Prayer Changes Things

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I have heard all my life that "Prayer changes

things.". And I have been proving that very

fact probably longer than you have been alive.

Yes prayer does change things. And by that

I mean more than your attitude toward the

situation or need. Though that might happen too.

It is my desire in this lens to share instances of things being changed by prayer, both from

the past and the present. Also to drop helpful hints or ideas regarding prayer.

Smart people like Webster tell us that to pray is to "1 : ENTREAT, IMPLORE - ".

To a simple old man like myself, that simply means "ask". But ask who or what?

There are people who will cut a tree down and whittle them out a god. Then they

ask this god for help. They get the same answer they would from a fence post.

While others will form them a god out of metal, such as gold. But when they ask

if for help, the answer is the same one they would get from a metal fence post.

There are those who pray to the "Devil" or some other spirit. And they may get

an answer. But the end result is their ultimate destruction because Satan and

all his evil spirits are out to destroy every thing God created - including you.

By pray I mean to God, the one who created the universe. The earth and every

thing in it including you. The one who gives you life and wants a personal

relationship with you. The God with which NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE.

But do you know God, or just about God? If you do not know God in a personal

way why should he respond? You might as well hop on your tricycle, ride it

frantically up and down in front of the white house tooting your squeeze horn.

Then expect the president to come out and grant your request.

However there is one prayer that God hears from those who have no relationship

with him. That is the sincere cry of a person as they turn from their own way to

God. When they call out to God to help and save them, giving themselves up to

him and .accepting his love that was poured out through Jesus Christ..

He hears and answers. A relationship is established with him and that person

becomes a brand new person.

PRAYER CHANGES THINGS.

My wife has a small house cleaning business.

She had just added a new client who has the prospect of being one of the better ones.

After only two cleaning sessions the lady of the house had one of her rings missing.

And it was a special ring. One that her husband gave her for their twenty fifth wedding

anniversary. (No. The picture above is my old ring, not hers.)

We can only imagine the thoughts that went through her mind. A new house cleaning

lady and the ring comes up missing. She of course called and talked to the wife.

She did not accuse the wife of taking it, but.... And the next house cleaning session

was cancelled. That was not good news.

By this time I was praying about the matter. My prayer of course was that the wife

would be vindicated, but also that it would be obvious that the God's hand was in

the matter of finding the ring.

At the next scheduled cleaning session the lady told my wife that the Lord woke her

up at two thirty in the morning and showed her where the ring was.

She wanted to put off checking it out until morning. But that was not to be. So at two

thirty in the morning she got up, went out of the house to the horse trailer. Then finding

the jacket that God showed her, she put her hand into the pocket He had shown her

- AND FOUND THE RING.

IS GOD GREAT OR WHAT?

TRUELY PRAYER CHANGES THINGS.

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inforrm.wordpress.com

lovefreedomtruth.com

articies.businessinsider.com

And perhaps some others too.

Many, many years ago (Back in the good old days.) I worked for a very

frugal employer. How ever he was a very good man to work for. I would

do it again. Those were the days before the employer had to pay you to

get out of bed, buy your bubble bath and hold your hand when you had

a gas pain.

I had been selected for jury duty. I wanted to be a good citizen, but definitely

could not afford the time off from work.

This called for some prayer. Some very serious prayer. To this day I can

remember where I got down on my knees before God and took the matter

to him in prayer.

The outcome. I was on the jury in a number of court cases. I had an

increase in appreciation for our judicial system. Our system has some serious

flaws - but it's the best in the world. Plus, my employer decided to be a

good citizen and pay for all my time on jury duty. Plus, he would not even

let me give him my jury pay to help pay him back.

Praise God. I came out with a refreshing time off the job and extra

pay for it.

PRAYER CHANGES THINGS.

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No. This one is not about me or anyone I know. You could say it is a historical character.

One taken from the Scriptures, the apostle Peter. I just love his predicament and the

outcome as an answer to prayer.

His situation. When people get serious with God things happen. Peter had been walking

close to God and telling people like it is. This makes everyone mad, both sinner and

pretended saint. Consequently Peter was in jail.

In jail Peter had been entrusted to four groups of four soldiers each to guard him. He has

been telling God's truth to people and nobody likes that. Very serious stuff. So these

sixteen soldier were to guard him with their very life.

"So Peter was kept in jail,

but the people of the church were praying

earnestly to God for him".

(Acts 12:5 GNB)

The night before Peter was to be put on trial God sent and angel who took Peter out.

The next day no one could find Peter at the jail. This resulted in the guards being

put to death because Peter "escaped". I always felt sorry for those guards.

PRAYER CHANGES THINGS

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In about 1872 Dr. Charles Cullis, M.D. gave this account.

"At this time I had under my professional care a

Christian lady, with a tumor which confined her almost

continuously to her bed in severe suffering. All

remedies were unavailing, and the only human hope

was the knife; but feeling in my own heart the power

of the promise, I one morning sat down by her beside,

and taking up the Bible, I read aloud God's promise

to his believing children: 'And the prayer of faith shall

save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if

he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.'

I then asked her if she would trust the Lord to

remove this tumor and restore her to health, and to

her missionary work, She replied, 'I have no particular

faith about it, but am willing to trust the Lord for it

I then knelt and anointed her with oil in the name

of the Lord, asking him to fulfill his own word. Soon

after I left, she got up and walked three miles. From

that time the tumor rapidly lessened, until all trace

of it at length disappeared.

Some time afterward, this lady gave testimony in

a public meeting to the cure wrought in her by the

prayer of faith,...".

PRAYER CHANGES THINGS

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William W. Patton, D.D., LL.D. in his book Prayer and its Remarkable Answers tells us,

"A man forty-two years old narrates how, from his youth up, he was addicted to

tobacco and, also, to liquor, and became a confirmed drunkard. A minister held

a prayer meeting at his house, and said that religion could cure all evil habits.

He says: 'The next morning I took out my tobacco, to take a chew, and thought

of what the minister had said, the night before. It was a new idea to me. I put the

tobacco in my pocket again, and said, 'I'll try it'. I was alone in my barn. I kneeled

down and asked God to remove the appetite from me. It was done. Glory to God!

I was cured. I felt it; I knew it then; I have never had a desire for it since;

there has been no hankering for it, or for strong drink, since. My sins were all

forgiven, and I was made a new man all over - inside and outside.

(p.305)

PRAYER CHANGES THINGS

I use ebay a lot when there is something that cannot be acquired locally,

or I do not want to pay the new price. As of now I have been using ebay

about seven years.

My habit is to keep track of the item I'm interested in. Then if the bidding

is to my liking, jump in at the last minute. If I win the bid, I want to pay as

soon as I win. Then I "Owe no one anything," and can forget the whole

process until the item shows up at my door step.

A recent purchase was not quite that simple, (Yes I had prayed about it. And

possibly, like yourself, it was more to get the Lord's permission than to

find his will.) After winning the bid I tried to pay. And tried to pay. And

tried to pay. The seller's system simply would not except my input.

What should have been about three clicks of a mouse and a password

had grown to forty-five minutes of frustration. (Yes, I'm an OLD man.)

I finally gave up in total exasperation.

Later in the day while burning trash I sat on a log and prayed even more

fervently. [ I did not want to be a person who buys, but does not pay.

That is bad for your feed back.]

The Lord put a thought in my mind. So I went up to the house,

pulled out the lap top, and tried the idea.

You know as well as I do what happened. First time it went right through.

I had been relying on my insights instead of properly acknowledging HIM.

We have a great, wonderful, loving God who wants to lead us aright if we

will trust him. Even old men with computers.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

and do not rely on your own insight.

In all your ways acknowledge him,

and he will make straight your paths."

(Proverbs 3:5,6 RSV)

PRAYER CHANGES THINGS

About a year ago lighting struck a tree just across the fence in the neighbors field.

It was a very large tree and split into three or four sections up and down the trunk.

Those of you who have cut wood know how dangerous this can be. No matter

what section you cut first, the weight can shift throwing the tree in an unexpected

direction. This tree was a potential "widow maker".

The neighbor tried to pull the tree down with a long chain and a large tractor. No luck.

That put me to praying. My prayer was that God would keep it from falling and ever

hurting anyone.

Several storms latter the top blew out of it one night. It came across the fence -

right between our old chicken coop and a small tree. Only two small limbs on

the little tree were broken, and nothing damaged on the chicken coop. And the

fence, only about fifteen minutes work once the tree was cleared.

PRAISE GOD for watching over everyone again. See why I keep praying?

It is because PRAYER CHANGES THINGS.

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All prayer is not just asking or begging God to do something for us. In fact

asking God to help us should only be a small part of our praying. We need

to come to God in prayer just to be with him. He wants that.

When God was here on earth in a fleshly body as Jesus, some of his

instructions about prayer were as follows.

"One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he had finished,

one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, just as John

taught his disciples.'

Jesus said to them, 'When you pray, say this:

Father: May your holy name be honored;

may your Kingdom come.

Give us day by day the food we need.

Forgive us our sins, for we forgive every one who does us wrong.

And do not bring us to hard testing.'"

(Luke 11:1-4 GNB)

Consider the various elements of this pray and include them in your praying.

PRAYER CHANGES THINGS

No. That is not the house they lived in, nor the reason the marriage

was destroyed. That is the house their kids used to play in.

After twenty some years of marriage, they had had enough.

One partner left. Moved out. It was done, over and finished.

And as far as that partner was concerned, irrevocably finished.

There was to be no chance of reconciliation.

BUT GOD.

Remember, nothing is impossible with God.

After I learned of this break up, I began to pray about the matter.

It was a family matter, and important to me. I do not know if any

one else, or how many might have been praying about this marriage.

But I prayed for about a year after learning of the break up.

A short time back, with out the help of anyone, God begin to work

in the life of both former marriage partners. Inside of a few weeks or

a month God did a miraculous work in both the husband and the wife.

And, they remarried.

Since then, I spent a week in their home with them. It was

like being with a couple of newly weds. (Well! they were.)

PRAYER CHANGES THINGS.

THE BATTLE OF SEMPACH

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As is typical, the historians do not all agree. Sort of like "scientist" who can't agree.

[Except, that they don't want God to interfere with them.] But it goes something like this.

On July 9, 1386, Leopold 111, Duke of Austria came with an army to attack the

old Swiss Confederacy. And the forces met at Sempach, Switzerland.

Duke Leopold 111 came with about 4000 cavalry and 1400 foot soldiers.

The Swiss, well they came with about 1300 peasants and shepherds.

I've read several accounts of the battle. The secular writers try to explain away the

outcome of the battle to any excuse they can find; such as, the heavy armor of the

Austrians or even their pointed shoes. But Stuart P. Garver, B.D. shares with us

what turned the battle.

"When the attack was about to be made, the Swiss struck up the old battle song;

'Though in the midst of life we be,

Snares of death surround us.'

Then they fell upon their knees and prayed with outstreched arms.

'Behold,' said one of the knights, 'they are begging for mercy.'

'Yes,' said another, 'they are begging for mercy, but not of us,

however, but of God, and what that means we shall soon discover.'"

And discover they did. The Swiss killed two thousand of them including

Duke Leopold 111.

The following year the Swiss built the "Battle Chapel" on the spot to commemorate

the victory God gave them in answer to prayer.

Again, PRAYER CHANGED THINGS.

HELP WHEN NEEDED

No, this is not the motorcycle I'm telling you about.

I gave that sucker away. But this motorcycle looks

about the same.

The fault was mine. Pride was my downfall. I bought

an old motorcycle from a friend. When it gave him a

problem, he had been unable to start it again. So I wanted

to be able, the next time I saw him, to casually tell him

I got it started.

It was in the shop. The gas tank was about half full.

I had turned the gas valve to "bypass" to allow the gas

to flow to the carburetors without the engine running.

I gave it a good dose of starting fluid. I know. I know.

But some times............. When I hit the starter it ground

over a while and backfired. That caught number 2

carburetor on fire.

Fire was coming up around the back of the gas tank - on

both sides. THAT'S NOT GOOD.

Grabbing a rag I tried to beat the fire out. That only fanned it.

I have blown carburetor fires out on cars numbers of times.

I really blew, HARD. All it did was singe my eye brows and

burn my lips.

I kept trying to beat the fire away from the tank while looking

for my fire extinguisher. Found it. Pulled the pin then pulled

the trigger. NOTHING. It had been setting too long.

Back to the futility of beating the fire away from the gas tank.

I was getting tire. Real tired.

I begin thinking about just pushing the motorcycle outside

and letting it burn up.

But, if I let it burn up in the ship, I would loose the shop.

If it did not get it out the door far enough, it would catch my

car on fire, and I would loose the car and the shop. If it

went too far over the edge of the driveway, it would go

down to the house and I would loose the house.

I'm exhausted. Still beating at the fire to keep the gas

tank from going up. I couldn't go much more.

I cried out, "Jesus, I need your help."

The fire immediately went out.

Jesus answers sincere prayer. And I pray because prayer

changes things.

I have a friend with an old motorcycle. Really, really old. We have been

patching on it for several years just to keep it going for him.

About a week ago I got a call from him. It was down again. (What's new?)

This time it was down at his mother's house, about 75 miles away. So,

hooking up the trailer, we went after it.

You know what happened. After setting it off the trailer, it fired right up.

Ran fairly good. But he made a mistake, he shut it off. And, it never started

again.

We worked most of the week trying to get it to start. It was getting fire. It

should. We put new points and condenser in it three weeks ago. The timing

light showed it firing . It was getting fuel, he check and rechecked

that, time and again. It had lots of compression. Timing was set at factory

specs, but it would not fire up again.

We were both at our wits end. We gave up not knowing what to do, well,

except pray. We are both praying men. Over the next couple of days we

both prayed about the matter.

God often answers in funny ways. In this case a "boat mechanic" kept

insisting to my friend that the condenser was the problem. He did not

care if it had a new one on it. The condenser was the problem.

Praise God for sending a boat mechanic along. I dug the old condenser

out of the trash. My friend put it on, and the bike is running fine. The

photo is of the "bad" new condenser.

Isn't God good? Prayer to him CHANGES THINGS.

Being tired of retirement, I have been volunteering help down at Fort Rock Christian Family

camp in Brashears, Arkansas. This is a camp built around the theme of an 1800's fort.

Naturally, this requires old stuff, such as this old cash register in the trading post.

Well, you know about "old stuff". So the old cash resister jammed up - with the cash inside,

They did the natural thing, ask an old man (Me - from the 1800's) to fix it.

I do not know a thing about cash registers. And very little about cash. So, all I could do was

start praying. You know, God help me.

They told me the top had to come off. With God's help I finally got the top off with out

breaking it. That's an answer to prayer right there. Oh! Boy. Was it ever full of things.

Leavers, rods, hanging stuff and gadgets. I could not figure anything out. Nothing would

move and everything stayed "stuck". So, more prayer.

While sliding it around on the counter, the bell rang, the cash drawer sprang open and

all the levers unstuck. Yes, I know. Some little something jiggled and moved letting it

all happened. But which one? Only God knows. And I thank him for jiggling it, or

what ever.

The last time I talked to them it was still working fine.

See why I pray. It is because PRAYER CHANGES THINGS.

"An Englishman reports that every man in his regiment carried with him

at all times a printed copy of the Ninety-first Psalm, which he prayed as

continuously as possible. Not one man was lost from that regiment in

four years of combat."

From:

God Can Heal You

by

Emily Gardiner Neal

Prayer even CHANGES THING in war.

It all started yesterday. Google would not let me into my blog. Google would not

accept my pass word. Even letting Google send a message to my email etc. would

not let me in. That is, this computer, my main computer.

I could get in to my blog through my lap top up at the house. I could get into to my

blog by using my pass word on either of the computers pictured on each side. But

this computer. NO! No way would Google let me in on this computer.

What is the proper thing to do then? PRAY. And pray some more.

Setting here all frustrated and praying, I felt like the Lord was telling me that the problem

might be in the keyboard. You have got to be kidding. The keyboard was working fine.

But, I switched it any way. BINGO.

Prayer changed things for me again. Thank you Jesus.

Links that can help you increase your understand of prayer.