What To Do In Your Time With God?

One of the biggest problems that keep us from spending time with God is that we often have no clue what to do. That's why we quickly get distracted, bored and often don't even start doing something with Him. But there are so many different things you can do with Him. Having a list of what to do broadens our perspective, helps us stay focused and brings creativity into our time with Him. This fights boredom and distraction. As you start using this list for your inspiration, you might find that your daily time with Him is not long enough to really do everything you want to.

List of Things to Do in the Secret Place

• Devotional Prayer - Have love talk with Jesus. Tell Him how much you love Him, how much He means to you. Just pray whatever comes to Your mind.
• Prayerlists - The problem of praying is that it becomes boring or empty if you don't know what to pray and if you have the feeling that you just say the same things over and over without getting deeper. A prayer list can help you solve this problem. Even though it does not sound very adventurous, it is very helpful and effective. Just try it. Start writing a list of things that you want God to release in your life and start praying it whenever you feel like. There are also prayer lists online that can help you get started. I like the FELLOWSHIP prayer list of Mike Bickle. Praying it can take you up to one hour or more, just go with the Spirit. Pray the prophecies you got or write several lists in which you focus on special areas of your life (personal relationship with God, personal prophecies, spouse, children, family in general, specific friends, ministry, nations, specific organizations, ...).
• Thanksgiving - Yeah, often a forgotten aspect of prayer that however has such an impact on the heart of God and ours. Just take time to say Thank You! to God for whatever comes to your mind. There is so much more to thank than you can fit into 2 hours. Really try it and you will see.
• Intercession - This means, simply pray for others. Or write a list of people (prayer journal) you want to pray for on a regular basis for a longer time and what you want to pray for. Write Scriptures down that come to your mind for each prayer request and pray them over the person. Or just ask God who to pray for and let Him inspire you what specifically to pray for too. Wait until He gives you a short picture, feeling or something else that shows you what to pray for.
• Studying/Reading the Word - Just read certain chapters, or just use a bible reading plan or start your plan. What about studying your favorite book/chapter? Try to get deeper in what you already have. Or, and this is a really great way, ask God what to read. Let Him tell you where he wants to feed you today.
• Pray-Reading the Word - Read the Word of God and use it to start a conversation with God with every aspect of a verse that looks appealing to you. For example, start in the psalms. This gives you a lot of stuff to pray and to talk about with God. You will really start liking to pray and reading the Word at the same time. It's just such an amazing technique. A lot of my hunger for the Word was caused by just using the Scripture to talk to God.
• Meditating on the Word - It's very close to studying the Word of God. However, here you focus on one or two verses and try to understand their deeper meaning. Let the Spirit teach you the deep things of God. This is the way of making Scriptures yours. Repeat them, read them over and over again. What does every single word really mean here? Are there any other Scriptures that are similar? How do they help understand the verse more? What does it mean for your personal life?
• Praying in Tongues - Praying in tongues is perfect to get started or to fill times in which you don't know what to do. To me personally, praying in tongues is a very effective way of activating your spirit and your desire for more of God when you feel like you're having a dry moment or lack motivation. Praying in tongues will make you fiery again, stir up passion in you and give you some momentum. Try to pray more than just a few minutes. Try 15 minutes or more. You will definitely feel the difference in your spirit after it. I also like walking through my room while doing it and having some music in the background.
• Worshiping - Just turn on some worship music and sing along or play by yourself and worship God. 
• Listening to Teachings - After a certain time, we need new input or else it might happen that we plateau spiritually. Take some time to listen to teachings that inspire you anew and stir up new passion or give you new vision for your relationship with God. This will give your new thrust for your pursuit of God. Try to pray back to God every inspiring phrase or resounding request of the teaching - this will increase its impact on you dramatically. Teaching resources and teachers that I recommend are Mike Bickle.org, IHOP-KC teaching archives, iBethel.tv, Kris Vallatton and Andrew Wommack.
• Soaking - Turn on some meditative music and just lay down and soak, meditate on God and His love for you. Let Him speak to you and touch your heart. This is a great thing to do especially when you don't feel like doing anything and just need some rest, encouragement and refreshment. A good website with free soaking music is soaking.net.
• Journaling - Put down recent experiences with God. What has He showed you in the last couple of days. What are you going through? What is God's plan and His thoughts for your current life situation? Journaling is a great way to remember and to realize what God is doing in and speaking into your life. When you do it over a longer time, you will definitely become an idea of His continuing work, unconditional love and amazing purposes for your life. I greatly encourage you to journal regularly.
• Reading Good Christian Books - Find books on topics that interest you. What about reading some books about the character of God? It's all about knowing Him, isn't it? If you need some ideas, take a look at my Recommended Resources page.
• Join The IHOP-Prayerroom - The Internation House of Prayer has been worshiping and interceding for almost 13 years without break now. They have a live stream through which you can join the prayer room located in Kansas City. You can worship, pray and intercede together with other people. Even though it is not a very interactive way, it is one that gives you some guidelines and has similar spiritual dynamics. It is also a great thing to combine with most of the other ideas here.
• Prayer-Hiking - Sometimes it's helpful to just get out of the house. You can take a longer walk (30-60 minutes and longer) and just start praying or listening to a teaching. It is a great way to encounter God in nature at the same time (sunsets, forests, mountains).
• Sozo Yourself - Sozo is an inner healing program invented by a team of the Bethel church in Redding, CA. Of course, in order to use it in your personal time with God you should have accomplished a Sozo course so that you know what I am talking about. For those who have, just use tools like the father ladder on yourself. If you have never done it before, you will be surprised about how God's Spirit can break things off of you without the help of anyone else. If you want to find out more about Sozo, visit BethelSozo.com.
• And many, many more... to be updated

General Tips and Recommendations

• Be Creative! - This is probably one of the best tips. If things get boring, as they just do sometimes, just do something else or something differently. There are so many variations and opportunities!
• Use Music in the Background - Sometimes, quietness can be very attractive. At other times it feels awkward. Playing a worship CD or some soaking music in the background while you're doing something else can inspire you to sing along and speak into specific situations and even help you stay focused. Meditative music also creates an atmosphere of peace, joy and ease, making it easier and more enjoyable to do what you are doing for a longer period of time.
• Change the Location - Having a special place to pray can be something special. But it can also become boring sometimes. Over a longer time, our mind and body connects certain rooms with certain emotions and impressions. Changing the place where you spend your time with God can have a strong impact on your experience and can create a fresh openness for God's presence. Go outside when the weather is beautiful or look for another place to spend time with Him.
• Do Things Corporately - Often the experience can be intensified just by doing things together with other people. What about meeting with a friend for soaking or starting a prayer group? Be creative!
• Do Things Differently - Just try to break through your usual pattern by trying to do things differently. Often we establish our habits and think that the outcome we experience is all that it has to offer, but by doing that we often miss the exciting effect of doing things differently. For instance, if you always start your time with God with praying your personal prayerlist, then just try not to start with that and see what happens.
• Whatever You Do, Do With Prayer - One of the best tips I can give you is to just keep in conversation with God no matter what you are doing. No matter how you fill your time with God, let it be part of a conversation with God. When you read something, pray things back to Him that touch you. Just keep in contact with Him. It is all about this fellowship.