Prayer: There Is Power In Prayer

As I've been reading my book for SLI, Season's of Intercession by Frank Damazio, I got a little bored by it.  In fact I really, really didn't like the book, it seemed dry. And I told this to Bryce but he challenged me to look at the book with a different perspective.  Shortly after that, God challenged me to look at the book with a different perspective and to read the book expecting for God to speak to me through it.  Boy, oh boy, did that work.  I started reading it expecting to hear from God, and oh did I.  He really challenged me in the area of prayer. This is an area I've been asking God about for a while, "God teach me how to pray, for all my prayers feel like I'm saying the same thing over and over again."  And did He ever, but only through other people, ironically.

I was praying for someone else that He had put on my heart, and He got me really excited about praying for them.  It gave me a lot of energy and excitement.  He put the idea in my hear to ask all my Facebook friends if there was anything I could pray for them for.  And then pray for them.  I was quite pumped about this idea.  But I thought that I would sleep on the thought before acting on it, just incase it was another one of those impulse things that doesn't last.

In the morning, I had the same excitement, so I began by asking everyone of my Facebook friends that were online at the moment, how I could pray for them.  That gave me something to pray about on my way to church.  Since then, I've been checking Facebook at different times of the day and asking every new friend that is online at the moment how I can pray for them.  Only a portion of the people actually reply, but the ones that do I have the privilege to pray for.  I have a growing list of 50-100 people I'm praying for right now, just from the Facebook responses.

Some people ask me why I asked them, or what I'm doing and I Happily tell them, "I believe strongly int he power of prayer, and I would love to able to use that power (that the Holy Spirit has given me) to pray for you."

I've had a number of people open up with personal things (which I will not share) and some who have very specific prayer requests. I like these the best because it can show that the person is willing to open up to have this powerful prayer used in their lives.  Others just ask for the general prayer or something not too specific, which is okay too.  Prayer is powerful either way.

I have a growing list of note cards that I keep with me and every time I get a new prayer request, I put it on the blank, white side of a card, and add it to the pile.  Depending on the request, each card holds 1-5 different prayer requests.  Then when I have a bit of spare time or I am driving, I will just read the next request on the top card and pray, both in english and in Spirit.  I find it kind of humorous that Facebook has threatened me several times to restrict me from using Facebook Messaging because I've been using it so often and rapidly.

There is tremendous amount of power in prayer! I thoroughly believe that!  If you have any prayer request let me know and I would love to pray for you! Either comment or FB me or send me an email (joshua.baurer@gmail.com).  I would love to pray for you.

I love hearing the results of prayer too.  For example a friend asked me to pray that she would get a job at a job interview.  Right after the interview, she thanked me for the prayers, for she got the job.   I've also had some great encouragement that God is using me in more ways that I can see.  I asked a certain guy on Facebook if I could pray for him (a guy in my class in High School) and he said that he is an atheist, but he thinks that my prayers will help the people in Florida, Haiti and other's affected by the hurricane.  I replied and told him that I would be praying and shared a little word from God, that God had shared with me for him.  He replied back, saying, "You have always impressed me as someone who truly practices what he preaches.  You follow the teachings of Christ well, and for that I respect you regardless of my own personal beliefs."  That right there is so encouraging.  God is moving behind the scenes and is using me in His work.  Praise and Glory be to God!