Partnering With God

I suddenly woke up in the middle of the night and, for some reason, felt compelled to check the clock which said 2:38 am.

I immediately remembered something I had been taught that sometimes it is God who wakes you up in the middle of the night. To find out if it’s Him, I should ask Jesus what He wants me to pray for.

So I did. 

I instantly thought of my parents.

As I laid there, I began to pray for them in all sorts of ways. Right before I finished, I had a strong desire to ask the Lord to keep them safe. I felt confident I was done praying for them and went back to sleep.

The next morning, my day started as usual and thought I would check in with my parents later. However, my mom beat me to it.

I asked her about her night and she said that around 2:30 that morning my dad thought someone was in the house and called 911. The police came, swept the house, the backyard, and left after they could not find anything suspicious. 

I sat there dumbfounded. Could this really be? The Lord knew exactly what my parents were going through and woke me up to pray for them?

I had heard stories of people feeling the need to pray for people at a very specific time, but I had never experienced that.

Now it was my turn? To partner with God in this way?

Ah! My relationship with God was coming alive.

I was so excited and this helped solidify what I had learned about my role as I partner with God and it also made what I had been reading come alive! 

Jesus asked me to intercede for my parents. 

God was using what I learned experientially. As a teacher myself, this was always my go to in my classroom so I could totally get on board with His style of teaching.

I told my mom about my night and the two of us sat there in shock. The God of the universe connected the two of us to that event at the exact moment in time that it was happening. 

My mom felt seen. Her scary issue had God’s hand all over it. 

As she filled me in on the details of the event and how she was praying, she kept expressing how thankful she was that I was praying with her from afar. She wasn’t alone. God had provided all that they needed and a community to support them in prayer.

I was in awe!

He chose me to pray for my parents and they were okay.

Both of our faiths increased that day. 

God is involved! He cares! 

Why Prayer

In my journey to learn more about God I was always drawn to Scripture. What does the Bible have to say about this topic?

I discovered that prayer is the most mentioned doctrine and practice in Scripture. The command to pray is found 250 times in the Bible and praying specific prayers is mentioned another 280 times.

As Christians we are to be like Jesus in every way. We are to strive to do what He did while he was on earth and continues to do.

“Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.”

Hebrews 7:25

If Jesus has been interceding for people for over 2000 years on our behalf, then we should do the same.

“God involves Himself in the affairs of Earth through humans, and prayer is one way that He does that. Though Scripture assures us God’s plans and purposes will ultimately be realized.”

Dutch Sheets, The Beginners Guide to Intercessory Prayer

Some might say that God could have taken care of my parents without my help. I completely agree. However, God, in His sovereignty, made a choice to limit himself in many ways and actions because God wants to work through us on earth. We are His chosen instruments to bring His love into this world. 

In a book I read on Intercessory prayer it says this, 

“But does the fact that He is sovereign mean He operates independently of us humans, always accomplishing His will, regardless of our actions? No!…God’s plan of intercession is to work on earth with and through us, not independently of us. He honors this decision in every way. Even the incredible task of spreading the Good news of salvation requires our involvement.” 

Dutch Sheets, The Beginners Guide to Intercessory Prayer

Where Is This Idea Found In Scripture

Each of the examples below clearly point out the need for prayer and obedience in order for people to experience God’s will. He wants us to have each one of these promises; however, God doesn’t want to work independently of us, but He wants to work with and through His people.

• 2 Chronicles 7:14 – Healing of a nation
• Matthew 6:10 – We are instructed to release God’s will on Earth
• Matthew 6:11 – We are instructed to pray for our daily bread 
• Matthew 9:37-38 – Tells us to ask for workers who will go into the harvest
• 2 Thessalonians 3:1 – Pray for God’s word to spread rapidly
• 1 John 1:9 – Forgiveness of sin

However, God doesn’t draw us into praying for others just because He wants us to serve Him. His first and BIGGEST goal for us is to strengthen our relationship with Him. He ultimately wants to draw us into greater intimacy AND THEN have us love on others because He first loved us.

I find that each time He asks me to pray for someone, I do it out of love for Him and I always get blown away if and when He reveals WHY he asked me to pray for a particular person at a specific time. 

He is a God that cares deeply for His children – you and me. He longs for us to experience Him and to know Him. Be expectant that He will move in your life and call you to pray for others. Be open to the idea and see what happens. 

I look forward to sharing more of my intercession stories with you.

Do you have an experience where God asked you to pray for someone? What happened? I would love to hear from you! 

You can reach out to me through the CONTACT page or leave a comment below.