When Prayer Becomes Presence
Reflections on “Holy Spirit Come (The Dove)” and the Practice of Prayer
This week in our Core Disciplines class, we’ve been reading through Donald Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, and our chapter was on prayer. I couldn’t help but smile at the timing, because as I prepared to record this week’s Lyric & Letter episode, the song on my heart was “Holy Spirit / The Dove” by SEU Worship — a song that is, at its core, a prayer.
Whitney reminds us that prayer isn’t about performance, posture, or even persuasion. It’s about relationship — about being with God. He writes, “Prayer is expected of us by God, but it’s also the means by which we experience Him.” That line lingers, doesn’t it? We don’t pray to impress. We pray to know.
That word — know — has been echoing in my spirit all week. In Hebrew, the word is yada: to know by experience, to encounter through relationship, to be joined in intimacy. It’s the word that first appears in Genesis 3:5 when the serpent tempted Eve to “know good and evil,” twisting what was meant to be holy communion into self-centered control. But through Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, yada has been redeemed. We are invited once again to know God deeply — to walk with Him, talk with Him, and rest in His nearness.
Prayer, then, isn’t a transaction; it’s participation in that intimacy restored.
It’s breathing in His presence and exhaling our dependence.
It’s where theology becomes relationship, and where words fade into communion.
When we sing, “Holy Spirit, You are welcome here,” we’re not inviting a distant guest into our space. We’re awakening to the reality that He already dwells within us. The temple isn’t a building anymore — it’s our very lives, our quiet moments, our whispered prayers.
So maybe the call this week is simple:
Don’t rush your prayers. Don’t measure them.
Let them become presence. Let them become knowing.
Take a walk, breathe slowly, and whisper what’s on your heart. Let that whisper be the doorway to deeper yada — the sacred knowing of the One who already knows you. Because prayer, at its truest, is not about getting God’s attention. It’s about remembering that you already have it.
Listen to the episode:
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0dIRsGSEbOJuzeu4Yfe4j0?si=e89455a21dd04880
🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lyric-and-letter-where-worship-meets-the-word/id1699992733?i=1000730299329
▶️ YouTube: https://youtu.be/3HuF8TmLhHk
