Prayer, by definition, is communing with God. Yet I often hear people say that doesn’t mean we actually hear God. The Gospels record Jesus regularly praying to God—in the night, in the mountains removed from the press of multitudes seeking him, in a moment of an individual’s need for healing, or even in the presence of those threatening him, such as when he helped the woman caught in adultery (see John 8:1–11).

What this woman had done violated Mosaic law, which required that adulterers be put to death by stoning. Jesus would not condone such a thing, and his persecutors saw an opportunity to catch him violating the law. Jesus’ immediate need was to know how to respond with an answer both true to his Christly teachings and safe for the woman and him. He bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. Surely he was praying and listening to God, the divine Mind, for the answer he needed in that moment of threat. And the solution he heard rejected condemnation and saved both the woman and him—saved, in fact, everyone there. 

It would be illogical to believe that truly communing with God is possible only for a few special people. 

Over the two thousand years since that recorded experience, many have apparently thought that Jesus had a unique, miraculous ability to hear God speak to him. And many still believe that this ability to hear God is beyond the capacity of most people.

Yet, biblical patriarchs who lived centuries before Jesus heard God speak to them, instructing them and safeguarding their lives. And there have been many accounts in our time—published in Christian Science magazines such as this one—of individuals hearing clear thoughts that have led to physical and other forms of healing as well as life direction and purpose, safety, and so on. So why should humanity still believe that such communing with God is a miraculous experience, possible only to a few individuals with extraordinary spiritual proclivities? Actually, humanity has the right to refuse to accept such limits on its ability to know the presence, activity, and guidance of divine Mind. This Mind is forever at work, and we know this through the spiritual sense, or consciousness, that we all include as God’s ideas or creation.

Christian Science brings the interpretation of the law of God, infinite good, to humanity. Its spiritual logic has been repeatedly proven through results that seem miraculous to humanity only because this Science operates outside human ways and means. It is called Science because it is the invariable law that sustains, nurtures, and governs existence. The Science of Christianity flows from the all-intelligent Mind that governs all creation. The inevitable effects of that divinely intelligent law are healing and the harmonizing of human experience, and these effects are actually natural to each one of us.

It would be illogical to believe that truly communing with God is possible only for a few special people. One definition of commune is “to communicate intimately” (merriam-webster.com). The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Online enlarges that to “to converse confidentially and sympathetically.” This resource further indicates that “[To commune] is represented in both Hebrew and Greek by several words literally signifying to speak,” and, “To communicate is to impart something to another, so that it becomes common to giver and receiver.” Just think what that means to each individual. The divine communicator, the Giver of all good, God, is imparting to the receiver, man, that which consciously becomes, and in actuality always is, common to both. 

That is a wonderful description of what happens in the individual consciousness of men, women, and children when we listen to what God, the divine Mind, is communicating. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy states, “The intercommunication is always from God to His idea, man” (p. 284). This book reveals that the message and activity of God is the eternal Christ, “the spirit of God, of Truth, Life, and Love” (p. 137) and “the divine idea of God” (p. 332). None of us, as the expression or idea of God, could ever be excluded from hearing the Christ message. 

Spiritually attuned thinking opens the way to communing with God.

Many Bible stories show prayer to God as a clear, authentic, unmistakable experience with the divine Mind—a veritable communing. The question is, How does each individual develop their capacity to commune with God in the way that those biblical men and women did? Since this capacity can never be destroyed, even by sin, all sorts of mistakes in thought, word, and action can be corrected through God’s grace. Each of us has an innate capacity to hear and respond to God in every circumstance. Neither moments of dire need nor hours of doubts nor years of yearning can wrench an individual from their relationship to God, the universal source of all that’s real. The prophet Jeremiah reports God’s declaration that He loves us “with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3). It is a mistake to allow God’s infinite grace and omnipresent love to become just words to us. God has promised eternal love and care to His children.

Spiritually attuned thinking develops deeper trust in God. Such thinking opens the way to communing with the living God, profoundly reassuring us. Case in point: I wound up selling a house I’d just bought just the year before. 

I’d been outbid on several other houses but had been able to buy this one. However, the house soon seemed to have been a huge mistake. It had many substantial problems that had been undisclosed. The home and grounds were beautiful but imposed a huge burden of time and money; also, threats of lawsuits and an unfounded lien had to be resolved. Over many months I tried to move through each difficulty with prayer, but some of the circumstances were quite unnerving. And I felt I couldn’t sell in good conscience without fixing everything. But I also felt sure that, if repaired, the house would sell immediately, so I had work done on it. I also put in offers on other homes I might be able to move to, but again was always outbid. I felt trapped.

Then early one morning, after many months of searching for a solution to the situation, I unreservedly gave it all—both the so-called big mistake of buying the house and its overwhelming problems—to God. I set aside grappling with what to do and wholeheartedly turned to God and listened, communing with God. At once, the thought came, “Father, I want to serve You, not a house.” And I heard clearly this message: “Sell it and lease. I’ll bring the buyer.” It was not a personal decision; it was the divine guidance I’d asked for. 

That day a typed sheet was left on my front porch by a young couple who had children and wanted to buy my house. Like me, they had made many house offers without success over two years, so they were thrilled with the possibility of buying my house. Almost immediately, we had a very good contract. And the next day I found a place to lease that exactly met my needs, with my application being accepted in a difficult rental market. 

God communicates to us in the way we need. The biblical accounts of Jesus’ experiences show a range of God’s communications. In an exchange between Jesus and the devil following Jesus’ forty days communing with God in the wilderness, the Master decisively dismissed the devil’s temptations with God’s Word (see Matthew 4:1–11). Afterward, angels—“God’s thoughts passing to man,” as explained in Science and Health (p. 581)—ministered to him.

We have the same divine resources! Many of my neighbors and friends called the sale a miracle, apparently because the good result came in a way that had seemed impossible. But it was not a miraculous event. What seems to be a miracle is actually “divinely natural,” according to Science and Health (see p. 591).

The God of each of us is the good Parent who loves His children and lets us know that the divine presence is always with us, enabling us to commune with divine Mind. It’s natural, never beyond our present capacities. We can trust it and see its results in our lives.