It Happened in PrayerShembull

You may wonder why I continue to say, “It happened in prayer,” as you read this Bible plan. As I mentioned on day one, I wanted to encourage you that God still answers our prayers by providing examples of how God answered prayers in the Bible. Additionally, it is to let you know that as you pray, God is already moving on your behalf; therefore, “it happened in prayer.”

I believe that the role of any good preacher or teacher is to inform you about what Jesus did, to show you what God can do while reminding you that it is already done. The finished work of the cross sealed the fact that we are fighting from victory and not for victory. Mark 11:24 tells us that when we pray, we are to believe that we have received what we prayed for, and it shall be. Therefore, we should approach prayer from a place of it is already done.

While I shared many examples of times when it happened in prayer from the Bible, I will leave you with a personal testimony. I remember having the opportunity to lead the opening prayer at a Christian conference. During the prayer, I prayed that God would heal and began to list several types of diseases and pains. One of which I prayed for was back pain.

At the end of the conference, a person came up to me and said, “I don’t know if you remember this, but while you were praying, you called out back pain. I had been dealing with back pain all week, but when you called it out in prayer, I noticed the pain was gone.” It happened in prayer.

Another time a group of friends were praying with people in the park when a lady who was diagnosed with cancer stopped and received prayer. A few months later, we were back in the park when the lady stopped by to share that she was now cancer-free and didn’t have to have the surgery they originally planned. At the same time she stopped, another lady happened to be walking by who had recently received a cancer diagnosis. We shared the first lady’s testimony of being healed from cancer after praying with her and proceeded to pray for the second lady. A few months later, the second lady came back to the park and told us that she was also now cancer-free. It happened in prayer.

I believe that these accounts serve as testimony to the power of prayer. What hasn’t happened because we haven’t thought to call it out in prayer? Who isn’t saved because we haven’t prayed for them? I encourage you not to minimize the power of prayer and to have full confidence that what you have prayed shall come to pass. The prayers of the righteous (whose way of thinking, feeling, and acting is wholly conformed to the will of God and who, therefore, needs no rectification in the heart or life) avail much.

Prayer: Lord, help me believe that what I pray shall come to pass according to your will. Help me to pray boldly because you are bigger than any circumstance or disease. I choose to trust your will and my testimony will be that it happened in prayer. In Jesus name, amen.