The method is something the Holy Spirit taught me to do and I’ve been practicing it for a long time.

If your heart is wanting something more than a surface-level relationship with God, then you’re at the right place. Jesus says in John 10 “My sheep hear My voice,” this prayer method assumes that you’re born again and able to hear Him. If you’re unsure, I want to encourage you that you’re probably hearing the Holy Spirit but need to learn to tune-in and discern His voice.

This isn’t just a formula. It’s a way of positioning your heart to engage with the Holy Spirit and encounter God through His Word and prayer. You don’t need to be perfect to practice this either. Let’s jump in!

Spiritual Prayer Method

The heart behind this prayer method is about personally knowing and encountering God. In applying this, the most important thing is that you genuinely want to know Him. Here’s how you do it:

1. Ask the Holy Spirit for a Scripture to Read
Begin by asking the Holy Spirit to lead you to a specific verse or passage in the Bible. You don’t need to overthink it: trust that He will guide you. For me, sometimes it comes in a vision or Him directly telling me a chapter or verse to read.

There have been many moments when He’s brought me to a specific psalm that spoke right to what I was going through and feeling. Other times, He’ll lead me to multiple scriptures and teach me spiritual truths.

I also encourage you to learn how to read the Bible in context. The Holy Spirit won’t contradict the truth of His Word. Context ensures we understand what the Bible is actually saying vs what we think it’s saying.

Check out this booklet to learn more about how to do that.

2. Meditate on the Scripture
To meditate as a follower of Jesus means to think about the specific scripture and it’s meaning.

When you read scripture, take your time, read the verse slowly, then read it again, let the words sink into your heart and then think about the scripture and it’s meaning. This meditation can be throughout the day or just during your focused time with God, the length is up to you and the Holy Spirit.

There was a time recently where God brought me to many scriptures that spoke of His majesty and He led me to think about them everyday for about a month. My mind and heart were focused on how powerful and beautiful He is. This led to deeper revelation and even encounters with Him, like this Rainbow Spotlight encounter I wrote about.

3. Ask Him Questions About It
God loves to have conversations with us. As you meditate on the scripture and it’s meaning, ask the Holy Spirit questions about it. (Ex. What does this mean for my life? What do You want me to see, Lord?)

Recently, I was meditating on what it means to die to myself in relationship to identity, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart “Death to self means death to you as the origin of your identity and fulfilling your needs/wants.”

This is a deep aspect of what it means to die to self. Here’s a blog post that covers this revelation.

1 Corinthians 2:10 says

“The Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God.”

Moments of dialogue with the Holy Spirit open a door to hear from God’s heart and His boundless wisdom.

4. Spirit-Led Prayer
At this point, you’re going to hearing the Holy Spirit in a deeper way, now it’s time to let Him guide you in prayer. Ask Him what to pray about. He may led you to pray for other people/situations, pray for revelation, pray in the Spirit, lead you to other scriptures to pray through and more.

Sometimes, as you pray, new questions or revelations will come to mind. Write them down. God often uses these moments to reveal things you weren’t even aware you needed to process with Him.

5. Seek to Encounter God
The goal of this method isn’t just to gain knowledge, it’s to encounter the living God.

When I encountered the 7 Spirits of God, it came during a time of wrestling Jesus about my calling. The Holy Spirit led me to many scriptures about Gods love, sovereignty (means God is in control) and the fear of the Lord. While He led me through the scriptures I sought to encounter Him so I could be transformed.

Don’t forget to keep encountering God at the forefront of your mind and heart whenever seeking Him.

Practice Discernment

When it comes to seeking God for encounters, it’s important to practice discernment.

1 John 4:1 says:

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

Yes, Jesus wants us to seek Him to know Him personally. However, there’s a spiritual enemy that seeks to deceive us.

We’ve created some resources to help you grow in your faith on our resource page. With this, we recommend these 3 specific booklets to help you grow in discernment:

1. Reading & Studying the Bible – This will help you learn how to study the Bible in context. When the Holy Spirit teaches, He does so in alignment with the proper context and the original meaning of scripture.
2. How to Grow in Discernment – This booklet dives a bit deeper into discernment, giving principles for growing while being able to think through differing perspectives.
3. Spiritual Realm Series – This series is consider to be “stage 2” teachings. We recommend you go through stage 1 first then read this. We’ve linked to our resource page rather than directly to the teachings. Find them in “Stage Two (Meat).”

Closing Thoughts

This method isn’t about checking off steps or trying to force an experience. It’s about creating space for God to meet you through His Word and His Spirit. I want to encourage you: He desires to meet you right where you’re at.

Take a moment today to try this method. Be still, open your Bible, and invite the Holy Spirit to guide you. You might just find that He has more to say to you than you ever imagined.

If you’re looking for more ways to grow in your relationship with God, we have resources to help you take the next step.