One thing I learned through my life is that I have a wonderful Father who listens to me when I pray. When I was lonely, I prayed, and He was always there with me. In my teenage years, I prayed to pass my exams and excel in my studies, and God always heard my prayers and gave me success in school. As a young woman looking for jobs and going for interviews, I prayed and God always granted me favor and opened doors of employment for me.
Through life’s experiences, I came to know and trust in God’s faithfulness. I had witnessed many miracles in my life and could testify of all the times my Heavenly Father came to my rescue. So when I was faced with the situation of my children being sick, I knew that I can count on God to help me – even though in the world’s eyes, the situation seemed impossible. I remember crying daily at night, asking God to intervene. And when I went to church, I would go up to the altar and cry out to God.
Sometimes I didn’t have words to say, but I would cry and speak in tongues, resting on the promise of Romans 8:26: In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
I knew the situation with my children was a spiritual battle as they would do some strange things like scream at night and be unconscious for periods of time – you would call them by name and they wouldn’t respond. It was not easy - but like the woman in the Bible with the issue of blood, I pressed in and drew closer to god through every difficult period. I read the scripture verse where Jesus told His disciples “But this kind doesn't go out except by prayer and fasting”. I knew only God could pull them out from this force. But it was years later that I saw breakthrough to my prayers; I saw strongholds being loosed and broken. By faith I started to do the impossible - like talking with my twins and getting them involved in all kinds of social activities, like music and sports. There was not a single day that they didn’t have anything to do. I was determined to help them find their strength. I knew the word of God was more powerful than my spoken words - so I spoke the word of God to them and over them. Every night, I got my sons to sing songs of worship with me and then we would pray together. Initially, they would repeat what I said – but slowly by slowly, they started praying using their own words. I also enrolled them in church concerts and other activities – something that has seemed impossible at some point was now possible by the grace of God.
So what have I learned in my prayer journey?
Sometimes our prayers suffer because our vision is so small.
We all have mountains of difficulty in our lives.
One major part of seeing the mountains move in your life is having the courage to speak to the mountain because you believe that God is able to cast it into the sea.
Because God is God, we can be assured that He is at work answering our prayers even before we pray.
So I want to encourage you: if you are stuck in any situation in life, always remember that having faith in God, praying to God, and speaking to your mountains can cause your problems to be moved out of your way.
When we pray, we should:
Pray for something definite
Earnestly desire it
Not question God’s ability
Persevere in prayer
Add works to our faith
God always answers prayers prayed in faith. “Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart.” Mark 11:22,23 (NLT)