Listening prayer is best accomplished in thin places.
What is a thin place? In her book “The Happy Intercessor” Beni Johnson describes it as a place where "Heaven and earth are close.” She goes on to name a few geographical locations that she considers thin places including Sedona, AZ and Ashland, OR.
I know of a few thin places, too. My living room, early in the morning. When I’m showering. When I’m doing the dishes. When I’m putting on my makeup in the morning.
Thin places are moments where
my soul is still enough to hear from God.
These thin places are not as fancy or fantastical as Sedona or Ashland, but they are places and moments where my soul is still enough to hear from God.
When I was single, I would get up early every morning to read my Bible and journal. It was a wonderful way to start the day.
Now I have a husband and two children, one of whom is not yet sleeping through the night. It’s harder to get up in the morning. It’s harder to find my thin place.
But I have noticed a pattern. I seem to have two kinds of consistent thin places. One is a time of day: Morning. The other is an activity: Menial tasks.
These are the moments where my mind quiets and I can hear the still, small voice of the Spirit.
The problem is, these moments can literally be 30-seconds. I’ll be doing the dishes and my daughter interrupts me for some help. I’ll be sitting at our quiet dining table and hear my son’s morning cries on the baby monitor.
If I don’t capture what I am hearing right away, I lose it. So I have devised a way to capture what I hear in my thin places. I keep small booklets scattered around my house, in my purse, and in my car. When I enter a thin place - even for a moment - these little booklets ensure I can write down what God is saying and return to it later.
One of my goals for this experiment is to get better at the listening part of prayer. And listening to God is best accomplished in thin places.
Have you noticed locations, times, or moments where you best hear from God? How do you take advantage of your thin places?