Does God hear your prayers if they are not spoken outloud?
If the answer is yes, how does God distinguish which is a prayer and which is not? Obviously you can talk to God anytime you want, but stop yourself from thinking something bad or saying something bad in your mind. What if you accidentally denied the holy spirit in your mind just by quickly saying it in your head?
Well God can always hear our thoughts of course. So while in internal prayers our heart and mind is directly focused on him, he can always hear our thoughts and our heart. So denying the Holy Spirit in our mind is heard, whether we are focused and in prayer, or not. all my opinion of course.
I’d say God can tell the difference between thought and mental prayer the same way you or I can tell the difference between spoken prayer and spoken words for other reasons. As for our thoughts somehow being sinful… James’ letter says “be angry and sin not,” so it would appear that there is a form of negative thought that is not sinful. Most would say that the difference is whether or not you “dwell on it”- I’m not sure that that’s accurate, but it’s an interesting concept no less.
Scripture says G-D knows what we say before we utter it with our lips. G-D knows our thoughts and our words. Silent and audible prayer are both acceptable forms of communication with G-D.
G-D can tell the difference between prayer and non-prayer thoughts/words because he knows his creation intimately. He designed us and he knows how we operate. He isn’t foolish. He knows when you’re addressing him and not addressing him just as I understand when I am addressed and not addressed when people communicate.
A thought is not a sin. We don’t control our every thought but we control on what we dwell upon and and give our focus and time to within our minds. G-D understands our circumstances and he’s not a Pharaoh or police officer in the sky looking to bust us for every bad thought.
Obviously if God is real, he can tell what are prayers and what aren’t. Whenever I pray or talk to God silently thru the day, I always say – Lord, ……. so he knows I am talking to him.