Whenever you pray, you enter into what has been called “the cloud of God”, as God’s unseen Spirit silently descends upon you. You secretly enter heaven’s eternal time and space, where you may come to know God directly with your soul, but not with your mind; where you may see God with your heart, but not with your eyes; where you may hear God with your soul, but not with your ears. In that mysterious cloud, you may also join and be joined by all the generations of Christians who have preceded you in the fulfillment of their faith, and who seek to encourage you to fight the good fight all the way to the end, when you will share with them a destiny in heaven.

This renders prayer all the richer with meaning. The truth is, Prayer and worship are going on in heaven and on earth at one and the same time, concurrently. That means we are not alone. The souls of dearly departed family members and friends are spiritually with us, as we are with them. That means our communion with God somehow includes our communion with them. We may sense, but cannot prove this great commonality between the living and the dead, but it is there nevertheless. Our common prayer and worship transcend time and space. We are sharing in a unity to be ours forever in heaven.

God can get through to us what God wants to get through, at any time. You can of course seem to close off from God, or turn away in disbelief, anger or despair. Yet if God wants to get your attention, God will. That being said, it is important to understand how God communicates with us during prayer, usually in subtle and unexpected ways.

There are seven essential entryways in us through which God may stealthily make God’s presence and will known during prayer. The better you understand these, the more readily your apparent prayer monologue can be grasped as an actual prayer dialogue, as a “with” rather than “to” God. It is vital to patiently wait upon, and listen for the Lord around these entryways. And also to take on faith that God addresses you daily, in a variety of elusive ways, though most importantly in prayer.

So what exactly is prayer? Prayer is communication with God in all its forms. This includes intimate as well as seemingly distant communication, from monologues to dialogues, from written texts to mystical touch, from speech to silent communion. Prayer establishes the bridge between God and humanity. It is as vital to your personal well-being to develop a flourishing prayer life, as it is to learn how to communicate love to human loved ones.

My purpose in these prayer podcasts is to teach you how to pray to God, so that you can actually come to sense the presence of God, the subtle but significant response of God to your prayer. What I will offer you are time tested ways of praying that will at some point bring you into direct connection with God. Everything is at stake in the long overdue return to the focus on knowing God directly. Such knowledge permeated the Bible and the medieval mystics. I want you to encounter the ultimate beauty, goodness and truth: God.

God has taught me a contemplative form of prayer which I practice every morning, and during brief periods throughout the day. I call it “Abiding Prayer,” and it is based Jesus’ directing us to: “Abide in me as I abide in you . . . Abide in my love” (John 15:4,9). Abiding prayer is less something you do, and more something you permit to happen. That means, Abiding Prayer is God’s prayer in and with you, built on Christ’s own insistent directive.

The focus of Abiding Prayer is on Christ and entering into a heart-to-heart mutual life with Christ during the prayer itself. Abiding Prayer offers a pathway toward attaining what Christ fervently prays for all disciples: “that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one” (John 17:22-23).

Among the most comforting words Jesus Christ ever spoke, were those uttered shortly before he was arrested and crucified. During my years as a pastor, I said these words at nearly every funeral I conducted. Thinking of us rather than Himself, Jesus sensitively said:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:1-3).

I have mostly considered these words as referring to Christ coming to meet us after we pass over to the other side. But I recently suggested to a spiritual woman that she meditate on these words in effort to sense Christ’s presence right now. As I said this, the Spirit informed me that these words also mean, “Christ is coming for you now, so that you and Christ can become one in Spirit in this life; and after that, in the life to come.”

In varying degrees, we all seek the truth. Though we may at times fear the truth, Jesus says that, “you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free . . . So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:32,36). The Apostle Paul echoes Christ’s words, when he says, “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal 5:1).

At the heart of Jesus’ mission was his passion to set us free from every manner of bondage, physical, psychic, or spiritual. In his very first message to humanity, delivered to his own people in Nazareth, Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah (61:1-2):

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:18-21).

When Paul wrote his most positive letter, he did so while in prison, either in Rome or Ephesus around 62 CE. Paul succinctly tells us what to focus on for the sake of our well-being, as well as that of those around us. More than merely read, this passage should also be prayed:

“Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:8-9).

To pray Paul’s words, focus on these four questions: What does this passage say? What does it say to you? What do you want to say to God? What does God want to say to you?

Though it is not certain where Paul was when he wrote his most positive letter, he did so while in prison, either in Rome or Ephesus around 62 CE. Paul succinctly tells us what to focus on for the sake of our well-being, as well as those around us. This passage should not only be read, but also prayed:

“Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:8-9).

What does this passage say? What does it say to you? What do you want to say to God?

And what does God want to say to you?