I am searching this morning for 'How to have a powerful prayer life'. First thing that comes to my mind is the powerful prayers that Jesus prayed and the results of those prayers. People were forgiven, they were healed of all types of diseases, they were raised from the dead, they had a new spiritual life. One man, as soon as he was told his sins were forgiven, was so relieved of his stressful situation, he seemed to be happy just to know that his sins were forgiven and then Jesus told him to rise, take up his bed and go home. He hadn't walked for years. Can you imagine the joy that he had knowing his sins were forgiven and then being able to walk home, the joy that his family must have had? It is hard to imagine such joy and just knowing that there is nothing between you and Jesus that would keep your prayers from being answered like that.
I remember a time when I was helping my husband lift a wood stove up on a hearth that he had made and a vertebrae popped in my lower back and instantly I had a swelling on my spine that was at least two inches across and red and I couldn't use my legs. To make a long story short, during the day time I was put on the couch in the family room and at night in my bed, to get back and forth between the rooms I had to have assistance and used crutches to swing my legs and someone to keep me from falling. I was on the couch for eleven days wondering about my life and what I was going to do in that situation. I was in traction to keep the pain down and on my back, and had plenty of time to consider my life and future life. God had me turn to Psalm 6 and it seemed to hit me square in my conscience. The whole chapter is only 10 verses long but the first few verses seemed to fit my situation. You can read the whole chapter but I will concentrate on the first four or five. This was David talking and it seemed to fit me perfectly.
Psalm 6 "O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger, neither chasten me in thine hot displeasure. Have mercy upon me O Lord, for I am weak; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed; but Thou O Lord, how long? Return O Lord, deliver my soul: O save me for Thy mercies sake. For in death there is no remembrance of thee; in the grave who shall give Thee thanks?
I read these words and contemplated them with my situation and the thought came to me that if this was to be my lot the rest of my life, then with God's help I could live with it. I would not turn my back on Him because of my condition. I was laying there thinking on this when I realized the pain in my spine was gone. I got out of the traction, I don't know how now, but I sat up, and then I stood up and I was in such shock that I fell back on the couch, my husband came in just about that time and I said, 'look, I can sit up, I can stand up, see what my spine looks like and the swelling and the redness was gone and all that was left was a little tiny dark mark where it had been. Talk about joy, I could walk again and am still walking and that was about forty years ago.
I don't know why God healed me, I am nothing special, and I didn't do anything special for Him to have mercy on me, except to accept His decision for me for the rest of my life. Now I am handicapped in that I can only stand for a little while without pain and walking with a cane or walker or hanging on to a grocery cart. My whole spine has been fractured twice and I shouldn't be walking but I am, I have a lot of pain now and then but I have learned to live with it. I went through a very stressful period in my life which caused a lot of stress, terrible stress and I was told that, that was what led to my condition of Osteoporosis, which is what has caused the breaking of my vertebrae and a broken hip and most of my ribs and some more than once. I have prayed for healing and am still praying for healing, but only if it is God's will.
I know that prayers can be a powerful means in our lives, to save others for God's kingdom and to heal our brokenness and right now I have been thinking about all this and the the verses came to my mind yesterday in Isaiah 59:1,2. "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins has hid His face from you that He cannot hear." I am praying every time I think of this that God will show me what is standing between Him and I in the way of my healing and of the salvation of those that I pray for each and every day.
I know that He has answered many prayers of mine just recently, but it's not enough, I want to be so close to God that I can see the answers before my time on this earth is up. Is that asking too much? I don't think so, He is a powerful God and His love for us is just as powerful and I know that the Holy Spirit takes our prayers to Jesus in a powerful way, and Jesus presents them to His Father in a powerful way too and so all in all our prayers are powerful because of who is handling them.
God is showing me some things that need improvement in my life and I am accepting each one and want to live for Him so that my prayers will be as powerful as is possible in this life. He has been so good to me, just recently He saved my life by impressing me to get to the emergency room and ask for a blood transfusion. I have never accepted transfusion before , but since that incident I have been feeling better and better and my blood count has risen higher than it's been in years, so I know He is helping me, I guess I am just impatient. I want so much to be well, so I can do so much more for Him but maybe I can do more for Him in this condition, I don't know.
I do know this, that I love Him and am seeking His guidance each and every day and to be filled with His Holy Spirit so that I will live close to Him and can hear Him speak to me even more than He has in the past. I never hear an audible voice but the impression in my mind will be so strong that I cannot ignore it. I believe this is one of His ways of leading us in His paths of righteousness and if we are following Him to the best of our knowledge, we can be sure that the nudges we get are from Him and He is leading us to His kingdom. I want to pray more powerful prayers, really powerful prayers, how about you? I know it is possible to receive definite answers from my own experience. I just want more of Him in my life. I hope my little testimony has helped some of you out there with your prayer life. It is so important, we can't have a real relationship with Him without it. Grandma Joan
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