Dear Praying Church,
You
are the answer to someone else’s prayer.
Often, while praying, my mind wanders to a person. I feel
God placing this person on my heart, as a burden. This can mean that I am the
one God is going to use, as God's answer to that person's prayer.
Here’s a recent example. During my praying time, I felt led
to pray for a man. Let’s call him “X.” While praying, I did not know that, in
that very moment, X left his workspace, went to a place where he could be
alone, and was praying.
X had learned that his spouse was having a sexual affair
with another man. She filed for divorce. X wanted to secure help for their
marriage. She refused.
That morning X received a phone call from his father.
"Your mother has cancer. She's not expected to live much longer." X
felt his knees buckle, his breathing difficult, the weight too much to bear. X
had to get alone with the only One who could make a way where there seemed to
be no way. X prayed, "God, help me... Help us!"
Meanwhile I was alone, in my backyard by the river, sitting
in my prayer chair, as X was appealing to God. As I prayed the thought came to
me, "Call X now." I did. I assumed this thought was coming from God
to me.
I have learned, over decades of praying, listening, and
risking, that God often comes as an interruption, in my "wandering
mind." What could I lose from calling X to check in? This was a no-fail
spiritual situation. I called X. He
answered, "I can't believe you called me. I couldn't focus on my job. I
had to get alone with God. I was just asking God to send help. And then you
called!"
We agreed this was no coincidence. It was the orchestrating
work of the Holy Spirit. In that moment I was God's answer for X. This was God
saying, "I hear X's cry. I am going to answer X's prayer by placing the
thought of X in John's mind."
Here is an example from Acts chapter 9. We see the apostle
Paul, who has been struck with blindness. He hasn’t eaten or drank anything for
three days. He is praying. In a vision, Paul sees help coming. Who might that
be?
10 In Damascus there was a disciple named
Ananias. The Lord called to him in a
vision, “Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered.
11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas
on Straight Street
and ask for a man from Tarsus named
Saul,
for
he is praying.
12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias
come and place his hands on him to
restore his sight.”
Ananias was the answer to Paul’s prayer.
When you pray, listen for the voice of God. When an
interruptive thought comes, check it out. You will begin to discover that such
things can be from God.
This increases your faith and expectation.
You are being used by God to help others in their
prayer-cries for mercy and rescue.
My dear friends, life in Christ is a series of
interruptions. The interruptions become your life.
Love,
PJ
RESPOND
Contact
that person whom God has laid on your heart.
From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying.
