Pray Bold II
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Read Part I HERE
Pray, Risk, Pray Harder
1 Kings 18:36-37 (NLT) At the usual time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, “O lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. O lord, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O lord, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.”
I said in our last post that often we don’t PRAY BOLD because we have never allowed ourselves to get into a situation where we REALLY need God to show up. Praying bold requires RISK. Elijah’s prayer is all the more bold because he is standing on Mt. Carmel in front of the leaders of Israel and 450 false prophets with an altar that has been doused with water three times and if God doesn’t answer in the next few seconds, he is going to be cut into little pieces! Nothing elicits bold prayers like getting yourself in a jam that only God can get you out. BOLD PRAYERS go hand in hand with BOLD RISKS for God.
1 Kings 18:38-39 (NLT) Immediately the fire of the lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench! And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, “The lord—he is God! Yes, the lord is God!”
Looking back on the greatest personal stories of answered prayer in my life, I’m amazed that so many times it was when I had felt the nudge of the Spirit to step way out on a limb for Him and I was absolutely in trouble if He didn’t come through. That will make you pray bold prayers! The Holy Spirit and I have some things in the works right now that scare me to death! Whether BOLD PRAYING or just terrified CRYING OUT best describes it, I can’t quite tell but I am knocking hard on heaven’s door right now!
What little nudge or perhaps giant push from the Holy Spirit have you been shrugging off because it seems foolish, scary, ridiculous, irresponsible, or maybe even “calling fire down from heaven” level absurd? Maybe God in His tender lovingkindness wants desperately to show you an astounding miracle if you will just trust, step out… and pray like crazy. Jump out of the boat! You might just find yourself walking on water…
I’ll never forget the time my wife and I needed to travel 800 miles to preach somewhere. We counted up our nickels and dimes and realized we had only enough gas money to travel 600 of the 800 miles and no money for food. We decided that we would head out anyway. We would fast and we would pray that our little car got the best gas mileage of it’s life or that God would give us a strong tailwind all the way. We prayed like crazy. But God didn’t do either. As our fuel light was blinking 600 miles in, we pulled over to a little truck stop in the middle of nowhere to use the restroom, lay hands on the car, and pray until God showed up. When I came out of the restroom I saw three rough looking men speaking to my wife and she looked concerned. I walked over and introduced myself. They asked us to sit down at a table in the diner with them and we reluctantly agreed. They began to ask about our ministry and it was then I realized we were both wearing matching ministry T-shirts. As we told them about what we were doing for the kingdom they became very excited. One of the men asked if we had eaten and could he buy us dinner. I said, “Oh, no thank you. We are fine.” I felt my wife kick me under the table. Of course, they knew nothing of our current situation. We talked a little longer and then we told them we had to get back on the road. As we stood to go, the same man reached into his pocket and handed me the exact amount of money we needed to get to our destination. He said he felt the Lord wanted Him to invest in what we were doing. We thanked him profusely, walked outside, and began to dance around the car praising God! That trip lead to over 1 million people hearing the gospel. To this day I half believe that those three men were really angels but I don’t know. All I know is God shows up when we PRAY BOLD, RISK BIG and PRAY HARDER.
[quote] “I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then you grow wings.” ― William Sloane Coffin Jr.[/quote]
[quote] “But God doesn’t call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn’t come through.” ― Francis Chan, Crazy Love[/quote]
Suggested Further Reading: Hudson Taylor: The Man Who Believed God by Marshall Broomhall>
See previous posts in this series
A big thank you to our dear friend and ministry partner, Shannon Arnold, for prompting this series…