Prayer

I learned a long time ago that prayer makes a difference.  I was not raised in the faith.  My knowledge has been formed out of my experiences and ultimately searching for spiritual answers to the messes of my life.  My very first extraordinary experience with calling out to God was on a very cold February night in 1987.  After a three year battle, my dad was laying in a hospital bed and he was dying of cancer.  I had just turned 19 and that finite reality hit me like a ton of bricks after the nurse explained a strange physical reaction my dad had.  I will never forget her words, "Honey, your dad is dying; his body is shutting down."  With tears streaming down my face, I mustered the strength to whisper, "Thank you," and quickly walked outside. I sat on the curb without a jacket, freezing and sobbing.  There was nothing I could do.  

Having been raised in a broken and blended family with no significant relationship with either parent, I became resourceful pretty young and there was ALWAYS something I could do to improve my immediate situation.  But in this moment, I had reached the end of myself. There was no hope and no solution.  Death was the only outcome.  Sitting there I looked up and marveled at the stars.  There were so many and the sky was so clear.  In my head I said, "God, if you're real, please help me because I don't know what to do."  Almost immediately I felt warm and my tears stopped.

Like a puppet, I felt myself being lifted up and lead back into the hospital room.  I sat down on the edge of the bed and my dad looked up at me with his big blue eyes.  I then proceeded to tell him that he was the best dad I ever could have asked for and if I had the opportunity to choose him again, I would.  With tears in his eyes, his response was, "I have been a terrible father."  I said, "No, you've done the best you could and that's all anyone can do.  Thank you dad, I appreciate everything you've done."  With that, I got off his bed and sat back in the chair next to him and said to myself, "Um, that was NOT me talking.  I never would have said that."  Heaven met me that day in a way so big, it shifted my life.  I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt, there was a God and He helped me when I needed it most.

In my distress, I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help.  From His temple He heard my voice; my cry came before Him, into His ears - Psalm 18:6

Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know - Jeremiah 33:3

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us...Romans 8:26

I am confident God has showed up for many of you also like He did for me.  Truly when we don't know what to do, something inside us instinctively reaches for the One who does know.

I am old fashioned and appreciate the innocence and simplicity of older timeless movies.  One of my favorites at Christmas time is It's a Wonderful Life. George Bailey is also at the end of himself and cries out to God. 

We not only cry out for ourselves but we also cry out for others. When we ask God on behalf of others, we stand in the gap for them.  We become a living bridge that links them to God.  It's called intercession.  

God called me to be an intercessor ten years ago.  I became a student of learning how and what to pray. Don't get me wrong, God hears ALL prayers. But with time, the more I searched, the more I learned there is strategy to praying and getting your prayers answered and your needs met.  The Bible has many scriptures about prayer.  But two significant verses are:

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24

But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. James 1:6

The key word in both verses is BELIEVE.  One word - HUGE meaning.  God is alive.  He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  He does not change.  He does not lie.  He is true to Himself and He is faithful to us - always.  Every word of the Bible is true and can be trusted.  If God says it, it's true. Period.  If we doubt His truth, His living word, we doubt who He is.  And if we doubt who He is, why pray at all?  When we dare to believe something contrary to what our circumstances are saying because we have asked God to change it, help us, whatever, that action right there activates our faith to BELIEVE.  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen Hebrews 11:1  

The picture below is a visual of faith in action.  The left side of the cliff is our challenging circumstance.  The right side of the cliff is what we are asking God for.  If we are brave enough to make the "leap of faith", God carries us across.  But we have to BELIEVE He will!  

Like a tornado, all too often we get caught up in the circumstances of challenging situations.  We focus, lament, freak out and fixate our eyes on the problem.  God says in Matthew 6:22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light."

There is no health in "seeing" the problem, except to define what it is and then call on God to help.  Seeing only the problem dims our vision and thus dims our light from within. When we train ourselves to "see" and then TRUST God to solve the problem, our eyes are healthy and we will be filled with light.  Believing says to ask God and then fixate our eyes on the problem SOLVER.  

An example of this is many years back, after a series of issues, one of my sons moved out. He had nothing but his car.  He had no where to go and not a lot of money in his young bank account. It was a very difficult time.  I won't go into details but you'll have to trust me is was REALLY BAD.  BUT... the interesting thing is two weeks BEFORE this all happened God woke me up in the middle of the night and gave me a vision of His hand.  He was holding my son in the middle of His hand.  It gave me a warm and fuzzy and I responded, "Awww thank you Lord, I know you hold him in the palm of Your hand"  I had no idea what was coming around the bend but God knew and He was preparing my heart and my mind with His truth for my son.  

For the first two weeks he was gone, I cried non-stop.  I spent countless hours praying for his safety. God booted me out of bed in the middle of the night many times and I stayed on my knees interceding for his safety until the feeling of danger passed.  Then at the end of the first two weeks, a light switch turned on inside me and I remembered the vision the Lord had given me BEFORE all this took place. I realized then and there I was done crying and I went to war.  I made the leap of faith from the circumstances cliff over to the outcome I was praying for cliff.  And God carried me across. My prayers were no longer cries for help.  They turned into specific declarations and decrees founded on God's word, specifically Jeremiah 29:11  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Trust me, it was brutal.  I had people calling me and coming to see me telling me things about the situation - bad things.  But in spite of what they shared,  I had made up my mind.  I am NOT crossing back over to the circumstance side of the cliff.  I am staying on the solution side.  I was completely resolute like that saying, "They can take my gun when they pry it from my cold dead fingers".  I was NOT going back.  So day and night I declared, "Lord, You know the plans You have for ______, plans to prosper him and NOT to hurt him.  You have a GOOD FUTURE AND A GOOD HOPE for him in every area of his life.  The gates of hell WILL NOT prevail against him in any way shape or form.  Satan, take your hands OFF MY SON!  He doesn't belong to you, he has nothing in common with you and you are a liar!  You have NO dominion over the territory the Lord has given ME OR MY FAMILY!  Do it God!  Be glorified!"  My son came home humbled and repentant two weeks later and nothing like that has taken place since.  

We must be serious about prayer.  We must believe we are tapping into the Prayer Answerer and trust Him to bring the change.  He will, in His perfect time.  

TIME is another aspect worth mentioning. Don't give up believing if things are taking longer than you'd like.  He hasn't left you OR forsaken you.  But what I have learned during the painful waiting periods is that if we press into Him, He manifests His word in us.  Romans 5:3-5 says, Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. 

...and also

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9

Which brings us full circle to the last  thing I will share:  pray without ceasing 1 Thessalonians 5:17.  Satan wants you to cave.  He wants you to give up.  That's his business here on earth - to derail God's children. Don't give up.  Keep going.  No matter how hard.  God will meet you and carry you at the point of His choosing.  He never forsakes - EVER.  If you keep pressing into Him, He will meet you and create something beautiful within you in the process.

A invaluable resource to my prayer life is my little red prayer book simply titled Prayers.  I always read them out loud, especially the prayer on the inside front cover, Daily Confessions of Faith.  Your first 2 books are FREE and each one after that is only $5 - well worth the investment!