10 ways to communicate and spend more time with God

By Dr. Francis Akin-John

“Yet he often withdrew to deserted places and prayed.” (Luke 5:16)

“He was praying in a cer-tain place . . .” (Luke 11:1)

Change your Devot-ional’s to leadership ones.

You cannot really walk with God when you only read and study Devot-ional’s that are meant for generality of believ-ers. Go and get the ones that are meaty for lead-ers. Be honest about the distractors that get in the way of your time with God. Sometimes they’re good things (e.g., ministry responsibilities). At other times, they’re just time wasters. In some cases, they’re actually idols that mean more to us than our time with God does. Identify your distractors, and don’t let them win.

Subscribe to a Bible reading plan. A simple web search will direct you to options. If nothing else, the reading in your inbox every morning will remind you to get alone with God.

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Plan your daily time with God the night before. Life’s too busy and unex-pected to wait until each morning to determine how/when you’ll spend time with God. Something else will fill your calendar before the day ever beg-ins.

Find the best time and place to be with God, and prioritize that time. For me, my office is NOT the best place. Much better for me is my home study, a local restaurant, or even a place in the woods in good weather.

Take advantage of your 10- and 15-minute opport-unities throughout the day. Even if you’re convin-ced you don’t have an ex-tra hour to be with God, you likely have these brief opportunities that will add up.

Use your driving time wisely. Listen to the Bible. Meditate on the Word. Pray.

Schedule a quarterly day of Bible reading, prayer, and fasting. Go ahead and block the days––and let only emergencies cause you to reschedule them. Ideally, get away from your office and your phone to be with the Lord.

Plan an annual leader-ship retreat that includes nothing but Bible reading and prayer. Jesus took Peter, John, and James to the mountain to pray (Luke 9:28), and that’s when His transfiguration took place. God often just does something when leaders of His church get alone to pray.

Being alone with God is the secret foundation of your spiritual growth. Your ministry can never out-grow your devotional life with God.