Recently I was hospitalized. My friends asked my church to pray, which they did. I ended up spending only 3 nights in the hospital. But beginning the first night God sent someone to me, a tech, who was intensely spiritually hungry. In fact, I have rarely seen anyone that obviously hungry. She stayed in the room 20-30 minutes and kept me talking about the Word and spiritual matters. After I came home there were other opportunities to minister to others, especially on the phone. I couldn't believe the words that were coming out of my mouth. I wanted to thank everyone who prayed for me as well as letting you know the results. The account below tells about the first time I learned about "What happens if we pray the wrong prayer". Enjoy!
Doing laundry is a part of life regardless of where or who you are. So, I went up to the laundromat at the KOA campground where we had parked our 32 foot trailer. To my amazement, one after the other, several women came up and spoke to me. Their faces and demeanor betrayed a great spiritual hunger. I was able to minister in some way to all who spoke to me. (These were Mormon women who were in Salt Lake to research their ancestors so that they could be baptized for them.) Puzzled, I wondered if all of these opening resulted from some recent increase in prayer on my part. Why this sudden rush of opportunities to share Jesus? That day, when my husband had finished his day he shared with me that he had stopped at a church and chatted with the pastor who then invited us to come and minister for a three-day weekend. And what a blessing those meetings were. What was happening?
We moved on from Salt Lake to the next stop on our itinerary and found mail waiting for us at the general post office. My sister handled our mail and would forward it according to our scheduled. She included was a letter from from her. Whe sounded greatly distressed and frightened about our well-being. It seems my brother in Seattle had received a phone call in the middle of the night from a crying women. He thought she said that she was "Mary" but he could never understand exactly what she was saying. Scared, he tried calling the police but they only asked him if he had a girlfriend named Mary! My sister had called her church which had--and still has--a 24/7 live prayer ministry going on. They began to pray in earnest for our safety asking God to protect us and turn around whatever terrible thing had happened.
We made some phone calls (no cell phones or personal computers in those days). After everyone was reassured that we were fine, we were left pondering about the whole matter. Finally, the "light" went on and we realized what had happened. God had taken all those prayers for our "protection" and safety into great open doors and freedom to minister to people for Him!! What a lesson this has been to me over the years. God knows whatever the need is and as people pray, even if it isn't exactly the "right" prayer it produces a surge of power and energy resulting in life.
Until next time... I hope to blog at least twice a month. Maybe more
