ASK THE COACHES: About Prayer

QUESTION: I have a question about prayer. Is it possible to pray silently and when we do, are we suppose to hear a voice or what? - On My Knees And Listening

ANSWER: It is pretty clear from scripture that prayer is not limited to an audible verbal communication with God. As a matter of fact, one of the verses from one of last year's Quiz Team chapters was…

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
Romans 8:26

i.e. Not only does God not need to "hear" words, but even if we are not sure what to pray for, the Holy Spirit can see our heart and our need and pray FOR us, if we simply cry out to God. How much moreso can God (who sees the heart and reads the mind) hear us when we pray silently? The silent prayer may be a mental "image" of our own voice, or it may be the groans that the verse above talks about. God is our Father, and as such is sensitive to His children's needs.

On the other side of "voices", as to a response, scripture makes it pretty clear that sometimes a response is heard/felt/sensed and sometimes it is not. Sometimes in prayer, Christ obviously hears God the Father speaking back clearly and specifically, sometimes he seems to only receive comfort, and sometimes (as in the garden of Gethsemane before he was arrested) he appears to hear only silence and not feel the presence of God. Thus, we should expect the same. Sometimes in my prayer experience, I have felt that I "heard God speak" and knew exactly what was needed. Sometimes, I have merely felt a sense of reassurance or in one case the sense of a hand on my back to comfort me. And sometimes, it feels like I am speaking to the wall, and I need to merely have faith that God is always listening and always hearing. And my experience shows He is, even if I can not tell.