09-17-2018
Do you perform the work that Jesus left for us to do? Maybe you are doing so and don’t even know it. Do you go to help someone and pray for them along the way? Do you go to a soup kitchen and begin the evening with a prayer for all those that will come there that evening, and the meal they will receive? Do you visit someone in the hospital or pray over a sick friend? These are the works of Jesus... are you asking them in His name, and trusting in The Father to do them? I mean really trusting...
“"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
John 14:12-13 ESV
Last week I went with Phil and Pam, who are some very close friends, to the Hope House in Nashville, TN. Phil is a renowned singer/songwriter and Pam is a wonderful woman of faith. He was going to play for the cancer residents there while his wife, and other volunteers were serving a dinner they had prepared. I offered help in the kitchen but the ladies had that well under control, so being a cancer survivor myself, I walked around offering encouragement where I could. Then a local Pastor came forward and prayed that God would bless the evening, the meal, and the hands that prepared it. I can vouch for the fact that God did just that!
As the residents, many weak from chemotherapy and radiation treatments, ate, or at very least picked over their food, Phil and Greg, a newly signed country singer he had asked to join him for the evening, began to sing. They made an immediate impact, and sang a few country songs before Phil surprised me by introducing me, and telling everyone that he was going to sing a song that the two of us had written together. I knew the one he was going to perform... it was a song of hope and encouragement called “It’s a God Thing”, and as he sang the words the mood in the dining room changed. It became quiet, and he captured their attention and drew out their hope. Then, as he played the final notes, the room became loud again, and some wanted to know where they could get a copy of this song... the atmosphere had changed and over the next many minutes hymns and songs of faith were requested, as hands went up in praise, and voices joined in. God was answering the pastor’s prayer, and the two wonderful singers with their guitars had become His instruments.
As the show and dinner was wrapping up I was called on to come forward and pray a closing prayer. I stepped up, said a few words, and then prayed over all in the room... the volunteers, the night’s events, a blessing on the caregivers, and healing for all those undergoing treatment. Then as I always do I asked these things in the name of Jesus. The evening’s events were over, and while the tables were cleared, and the kitchen cleaned by the volunteers, cancer patients accompanied by their caregivers began to come forward and thank me for praying for them... God was doing what Jesus had promised in John 14:13.
Do you ask God to perform miracles in the name of Jesus? Do you recognize them when He does? Do you give Him glory as a result, and thank Him for what He has done, or is your prayer comprised of a few nice words, and the obligatory “in Jesus name” at the end? So often our prayers, and especially our corporate prayers that we pray before a group, are performa. We say them without truly praying them. Have you ever done this? Have you ever taken an opportunity to lift people and events up in earnest prayer as being something routine? Each prayer of a faithful person carries weight...
“But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.”
James 1:6 ESV
Each prayer of a righteous person contains power...
“And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”
James 5:15-16 ESV
Our corporate words matter... your personal words matter... God hears them as we pray them, and He also hears them when we are just saying them. PRAY your prayers, and ask them sincerely in the name of Jesus Christ because that opportunity to lift them up will never come again. You might say thanks for thousands of meals, but that meal, and that moment will never come again... PRAY! You might say them for hundreds of cancer patients, but that sick person, and that instant in their life will never come again... PRAY! Pray for God to bless, pray your thanks, pray for the healings, pray for the blessings, pray for the strength of faith to believe and trust that God will answer. Pray knowing that this moment, and this prayer have been given to you, and that just saying the words is disobedience to a call that only you can answer. PRAY!
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for prayer, and for all the opportunities you give me to lift up people, and situations before you in the name of Jesus Christ. There are many times when you place me in a moment, and afford me the opportunity to be your instrument of healing or other prayers... never let me treat that call, that will you have presented me, with disobedience. Lord, there are times when I am preoccupied, or tired, and it is tempting to just rattle off a few well known words, say “in Jesus name”, and be done with it, but in those times remind me to take a moment to prepare my heart, and approach you in fullness of faith and expectation. Every prayer has your power behind it, and calls on the name of Jesus to vouch for it... who am I to treat that as less than the most important event in my life at that moment? Who am I to think that the prayer for a child with a sniffle is less than a life saving prayer? Who am I to think that the blessing of a volunteer’s hands in a soup kitchen is trivial, and not a life changing event? Who am I to think that the opening of a Sunday School lesson will not be a momentous moment in someone’s life? Every prayer changes lives and events, and those I don’t pray make changes too... they relinquish what you have desired to what the world had in store... all because I disobeyed; I missed the opportunity you gave me. Help me Father to see the power in even the most routine prayer, and to understand that when you commanded me to pray without ceasing, you were calling on me to change the world around me to conform to your perfect will. Give me your eyes Holy Father, so that I can see each prayer I pray as you see them. Place me in your will, and let my voice be more than just words... but the prayer you would expect! You are the power in every prayer, and the name of Jesus is the key that unlocks your great miracles as we offer them. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who hears our prayers, and honors your promises. You are the God of compassion, and give all those of faith and righteousness a hand in altering the world as you would have it. Praised be your name for all you do, and for the prayers you call us to pray, for the places you put us in, and the words on our tongues. Your will be done now and forever Merciful Father.
Rich Forbes