by John Wilson
Some might say “you
can't teach an old dog new tricks.” But at 67 years old I can clearly say the Lord
is patiently teaching me every day. Three years ago when Barbara's sister Pat
Stussie died from cancer after much medical and hospital time and much prayer
from our family and many friends at Apostles and beyond, I was mad at God and
confused about prayer. The Lord used my questions to open a window into prayer
and help me to discover what the Bible teaches us about prayer, what God's
promises are and how He wants us to pray.
With support from our
pastors and with some helpful teaching from Barbie Burgess and our prayer team
I have found incredible blessing from corporate, small group, family and
personal prayer. I have found peace, witnessed healing, been blessed through
praise and worship and rediscovered the Lord who created me and loves me.
I have also discovered
that while God wants to bless us through prayer, Satan wants to discourage us
and tempt us to question God and lead us on wrong paths. We need to be prepared
for the times we are tempted and challenged.
A great thing is coming
in about a week - the 7-7-7 prayer initiative created by Anne Graham Lotz In
the 7th month (July), for 7 days (July 1-7) we would pray, followed by 7 hours
of prayer and fasting on the 7th day (July 7).
The purpose of the 7-7-7
prayer imitative is:
- For God the Father to
restrain, protect, and deliver His people from the evil that has come into our
world.
- For God the Son to be
exalted, magnified, and glorified in His church, in our nation, and in our
lives.
- For God the Holy Spirit
to fall on us in a fresh way, compelling the church to repent of sin and our
nation to return to faith in the living God, resulting in a great national
spiritual awakening.
I’m inviting you to
partner with me and many others in Raleigh during the 7 days in July. Please access
the website - http://www.annegrahamlotz.com/events/urgent-call-to-prayer/. You
will receive a prayer written for each of the 7 days to help unite us in one
spirit and one voice as we cry out to God. Please be assured there is no other
agenda in this initiative. This is not about promoting anything or anyone. This
is all about calling God’s people together to pray, before it’s too late, and
judgment falls on our nation.
Have you ever experienced what felt like silence from heaven in response to your prayers? You pray and you pray and you pray, but God doesn’t seem to answer and situations don’t seem to improve. This all too common experience, for everyone who prays, has led many to believe that God must not be good or that God must not be powerful or perhaps even that God is not even really there. For many, continuing to pray when God doesn’t seem to answer begins to feel like the proverbial definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Usually this is a bad idea. However, this Sunday, we’re going to hear a story from Jesus where he calls us to be this kind of crazy in our prayer life. We hope you’ll come and join us on Sunday as we get permission from Jesus to get a little crazy.
