Answered Prayer

A few week s ago I wrote a post about miracles – 3 miracles that had come back to mind from a period of time living in London. But last weekend I witnessed three more miracles!

I called it “answered prayer” though, not miracles. And I’m not quite sure why.

Is there a difference between answered prayer and miracles?

I want to share this to encourage you to continue praying, and also to glorify God for what He does in our everyday lives – because God is indeed so very faithful, so very active and so very good. He calls us to pray for one another, to pray about everything and to pray without ceasing.

God really does care about the little details in our lives and we really can, and should, take every little thing that concerns us, or others, to God in prayer. As we are reminded in Philippians 4 v 6-7,

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in EVERY situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the PEACE of God, which transcends understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus”.

Our hearts and minds and guarded, because we can completely trust God to make that “situation” fall in line with God’s plans and purposes. We can know peace, because we can trust Him.

Like all of us, there are many things that I pray about – personal, family, church, national, world-wide – sometimes more general prayers and sometimes more specific. Last week I was stirred to pray in a very visual way over a few issues. I think visually, so it seemed a helpful experience to pray this way too –

Firstly, I had been shown a picture of Person A’s leg, which had become terribly diseased, gangrenous, and they were afraid he would die, but were certain that if he lived he would lose the whole leg. Because I had seen this photograph, whilst praying I visualised God answering the prayer. I prayed for God to restore healthy circulation and to heal the leg completely and I visualised actually helping to massage life back into that solid black log, which is what the leg had appeared like in the photograph…

Person B, that I know, had been taken into hospital with a severe problem last week, and when praying for this one, I felt how frightened and alone she was feeling, so I prayed for healing, but I visualised giving her a very big hug and I asked God to give her a big hug, and to let her know how close He was to her, so she wouldn’t feel alone and would feel joy in this knowledge…

Person C, is a relative with anger issues that have got him into big trouble on a few occasions, and I had a call to say that he had been given a week’s notice from work, suddenly, and was on his way to see the boss. I prayed and visualised him taking deep breaths, calming right down and letting go of all the anger. I prayed that he would turn around and not visit the boss and that the boss would have a change of heart and God would turn this around…

I have prayed for many other people and situations, but I describe these three, because over a period of less than 24 hours at the weekend, I heard news of how God has answered these prayers.

On Saturday night, in a video call with a relative of Person A , I asked how A was and if he now has circulation back in his leg. She told me that he had nearly died, but recovered and has now been sent home and will not have to lose his leg! Praise and thanks and glory to God, for this answer to prayer, for this miracle of mercy and restoration. God is so good. I was so excited and happy and encouraged.

Now I am praying that he will acknowledge that it was God who saved his life and will come to know God as his eternal Saviour.

On Sunday morning, towards the end of church service, a brother shared that he had seen Person B in the hospital and she had been praising God who, she excitedly told him, had come to her in a dream and given her a big hug and a kiss!!!! Well, I was very excited and so thankful for that. Fancy coming to her in a dream. How ingenious God is! That has since encouraged me to pray for many people I would like to receive a revelation of God’s love – and a dream would be a wonderful way to do it!

Later on Sunday afternoon, I phoned to ask how it had gone with Person C. He had gone to see his boss, but had been calm and simply asked him why, had explained himself, and asked him to reconsider. The following day the boss told him he would lower his hourly rate slightly, but he will keep his job. God you are so faithful and so very good. I was so grateful and so excited again.

Honestly, I know that God answers prayer, but I was so encouraged and excited by such clear answers to prayer. In fact I was jumping and dancing with joy and phoned a few people to praise God with me for His care and love and power.

I have been encouraged to continue visualising and being specific in my prayers. I know that I am not twisting God’s arm, or making Him do something that is not on His heart, and I know it is nothing to do with me or even the way I am praying. I also know that others have been praying for these individuals too. And I know that God sees the bigger picture and that sometimes I pray for something and God does not answer it in the way that I had hoped. But I know that He hears me.

What has blessed me mostly, is that because I have been specific, I am able to see the answers to the prayers more clearly. It has taught me to be more intentional in my prayers, to write down specific prayers and to follow up how that person or situation is, so that I can really give thanks and glory to God.

Also it has encouraged me to follow up and to ask after people. Sometimes I pray for people when a request is made, or I see a need, but life takes over and I forget! I forget their need sometimes, if it is not mentioned again, or I forget when all is well again, that we even prayed.

I saw an image of the 10 lepers, all of whom were cleansed of the leprosy, but only one returned to thank Jesus – he was “made whole”.

Let’s remember to thank God continuously for the peace He gives us, knowing that we can bring EVERYTHING to Him in prayer and that we can trust Him with the outcome. And let us remember to thank Him and give Him glory for all the answered prayers, for all His provision and blessings.

This is an attempt to depict the dream God gave me when He “extended His sceptre” to allow me to make my requests to Him. He welcomes us into His presence and we can bring our requests with confidence in the name of Jesus.