Listening Prayer - Prayer Class
This is the hardest and the most beneficial aspect of the class - praying for each other. As the title suggests, we use a method of listening. We don't ask the person what he or she wants.
1) We listen,
2) We pray, and
3) We ask for confirmation. (i.e. Did that make sense to you? Does it apply to your situation? Etc.)
This is incredibly hard because of the risk factor involved. It's quite possible that you will be absolutely wrong. It's normal--it's normal to be wrong and it's normal to be afraid of being wrong. Being wrong is also a necessary part of the learning process. To alleviate some of this fear, we do this thing called listening prayer several different ways: two involving writing out our prayers and one of praying over a person.
1) We listen,
2) We pray, and
3) We ask for confirmation. (i.e. Did that make sense to you? Does it apply to your situation? Etc.)
This is incredibly hard because of the risk factor involved. It's quite possible that you will be absolutely wrong. It's normal--it's normal to be wrong and it's normal to be afraid of being wrong. Being wrong is also a necessary part of the learning process. To alleviate some of this fear, we do this thing called listening prayer several different ways: two involving writing out our prayers and one of praying over a person.
[Note: This page will not give a theological argument for hearing God's voice nor a teaching on how we hear the Holy Spirit.
Those can be found in the teachings section for each month.]
Those can be found in the teachings section for each month.]
Written Prayers
1) Anonymous Method
By and large this is the method I use every time I introduce a group to the concept of listening prayer. Each person gets a 3x5 note card or a 1/4 slip of paper. The opening conversation usually goes something like this: "Your going to pray for someone but you don't know who it is yet. I'm not going to tell you until after you've prayed and written down your prayer." The response is generally one of incredulity: "What do you mean? How can we do that?" Almost always it works out brilliantly--I have had a couple of times where we failed miserably but those are easily the exceptions to years of using the method. If it's a onetime deal, I won't pick the person we prayed for until after everyone has prayed. This is usually done by some random method (otherwise it defeats the purpose). If I plan to get through an entire class or group of people, I'm a little more systematic in my progression through the class. Still, the students never know who they are praying for.
* I wait until the end because the Holy Spirit often goes for the jugular. Sometimes you have 6 prayers that agree with each other about emotional pain the person is going through but that person insists everything is just fine. At that point I'd shrug my shoulders and talk to the person individually later. I trust the overwhelming evidence of 6 people "randomly" praying for the same exact thing over a person's testimony any day of the week. 2) Student read method This is the exact same process as above except students read their own papers instead of the instructor. This intermediary step allows people to have time to listen and compose their thoughts without interruption. It also adds to the risk element of being wrong because now you have to publicly own your mistakes. |
Praying Over a Person
After students get comfortable with 'listening' using a paper and pencil, push them towards this method. Synergy is an amazing thing. There are plenty of times I don't 'hear' anything at first, but once someone else starts praying the Holy Spirit gives me insight based on what the other person prays. He often forces us to depend on one another--even in praying for people.
This method also allows for immediate feedback from the person for whom you are praying. It also takes some of the risk out of praying because the whole group prays for one individual. If a person doesn't feel like they have anything to say then they can simply not say anything. There are more benefits worth mentioning; since I could probably write a couple of pages about it I'll let it stop there. I DO NOT recommend splitting students up into pairs to pray for each other. It's way too much pressure when first starting out. Pray for one person as an entire group. I also suggest that you, as the instructor, write down what gets prayed.
If you have any more questions or comments, I would love to hear from you. Feel free to email me. |