Human Response 493: Asking God to Listen

2 Chronicles 6:19 Have respect therefore to the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to hearken unto the cry, and the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee.

At the dedication of the temple, Solomon prayed a long prayer to God about this place. He opened his prayer by asking God to listen. This is not a plea raised in doubt, but rather an affirmation of faith that the Lord does hear. He is not pleading so much as preaching. And in the prayer he asks, or rather states the fact, that God will hear the prayers of both the citizen and foreigner who prays in this place: “Hear Thou in heaven.”

The gateway or entry into the unseen spiritual world is the place where God dwells on earth, where the unseen touches the seen. It is the temple. Jesus comes from heaven to earth and his body is the temple. Then the Holy Spirit comes into the body of the believer, as a temple, through faith in the Gospel. The human body of a believer and the gathering of believers in His name is a temple, the presence of God on the earth.

In Jesus’ name we may pray to that place (the heart where God dwells) in the confidence of faith and the guarantee of Grace knowing that God the Father who art in heaven hears, listens, and answers.

Wherever we are God is there also. Whether we are in the closet or in the street God is there, and He is listening. We are not praying to ourself, for the self can do nothing, but we are praying to the God who dwells in the body alongside the self. It may look like we are praying to our self, but faith sees the true God, the Father who art in heaven, in us and prays to Him. We are not fooled by appearances, but we trust in the Promise. And the promise is: God hearkens!