Be careful what you ask for

So God I think you’re saying you want to talk about the things my friend has been seeing?

Yes.

Ok he saw his angels stand up and bar the way of some people who offered to pray for him?

Yes he did.

And then on another occasion he heard you saying that your people are late, did you really tell him that too?

Yes I told him that too.

Ok so you want to talk about all that now?

Yes.

But God I just wanted to hear you talk tonight.

That’s exactly what I want to do.

About all that stuff?

Yes.

Okaaay? Why did the angels stand in the way of the people who wanted to pray for my friend?

Because his angels weren’t happy with the effect of the prayers of those people.

Why?

The people were going to pray for the wrong things and their prayers would have seen your friend hoping for the wrong things.

And you don’t want him disappointed?

No that’s not my point. The point is that I don’t want him distracted with things that other people think they should pray for, I don’t want him thinking he’s supposed to want those things too.

Is that a generic principle?

Definitely.

Explain a bit more detail?

People don’t ask me what to pray for so they pray for the wrong things. Christians have this thing where they trust the intentions of someone who wants to pray for them, but they shouldn’t.

What’s that supposed to mean. Most people who want to pray for someone do have good intentions don’t they?

No, not necessarily. They want to extend a blessing or help to the person, that intention is good. But the fact that they don’t even bother to ask me whether or not to pray for the person, and if so what to pray for – that’s not a good intention. It’s not a bad intention, but rather the lack of the right intention. They misunderstand prayer, they think that praying for a thing that seems to be the solution to a problem is a good thing. It often isn’t. Prayer is a tool, it can be used for good or bad.

You have immense power you humans, when you ask me for something or command a thing to be so in the spiritual world you set things in motion. You need to be much more aware of what is happening in the unseen world around you and how you are influencing it. You have no idea how much of it is subject to you, even the least human influences the spiritual world far more than you could ever imagine.

Nice God, I’m going to get all sorts of grief for that one from people who ask me for scriptural backing.

Mark that is a truth that is woven into the entire volume of scriptures, there is no one scripture that will do it. The scriptures to do with Balaam tell that story, so do the ones about the plague that struck Israel in David’s time, and the troubles that befell Eli and his sons. But when people get excited and demand scriptural backing tell them to ask me. If they’re genuinely interested tell them to have their own conversation back and forward with me and ask me to expand on truth. I’m happy to talk to anyone.

God??? You really want me to leave that in here? It sort of looks like sour grapes on my part.

It would be if you said it, but you didn’t, I did.

Yes but it does make me cross when people get all religious and accuse me of being a false prophet.

That’s understandable.

What do you mean by that? Are you saying that it’s understandable that I would get cross, or understandable that they’d think I was a false prophet?

Both.

Really God?? Am I a false prophet?

Of course not.

Well what do you mean then?

Mark a conversation with me, back and forward like this, fluent, I talk, you talk is not normal. Anyone can have one, but few do. For that reason people are not comfortable with it. People, all humans hate change. A conversation like this would spell change. Being able to come direct to me rather than through a hierarchy of humans to hear me; that’s new and for many uncomfortable. People feel unsure when they read these conversations. You can’t blame them.

Oh lovely God!! Shall I not publish them then? I don’t want to be the fruitloop. Us Christians have been burning each other alive for centuries for stuff we’re uncomfortable with. If people don’t like this I’m happy enough to do it in secret.

NO! I want people to converse with me, back and forward and to share it with each other. Not just you, but thousands, millions, hundreds of millions! I want people sharing their conversations with me.

Ok fair enough… so God you said we need to have the right intention when we ask you about something. What’s the right intention?

The right intention is to find out what I want you to pray about, and most of the time I don’t want you asking me for things I want a discussion and rather than ask me to do something, I want you to ask me what I want to do.

The right intention is to ask me what I’m saying ALL THE TIME and IN EVERY SITUATION. It’s possible, but few are doing it. Few are doing it because few are being taught. Ask me why few are being taught to ask me what to pray for.

Why are few being taught to ask you what to pray for?

Mark few are being taught because their teachers weren’t taught. My people are late. That’s the answer to your second question. You could have been teaching each other to converse back and forward with me for millennia but you haven’t done so.

Oh dear… God this is dangerous. I’ve got a bunch of people who say that having a conversation with you is naughty, that we should only ever read your bible and not try to listen to your spirit speak. They’re going to want to burn me alive for this one.

Why do you say that?

Because millennia of the warriors of the faith, men and women of history, people who have built the history of the Christian faith are implicated when you say no one has taught this. Who the heck am I to hear you say that, how do I even know? Much less think that I have something to offer to solve the problem?

I’ve told you that before Mark, you’re nobody. But then neither were they and nor was I. They were used by me to achieve an end. But that didn’t mean they were aware of all of the things I wanted to do. They didn’t ask, so I used them to do the jobs they wanted to do.

But God I only ever ask you stuff because I want to know the answer. There’s no holy reason.

Yes but Mark everyone who has a conversation with me ends up helping me. They can’t help it. You are NOT helping me achieve all the things I want to achieve, just a few things, just the things I can use you for. This is one of those things, the art of hearing me. It’s not a holy thing, not in the sense that Christians understand ‘holy’, it’s a real human physical/spiritual thing. You’ve discovered that if you write me a question and write down the answer then I will give you the words as you write. Listening to me speak is neither good nor bad in and of itself, even the Pharisees did it, but if you keep doing it then you will hear more. And the more you hear me, the more good flows into your life.

Ok but hang on, I haven’t finished with the first question -- surely a prayer for the wrong thing goes unanswered?

Yes in the case of those people praying for your friend. But not always. When you pray I am your servant and will often do what you ask whether or not it’s what’s best for you.

God how can that be? No wonder the naysayers hate some of the stuff I write! You can’t possibly be saying that.

Hear me out Mark - cause and effect is a law of the universe. One example of cause and effect is that quite often when you ask me for something I give it to you. A request to me is a tool, it can be used for best or second best. It’s like picking up a rock and throwing it. The rock actually flies, it actually strikes something, simply because you threw it. When you ask for something I will often give it to you. Why would I give you something that you’d be better off not having? For the same reason that I allow you to throw a rock into a pond, or at a window or worse, at a person’s head. You get to choose.

Whichever choice you make you are using a law that I have established – energy expended delivers a physical result (if you throw a rock it will fly) – you use that law for good or bad and I allow you to choose which it will be. In the same way I have established a law that when you ask me for something I will often act as your servant and give it to you, and I will allow you to choose whether you ask for the right thing or the wrong. I decided ahead of time that the universe would function that way, I decided that you would live in a world where you get to be in charge and you learn either before you make a decision or after.

And you’re saying that if we want to pray only for the right things then we should not presume, but ask you what to pray for?

Yes.

And if you say not to pray, then we should accept that?

Yes. And I want less praying at me and more back and forward conversation. Less religion and pious behaviour and more reality. More discussion. ‘Come let us reason together’. I want to reason with you, not just listen to your reasoning. And neither do I just want you to listen to my reasoning. I want us to reason together.

Ok, that was a pretty big answer.

Yes it’s a pretty big topic and you asked. Oh and what I’m also wanting to do is show people the technique you use to glean more detail from me. You ask the next question. Again and again and again. A conversation, an interview, not just waiting for a nudge or an impression but actually conversing with me. Writing down your question and writing down my answer trusting that I will supply the answer and starting to write trusting me that I will supply the words as you do.

It can be done verbally too God – speaking out a question to you and speaking your answer back trusting you to give the words as we speak your answer. And it can be done in thought too – thinking the question, thinking back the answer.

Yes it can.

And in dance and song God. I’ve seen people sing their question and then sing back your answer.

Yes true.

But God some people don’t want as much detail as I do.

That’s fine, you get as much detail as you ask for.

And God others don’t want to get answers straight from your spirit, they only want to read your word and then apply all the generic principles in the book to themselves and their situation. And they get very angry if others of us want to hear you direct. When we have an actual conversation with you it makes them very angry.

Yes but Mark some want to hear direct from me. Some really do. They’re the ones I want you to help, the ones who want to hear from me direct and have no problem with that idea

PRAISE FOR THE FREEDOM DIARIES

The Freedom Diaries will stretch you. It describes Mark’s real life struggle with Doubt as he discovered that he could hear God’s voice every day.Dr Mark Virkler. Author of 4 Keys to hearing God’s Voice. Buffalo. New York.

Like a child on Christmas morning, I was delighted to discover how simple yet wonderful it is to place my hand into the hand of God and listen to his whispers and enjoy his affection.  I could only ask why no one had ever told me he was this good and this close.  I wish I had read this book a long, long time ago.  Daniel Walker. Founder and Executive Director of Nvader. Author of God in a brothel.

This is new and exciting. It’s not the idea of hearing from God that’s new, it’s having conversations back and forth, question and answers. That’s new for most of us. Now I am enjoying my own conversations with God, which always leave me with hope. David Garratt of Scripture in Song. Hawaii.