How To Talk With God Not To God | Based On The Bible

0:02 Did you know that there is a difference [music] between praying to God and actually having a conversation with God? That most believers speak, cry, request, and plead, yet never enter into the kind of dialogue that transforms their life. Today, I'm going to show you five powerful steps straight from the word of God that will teach you how to shift from monologue to divine dialogue, from speaking to God to walking [music] with God. And I need you to stay with me to the end because step number five is the most important one. [music] It is the difference between a prayer life that feels empty and a prayer life that transforms your entire destiny. Let's begin.

0:48 Step one, listen before you speak. The conversation begins with surrender. Family [music] before we can learn how to talk with God, we must unlearn how we've been talking to God. Because most of us, if we're honest, approach prayer like a spiritual monologue. [music] We rush in with noise, requests, opinions, and anxieties, hoping that God will stamp his approval on the plans we have already made in our minds. But scripture shows us a different pattern. In the kingdom of God, conversations begin not with speech, but with surrender. Elijah learned this deeply. He was exhausted, overwhelmed, and spiritually drained, hiding in a cave on Mount Horeb. He

1:33 expected God to reveal himself through something dramatic, fire, wind, shaking ground. But the Lord bypassed the spectacular to speak in a whisper. First Kings 19:11-12. Why a [music] whisper? Because God whispers to draw you close. A whisper requires proximity. And sometimes the noise of your own thoughts is [music] louder than the voice of your own God. So he waits. He waits for the moment when your spirit unclenches enough for his presence to fill the room. Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10. Stillness is not inactivity. It is invitation. [music] Stillness is the posture of someone who

2:18 doesn't just want God's blessing. They want God's voice. Let me make it plain. Talking to God is telling him what you desire. Talking with God is asking him what he desires. In one, [music] you are the director of the conversation. In the other, you surrender the script. This is why listening is not weakness. Listening is worship. It is the willingness to say, "Lord, shape my thoughts before I speak my words." In the world, silence often feels like absence. But in the presence of the Almighty, silence is a signal that something holy is happening. Heaven speaks most clearly when your soul becomes still. When Samuel was a little boy, he didn't recognize the voice of God at first. He mistook [music] it for

3:05 Eli's voice. But once he learned to respond, he didn't come with a speech. He came with surrender. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. 1 Samuel 3:10. That simple sentence is one of the most powerful prayers in all of scripture. It is the prayer of a heart ready to be transformed instead of merely comforted. It is the prayer of a person who seeks conversation, not control. Silence is where revelation flows. Silence is where your anxieties settle. Silence is where your spiritual hearing sharpens, your discernment deepens, and your relationship with God matures. Some of you have been asking, "Why doesn't God speak to me?" But the real question

3:51 is, have you slowed down long enough to hear? God speaks, [music] but many believers interrupt him in their prayers the same way they interrupt people in conversations. [music] They pour out their hearts and walk away before he can answer. Imagine calling someone, talking for [music] 20 straight minutes, then hanging up without giving them a chance to respond. Many pray like that. But when you shift from Lord, listen to me to Lord help me listen. Everything changes. The atmosphere of your prayer life changes. Your spiritual maturity accelerates. Your inner life stabilizes. Your peace [music] multiplies when you begin prayer with surrender. You start

4:37 walking with God, not just talking to [music] him. Because a surrendered ear becomes a guided life. A listening heart becomes a led soul. When you pray, pause. When you pause, expect. When you expect, you will hear. When you hear, you will grow. And when you grow, you will move from speaking at God to walking with God. Step two, yield. [music] not just request. Prayer is submission, not simply communication. Now that we understand that listening opens the door, we must step deeper [music] into the room of divine conversation. Because talking with God means more than hearing his voice. It means yielding to it. Yielding is the difference [music] between prayer being

5:23 a ritual and prayer becoming a relationship. Yielding is where transformation begins. Jesus modeled this for [music] us in Gethsemane. The deepest prayer he ever prayed wasn't long. [music] It wasn't poetic. It wasn't loud. It was yielded. Not my will, but yours be done. Luke 22:42. [music] That one sentence split history and opened heaven. It is the prayer that saved the world. Notice something powerful. Jesus didn't just talk. He yielded. He didn't just share his desire. [music] He submitted to his father's direction. And this is where many believers struggle because it's easier to ask God to change circumstances than to ask God to change us. It's easier to request miracles

6:10 [music] than to surrender motives. It's easier to say, "Lord, fix them," than to say, "Lord, shape me." But prayer without yielding is like planting a seed and refusing to water it. It is like opening your Bible and refusing to obey it. It is like asking God for answers but rejecting his instructions. Moses didn't just speak with God. He waited for direction. He remained at the tent of meeting until he knew where to go. He was bold [music] enough to tell God, "If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here." Exodus 33:15. To yield means trusting God [music] more than your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5-6.

6:56 To yield means believing that his plan is wiser than your preference. To yield means saying, "Lord, I do not just want to be heard. I want to be guided." Many believers pray strong prayers but live unchanged because [music] they talk but do not yield. They want God to answer but not God to lead. They want [music] God's blessing but not God's boundary. They want God's promises but not God's process. But let me tell you something deeply true. God responds to surrendered hearts more than sophisticated words. Heaven moves when your will bows. [music] Yielding is not losing control. It is giving control back to the one who never should have lost it in the first

7:42 place. It is placing your life back into the hands that shaped it. It is saying God [music] write my destiny, edit my decisions, direct my steps. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in him and he [music] will act. Psalm 37:5. When you yield, God doesn't just hear [music] your prayer. He orchestrates your steps. He aligns your heart with his heartbeat. He transforms your desires until you want what he wants. This is why some answers feel delayed. They are waiting for your surrender. God will not endorse what he did not initiate. And God will not bless a path he never asked you to walk. So to talk with God instead of merely talking to

8:29 him, you must surrender your agenda and embrace his. Prayer becomes powerful when prayer becomes obedient. True conversation doesn't end when you say amen. It begins when God says now go. yield because God's plan is bigger than your vision, wiser than your strategy, and stronger than your understanding. And the more you yield, the more clearly you will hear, the more confidently you will walk. [music] And the more deeply you will know that prayer is not a monologue. It is a partnership. And God is ready to lead you into a life far greater than the one you planned if you will just yield and follow. Step three, speak with faith, not just

9:15 feelings. Pray as if you truly believe he's listening. When you enter the sacred space of prayer, your words reveal whether you are talking to God or talking with [music] God. Because when a person only talks to God, their language is soaked with fear, doubt, complaint, [music] and desperation. But when a person talks with God, something shifts. Your tone carries confidence. Your spirit carries boldness and your [music] words carry faith. Feelings fluctuate but faith anchors. Feelings whisper maybe God will. Faith declares God already has. Feelings look at the storm. Faith looks at the Savior standing above it. David understood this distinction well. When [music] he talked to God, he cried out

10:02 from desperation, pouring out the turmoil inside him. But when he talked with God, he spoke with authority, conviction, and certainty. I sought the Lord, and he answered me. He delivered me from all my fears. [music] Psalm 34:4. Notice David didn't simply express his fears. He declared his deliverance. This is how conversation with God works. You don't just unload your pain, you unlock his promises. You don't just [music] vent your emotions, you step into revelation. You don't just speak about the mountain, you speak to the mountain. Jesus said, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain." Matthew 17:20.

10:48 Real faith doesn't whisper to the problem. It addresses it with divine confidence. When you believe God is [music] listening, your vocabulary shifts. Your words become weapons. Your faith becomes fuel. Hebrews 4:16 says, "Come boldly unto the throne of grace, not timidly, not nervously, but boldly, because conversation with God is [music] not based on your worthiness, but on his mercy." When you speak with faith, you're not pretending everything is perfect. You are proclaiming that God is sovereign. You're not ignoring your feelings. You're informing your feelings that God is in control. When you talk with God, you don't rehearse defeat. You release destiny. [music] You don't magnify the problem. You

11:34 magnify the God who reigns above it. God responds to faith, not to eloquence, not to volume, not to emotional intensity, but to belief. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Hebrews 11:6. Faith is the spiritual bridge [music] that connects earth's cry to heaven's answer. It is the key that unlocks divine conversation. Prayer without faith is noise. Prayer with faith is partnership. So speak with confidence. Speak with trust. [music] Speak with conviction. Speak with expectation. Speak as though God is not far away because he isn't. Speak as though he hears every syllable. Because he does. Speak as though your

12:20 words matter. Because they do. When you talk with God, your faith becomes the language heaven responds to. The signal that you are not just praying, you are partnering. And when [music] faith enters your words, fear loses its grip, doubt loses its power. Step four, wait for his response. Don't end the conversation. Too early. One of the greatest tragedies in the modern believer's prayer life is premature departure. We pray, we speak, we pour, we cry, we request, and then we get up too fast, walking away from the very answer we asked God to send. We treat prayer like a voicemail, [music] not a live conversation. But God does

13:06 not say, "Call me and I will respond one day." He says, "Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things." Jeremiah 33:3. Meaning the conversation is not supposed to end when you finish speaking. It ends when he does. Talking to God is [music] dropping off your burden and leaving. Talking with God is waiting long enough for him to speak [music] back. Daniel prayed for understanding and did not rush out of the presence of God. He stayed. He waited. He lingered. And the angel [music] said, "From the moment you set your heart to understand, your words were heard." Daniel 10:12.

13:52 The answer was already in motion, but Daniel received revelation because he stayed long enough to hear it. Waiting is not [music] inactivity. It is spiritual attentiveness. It is the posture of a heart that believes God is not silent, but strategic. Sometimes God answers through scripture. When a verse suddenly lights up with clarity, conviction or direction. Sometimes God answers through peace, an inner stillness that tells you he has settled the [music] matter. Sometimes God answers through conviction, a gentle tug in your spirit redirecting your steps. Sometimes God answers through wisdom, an idea you didn't have before, a clarity that wasn't there 5 minutes

14:39 earlier. [music] And sometimes yes, God answers through silence. But hear me, silence is not divine absence. Silence is divine preparation. [music] Silence means God is building something in the unseen. Silence means your roots are growing even when your branches feel [music] still. Silence means God is aligning things that your eyes cannot yet perceive. But you must wait. [music] Not passively, but attentively, not impatiently, but expectantly, not offended, but surrendered. [music] David said, "My soul waits silently for God alone, for my expectation is from him." Psalm 62:5. Waiting is the training ground of spiritual maturity. Waiting is where

15:25 discernment sharpens. Waiting is where fear fades and faith fortifies. Many believers pray but never hear because they rush. The answer comes after they have left the room. The direction comes after they have stopped listening. The clarity comes after they have moved on. So after you finish speaking in [music] prayer, don't close the door. Just switch roles. You spoke. Now listen, sit, breathe, [music] wait, ask, Lord, what are you saying? What do you desire? What should I understand? What should I release? What should I embrace? The God who hears is also [music] the God who answers. But you must remain long enough to receive what he releases.

16:13 Prayer is not a speech. Prayer is not a performance. Prayer is not a presentation. [music] Prayer is participation in divine conversation. And the one who spoke galaxies into existence [music] still speaks today to those who wait long enough to hear his voice. Step five, walk in what he spoke. Prayer is continued by [music] obedience, not ended by amen. When you truly learn how to talk with God and not merely to him, your prayer life stops being an event and becomes a lifestyle. Because the real evidence that you [music] have entered a divine conversation is not found in how passionately you prayed, [music] how long you prayed, or how eloquently you prayed. It is found in the steps you

17:00 take after you say, "Amen." Prayer is not concluded by a closing word. Prayer is continued through obedient action. Abraham is the perfect example. When God spoke, Abraham didn't stay in the comfort of reflection. He moved into the discomfort of obedience. [music] Go from your country and your kindred. Genesis 12:1. He didn't negotiate, analyze, or delay. He packed. His obedience proved his conversation was real. His footsteps [music] became his amen. Isaiah overwhelmed by the holiness of God didn't simply repent. He responded. When God asked, "Whom shall I send and who will go for us?" Isaiah did

17:47 not say, "Lord, let me pray about it for a while." He said, "Here am I. Send me." Isaiah 6:8. That is the difference between talking to God and talking with God. One gives comfort, [music] the other gives direction. One leaves you the same, the other sends you transformed. One ends in the prayer room, the other begins when you leave it. God's voice is not meant for admiration. It is meant [music] for application. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. James 1:22. Notice that scripture calls it deception when we hear without acting. Because revelation without obedience creates illusion, not transformation.

18:33 It is [music] possible to feel spiritually full but remains spiritually unchanged because you never translated instruction into action. Some of the breakthroughs people are praying for are not waiting on more intercession. They're waiting on more obedience. Some clarity is not waiting on more words. They're waiting on your next step. Some doors are not waiting on heaven's timing. They're waiting on your decision to move. Joshua prayed, but victory came when he marched around Jericho. Peter prayed, but transformation came when he stepped out of the boat. Paul prayed, but destiny unfolded when he said yes to Macedonia. Prayer is the beginning of movement, not the substitute for movement. When you

19:20 talk with God and he speaks. The conversation is only complete when your feet agree with your faith. When your walk validates your worship. When your actions confirm your intimacy. When your decisions reflect your devotion. Every divine instruction is a doorway. And you cannot walk through a doorway by staying [music] still. The Israelites never entered the promised land until they stepped into the Jordan first. They [music] prayed, but they also marched. They worshiped, but they also walked. They believed, but they also obeyed. Obedience is the bridge between revelation and manifestation. Conversation leads to instruction. Instruction leads to transformation.

20:06 Transformation leads to manifestation. And manifestation is the evidence that prayer has become partnership, not performance. God cannot guide a stationary soul. He leads those who walk in all your ways. Acknowledge him and he will direct your [music] paths. Proverbs 3:6. Not your thoughts alone, not your intentions alone, not your emotions alone, your ways, your steps, your walk, your daily choices. Prayer is the moment God places [music] direction in your spirit. Obedience is the moment you place your foot on the path he revealed. So as you talk with God, understand this. The real amen [music] is in your next step. The real amen is in the

20:52 decision you make. The real amen is in the action you take. Let your obedience be loud enough for heaven to recognize that you didn't just hear the word, you honored it. Let your walk preach what your mouth prayed. Let your life reflect the God you converse with. And when you do, heaven will move with you, guide you, cover you, and empower you because you are not just speaking to God. You are walking with him. Amen. If this message spoke to your spirit, type in the comments, "Lord, help me walk in what you spoke." And if this teaching blessed you, make sure you like, subscribe, and share so we can continue spreading the word of God to

21:37 those who need it. God bless you all.