John 6:46-47
Hearing Our Father
45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God. ’Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.
John 14:26
The Holy Spirit is Sent from God in the Name of Jesus
26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Brother Lawrence was a French Monk who lived in the 1600's...He was a poor man who fought in Europe's Thirty Years War and after that became a valet...Then around age fifty-five joined a French Monastery...Uneducated, he was unable to become a cleric...So he was assigned to work in the kitchen of the monastery for many years...Brother Lawrence thought there was no mundane tasks or jobs, in relation to what God gives us...He would remain a kitchen servant and became known as the lord of the pots and pans...He practiced the Presence of God...He wanted nothing more than to belong entirely to God...And he practiced and practiced keeping a focus on God during his daily work in the kitchen... Brother Lawrence would later write, "Men invent means and methods of coming at God's LOVE, they learn rules and set up devices to remind them of that LOVE , and it seems like a world of trouble to bring oneself into the consciousness of God's Presence...Yet it might be so simple...Is it not quicker and easier just to do our common business wholly for the love of Him?" ...He thought of God constantly in the kitchen and throughout his day...He thought that even turning flapjacks on the frying pan could be done in and for the love of God...He believed we do not have to do great things to love God...We can do mundane and little things for God...Life is often mundane, so let us take advantage of the little things to find His Presence...He said, “We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.”...He constantly thought of Jesus and as his mind wandered away from Him, Brother Lawrence would bring it back and return thinking about Him...He continuously brought his mind back to our LORD...He was always trying to get in touch with the Holy Spirit that His Father had sent him in the name of Jesus...He was always practicing, listening, awaiting the Holy Spirit...Each day before Brother Lawrence rose he focused on Jesus, and each night his last thoughts before sleep were on Jesus...And all the while, he would think about Christ and the Spirit, and change the mind's constant wandering habits into a repetitive discipline of inviting Christ’s Presence to an involuntary act of the heart...He meditated on the LOVE of God...
People came to see this Monk in the Kitchen...They wanted to see why one was at this great peace after working years in the kitchen so long...He gained a reputation for being at peace and visitors came to seek spiritual guidance from him...After he passed in 1691, those around him put together his quotes and writings and composed a book called the The Practice of the Presence of God...One on his quotes is that, “Prayer does not necessarily mean talking to God; it more often means listening to Him.”...
It is written we can hear our Father...But we cannot see our Father...And by hearing Him we can learn from Him...
Jesus makes that distinction and speaks of hearing His Father and learning from Him...Jesus says that, "Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from Him comes to Me...No one has seen the Father except the One who is from God; only He has seen the Father."...
Brother Lawrence learned that he should meditate and listen for God...And by listening to Him, he could learn much...And by listening for God and to God we can learn even more...Let us listen for Him, so we too might hear Him...