What does Tribe teach about listening prayer?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on listening prayer starts with a word: shema. Joy Abad brought this message on a Sunday when Brian was away, building on what he had taught the week before about simple obedience. The Hebrew word shema, which appears in the Deuteronomy 6 command to love God and in the Exodus 19 command to obey him, does not separate listening from obeying. They are two sides of the same coin, and the listening comes first. Most English translations hide this by rendering shema as 'obey,' but the congregation read those passages in multiple versions and noticed that other translations say 'if you listen.' Same word, same command.
The picture Joy kept returning to was Elijah in 1 Kings 19, where God did not speak in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire, but in a gentle whisper. A whisper requires you to get quiet, lean in, and remove other noise. She drew three practical movements from verse 11: go out, meaning leave your normal rhythms; stand, meaning be still; and be on the mountain, which she connected to the idea of solitude as a state where all outside inputs are genuinely off. This is not about dramatic experiences or annual retreats. The encouragement was to start with a ridiculously small amount of daily time, sit with a pen and paper, take a breath, and ask God a specific question: 'What do you want me to know about...' then write down the first thing that comes to mind. Joy was honest that she herself had been working through this, including the uncomfortable admission that sometimes, as she put it, 'I haven't asked because I don't want to know what he has to say.'
The harder edge of the teaching was aimed at doers specifically. Joy used John Mark Comer's distinction between crowds and apprentices to sharpen it: the crowds heard Jesus and moved on; his apprentices listened and became like him. The warning from James 1 and Matthew 7 runs in both directions. Hearing without doing falls short, but so does doing without first hearing. As Joy put it, 'If you don't obey, you haven't listened. And if you're just doing, it is not the same as obedience.' The question she sat with, and left the room sitting with, was whether the busyness of doing good things had quietly replaced the prior act of actually asking God what he wanted done.
Taught from 1 Kings 19:9-13 · Deuteronomy 6:4-5 · Exodus 19:5-6 · James 1:22-24 · Matthew 7:26-27
“If you don't obey, you haven't listened. And if you're just doing, it is not the same as obedience.”
From Listen Before You Obey
The passage taught · 1 Kings 19:9-13
9 He came to a cave there, and camped there; and behold, Yahweh’s word came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
10 He said, “I have been very jealous for Yahweh, the God of Armies; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
11 He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before Yahweh.” Behold, Yahweh passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before Yahweh; but Yahweh was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake; but Yahweh was not in the earthquake.
12 After the earthquake a fire passed; but Yahweh was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a still small voice.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- February 5, 2024 Listen Before You Obey Joy Abad teaches Tribe church that true biblical obedience begins with listening, exploring the Hebrew word "shema" and how to quiet yourself to hear God's voice.
- February 4, 2024 The Simplicity of Listening A teaching on the Hebrew word "shema," showing why real obedience to God begins with listening, and how to create the quiet needed to hear His voice.