A Soul Quiet Enough to Hear God Speak
David McIntyre (1859–1938), was a Scottish minister, author, and Principle of the Bible Training Institute in Glasgow.
In The Hidden Life of Prayer, McIntyre describes the kind of spirit we must have as we approach God.
It is necessary that we should realize the presence of God.
It is necessary that we should realize the presence of God. He who fills earth and heaven is, in a singular and impressive sense, in the secret place. As the electric fluid which is diffused in the atmosphere is concentrated in the lightning flash, so the presence of God becomes vivid and powerful in the prayer chamber.
Bishop Jeremy Taylor enforces this rule with stately and affluent speech: “In the beginning of actions of religion, make an act of adoration; that is, solemnly worship God, and place thyself in God’s presence, and behold Him with the eye of faith; and let thy desires actually fix on Him as the object of thy worship, and reason of thy hope, and fountain of thy blessing. For when thou hast placed thyself before Him, and kneelest in His presence, it is most likely all the following parts of thy devotion will be answerable to the wisdom of such an apprehension, and the glory of such a presence.”
How rare it is to find a soul quiet enough to hear God speak!
Our Father is in the secret place…“But, oh how rare it is!” Cries Fénelon, “How rare it is to find a soul quiet enough to hear God speak!” So many of us have mistrained ears. We are like the Indian hunters of whom Whittier speaks, who can hear the crackle of a twig far off in the dim forest, but are deaf to the thunder of Niagara only a few rods away.
“I consider myself there as a stone before a carver.”
Brother Lawrence, who lived to practice the presence of God, speaks thus: “As for my set hours of prayer, they are only a continuation of the same exercise. Sometimes I consider myself there as a stone before a carver, whereof he is to make a statue; presenting myself before God I desire Him to form His perfect image in my soul, and make me entirely like Himself. At other times, when I apply myself to prayer, I feel all my spirit an all my soul lift itself up without any care or effort of mine, and it continues as it were suspended and firmly fixed in God, as in its center and place of rest.”
The realization of the divine presence is the inflexible condition of a right engagement of spirit in the exercise of private prayer.