One of the greatest questions posed by any believer is, “God, do you hear me?” Likewise, one of the things that keeps the unsaved away from God is the belief that He doesn’t hear us — or at least He doesn’t respond.

I’d like to deal with this question from the perspective of both the saved and the unsaved.

(Spoiler alert: God not only HEARS you but He ANSWERS you!)

John 11:41-42 (ESV) 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”

One of the things we discover from searching the Gospels is that Jesus was a man of prayer. He spent a great deal of time in prayer. Now, this is interesting because He is God in the flesh (Romans 8:3). He also said that He and the Father are one (John 10:30).

This means that He had the mind of God. He knew God’s thoughts. And, in the core text, Jesus thanks the Father for always hearing Him! If this is true, why pray? But where this gets really deep is right here:

John 5:19 (ESV) 19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.

Wait a minute — if Jesus had this amazing prayer life but He only did what He saw the father do, Whom, then, does the Father pray to.

Before we continue, we need to stop and stand the traditional prayer paradigm on its ear. Prayer is not a religious exercise, it is conversation. It is how our heavenly Father communicates with us. We speak and He listens. God operates faster than the speed of thought — nothing escapes Him!

Psalms 139:1-4 (ESV) 1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue,

behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.

Prayer is not a tool by which we bombard God with petitions until He responds. True prayer is a dialogue, not a monologue! When we jabber away at God without giving him a chance to reply, well, there’s a deep theological term for that…

It’s called being rude! And rudeness is un-Christlike! So stop it. Just like music is just noise without the rests between the notes, prayer requires silence on our part so that we hear from God.

Now that we’ve level-set on what prayer is, let’s get back to the original question — whom does God speak to?

He speaks to His triune Self!

Genesis 1:26 (ESV) 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

He speaks to Angels:

Psalms 91:11 (ESV) 11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

And He speaks to people:

Matthew 17:5 (ESV) 5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

So, when Jesus prayed, He was simply doing what He saw the Father do! Because relationships require communication!

We see now that God definitely speaks, but does He listen. He heard Abraham, Moses, and David and responded to them. He definitely heard Jesus and responded to Him.

Which brings me to another question: where are you positionally? If you are in Christ, you are a joint-heir with Jesus (Romans 8:17).