I teach at our women’s Bible study every-other Thursday, but since this was my off week I was able to join the rest of the women. We generally open with worship, and as I was standing and singing I felt God prompting me to go and pray over the woman who would be teaching. Now, this is not anything unusual for me since God often prompts me to pray for people. Just a few weeks ago I prayed over the woman who came in to teach at our FaithFULL Women’s conference. Again it was during worship, after God prompted me to do so.
I wish I could say I was immediately obedient, but in both instances this prayer came only after a brief debate. As I look back at the conference, I distinctly remember pointing out to God that I didn’t know this woman well and that she was a seasoned speaker, but regardless of my arguments I continued to feel the urge to pray for her. A similar thing occurred this week. In this case, I knew the woman and was more than willing to pray for her…until I saw that she wasn’t in the back of the room where I expected her to be. She was sitting on the opposite side of the aisle in the front row. Again came the debate. I thought surely God wouldn’t want me to go up to the front row to pray for her, but it became quite clear that He surely did!
I walked along the perimeter of the seating to be less obtrusive, then laid my hand on her shoulder and whispered that I was there to pray for her. I prayed for her out loud-ish since worship was still going on. I had no idea if she heard me or not, but I knew God heard me and that’s what was important. Normally that would be the end of the story – God said “Go,” so I went – but this time I was blessed to hear the rest of the story.
The teacher approached me after she had finished and she thanked me for praying for her. She then proceeded to tell that before I came up to her she had been very nervous; she was short of breath, her heart was pounding, her hands were sweating, and she just couldn’t seem to calm herself down. While I was still praying, it all immediately went away. Her hands were even dry! All her tension was released and the more she taught, the more at peace she felt. Of course, I know that God always has a reason He calls us to pray, but hearing this testimony reminded me that there is also a reason for the timing of His prompting.
Our church will be calling the congregation to fast in the month of November, so I just started reading a book I had purchased last winter - "Fasting" by Jentezen Franklin. In it, he first explained that there are three things that God expects us to do, and when we do them His blessings are unleashed. Jesus presents these in the Sermon on the Mount, which is interesting since our Bible study is currently studying the Beatitudes from that very message. Jesus taught about “when you give” (Matthew 6:2,3), “when you pray” (Matthew 6:5,6,7,9), and “when you fast” (Matthew 6:16, 17). It wasn’t until I sat down to write this that I connected this dramatic answer to prayer with the fact that I had been fasting the day before.
The subtitle of the book is “Opening the door to a deeper, more intimate, more powerful relationship with God.” I’ve never fasted drinking only water before, but the benefits mentioned in the book were so desirable that I didn’t want to wait for November to try it out – and look at what happened! If God will do this as a result of one person fasting one day, I can’t wait to see what He will do when our whole church fasts!
Holy Spirit, I thank you for your promptings. Thank you for helping me to be obedient and for the blessing of hearing the results of that obedience. I pray that everyone reading this will take up the challenge to fast and experience firsthand Your power unleashed!
I wish I could say I was immediately obedient, but in both instances this prayer came only after a brief debate. As I look back at the conference, I distinctly remember pointing out to God that I didn’t know this woman well and that she was a seasoned speaker, but regardless of my arguments I continued to feel the urge to pray for her. A similar thing occurred this week. In this case, I knew the woman and was more than willing to pray for her…until I saw that she wasn’t in the back of the room where I expected her to be. She was sitting on the opposite side of the aisle in the front row. Again came the debate. I thought surely God wouldn’t want me to go up to the front row to pray for her, but it became quite clear that He surely did!
I walked along the perimeter of the seating to be less obtrusive, then laid my hand on her shoulder and whispered that I was there to pray for her. I prayed for her out loud-ish since worship was still going on. I had no idea if she heard me or not, but I knew God heard me and that’s what was important. Normally that would be the end of the story – God said “Go,” so I went – but this time I was blessed to hear the rest of the story.
The teacher approached me after she had finished and she thanked me for praying for her. She then proceeded to tell that before I came up to her she had been very nervous; she was short of breath, her heart was pounding, her hands were sweating, and she just couldn’t seem to calm herself down. While I was still praying, it all immediately went away. Her hands were even dry! All her tension was released and the more she taught, the more at peace she felt. Of course, I know that God always has a reason He calls us to pray, but hearing this testimony reminded me that there is also a reason for the timing of His prompting.
Our church will be calling the congregation to fast in the month of November, so I just started reading a book I had purchased last winter - "Fasting" by Jentezen Franklin. In it, he first explained that there are three things that God expects us to do, and when we do them His blessings are unleashed. Jesus presents these in the Sermon on the Mount, which is interesting since our Bible study is currently studying the Beatitudes from that very message. Jesus taught about “when you give” (Matthew 6:2,3), “when you pray” (Matthew 6:5,6,7,9), and “when you fast” (Matthew 6:16, 17). It wasn’t until I sat down to write this that I connected this dramatic answer to prayer with the fact that I had been fasting the day before.
The subtitle of the book is “Opening the door to a deeper, more intimate, more powerful relationship with God.” I’ve never fasted drinking only water before, but the benefits mentioned in the book were so desirable that I didn’t want to wait for November to try it out – and look at what happened! If God will do this as a result of one person fasting one day, I can’t wait to see what He will do when our whole church fasts!
Holy Spirit, I thank you for your promptings. Thank you for helping me to be obedient and for the blessing of hearing the results of that obedience. I pray that everyone reading this will take up the challenge to fast and experience firsthand Your power unleashed!
