There is no greater gift in prayer than the touch of God. It is both indescribable and undeniable; you know at once that it is God, and that it is strangely familiar. When God touches you, it is from the inside. No one but God can do that. It is always a touch of immeasurable love. Though not a physical touch, it still affects you physically. And also psychically. Like the hymn “He Touched Me” says, God’s touch will heal you and make you whole. Truly, God loves you in your totality, even if you do not.

The wondrous touch of God will bring forth the fruit of the Spirit, which Paul says includes: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22). These all come together in varying degrees, depending on your readiness to accept, embrace, and live out of these fruits.

God prefers to touch you softly, tenderly, like a mother her child or lovers their beloved. God apparently desires that you become sensitive to God’s gentle touch, without fear; and that you trust God’s touch completely, trust that God will never hurt or reject you. God knows as no one else where and when and how you need to be touched, even if you did not realize it until God’s actual touch. Then you heart may exclaim “Thank You! That is just what I needed.”

God can get through to us what God wants to get through, at any time. You can of course seem to close off from God, or turn away in disbelief, anger or despair. Yet if God wants to get your attention, God will. That being said, it is important to understand how God communicates with us during prayer, usually in subtle and unexpected ways.

There are seven essential entryways in us through which God may stealthily make God’s presence and will known during prayer. The better you understand these, the more readily your apparent prayer monologue can be grasped as an actual prayer dialogue, as a “with” rather than “to” God. It is vital to patiently wait upon, and listen for the Lord around these entryways. And also to take on faith that God addresses you daily, in a variety of elusive ways, though most importantly in prayer.

So what exactly is prayer? Prayer is communication with God in all its forms. This includes intimate as well as seemingly distant communication, from monologues to dialogues, from written texts to mystical touch, from speech to silent communion. Prayer establishes the bridge between God and humanity. It is as vital to your personal well-being to develop a flourishing prayer life, as it is to learn how to communicate love to human loved ones.

My purpose in these prayer podcasts is to teach you how to pray to God, so that you can actually come to sense the presence of God, the subtle but significant response of God to your prayer. What I will offer you are time tested ways of praying that will at some point bring you into direct connection with God. Everything is at stake in the long overdue return to the focus on knowing God directly. Such knowledge permeated the Bible and the medieval mystics. I want you to encounter the ultimate beauty, goodness and truth: God.