While preaching a crusade in Pennsylvania years ago, a newspaper reporter came to get an
interview from me concerning the thousands of people who were attending the event.
I asked the reporter, “Are you a believer?” He immediately responded, “No, actually I’m an atheist.”
When I pressed the question, “Why would your newspaper send an atheist to cover a religious event,” he responded that he was one of the leading reporters for his newspaper and was simply assigned to cover the event.
I felt the Holy Spirit telling me not to drop the issue. I asked him a personal and direct question:
“What would it take for you to believe there was a God?”
Without hesitation, he let me know that he and his wife had been trying to have a baby for many years and were unable to conceive. I told him to bring his wife to the service the next night and I would pray for God to give them a baby.
He looked at me in disbelief and our eyes locked. Finally, he said, “I’ll do just that.”
The next night the reporter and his wife appeared backstage before the services began. I talked to both of them, telling them of God’s power to give life. They looked back at me with blank stares. I prayed to God that they would conceive a child and they left the arena.
Have you found yourself today in a similar place of desperation? Are you harboring bitterness toward God over a desire in your heart that has been unfulfilled for years? Let me encourage you to start praying about this matter right away.
James, the brother of Jesus, wrote to the early Christian church, “You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives” James 4:2-3, NIV. My mother used to say, “some prayer, some power, more prayer, more power, most prayer, most power.” When my mom prayed there was no doubt that God was bending down to listen.
Vada Hagee was a woman of unbelievable faith, and she taught me to pray at a very early age. She imprinted the understanding that men were created to be in constant communication with God. If you have not made it a daily habit to read your Bible and pray…today is the day to start.
Our life draws meaning, and we reach our divine destiny, by incorporating daily prayer into our lives. There is simply no substitute for prayer. God has so many amazing things waiting for you; it will blow your mind.
There is a great power that, when combined with prayer, has the ability to guide you personally into all truth. It has the power to heal sick bodies and break the chains of addictive habits that enslave even the best of us. This power brings peace to the tormented mind and unshakable hope to the brokenhearted.
This awesome and unlimited power is the person of the Holy Spirit of God.
When you invite the Holy Spirit into your prayer life you will immediately have access to unlimited power, equipping you to know what others cannot know, to say what others cannot say, and to do what others cannot do. These three things are accomplished through the gifts of the Holy Spirit which are available to every believer.
There is no greater weapon in this world than praying in the Spirit. Ephesians 6:18 tells us, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”
Start praying with and for every member of your family. Pray as a family. Lay hands on your children. Pray for them if they are adults and they no longer live with you. There is no distance in prayer. I pray for my grown children by name every morning. While I cannot always be with them, I know that God is. And when I pray, I know that He is watching over them. He will open doors for them that no man can shut. Don’t you want the same for your family members? All it takes is prayer.
God’s provisions are in God’s promises. God has promised every Holy Spirit filled person power over sickness and disease, power over demon spirits and witchcraft, power over principalities in the heavenlies for spiritual warfare. We have power to get wealth, power to speak with authority, power to have supernatural knowledge, and power to make Holy Spirit inspired proclamations of prophecy. The power of praise releases the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the power that shakes the gates of hell.
When you live according to the Spirit, you walk in Truth, you walk in peace, you walk in freedom, life, and righteousness as a child of God and an heir to His promises (see Romans 8:1-17).
Remember the reporter I mentioned earlier? A few years later, I returned to the area to preach another event. I was in the greenroom with my security before the service was to begin when a knock at the door drew my attention. My security detail communicated that there was a member of the press who wished to speak with me.
I told him I was not interested in giving an interview just before I went out to preach. The security guard relayed that this was not an interview request, but that I had prayed for this reporter and his wife to have a baby.
I agreed to see him.
The door opened and the first thing through the door was a baby buggy with two beautiful twin girls inside. Pushing the stroller was the newspaper reporter and his wife. The blank stares from two years prior were now replaced with ear-to-ear smiles.
Through my Holy Spirit-inspired prayer, they had discovered the power of God to do what they thought was impossible, and God delivered.
What is it in your life that you would like for God to do for you and your family? Why don’t you, right now, ask God to give you the thing in your life that you feel is impossible. Believe in
the God who believes in you!
Stop focusing on things that don’t matter and that lead to stress, anxiety, poor health, sleepless nights…and things that will never help you reach your full potential. God has already made a way for you where there seems to be no way. Let’s not settle for less!
How can we open up to the power of the Holy Spirit and, through Him, receive all of these blessed promises? “Repent” and “pray,” were the instructions that Peter gave to Simon (Acts
8:22). Not repent and PAY, rather repent and PRAY!
Is there sin in your house? Stop it. Repent. Move forward. You cannot prosper and thrive in this life while harboring sin. If you think it’s a secret sin, guess again. God sees. Purge sin from your life.
I want to challenge you to start praying in earnest for your family, and for our nation. We are in a place right now that is very dangerous for our children and our grandchildren. We
have defied God and discarded His truth for pop culture.
Personally, I would rather walk in God’s truth than be popular. God’s truth will open doors for you that no man can close. It will move mountains in a nanosecond. It will make a way where there seems to be no way. And it will bring you peace in the darkest hours.
CHILD OF GOD, SEEK
HIS FACE AND KNOW
THAT YOUR ANSWER
IS ON THE WAY!
