While I was driving to work the other night I was listening to a podcast, I had this strong impression that I needed to pray. I turned off the podcast message and went into prayer. After a few minutes, I felt impressed to call a certain friend. When I did, she let me know that she was glad I called because she had literally just asked the Lord for help in a situation, and moments later I rang her cell phone. I prayed with her and helped her work through the immediate issue. I learned as a Cub Scout to “stop drop and roll” if for some reason my clothing ever caught on fire. Sometimes, putting out spiritual fires can be similar—we need to stop, drop, and pray.

I once heard prophet Larry Randolph say something at a conference I attended that has stuck with me. He said, “In the midst of the mundane, the supernatural happens.” Often I think we are looking for big spectacular displays of divine power, but more often than not God works supernaturally in subtle ways. Think about it—before my friend had even prayed, God alerted me I needed to pay attention to what He was doing, and then even as she was praying, He impressed on me to call her. In Scripture, this could be characterized as a manifestation of the gift of the word of knowledge, but more often than not I just think of it as God communicating with me. Sometimes God lets us know things not through a spiritual gift, but through our relationship with Him.

Prayer is a crucial part of our spiritual lives, and it has the ability to change any situation. While I believe that cultivating a lifestyle involving intentional prayer is important, I also believe that random times of prayer are also vital. It isn’t enough to just have metered times of prayer complete with prayer lists because some life situations don’t fit the mold. Don’t get me wrong—I believe that using a list can be a valuable means of intercession because it provides focused reminders about people and situations that need ongoing prayer. However, we must also cultivate sensitivity in our hearts to the Holy Spirit so that we know when it is time to stop, drop, and pray.

One of the best pieces of advice I can give someone who wants to grow deeper in their relationship with God is to become more sensitive to both the voice and leading of the Holy Spirit. It says of Him in John 16:13-14, “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.” Holy Spirit loves to reveal the will of God to us, and He does it in full concert and cooperation with Jesus and the Father, so we can trust that all directions we receive from Heaven come with a unified will and purpose.

I plan to eventually write and release one or more books on the prophetic, including wisdom and guidance on how to hear the voice of God and recognize the various ways He leads us, but until then, here are some other resources that may be helpful to grow in hearing God’s voice:

My buddy Praying Medic has written two books on the subject that I highly recommend. They are
Hearing God’s Voice Made Simple and Seeing in the Spirit Made Simple.

There are many others out there, but two good ones are Spirit Talk by Larry Randolph and Translating God: Hearing God’s Voice For Yourself And The World Around You by Shawn Bolz.

You might also be interested in reading about how I learned to first listen to God and then pray what He desires in my article titled “How I Received Mentoring In Prophetic Intercession“