One person who understood how to live and pray with her heart given wholly to God was a 17th-century Christian woman named Madam Guiyon. She encouraged believers in her day to draw near to the Lord by giving their full attention to the activities that were taking place deep within their inmost being. “Inward activity begins by turning within to the Christ, for that is where He is, within your spirit,” she wrote.
“You should continually be turning within to God … If you are new in this voyage, your spirit is not yet strong. Your soul is easily turned outward. It is very easy for you to become distracted from the Lord. How far you turn away from Him will depend on how much you yield to the distractions and how far you allow yourself to be drawn away to surface things. Now in your walk with Him as you keep turning inward you will learn the boundaries of distractions that keep you from abiding.”
The practice of giving God our full attention is sometimes referred to as “practicing the presence of the Lord.” And personally I’ve found, just as Madam Guiyon did, that it is a very purposeful endeavor. I’ve discovered that to keep the Lord foremost in my heart, there are certain things I can and cannot do. There are particular activities—not sinful activities but legitimate, natural activities—that I must refrain from because if I engage in them, they’ll distract me so much that they will draw me out of my place of fellowship with the Lord. One friend of mine who has discovered the same thing says she has to put limits on herself when it comes to decorating her home, for instance. Although she can give some attention to it, if she gets too involved, she finds herself continually thinking about it. The moment her mind disengages from the task at hand, instead of returning to the consciousness of the Lord, she finds herself focusing on what fabric will work in the living room and what style the bedroom drapes should be. When that happens, she realizes she has hit her boundary. She puts decorating aside for a few weeks or months—whatever it takes to break the distracting influence of it and regain her abiding place with God.
Scripture Reading: Colossians 3:1 – 3
On the chilly March night in 1972 when Lynne Hammond took her first step into a life of Spirit-led prayer, she had no idea what was about to happen. All she knew was the hunger in her heart for God wouldn’t let her sleep. In the few short months she’d been born again, her desire to fellowship with Him had grown so strong she could hardly contain it. “Help me, God!” she cried. “I want to know you. I want to be able to talk to you. Please, teach me to pray!”
Suddenly, a heavenly presence flooded the room. Lynne sensed waves of spiritual fire sweeping over her and a beautiful language began to flow like a river from within her. Although she’d never heard of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, she knew instantly, without a doubt—this was God!
What began that night soon blossomed into a life of prayer that ultimately became a ministry of prayer when, in 1980, Lynne and her husband, Mac, founded Living Word Christian Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Under Lynne’s leadership, the prayer ministry at Living Word has become an internationally recognized model for developing effective pray-ers in the local church.
A teacher and an author, Lynne publishes a newsletter called Prayer Notes, has written numerous books, and currently serves as the national prayer director for Daughters for Zion. Her passion for inspiring and leading others into the life of Spirit-led prayer continues to take her around the world to minister to believers whose heart cry, like hers, is “Lord, teach me to pray!”