Every Monday morning at The Company, we make space to invite the Holy Spirit into our work week. As best as possible, we want Jesus to direct what we work on.
Whether we’re writing something about God or not, when we’re full of the Holy Spirit, writing is our ministry.
We mainly invite Jesus into our work by taking time to pray. On Monday morning we usually worship Jesus for a half an hour or so, and then we take about a half an hour to pray individually and seek God’s voice.
You can do the same thing from your home. As you practice this, I bet it will dramatically change what you accomplish with your writing.
There’s no wrong way to pray. But here are some questions that may be helpful to ask the Lord in your prayer:
- If I only accomplish one writing-related thing this week, Jesus, what do you want it to be?
- What other writing stuff is important to you for me to work on this week?
- What task do you want me to work on this week that’s not related to my writing?
- Is there anything on my list that’s important to me that I’m not going to get done?
- What are you doing in me this week?
- What do you not want me to miss this week?
- What else are you saying to me, Jesus?
(If you’d like a worksheet that you can print out with these questions, download it free here. You can print them out, save them in a notebook, and reflect on them in the future.)
As you ask these questions, do your best to hear the voice of God and write down what you hear. You may hear a single word in your mind, see a picture that you didn’t expect, or God may tell you lots of things to write down. Don’t limit how God is allowed to speak to you or expect Him to speak to you in the same way He speaks to someone else.
You’ll be imperfect at this, and that’s OK. Trying to hear God’s voice is the best way to grow in hearing the voice of the Lord, especially when we take a step of faith and try to put what we’ve heard into action.
At the end of the week, reflect on these questions. Now that you’ve seen how the week went, which answers that you heard made sense? What surprised you?
Which answers weren’t helpful or didn’t work out like you expected? Is that because you heard wrong or is it because you were imperfect or disobedient in applying what you heard?
As you reflect on this, you’ll grow in your ability to clearly hear the Lord.
You’ll get some stuff wrong. But recognize that you’re getting it wrong because you’re trying to hear the voice of God.
I never want to make God seem like a commodity, but nonetheless, hearing God’s voice is a skill. It’s something you can only develop through practice. Like any skill, getting good at it requires trying and being bad at it first.
Hearing God’s voice is not a test. We’re not trying to get the best score. We’re just trying to be intentional about making more space for God in our lives. Even if everything you “hear” is wrong. Just by making time to ask these questions, you’ll be making more room for God in your life.
God wants to speak with you. He wants to be a part of your writing. God is supremely creative, and when we engage our creativity, we imitate Him.
Of course God is always present with us. But something changes when we’re intentional about inviting Him into what we’re doing.
God cares for you. Your hopes, your dreams, your fears and disappointments…they’re important to Him. He knows you specifically.
Make space for Him. See what happens.
-Brad Pauquette
Director, The Company
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