The following is an account by Michelle, one of the women whom I’ve accompanied and guided for many years.

Michelle explains the benefits of discovering how to pray with her heart and the impact this had/has on her closeness with the Lord and on her own personal life.

Michelle began attending my regular prayer of the heart sessions when she was in her late-50’s. She was a legal assistant to a Queen’s Counsel lawyer, a mother of 3 adult children, and a Grandmum of seven.

I’ve accompanied and guided Michelle for 26 years through both exceedingly joyful times and through times of deep personal loss and challenge.

Picture Yourself …

I want you to

1. picture yourself starting the journey of praying with your heart
2. then imagine 5, 10, 15 years from now the huge possibilities in your personal life journey with the Lord that have opened up for YOU —just like they did for Michelle

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Michelle Tells Her Story

Many years before I was introduced to silent prayer, I had always enjoyed a close relationship with God which, of course, included praying faithfully in many different ways.

But Jan has taught me in a very non-threatening way how to do something that I find perhaps more difficult than others: how to enter into silent prayer so that I open myself up to the Lord in a way I had never done before.

Now, after nearly twenty-five years of exposure to this way of praying, I have come to value silence and silent prayer as an essential and extremely beneficial aspect of my life in general, and of my spiritual journey in particular.

I know that when I am perplexed or need God’s special light on a situation or relationship, I can return to the silence and enter more fully into His presence.

The benefits are without question.

The certainty I have about my relationship with God becomes even greater.

I know I can depend on Him when all else fails.

I have learned how important it is for me to enter into quiet time with the Lord and remain in the silence, so that the Holy Spirit can lead me into receiving fully whatever He wants to give me.

This has been a real freedom for me.

I always thought I had to do quite a bit of talking in order for God to hear me!

I wish that everyone could experience this freedom and release.

As I’ve learned over the years in our prayer and retreat sessions with Jan, the Holy Spirit is with me and I am with Him and I don’t need to speak in the time of silent prayer.

There are no words or thoughts to get in the way of our being present to each other —really present.

This does not mean that thoughts don’t come; they bombard you at times!

But it means that once you enter your prayer time with the firm intention of letting go of thoughts, you start to open up a space that God can enter.

This is worth the effort of learning to let go of thoughts and thinking!

After the time of silence, as I go back into the routine of the following hours or days, I notice that something in me has changed in some subtle —or sometimes extremely clear —way.

And when I’ve asked the Lord for special guidance in a certain situation, I’ve noticed that I can hear Him speaking to me very clearly. This happens outside the time of silent prayer —often when I’m doing something completely unrelated to ‘prayer’ like washing the dishes, driving my car, visiting with a friend, reading a book, or sitting on my patio.

Deep in my being, I have come to see that spending regular time opening up myself so much more fully to the Lord’s presence has allowed me to hear Him speaking to me with great clarity as I go about my daily responsibilities. 

I now have an even greater certainty that the Holy Spirit guides me 24/7 —and very specifically —particularly in the special events and situations in my life. 

There is nothing that can beat this!

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Michelle wrote:

‘I wish that everyone could experience this freedom and release.’

And:

‘There is nothing that can beat this! ‘