I timidly shared, not knowing if I was doing it right, quote unquote.

And it turned out that it was deeply meaningful to her.

And another time for me personally, this one I love because it was a co ed retreat and I remember being placed in this group and being like, oh gosh, this is a little intimidating.

There was a man in my group which can be a little bit nerve wracking if you're not used to that.

And he was like this gentle giant.

And I shared my story.

And then he started explaining what the picture that he saw was.

He explained, I own an excavation company and he gave me a word about digging and overturning dirt and these piles, these huge piles of dirt and tilling and.

And you guys, it touched me.

I teared up and I received that word because I felt so seen.

I was definitely in a season of digging and overturning and excavating some things in my own heart in that season.

And I love that it was from this man who I was quite frankly intimidated.

But it was so loving to hear this word that that's what the father was speaking through him to me.

And it was so precious.

It was so precious.

So let's talk about listening, prayer and why this helps us go deeper in our relationship with the Lord and with others.

And I want to unpack it biblically first.

And then we're going to talk about many ways, like I just explained at the retreat, of how we can explore this tool to engage and communicate with God and also speak on a deep level to our people around us.

So first we're going to talk about the Holy Spirit, because he's my favorite thing to talk about.

Number one, the Holy Spirit, part of the Trinity.

He leads us into all truth.

Jesus told his disciples in John 14, 16, 17 that the Father would send each of us another advocate, the Spirit of truth, to be with us forever.

And then in John 16, 12, 14, he says, I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.

But when he, the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.

He will not speak on his own.

He will only speak what he hears and he will tell you what is yet to come.

So the Spirit of truth, he is not silent.

He is not withholding.

He is actively speaking.

He is actively guiding, revealing and telling.

And he lives where?

Inside of us.

He lives inside of us.

Every single one of us who have accepted the Spirit of God, who have accepted Jesus.

We have the Holy Spirit within us and he is thinking about us constantly.

One of my all time favorite psalms is Psalm 139, 17, 18.

And it says, how precious to me are your thoughts, O God, how vast is the sum of them.

Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.

So what does that mean?

When you get quiet and you ask the Holy Spirit what he thinks about someone, you are not just conjuring up something, you are actually tuning into those thoughts.

Those grains of sand, metaphorically speaking, that already exist.

He is already thinking about that person.

His thoughts are so vast, his thoughts that outnumber the grains of sand.

You are just learning to receive what he is already thinking.

You are what I like to describe as listening to the heartbeat of the Father for his child.

Number two.

We're going to talk about the spirit of prophecy.

In Acts 2 Peter quotes from the prophet Joel and it shall be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my spirit upon all mankind.

There we go again, right?

Holy Spirit, on, on all mankind.

And your friends and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see divinely prompted visions, and your old men and women shall Dream divinely prompted dreams, even on my bond, servants, both men and women, I will in those days pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy.

We are called to prophesy, all of us.

And prophecy is a form of love, and love is always the goal.

If you want to dig in more to that, the prophetic and the spirit of prophecy, I've done multiple episodes on that, so I encourage you to.

Excuse me, my phone.

My husband was calling and he went through the do not disturb.

So anyway, if you haven't listened to those episodes, I do encourage you to go back into holistic hearts, bank here and listen to one of those.

We talked about it in deep waters.

We've recently talked about it this year.

So if you want to dig further, please go back and listen.

But let's come back to right now.

In listening prayer, prophecy is a form of love, and love is always going to be the goal.

This is the one that I really want you to sit with in listening prayer, because I know some of you tense up with that word prophecy.

It's not talked about in every denomination, and I get that.

And I was that way for a long time.

And First Corinthians 14:3 is so clear.

The one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging, encouragement and comfort.

So strengthening, encouragement and comfort, and that is it.

That's the whole goal.

This is not about predicting the future or performing or getting it perfectly right.

This is about love.

And it's love with words.

And it's love that says, I asked God what he thinks about you, and here's what I heard.

First Corinthians 14:31 says, for you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged.

You can all prophesy, not just the seasoned ones, not just your girlfriend.

That is, you know, having a quiet time every single day.

Not just the leaders up on the stage, not just the ones that you've like, that you've walked with doing this for 20 years, that they've done this at retreats.

It's all of you, it's your turn, it's all of our turns.

So that everyone is encouraged and the pressure is completely off.

First Corinthians 13:9 says, we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

So what I mean by the pressure is off is when we are writing this word or speaking this word, we are not rewriting theology.

We are not delivering a word of scripture.

We are offering a human word that is prompted by the Holy Spirit and to be weighed by Scripture and by mature spiritual wisdom.

First.

Thessalonians 5, 19, 21 says, do not quench the spirit, do not despise prophecies, but test everything and hold fast to what is good.

So test it, weigh it, look at the fruit of it, hold on to what resonates, and let the rest go.

That's wisdom, it's not weakness.

And it takes a performance pressure completely off the one offering the Word.

And we are invited in this practice of listening prayer to set our minds on things above.

Colossians 3:1:3 says, since then you have been raised with Christ.

Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated in the right hand of God.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ and God.

So when we are practicing listening prayer, we are quite literally doing what this verse is saying.

We are setting our minds.

We are, I like to say, tuning in our.

Tuning into the frequency the.

The words of heaven.

And we are shifting and tuning out the noise of what we think about that person.

And.

And we are submitting, and we are asking, what does heaven say about this sweet one?

Then we're gonna jump to number three.

He sees more than what is on the surface.

God is the one who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

That's Romans 4:17.

He sees what has not yet come to pass.

He is looking in the future.

I love again.

Graham Cook says this too.

He is a present future God.

He sees the potential, the promise, the calling, the healing that's on its way.

And when we ask him what he sees, he may show us something that the person cannot yet see them in themselves.

Yet.

And that word, when it is spoken with love and humility, can plant a seed of faith that changes everything.

Think of David in the Bible.

God knew that he would be king one day.

Look at Peter.

Jesus called out what he saw in Peter from day one, right?

I will make you fishers of men.

And prophetically, he spoke over Peter, saying that one day he would be the rock on which the church would be built and multiplied.

But in that moment, Peter wasn't there yet, right?

He had to go through that season of testing.

But that spirit of prophecy, that's where Jesus was heading.

He was saying, peter, this is how I see you, and this is who you are becoming.

Now I want to share with you something that has become one of my favorite ways to practice listening prayer.

And it is before any retreat, and I was taught this by a mentor of mine, is to practice taking time to ask the father about the heart of the people that are coming.

So the last time I did this was in the fall before a retreat to Washington State up at Skamania Lodge.

It was absolutely gorgeous up there.

And most of the women that came, I did not know personally.

And so I took the time.

There was 12 participants.

And the Lord just had me practice listening on their behalf and then creating a card for them to give to them right away, the first night.

And that's one of my favorite ways to prepare my own heart for a retreat.

And this particular retreat was so special because I really didn't know anybody.

I mean, I knew a couple of the ladies, but the ones that I didn't know, I just.

I just went for it, right?

We're not doing this out of, like, performance.

We're not doing this out of.

I hope I get this right.

It was definitely.

It's definitely a practice in faith and trusting that you're hearing.

So I gave these letters to these women, and some of them home right away, and some of them that next day.

It connected some of them.

I am trusting that it is continuing to be a blessing and to be something that they continue to come back to the Lord over and over again.

But some of those things that the Lord gave me were so specific that you could not make up.

And again, you've heard me say this over and over throughout the years, is when the Holy Spirit is working, most often has a thread of, you cannot make this up.

And that's partly why I love listening prayer.

Because I have found that when I take time to listen for the Father's heart for someone before I meet them, especially before a retreat, it prepares my heart.

And also I find it unlocks something beautiful.

When they read what I felt like I heard.

And there is that moment of, you can't make this up because I know it wasn't me 100% right.

It's just so beautiful.

So you can do this before a gathering, before, you know, a conversation that's coming up with somebody that you know, it's gonna shift something.

Your perspective, more than anything shifts.

You begin to see with the kingdom lens versus the limited earthly lens.

And when a word that you have listened lands, and when you see someone's eyes fill up with tears or they say, how did you know that?

It's one of the most holy moments I've experienced in this world.

And it's such a blessing.

It's a blessing to both people.

The one who receives the word and the one who gets to carry it.

And there's something that happens in your own faith when you step out, when you trust what you've heard and watch God meet someone through it.

You don't have to wait for a retreat to practice this.

You could do it for your neighbor.

You could do it for a friend who's going through something hard.

You could do it for a woman in your small group that you've been praying for.

You could do it for a family member that you don't know how to reach.

You could do it for your mail person or somebody random that you ask before you go out and do errands and wait for a prompt from the Holy Spirit, say, yep, that word is for this person.

You could write it down, or you can speak it.

Be bold, my friend.

That's what's so exciting about partnering with the Holy Spirit is.

It's an adventure.

So just get quiet.

Ask the father, what is your heart for this person right now?

What do you see when you look at her?

Think about, like, with your husband or with your kids.

This is such a beautiful way to practice listening prayer.

And write it down, whatever comes, and then find a way to bring it to that person.

So let me talk about the listening card of kind of what I was just unpacking a little bit about the retreat.

Um, I believe that writing it down helps people.

It's helped me, over the years, come back over and over and look at something physical that was written down of what people have listened to the Holy Spirit say over someone.

Sometimes it's a picture that surfaces in your heart.

Sometimes it's a scripture, Sometimes it's a prayer or a phrase, word of encouragement that just keeps coming back to you, or a random phrase when you think of that person and you can find art.

Like, one thing I did for preparing for that retreat back in the fall is I looked on Pinterest for some art that kind of grabbed me and brought to my attention, like, ooh, I feel like that's for somebody.

So you could.

You could find art and put it on a card.

Whatever you feel.

I mean, feel free to be creative.

He loves to be creative.

Um, you could be.

You could bring somebody a key or, like, attach it to the card.

It's just so fun to be creative and whatever way you want to, in the way that the Lord is gifting you to do that.

Sometimes I will hear a specific song, doesn't necessarily have to be a Christian song, or it is a worship song, and I'll write down the lyrics that the Lord is highlighting.

And then you write it down on that card, and you give the card, and that person gets to hold something tangible, something that they can tuck into their journal, like I have over the years.

Um, they could tape it to their mirror.

They could pull it out on a hard day.

I can tell you when I feel like not hearing the voice of the Lord.

The fact that I have a notebook full of these words that I can go back to has been such an anchor of hope for me.

So I cannot tell you how many times I've heard women say they still have a card.

Someone made them for years ago, too.

Like, they've held onto it, too, because it means something.

Because when the Holy Spirit speaks, even through a simple handmade card, those words are gonna carry weight, right?

There's gonna be fruit that comes from that.

And you can start small.

Practice with one friend.

Make a card for someone in your small group.

Sit quietly before your next gathering and ask the father what he wants to say to the women who are gonna be at that dinner table.

Just start.

The Holy Spirit will meet you in the practice.

He'll honor your childlike faith and wonder.

And if you want more of a.

Like a structured way to bring this into your community, whether it's in a small group or at a gathering or backyard summer barbecue around the campfire, you don't need a formal retreat to make this happen.

The way that we set this up when I first experienced it was 15 minutes.

One person shares their story uninterrupted.

Everyone else just receives.

No advice, no reactions, just open listening hearts.

The next 15 minutes.

Questions only curious, gentle, open questions so that the person can go deeper into their own questions.

Not advice.

Not that happened to me, too.

Just questions.

And then for five minutes, everyone gets quiet.

They close your eye, Close your eyes.

And then asking the Holy Spirit, what's on your heart for this person?

What do you see when you look at them?

Is there a word, an image, a color, a scripture, a phrase, a taste?

Go through your senses, write it down, record it with your phone.

Don't edit it, don't overthink it.

Just receive it.

And then share what you've heard.

And you guys, like I said, this works in your living room.

This works in a.

Around a campfire.

This works at a retreat.

It works with a card.

It works with errands.

It works anytime, any place, any season.

And if you're joining us at the Holistic Hearts Encounter retreat, we're going to do this together there.

We're going to do lots of listening and asking the Father what his heart is for others and for each of the participants.

So you will get to experience it in a safe, spirit led space, surrounded by women who are all hungry for this same thing.

Here's this invitation for this week, my friend.

I'm offering you two options depending on where you are.

If you are just beginning practicing listening.

Excuse me?

Practice listening for yourself.

Get quiet, open a journal and ask the Holy Spirit, what do you think about me right now?

What are your thoughts?

Those sands, right?

Those.

Those pieces of sand that you're continually thinking about me?

That is the truth.

Write down whatever comes up.

Don't edit it, don't dismiss it.

Let him speak and let yourself receive it.

If you are ready to take a step forward in faith and trust and childlike wonder, I encourage you to make a card for someone, just one person.

Ask the Father what he sees when he looks at that person and write it down and give it to them and watch what he does.

You were made for this, friend.

The spirit of truth lives inside of you.

And the people are hungry for someone to carry heaven's perspective into their ordinary day.

They want to experience kingdom here on earth, right?

So be that person.

I encourage you to be that person today.

If this episode stirred something in you, I seriously, I would love to hear from you.

Come find me over at instagram @Kristen Fieldschadwick and tell me, are you gonna try this?

Are you gonna make a card?

Are you gonna try this in your small group at a retreat?

I'd love to.

From you.

And if today's episode encouraged you, would you mind sharing it with a friend who is hungry for more?

Maybe it's with your group of of friends that are meeting together and you guys could do this together.

Let's get into the hands of, into the hearts and the listening ears of the women who need to hear this to encourage one another.

All right, my friends, until next time, keep your heart open, keep your posture soft, and keep going after more of him.

And again, thank you to all of my supporters who have helped me continue to keep this podcast going with buymeacoffee.com and bless you in this summer season.

Take care.