How to grow closer to God and go deeper with Him
The short answer
You grow closer to God the way you grow closer to anyone: by spending time with Him, being honest and listening. Start with 15 quiet minutes each morning. Get still, surrender your day and listen. You go deeper by moving from reading the Bible to meditating on it, and from talking in prayer to listening.
Why doesn’t religious effort bring you closer to God?
Because intimacy can’t be performed. Michael Warden is blunt about this: no amount of religious performance or studying will cause you to know God. Real connection asks a man to stop performing and expose his weakness to God, ideally in a circle of trusted men.
“It’s only through weakness that we come into authentic relationship with God.”Michael Warden
A 15-minute way to start
This is the practice Michael Warden asks men to try each morning for 30 days.
- Breathe and get quiet. You can’t be present to God if you’re present to a thousand other things.
- Surrender. To the best of your ability, give Him the day: “God, I give You my life today. Teach me about You. Teach me about me. Teach me how to follow You moment to moment.” You don’t have to beg, but you do have to mean it.
- Listen. Spend the rest of the time being still and noticing how God may be speaking. It may not be through words.
Then come back to it during the day. Even one minute of real connection with God can change the course of a day.
Even one minute of real connection with God can change the course of a day.
How do you go deeper with God?
Add depth, not length. These are practices BraveHeart leaders use themselves.
- Meditate, don’t just read. Steve Harper chews on a small amount of Scripture instead of chasing quantity. Psalm 1 says the man who does this is like a tree planted by streams of water.
- Try listening prayer. Get still and ask God a question. Steve asked, “How can I be a more loving person?” and came away with something he could act on. Isaiah 55:3 says, “Listen, that you may live.”
- Start with who God is. Rob Cupp praises God first, using passages he’s memorizing such as Psalm 103, before he prays about himself. It takes five to 10 minutes. BraveHeart men call a morning routine like this circle time.
- Bring Him your real struggle. God is a counselor who invites conversation. Read how Steve did this in how to break negative patterns.
What should you do when God feels far away?
Get into His presence on purpose, even if nothing around you changes. Rob Cupp points to Numbers 20. When the people had no water and turned on Moses and Aaron, the two men left the crowd, went to the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. God’s glory appeared to them.
So make a plan before you need it: where will you go, and what will you do there? For Rob, it’s a chair at home, quiet prayer, listening and a journal. His way isn’t the formula, but in God’s presence you can find guidance and peace, even when your circumstances stay exactly the same.
Questions men ask
What is listening prayer?
Listening prayer means getting still before God, sometimes asking Him a question, and paying attention to what comes. Steve Harper describes the shift BraveHeart teaches as not just reading the Bible but meditating on it, and not just praying but listening.
What is circle time?
Circle time is the daily practice men learn at the BraveHeart Intensive. It’s a short morning routine of getting quiet, giving thanks, reciting the identity you believe God has given you, and listening.
What if I don’t hear anything from God?
Keep practicing. Michael Warden teaches that God is revealing Himself all the time, and that paying attention is a skill you learn. It may not come through words.
How much time should I spend with God each day?
There’s no required amount. Michael Warden suggests 15 minutes each morning, and Rob Cupp’s routine often takes five to 10. Even one minute of real connection can change a day.
You don’t have to figure this out alone.
Join a free brotherhood of men on the same path, or go all the way in at the BraveHeart Intensive.
