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Prayer Works! |
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Testimonies of the power of
prayer are as old as prayer itself. The Bible gives many instances
of answered prayer. Sometimes it is a miraculous demonstration
of God's power, such as the supernatural occurrences surrounding
the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt in the days of Moses.
Others times it's subtle. In some of Jesus' healings he would
essentially say, "don't tell anyone".
God is still very much involved in our daily lives and He is
answering our prayers constantly. We so often don't understand
the answer. The truth that escapes us is that God's answer is
always His will for us and that will is always for us to become
one with Him. It's very mystical and difficult to comprehend.
But, isn't that just what Jesus prayed? "Father, I pray
that they may be one just as you and I are one".
We all glory in hearing amazing results of prayer. When told
of miraculous healings and conversions we take strength from
these demonstrations of God's power at work in our lives. Yet,
can the slow, steady and daily growth of maturing Christians
be any less amazing? If we look back at where we came from and
where we are now many of us clearly see the hand of God in it
all.
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Moses’
Escape
Do you know the story of Peter’s release
from jail in the Book of Acts? He’d been arrested and
tossed in prison, chained and guarded by 16 men. In the middle
of the night an angel appeared in his jail cell. The chains
fell off and he was led out of the prison, not knowing whether
it was real or a vision until he was outside (Acts
12:1-11).
Thanks to the power of prayer a missionary named Moses recently
escaped his captors. He was being held for ransom in the jungles
of Bangladesh and the terrorists treated him harshly and threatened
to kill him more than once. Moses was trained for missionary
work by Gospel for Asia and they had many who were praying for
his protection and release. One night while the guards were
asleep Moses was able to get away, but his escape was harrowing.
About the same time that I received an email with news that
Moses was free and in hiding (from Gospel
for Asia) I also received an email from a visitor to our
Living the Solution web site recounting how he had prayed for
Moses and been urged to do so in the middle of the night, even
when he wanted to back to sleep.
Norton Louw explains:
“I received a message saying that a missionary in Bangladesh
had been abducted by terrorists and taken deep into the jungle.
They demanded ransom money before they would release him.
The message requested that everybody should pray for him. As
soon as I received the message I prayed for him, but at 1 a.m.
in the morning the Holy Spirit urged me to pray again. I said
OK I will pray later when I get up, but the Spirit said; No
- now!
I got up and prayed. I prayed; "Lord remember when Peter
was in prison You let the soldiers who were guarding him, fall
asleep and Your angel came and freed Peter from prison. Lord,
let these terrorists fall into a deep sleep and send Your angel
to release your servant".
On June 11 I received the following message:
Just now we received good news about missionary Moses, who was
kidnapped May 19 by a terrorist group in Bangladesh. On the
night of June 9 he escaped after all eight men guarding him
fell asleep! Even with his hands tied behind his back, Moses
ran through the jungle. He does not know how many hours he ran
before he came to a road. Moses kept running until he reached
a town the next afternoon. There the Lord provided a safe place
where he is now taking refuge.
We want to thank all of you who so faithfully interceded for
Moses. Please continue to pray for him! Moses suffers from a
fever, and his whole body shivers from lack of food and being
exposed to the elements while in captivity. In spite of this,
Moses is joyous at what God has done. Keep praying for his protection,
however.
God is a wonderful God.
Your brother in Christ.
Norton Louw
You can read an update on Moses from Gospel of Asia here.
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Listen
for God
You may get emails from time-to-time that
speak of God doing wonderful things. As believers, we know that
God does indeed answer prayers. Some of these emails are impossible
to verify. Nevertheless, this one has a great story. We don't
know who it originally came from, but we hope you enjoy it.
A young man had been to a Wednesday night Bible study. The pastor
had shared about listening to God and obeying the Lord's voice.
The young man couldn't help but wonder, "Does God still
speak to people?"
After service, he went out with some friends for coffee and
pie and they discussed the message. Several different ones talked
about how God had led them in different ways. It was about ten
o'clock when the young man started driving home. Sitting in
his car, he just began to pray,
"God...If you still speak to people speak to me. I will
listen. I will do my best to obey." As he drove down the
main street of his town, he had the strangest thought to stop
and buy a gallon of milk. He shook his head and said out loud,
"God is that you?" He didn't get a reply and started
on toward home. But again, the thought, buy a gallon of milk.
The young man thought about Samuel and how he didn't recognize
the voice of God, and how little Samuel ran to Eli.
"Okay, God, in case that is you, I will buy the milk."
It didn't seem like too hard a test of obedience. He could always
use the milk. He stopped and purchased the gallon of milk and
started off toward home. As he passed Seventh Street, he again
felt the urge, "Turn down that street." This is crazy
he thought and drove on past the intersection." Again,
he felt that he should turn down Seventh Street.
At the next intersection, he turned back and headed down Seventh.
Half jokingly, he said out loud, "Okay, God I will."
He drove several blocks, when suddenly, he felt like he should
stop. He pulled over to the curb and looked around. He was in
a semi-commercial area of town.
It wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst of neighborhoods
either. The businesses were closed and most of the houses looked
dark like the people were already in bed. Again, he sensed something,
"Go and give the milk to the people in the house across
the street."
The young man looked at the house. It was dark and it looked
like the people were either gone or they were already asleep.
He started to open the door and then sat back in the car seat.
"Lord, this is insane. Those people are asleep and if I
wake them up, they are going to be mad and I will look stupid."
Again, he felt like he should go and give them the milk. Finally,
he opened the door. "Okay God, if this is you, I will go
to the door and I will give them the milk. If you want me to
look like a crazy person, okay. I want to be obedient. I guess
that will count for something but if they don't answer right
away, I am out of here.
He walked across the street and rang the bell. He could hear
some noise inside. A man's voice yelled out, "Who is it?
What do you want?" Then the door opened before the young
man could get away. The man was standing there in his jeans
and a t-shirt. He looked like he just got out of bed. He had
a strange look on his face and he didn't seem too happy to have
a stranger standing on his doorstep.
"What is it?" The young man thrust out the gallon
of milk. "Here I brought this to you." The man took
the milk and rushed down the hallway, speaking loudly in Spanish.
Then from down the hall came a woman carrying the milk toward
the kitchen. The man was following her holding a baby. The baby
was crying. The man had tears streaming down his face. The man
began speaking and half-crying, "We were just praying.
We had some big bills this month and we ran out of money. We
didn't have any milk for our baby. I was just praying and asking
God to show me how to get some milk."
His wife in the kitchen yelled out, "I asked him to send
an Angel with some milk. Are you an Angel?" The young man
reached into his wallet and pulled out all the money he had
on him and put it in the man's hand. He turned and walked back
toward his car and the tears were streaming down his face. He
knew that God still answers prayers.
"Stop telling God how big your storm is. Instead, tell
the storm how big your God is!"
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RECOMMENDED
READING:
We Can Pray
Why Pray?
Can We Talk?
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Share your inspiring
stories of prayer working. Send us an
email. We will keep you anonymous, but let us know
if it is ok to use your first name.
We would like to pray for you. Visit our prayer
requests page.
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Scripture taken from the Holy Bible,
NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.Copyright © 1973, 1978,
1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout
the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.
NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks
of International Bible Society. Use of either trademark for
the offering of goods or services requires the prior written
consent of International Bible Society.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible,
New Living Translation, copyright ©1996. Used by permission
of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189, USA. All
rights reserved.
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