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.