The prayer room works! Of course it does, prayer works! It does not matter if it happens in a prayer room, in a living room, in a bathroom, bathtub, in a store, in a car… prayer works. It works because God works. He promised to hear and answer every prayer.
1 John 5:14-15 ESV
“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”
Isaiah 65:24 ESV
“Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.”
It might not be the way we want to have it answered, but all prayer gets answered! Prayer takes God to the people and the people to God.
Last week God performed 3 miracles in one afternoon in the prayer room! We are not talking simple “answered prayers”, we are talking down right, huge God Miracles! I cannot share details because of confidentiality but it was BIG!
A man was standing there right in front of me, I had prayed for him 4 months ago and I did not think I would see him again this side of heaven. He was that ill. The doctors could do no more for him and yet there he was, 4 months later, standing right in front of me. He said he had come in to share the news….today, that day, the doctors could find nothing physically wrong with him and yet even up to 2 weeks ago he still had the illness. As soon as his words were out, that he was healed and free, I started to cry, it was overwhelming. It was a miracle!
It's not that I did not believe God could do the healing, but in spite of my doubts that God might take him to heaven, in spite of my faith which was not huge back at that moment for this very ill man, I was not prepared to see that miracle walk in the door. It was not dependent on the “pray-er” (me) it was only dependent on the one who could do anything about it.
The other miracles were stories that people told me about what God was doing in answer to the prayers we prayed for their loved ones. God is working and doing some amazing, amazing things!
I was so pumped, I wanted to start yelling while driving down the street – “This is why we pray! God hears prayer, God answers prayer”.
God is in the business of answering prayers, and always has been. Yet it is one of the things most lacking. I think we get discouraged when we do not see miracles or the answers coming the way we think they should. But we should never give up asking, seeking, or waiting for the answer because it will come. Never give up!
My son said to me, “Mom it isn’t working! Church the way it has been done in the past, is not working. We have to change it. I believe that this is the time when everything is going to change. We have to find a way to connect with people outside the church.”
I answered that while I heard what he was saying and I agree that some things need to change but cautioned that his perspective was not big enough to know what was and was not working. That he probably did not know people that were in the process of changing things or the people who have been doing the changing thing for a while. I asked him flat out, if he knew why I was doing the prayer room. I told him it was not because I had nothing else to do.
I sit at the prayer room 3 days a week waiting to bring God to people who would not otherwise find Him.
I reminded him of the prayer room in the states that I went to – those people were changing it up. Bringing God to the people.
I asked him, did he remember Cowboy Bob?
This was a very non-traditional fellow who intensely showed who God was. He was one who took Jesus to the people – literally. Had been doing it for years! Cowboy Bob had a mission to the streets of Prince George. He considered the streets of Prince George to be holy ground. Everyone knew Cowboy Bob. The ladies that worked in the downtown core were escorted to their cars at night by Cowboy Bob. My friend had told me about him and his extraordinary ministry, she was one of the ones Bob escorted. He personally went to businesses at closing and walked the ladies to their cars to ensure their safety. His congregation was anyone who would listen but mainly and hugely to the street people. Bob had earned the respect and admiration of anyone who knew him. It had not always been that way. Bob was an alcoholic and a former street person.
I had taken my 3 boys in to meet him one time, to share what life on the streets was like as well as what a lifetime of alcoholism did to a person.
He started off with: “Is that is your mother out there? Well you boys are lucky to have a mother that gives a damn about you. I’m an alcoholic have been for over 40 years, but I have not touched the stuff in 20 years….” He spoke to the boys from the heart and told them how God had performed a miracle in his heart and in his life. He spent the rest of his days living his thankfulness to God out. Reaching people for God.
I reminded my son that Cowboy Bob had been living out taking the church to the people waaaaay before it was fashionable and there were thousands more around the world, living their life out in non-traditional church ways.
The verse from Job in the Bible has been rattling around in my head: “God restored Job after he prayed for his friends.” Job 42:10
Who are our friends? Well if we look back at the Good Samaritan story, our friends are our fellow humans, all colors, race and religions and sometimes even people we do not like. So who do we pray for? Everyone.
Are you not experiencing joy? Feeling like something is missing in your life? God promises us “life abundant” in John 10:10, do you know what that is? Well my friends – start praying for others. God told Job to pray for his friends and then God blessed Job ONLY AFTER he prayed for his friends.
All I can tell you is the prayer room is a place of blessing: For Me. It has changed me, ministered to me, made me empathetic, increased my faith, and made me realize how much God loves me and the people I am praying for. The prayer room is a blessing room for me and the people in the store!
Oh, I wish everyone could experience the prayer room! Come join me there at the prayer room, engage in the Blessing or start your own prayer room. Think you do not have a place to set up? What is your favorite coffee hangout? Sit there and watch the people God will send in, walk over and introduce yourself, ask them if they would like prayer. Start a conversation in the coffee line. Walk the streets of your city and pray for whomever the Lord places before you. Pray for those people around you, your neighbors, your family and even those that you really do not like. A prayer room can be anywhere that you are.
I have been challenging people in my family and my circle of friends to have a “line”. Be prepared with a line to draw people in. Instead of the generic: “Have a nice day” how about: “I will pray for you” or “Do you have something you would like me to pray about?” “God loves you, you know?” “God bless you.”
What is your line? Ask God to show you what your line is and then practice it and use it, regularly.
The first person to change in the prayer room is the “pray-er” – you. You cannot stay the same and be a person of prayer.