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A Night I Won’t Forget

Last week marked a year since my husband and I spent a frightening evening in the ER with our oldest son. Tears still threaten when I recall the story. But wonder of wonders, I don’t look back on that night as a terrible memory. Grace made it one of my better ones. Because God showed up and taught me an unforgettable lesson about the power of prayer.

Distress Call

In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. Psalm 18:6

It’s the unexpected things that send us reeling. Extraordinary circumstances that reach into an ordinary day and make it anything but.

Like when a few hives decide they won’t respond to Benadryl. Or steroid shots. Or IV antihistamines.

And you watch those hives cover every ounce of your child and set his skin on fire. And he develops a fever. And he swells so much it takes two nurses and two technicians thirty minutes to find a place on his body where they can insert a needle to draw blood.

And you hear a doctor say words like, “He may have Steven Johnson’s Syndrome, which is very rare but very aggressive. If that’s what this is, we’ll be sending him out to Hopkins or Hershey for treatment.”

When a mother hears words like that, tears burn and threaten to fall. But they don’t. At least not right away. Because those eyes need to look into the eyes of her son and let him know it will be okay.

But when she slips into an empty room in the ER and shuts the door, that’s another story. There strength crumbles, and she gasps for oxygen.

At least that’s what I did. I cried out to my heavenly Father, begging for His breath.

The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Job 33:4

God has such beautiful ways of providing, dear one.

Like sending a friend and prayer partner to wrap me in her arms and let me know I am loved. And that I wasn’t fighting for my child alone.

She held my hands in that ER prayer closet and together we ran to the throne of grace.  Hearts merged and tears fell while prayers reached heaven on behalf of my son.

And heaven moved.

My heavenly Father answered with an amazing sense of peace. I felt it wash over me and settle. Fear had no place in that room. Only power. Love. And a mind at peace.

Then the Spirit swelled within me, stirring my heart to pray in a way I hadn’t before—with the authority of one who is seated with Christ in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). I prayed from my identity in Christ, as one who sits “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion” (Ephesians 1:21).

I told the destroyer he would not have my son. And he didn’t.

Spirit led prayer moves mountains when you pray from your position in Christ. #knowwhoyouare Click To Tweet

Sensing that this was a spiritual attack, I proclaimed that my son was covered by the blood of Jesus and I would not permit this enemy to advance any further. And the blisters and burns that follow a Steven Johnson’s diagnosis never came. Instead of two months in a burn unit, Austin returned to school in just three days.

Yes, dear one. Heaven moved.

The Glory of Suffering

Few things shake a parent like watching a child suffer. We do what we can to prevent it. And when suffering comes, we’ll do anything to end it.

But that isn’t what God did, beloved.

God surrendered Jesus—His only Son—to suffering.

Unfathomable. Ridiculous. True.

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. Isaiah 53:10 NIV

God chose suffering for Jesus. Willingly. His love for us compelled Him. His love for Jesus didn’t stop Him.  Jesus suffered, dear one, so that He could redeem ours.

He knew it wouldn’t end in death. No. Jesus’ suffering resulted in glory.

His.

And ours.

I cannot tell you how grateful I am for that unimaginable choice. Because Jesus’ suffering released the power of resurrection life.

For you. For me. For my son.

And regardless of how things appear or even how they play out in this life, when we are in Christ, death can’t win.

Because Jesus already won.

And sometimes we get to witness His resurrection power right here in the midst of our suffering. Like when doctors can’t explain what happened, but you know. Because you ran to the throne of grace and watched heaven win.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16

A Surprise Gift From a Sovereign God

“For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them; but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.” Proverbs 1:32-33 (ESV)

Do you ever wonder where God is? What He’s thinking? Why He isn’t doing more to stop the spread of evil in our generation?

We love to blame God when bad things happen. We accuse Him of not doing His job and failing to protect us. Our anxiety leads us to doubt His goodness while our hearts tremble with fear.

I’d like to ask you to consider something with me.

What if God isn’t responsible for the increase of evil we see occurring? What if the blame lies a little closer to home? What if, in fact, you and I see one with the power to change things on this earth every time we look in the mirror?

I know the thought seems preposterous. After all, what can we do? Maybe we need to remind ourselves of Jesus’ words in Mark 9:23.

“All things are possible for one who believes.”

All things remain possible for the believer, and the impossible becomes possible through prayer.

God’s been teaching me a few things about the power of prayer, dear one. You and I have a role in holding back the tide of darkness. You see, here on earth that’s not God’s job. He entrusted that job to His church.

Jesus spoke some powerful words to Peter in Matthew 16:18-19.

“… on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Do you see it, dear one? Christ’s Church holds the power to prevail against the gates of hell. We have been given authority to bind the powers of darkness and loose the will of God on this earth. The problem is, most of us have no idea how to do it.

We’re going to spend the next several weeks unwrapping the gift God gave us in prayer.

Perhaps that doesn’t excite you too much. I’ll be honest with you. For a long time, prayer didn’t excite me either. It felt more like a burden than a joy.

I knew I was supposed to pray, but I didn’t really understand the reasoning behind it. Perhaps your thoughts have echoed the questions mine raised. If God is sovereign and is going to do what He wants anyway, why do I need to pray? Why should I spend my time in prayer if I can’t really change anything?

I have good news for you, my friend. God’s Word answers those questions. And I pray that what we discover together about prayer will not only move you to pray, but make you excited about it too!

Let’s begin by asking God why we should pray. After all, Ephesians 1:11 teaches that God works all things according to the counsel of his will. Psalm 115:3 echoes that sentiment.

Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.

Scripture clearly paints God as a sovereign ruler that does exactly what He wants to do. The enemy often uses that truth to convince believers it does no good to pray. But what if God’s sovereign will provides the very reason we need to?

You see, God is the Creator and rightful Ruler of all things, but when He created this earth, He did something unthinkable.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:26

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He created man in His image, giving him a free will, and then He gave man the earth—not just to live on, but to rule over.

Think about the enormity of that statement. God chose to give man stewardship over His creation, entrusting it to his care. It pleased Him to give us a say in what happens here. And when God commits to something, He never goes back on His Word.

Check out what happened after God made the animals in Genesis 2:19.

Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.

The supreme Creator of those animals had every right to name them. Yet He chose to give that privilege to man because God had decided that earth would be his. Amazing.

Unfortunately, man didn’t keep his dominion for very long. A crafty serpent stole it and has been having his evil way on this earth ever since. I think it’s time we put an end to his reign.

You and I are about to learn how to claim the authority God intended for us and release the will of God through prayer. Are you ready to take back what the enemy stole and learn to release God’s blessing?

I hope so. As our opening scripture reveals, complacency only ends in our destruction.