Praying It Through: How to Finish the Conversation When God Speaks

 Finish The Conversation with God

How it Started

I remember the texture of the carpet against my knees when I was a little boy. My dad, a good man who loved the Lord, taught me to pray beside my bed. It was the standard ritual: hands clasped, eyes closed, reciting the lists and the rhymes. "God bless mommy, God bless daddy..."

But even as a child, something in my spirit felt restless. From the outside, it looked like I was doing the right thing. I was saying the words. But inside, I felt like I was just launching words at the ceiling. It felt one-sided. It felt like a monologue.

One night, the dissatisfaction was too much. I slipped out of my room and into the backyard. The air was cool, and the night sky was vast, scattered with stars that seemed to hum with a silence I couldn't find indoors. I started walking. Pacing the grass. And there, under the open canopy of heaven, I stopped "saying prayers" and started talking to a Person.

"Why do I have to just pray at You?" I whispered to the dark.

That was the beginning of my prayer walks. That was the beginning of realizing that God is not a statue we leave voicemails for; He is a Spirit who desires a relationship. I didn't have the theological terms for it then—I hadn't yet read the heavy books or memorized the Torah—but I knew one thing: I wanted a spiritual relationship with God.

Years later, after I had fallen away and come back, after I had surrendered in 1995, I realized that many of us are still stuck by that bedside, reciting lists, while God is trying to start a conversation. We get a nudge, a sign, a supernatural wink, and we treat it like a curiosity. We say, "Wow, that was weird," and we move on.

But God wants us to pray it through.

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The Art of the Divine Interruption

Have you ever been driving down the freeway, your mind drifting on cruise control? You're thinking about bills, or work, or what you're going to have for dinner. You are in your own world. Then, suddenly—bam! It's like a billboard slams into your field of vision. A thought drops into your spirit that you know you didn't generate. It interrupts your train of thought completely.

It happened to me recently at a Whataburger.

I was sitting there with my wife, Susan. The smell of burgers and fries was in the air, the noise of the restaurant clattering around us. It was a mundane, fleshly moment. I wasn't fasting on a mountaintop; I was waiting for fast food. Suddenly, a name roared in my spirit so loud it almost drowned out the restaurant:

"Sennacherib."

I blinked. Sennacherib? The Assyrian king? Why in the world was an ancient enemy of Israel interrupting my lunch?

This is the moment where most believers miss it. The knee-jerk reaction of the flesh is to be entertained by the supernatural. We think, "Whoa, God just gave me a word! That's cool!" and then we go back to eating our fries. We treat the voice of God like a novelty.

But I knew better. This wasn't a notification on my phone to be swiped away; it was an incoming call. God was initiating a conversation. He had tossed the ball into my court, and if I didn't throw it back, the game would end there.

I had to pray it through. I had to ask, "Lord, who is Sennacherib to me right now? What are You showing me?" That single word led me on a journey of digging deeper into the Scriptures, studying the sons of Korah, and uncovering a rock of revelation that eventually became a podcast episode. But it only happened because I didn't stop at the "wow" moment.

The Ephesians 4:11 Miracle

Sometimes the initiation is subtle, like that whisper in a restaurant. Other times, God has to shout to get our attention because we are so distracted.

A few years ago, on April 11th, I experienced something that still makes the hair on my arms stand up. I was in the house with Susan. My computer was in the other room—shut down, powered off. We were in the kitchen, talking, minding our own business.

Suddenly, we heard something coming from the office area.

We looked that direction and found that the computer had turned itself on. Not only had it booted up, but it had launched a video. It was playing a teaching on Ephesians 4:11:

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; (Ephesians 4:11 KJV)

It was the day after my open vision about April 11th. 4/11. I did a blog post and Video on this post here for further digging: Vision - Current State of the Five Fold Ministry

But, the Lord was confirming this message by turning on the computer, and the computer was playing a YouTube video about Ephesians 4:11. It was short, to the point, and then the computer turned itself off. Susan and I were standing there with our mouths opened stunned at how God was going out of His way to make His point.

Now, you can't fake that. You can't explain that away as a glitch. That is a supernatural intrusion into the natural world. But even then, the temptation is just to tell the story at parties. "Hey, guess what God did?"

No. God didn't turn my computer on to impress me with His tech support skills. He turned it on because He wanted to talk to me about the five-fold ministry. He was starting a dialogue. I had to sit down, open my Bible, and pray that through. I had to ask, "Lord, why this? Why now? What is my part in this?"

When God knocks, you have to open the door and invite Him in for supper. You don't just yell "Who is it?" and keep watching TV.

The Baby Monitor Principle

Why is it that some people seem to hear God constantly, while others—often people with impressive PhDs and seminary degrees—seem deaf to His voice?

I believe the answer lies in relationship, not intellect.

Imagine a household with a husband, a wife, and a newborn baby. The husband is a good provider. He's out there "slaying dragons," working hard, bringing home the bacon to keep the lights on. He loves his family, but he's gone a lot.

The wife, however, is with the baby 24/7. She is changing diapers, feeding him, rocking him to sleep.

One evening, the baby makes a noise. "Goo-goo ga-ga."

The husband looks up from his paper. "What does he want? Is he hungry? Is he mad?" He has no idea. To him, it's just noise.

The wife doesn't even look up. She smiles and says, "No, he's just telling you he likes his teddy bear."

The husband is baffled. "How do you know that? He just made a noise!"

She knows because she has a relationship. She has spent hours staring into that baby's face. She has tuned her ear to the frequency of his voice. She understands the nuance of his communication because she has been present.

We have a lot of people in the church who are like the husband. They are busy working for God. They are studying about God. The Pharisees were like this. They had the Torah memorized by the time they were teenagers. They knew the Word, but they didn't know the Author. That is why when the Word Himself stood in front of them, they wanted to kill Him.

Jesus said:

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (John 10:27 KJV)

If you want to be able to pray it through, you first have to know who is on the other end of the line. You need that intimacy. You need to be the wife in that story, spending so much time in the presence of the Lord that when He whispers "Sennacherib," you don't just hear a history lesson—you hear a Father speaking to His child.

Personal Reflections: Learning the Hard Way

I haven't always gotten this right. In my book, Open Your Eyes: My Supernatural Journey, I talk about the times I missed it, and the times God graciously caught me.

One of the biggest lessons I learned about praying it through is the danger of the "fleece." We all know the story of Gideon. He wasn't sure if it was God speaking, so he put out a fleece of wool.

And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. (Judges 6:36-37 KJV)

God honored it. But Gideon was operating out of low faith and lack of relationship. He needed a physical sign because he didn't trust the spiritual voice.

I remember when I was considering a move to Florida years ago. I did not want to move. I hate humidity. I didn't want to deal with the people or the bugs. But I kept getting these signs. Random strangers would hand me oranges. I'd see Florida license plates everywhere.

Instead of just praying it through and listening to the Spirit, I got stubborn. I told God, "Okay, if You want me to move, have this specific person call me today—and they never call me—and have them say this specific phrase."

I was testing the Lord. I don't recommend it. But God, in His mercy, had that person call me that very afternoon and say those exact words. I was cornered. I had to move.

But as we mature, we shouldn't need the fleece. We should recognize the Shepherd's voice. When we get a revelation, we should be able to take it into our prayer closet, open the Scriptures, and let the Spirit of Truth guide us.

We must also be careful because the devil talks in the spirit realm too. The enemy masquerades as an angel of light. That is why we must always ground our "praying it through" in the written Word of God. The Spirit will never violate the Bible. If you hear a voice telling you to do something that goes against Scripture, hang up the phone. That's not God.

Biblical References: The Long Game

Praying it through is rarely a five-minute process. We live in a microwave society, but we serve a slow-cooker God.

Look at Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 13, God initiates a conversation with a very strange instruction.

Thus saith the LORD unto me, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water. (Jeremiah 13:1 KJV)

Jeremiah obeys. He buys the belt. He wears it. But the conversation isn't over. God speaks again.

Take the girdle that thou hast got, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock. (Jeremiah 13:4 KJV)

Jeremiah has to travel a long way to the Euphrates. He digs a hole. He buries the belt. Then he goes home.

And then... silence.

The Scripture says:

And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there. (Jeremiah 13:6 KJV)

After many days.

Imagine if Jeremiah had given up after day two. Imagine if he had said, "Well, I buried the belt. That was a weird religious experience. Back to normal life." He would have missed the revelation.

He had to go back, dig up the belt, and find it "marred, profitable for nothing." Only then did God give him the interpretation: that He would mar the pride of Judah just like that ruined belt.

Praying it through means staying in the dialogue even when there is silence. It means waiting for the "after many days."

Daniel fasted for 21 days before the angel arrived. The angel told him:

Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. (Daniel 10:12 KJV)

From the first day he was heard. But it took 21 days to pray it through because of the spiritual warfare in the heavenlies. What if Daniel had stopped on day 20?

Key Takeaways

• God Initiates: Revelation often starts with a divine interruption—a song, a scripture, a billboard, or a vision.
• Don't Stop at "Wow": When the supernatural happens, it is an invitation to dialogue, not just entertainment.
• Relationship is Key: You cannot distinguish God's voice from the noise if you don't spend time with Him (The Baby Monitor Principle).
• The Word is the Anchor: The Spirit meets the Word. Meditate on Scripture so that when the Spirit lights upon it, revelation sparks.
• Patience is Required: Sometimes the answer comes "after many days." Don't hang up the phone just because God pauses.

Conclusion and Call to Action

We need to get back to the "radio station" of the Spirit. I like to call it Psalm 100.4 FM:

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. (Psalm 100:4 KJV)

That is how you tune in. You start with thanksgiving. You move into praise. You enter His courts. And when you are there, in His presence, that is when the dialogue happens.

Don't be satisfied with second-hand religion. Don't be satisfied with reading about what God did for the apostles or what He did for me. He wants to do it for you. He wants to initiate a conversation with you today.

When He does—whether it's a verse that won't leave your head or a computer turning on by itself—don't just stare at it. Pray it through. Ask Him what He means. Wait for the answer. Dig deeper into His Word so you can go higher in your walk.

If this message has touched you, I want to encourage you to share it with a friend who might be struggling to hear God's voice. And connect with me—let's keep this conversation going.

Action Items

• Establish Your "Prayer Closet": Find a physical space where you can be uninterrupted. If you struggle to focus, try prayer walking like I did as a kid.
• Tune In Daily: Start your prayer time with Psalm 100:4—Thanksgiving and Praise—before you ask for anything.
• The 30-Minute Challenge: Try to fast and pray for at least 30 minutes without distractions. Push past the boredom of the flesh until you break through to the Spirit.
• Journal the Interruptions: When a scripture, song, or thought "interrupts" your day, write it down immediately.
• Ask the Question: Take that interruption to your prayer time and ask, "Lord, what are You saying?" and then wait for the answer, even if it takes days.

God bless you, thank you for being in my life, and until we meet again: Dig Deeper and Go Higher!