THE MYSTERY OF MUTED PRAYERS (Part 2 of 2)

THE MYSTERY OF MUTED PRAYERS (Part 2 of 2)

4.  Mental Prayers

We are told in Ephesians 3:20 that God is “ABLE to do exceeding abundantly above” not only the things we ask by word of mouth but also those we think about in our mind: “all that we ASK or THINK.”  How dare I think that He is not “able”?  So, thoughts are no less prayers than words, in certain respects.  If thoughts were not so powerful, we would not be warned to beware of wrong thoughts, and advised to earnestly guard our hearts “with ALL diligence” (Proverbs 4:23; 23:7).  If thoughts were not so potent, Jesus would have been wasting words warning against the adultery that men commit in the dark chambers of their perverted hearts (Matthew 5:28).

God takes note not only of verbal responses but also of thought-responses to His words.  For example, Psalm 27:8 reports, “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ / My heart said to You, ‘Your face, Lord, I will seek’” (NKJV). God spoke.  He said, “Seek My face.”  The response He received in that dialogue of spirits was not from the lips but from the heart.  To God’s verbal invitation, there was a human mental reply: “My heart [not my lips] SAID to You, ‘Your face, Lord, I will seek.’”  One spoke with the mouth; the other replied, or “said,” with the heart.  Wasn’t that disrespectful, that God’s spoken words should be answered with silent mortal thoughts?  Does the heart also speak?  Does it speak in a way that spirits can hear?

 5.  Double-Barrel Communications

Many times, during His earthly ministry, Jesus responded with words to the loud thoughts of His audience.  Once, Jesus said to His disciples, “Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?” (Luke 24:38).  He was not addressing words from their lips but thoughts in their hearts.  The only way He could say that was because He heard their hearts, their unspoken worries, their inaudible and unspeakable fears.  On another occasion, He did not reply with words to their loud thoughts, but He did something in practical response on hearing or “perceiving the thought of their heart” (Luke 9:47).  So, Jesus could hear not just one heart but multiple hearts at the same time.

The same occasion when Jesus “saw” faith in some of His hearers was when He ‘heard’ the unspoken hostile “reasoning” in the hearts of others, and confronted them: “Why reason ye these things in your hearts?” (Mark 5:5, 8).  They spoke, He heard.  They reasoned, He also heard.

In his encounter with Simon the Sorcerer at Samaria, Peter said, “thy heart is not right in the sight of God” (Acts 8:21).  Peter could hear much more than the nice words that that man had been speaking.  Peter could hear the heart of the man, and he responded to that heart.  It saved him from defilement and future disaster in ministry.

Now, let’s get to Abraham’s encounter with God (Genesis 17:17-20).  Abraham had a visitation from God and went through the physical motions of prostration in worship.  While in that apparent physical posture of devotion to God, he “said in his heart” … bla bla bla – he doubted what looked like God’s belated promise of a son.  He said one thing in his heart and another with his lips.

God heard both the doubt that Abraham spoke in his heart and the more respectful wish he expressed with his mouth, but God responded first to what Abraham had said in his heart.  God told him, “Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed.”  Then next, He responded to the wish that he had expressed with his lips, and said, “as for Ishmael, I have heard thee.”  Abraham was transacting with God on two frequencies: the frequency of his thoughts and that of his words.  It was double-barrel communication.  The first was a soundless shot, but God heard it loudly all the same, and answered both.

6.  A Lesson from Shiloh

So used to saying prayers aloud and hearing prayers said aloud, sometimes even priests might be unsure if God hears without audible words.  That was the trouble with Eli, a Very High Priest.  At the annual church convention in Shiloh, he found a woman at the altar mumbling whatever his ears could not hear, which was not the usual pattern of prayer as he knew it all his life as a worshipper of God, and now as a General Overseer Priest.  The woman “spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard.”  In a different context, he might have called out loudly with priestly concern, “I can’t hear you praying … Open your mouth and pray…!”

When Eli noticed that inaudible supplicant, he was sure that she was drunk, if not demon-possessed.  He chose the more polite option: drunk, especially at a public event such as that.  Drunk or demonised, he was not going to waste a chance to correct error at his altar, before she corrupted their doctrine. So, promptly, he fired at her in supposed holy indignation: “put away thy wine from thee.”

God stopped Eli in his tracks, before he could say more.  Then, instead of a curse, he gave her a blessing: “Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him” (1 Samuel 1:13-17).  That pastor went home that day different in his opinions about unheard prayers, especially when mingled with tears, because words had become insufficient for conveying the heavy matters of the troubled heart.  Hmmmn!

7.. The Prayer of Desire

In Psalm 10:17, the Psalmist said to God, “Thou hast heard the desire of the humble.”  That seems odd to the intercessor in me.  For me, he should have said, “Thou hast heard the PRAYER of the humble.”  God hears words, and He hears thoughts also.  He even hears desires – “the desire of the humble.”  Here is the verse in full: “LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear.”

When I read, “cause thine ear to hear,” I readily think of hearing an audible voice.  But no, here, the informed Psalmist was speaking about God hearing desires.  So, God’s “ear” can “hear” the heart, the desire, the thoughts – of a kind of person: “the humble,” in the same way as He hears “the effectual fervent prayer” of a particular kind of person: “the righteous man” (James 5:16).  It is the power of lifestyle attractions.

It also says in Proverbs 10:24 that not only the prayer but even “the DESIRE of the righteous shall be GRANTED.”  Again, to my mind, that is odd.  For me, it should have read, “The PRAYER of the righteous shall be GRANTED.”  Wow, God answers not only spoken prayers but also the strong voice of desires – the desire of a particular kind of person: the righteous.  Desire is a strong psychic force.

Paul may have been hinting at the same force of positive desires when he told the Church at Corinth not merely to pray for but to “covet earnestly the best gifts.”  Paul proceeded to show them a “more excellent way” of doing that (without audible supplications), by living the lifestyle of love that is as powerful as audible prayers for attracting results (1 Corinthians 12:31-13:1).

Desire can be such a strong force that it attracts its object.  That mystical attraction may sometimes be mistaken for God granting the desire, whereas it is simply soul-force.  So, be careful what you wish for, covet, desire, because you may get it, sometimes to your damnation.  The stories of Amnon and Tamar (2 Samuel 13:1-15), of Dinah and Prince Shechem (Genesis 34), say so much on that matter.

Fear attracts what it fears, so does desire or affection.  Job confessed that he had a hand in the disaster that befell him, because it had been attracted, or had “come upon” him, because it was what he had “greatly feared.”  In other words, the disaster was the ‘answer’ to the ‘voice’ of ‘great fear’ that he ‘spoke’; it had been attracted by the force of fear that he had generated (Job 3:25).

I have often wondered what attracted Jesus to the impotent man at the Pool of Bethesda, despite thirty-eight years of disappointments at the same spot; despite having “no man” to support him (John 5:6-8).  It must have been his strong desire to be healed, regardless of repeated failures; his determination not to give up on his expectations from heaven, even if he had no man.  There was “a great multitude” of other pitiable cases there, some probably worse, but only to him did Jesus go, directly.  The Healer from heaven passed all the others by and went to the man with undying expectation.

Sometimes, desire can be so strong that it is felt, sensed, seen, and some might then call it faith, as when some good friends took their sick friend to Jesus’ healing meeting, and Jesus “saw their faith,” or was attracted to them by their strong desire.  Their friend got healed at once (Mark 2:5).  Paul had a similar experience at Lystra, where he was attracted to a lame man by that man’s strong desire expressed in his steadfast gaze at the object of his expectations (Acts 14:8-9).  Strong desire is hard to hide.  It attracts its object.

Why does God go to such lengths with His own?  Why the multiple channels for receiving from Him?  John 16:23-24 gives one answer: God is pleased to grant our requests so that our “joy may be full.”  In other words, not just my joy but the fullness of my joy is the Father’s pleasure.  Hallelujah!

8.   Dealing with Mountains

Whereas by the force of holy desire and thoughts we might have answers from God, the dynamics are different when we must deal with mountains of opposition.  Whereas we may “be still, and know” that the Lord is God (Psalm 46:10), when it comes to mountains, Jesus admonishes us to “say” something, and be sure that what we say with the lips does not contradict what we say in the heart: “SAY unto this mountain” (with the mouth) and “not DOUBT in his HEART.”  By the agreement of the two voices, the one from the heart and that from the lips, the speaker will get “those things which he SAITH” (not ‘thinketh’) concerning the relocation of an obstructive mountain (Mark 11:23).  In that verse, the reference to speaking occurs as many as three times: “say … saith … saith”; and actual speaking occurs once: “Be thou removed.”  You may be still before the Lord, but not before the mountains in your way (Zechariah 4:7).

Jesus’ teaching on how to deal with mountains of opposition may have been an allusion to Micah 6:1-2, where God instructs the intercessor or His messenger to “Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.”  Furthermore, in that passage, God gives the words to be announced before the court of the mountains: “Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD’S controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth ….”

In the courts of spirits, silence is not the option.  Job knew this and prepared to “fill [his] MOUTH [not his mind] with arguments” (Job 23:3-5).  The Wise Man recommends it when he says, “Open thy MOUTH for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.  Open thy MOUTH, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor …” (Proverbs 31:8-9).  In Isaiah 43:26, God Himself invites audible advocation when He says, “Remind me when we’re in court together — / TELL your side, make the case that you are right” (Complete Jewish Bible).  The New American Standard Bible puts it this way: “Put Me in remembrance, let us ARGUE our case together; / State your cause, that you may be proved right.”

There have been times I stood at the altar about to preach, then suddenly, there was a spontaneous unction to pray.  Sermon notes got pushed aside, and for the next hour or less, or more, a contagious aroma of energetic intercession fell upon everyone.  Fired by the palpable Spirit in the atmosphere, even the timid could not be silent, and devils couldn’t stay hidden.  Sometimes the spontaneous unction was not to pray but to worship – not silently, though solemnly.  And I have known the other side, too, of silence, Presence, and awe.

9.  A Call into the Holy of Holies

Groom your audible prayer life.  Groom also your silent prayer life – in meditations with the Holy, in that Holiest place of silence and awe; silence more powerful than the noise of a thousand thunders.  Seek that place of the “still small voice” more potent than the barren fires and earthquakes of noisy distractions (1 Kings 19:12).  God hears audible words; He also hears silent thoughts, “exceeding abundantly.”  God will “Hear my voice … in my prayer” (Psalm 64:1), He will also grant “the desire of the righteous” even when it is unspoken in that chamber of deep fellowship.

Guard the sanctuary of your heart from roaming loathsome thoughts, lest the Father refrains, because “thy heart is not right in the sight of God” (Acts 8:21), lest when He comes in the cool of day He calls out disappointedly from your deserted altar in the Garden of evening communions, “Adam, Adam, where art thou?” (Genesis 3:8).

Let the words of my MOUTH, and the meditation of my HEART, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer (Psalm 19:14).  Amen.

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
That calls me from a world of care,
And bids me at my Father’s throne
Make all my wants and wishes known.
In seasons of distress and grief,
My soul has often found relief
And oft escaped the tempter’s snare
By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!

William W. Waford, 1845

 Composed by William Waford, the blind English preacher, after walking two hours through the snow to lead a prayer meeting.

From The Preacher’s diary,

August 10, 2026.