Restore Voice: Here/Hear Now
“Let Your Voice be all I hear now” (Hillsong UNITED, “Here Now (Madness)”).
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Here now
All I know is I know that You are
Here now
Still my heart
Let Your Voice be all I hear now
Spirit breathe
Like the wind come have Your Way
‘Cause I know You’re in this place
(Hillsong UNITED, “Here Now (Madness),” from “Empires,” 2015)
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Have you ever heard a Christian leader – teaching pastor, lead worshipper, or a well-meaning member of the community – pray and ask God to “Please be here, now, in the midst of us?” Have you ever wondered to yourself in a moment of theological clarity, “Why do we pray this, when the nature of God’s presence is clearly in all places, at all times – and if we identify as Jesus followers, even more intimately the Spirit’s presence dwells within us in permanence, our heart His home?”
For a global community of Jesus followers who claim to pay attention to the Scriptures, at times our theological language is laughably confusing, even if well-intentioned. Now before you become defensive, claiming “I have never before prayed that way!,” let me ask you a simple question: Have you ever found yourself in a situation or place where you wished God would ‘show up and have His way,’ as if somehow this situation, this place, had been overlooked or worse, intentionally forsaken, by the watchful eye of God? No? Well, neither have I, we both claim while winking. (Side note: The nature of humanity is wonderfully hypocritical and two-faced in this way. In fact, much of developmental maturity as an adult, be it in our following of Jesus or the lives we lead before our neighbors, involves this very challenge of honesty – admitting how things are in reality, and working hard to put things right, one true self with no need to hide or project a false self).
If God is omnipresent – in all places, at the same time, always –
If God is omniscient – knowing everything, always –
If God is omnipotent – all-powerful, always –
Then how must our prayers – and more critically, our hearts – shift in language, tone, and intention?
A long-time mentor of mine introduced a subtle, yet critical, shift to me almost 18 years ago now that has fueled much of my prayer life, affecting language, tone, and intention with a posture of listening responsiveness. When I was 18, he taught his son and I that “God is always speaking. We rarely are in a posture of listening, unable to hear what He says.” There are many valid, ‘important’ reasons for this – distractions, To-Do Lists, urgent demands, a lack of quiet in our lives – but the reality throughout the Scriptures is this: It is normal and expected for God to speak and initiate, and for human beings to listen and respond. This isn’t a reality for the spiritual giants in the pages of our Bibles (And truly, was Moses any greater hero than one of us? If I read the text, he was a murderer with a speech problem who repeatedly refused the clear direction of God to lead with courage, which sounds strikingly similar to my own cowardice and passivity at times) – this is the human reality.
God speaks, we listen.
God initiates, we respond.
God acts, we re-act (Not reactively, but action as Image Bearers precipitated by Divine ‘first’ action).
And so, the next time you are tempted to pray for God’s presence to be here, among your situation, what if you shifted one critical word, your prayer becoming,
“All I know is I know that You are
Here now.
Still my heart
Let Your Voice be all I hear now.”
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