When someone asks you to pray,,,,

Greetings,

A few days ago I wrote about the power of prayer.  Now today I have a question for you.  When someone asks you to pray,,, do you stop what you are doing right then and pray immediately?  Or do you think, I will pray about this later?

I used to be the type that would think, I'll pray about it later.  Unfortunately, most times, later never came.  I let other things occupy my time first.  Essentially, the business of every day living usually got in the way.  Then I would forget and that would be it.  Gone, out of my mind forever!!

Then one day, I asked for prayer.  I got the usual answers of, "yes, I will pray" and found myself wondering,,, 'will they really?'  'Will they get busy and forget?'  God had used this as a lesson for me.  Now, when someone asks me to pray, I immediately stop what I am doing and pray.  You know, prayer only takes a couple of minutes,,, but it does so much.  Just a couple of minutes is not going to take away from anything I need or want to get done.

Prayers don't have to be full of big fancy words, they just need to come from the heart.  God doesn't want us to change who we are or how we talk when we pray.  That would not be sincere. 

In this country the push is on to not allow public praying at all.  They have taken it out of our schools, they are trying to ban public praying altogether,,, but I will not stop!!  On facebook if someone puts out a prayer request,  perhaps for a sick loved one, or some other need,, I will respond with a prayer.  I will not just say, I am praying here if I am not sincerely praying.  I imagine someday, someone will have a complaint about my praying on facebook.  So be it.  I will still pray, complain all you want, it won't stop me.

I often get emails asking me to pray.  Not only do I pray right then but I type in my prayer in the reply email and send it back to them, they can rest assured I prayed.  There is no greater comfort or joy in times of trouble than to know without a doubt someone has prayed for you.

How do I know God really listens?  I have experienced it first hand both in times of trouble and in times of serious health concerns.  I told you about my experience while living in a tent and needing a vehicle.  Now let me tell you about one of my healings that I know without a doubt was the result of sincere, honest, faithful prayer.

This story, in depth would be a little gross so I will try to tame down the details and keep it short.

I had severe diarrhea for nearly 9 months.  Nothing would stop it.  The only thing that kept me from getting severely dehydrated is I drank gallons of water a day.  At that time, I was not aware of how to properly pray for healing.  I was scheduled to meet with a doctor who was going to do a colonoscopy on Monday.  It was like a preliminary meeting before the actual test.  My family doctor was convinced I had cancer due to the other tests I had had up to that point.  There was no doubt in her mind and the colonoscopy would show how bad it was.

The day before I was to meet with the doctor, I watched Pastor John Hagee on TV early that Sunday morning.  Everyone in the house was still asleep.  Pastor Hagee's sermon that Sunday was about faith prayer for healing.  It was a dynamic message!!  Most importantly to me, was how to pray in faith.  How to keep doubt out of your mind.  How to know that God wants to heal you, if you just ask in faith.

As I watched the program I was scribbling down every scripture he quoted. And reading in my bible at the same time.  What he was saying was true!!  At the end of the sermon, he asked those who needed healing to pray with him.  I did.  Then, again I prayed after the program was over with.  I prayed the way he showed us.  I prayed from the heart and I no longer had any doubt that I could and would be healed.

As I prayed, I began to tremble and cry uncontrollably.  I held my arms up, my hands raised towards heaven, welcoming the Holy Spirit to come into me and heal me.  I felt a presence like I had never felt before.  The palms of my hands tingled.  I knew right then and there I was healed.  Thank you Jesus, Thank you Jesus, I kept saying over and over again as I cried.

The diarrhea stopped immediately!!  The next day I got up and kept the appointment even though I no longer felt I needed it.  I drove the hour and a half to the doctor's office, not once stopping to use a rest room.  This in itself was a miracle to me as I had not been able to leave the house for months without knowing where every single bathroom was.

When I arrived at the doctor's I told the doctor I was healed by God and did not need the colonoscopy after all.  Of course he thought I was a nut job and insisted on doing it anyway.  Reluctantly I gave in and let him schedule the colonoscopy but told him he would not find anything wrong.  He said, "according to the medical report you probably have cancer.  We are going to find out."

So three days later I went in for the colonoscopy completely sure they would not find even a pallop.  After the test while I was in the recovery room the doctor walked in to give me the results.  He could not look me in the eye.  There was no cancer!  There were no pallops!!  He said, "there is a pink spot that shows something was there but it is healed."  There is nothing wrong!!

Even with that proof he still refused to acknowledge God healed me.  But I know He did!!!  I asked him, "now do you believe?"  His answer was, "well I don't know what happened here but I know something did."  Foolish man!!  The power of God is awesome!!  He is still on the throne!!  He is still in charge!!  And He is the Great Physician!!  Thank you Jesus!!!!

Until next time,,,, be blessed and don't forget to pray!!