I have always loved this scripture because it shows there are no “distance” limitations with God. There is also no “time” in the eternal realm because God always was and always will be.
There are many things that take place in the natural realm that are not bound by the natural realm. Prayer for example—defies all boundaries and is so supernatural that it cannot be explained. A prayer offered in your prayer closet that gets a response thousands of miles away is mind boggling. That is proof positive that prayer is not natural, but supernatural. God has put this phenomenal power in the hands of ordinary men and women.
I cannot explain how prayer works I can only tell you by my experiences, that it does work.
When I first started ministering, I functioned as an evangelist. Some Sundays I would be out and other Sundays I would be home. On one particular Sunday when I was to be at home, I felt impressed that the Lord wanted me to go to another city and minister there, because someone was in need. That city was about an hour or so away from my home.
I never question God as to what I am supposed to do when He tells me to go somewhere, I just go. After I arrive at my destination I just listen for His leading.
That particular Sunday morning after driving to this city I felt the Lord give me the name of the church. I was sure I heard His word clear enough to go directly to the church without out any help. However, after driving around for a while and not finding it, I became discouraged and thought I must have missed God altogether.
As I pulled my car back on the freeway and headed back towards home, I felt a rebuke from the Lord. I immediately turned my car around and drove back into town. I stopped at a little store and asked the clerk if he knew of this church. He said, “Oh yes, it is right down the street on the left, you cannot miss it.”
It was about 10:00 a.m. when I arrived at the church. However, the parking lot was empty. For some reason, discouragement began to set in again and I started to pull away. Then I felt a second rebuke from the Lord. I backed my car up, got out and started walking toward the front door of the church. At this point I was thinking…I am not leaving here today until God sends the person that I am supposed to minister to. As I was walking toward the front steps of the church I suddenly saw two little eyes peeking through the front door glass—and then the door opened.
A little elderly lady stepped out and said, “Sir we are not having services today.” Since I had just been rebuked twice by the Lord, I was not willing to make it a third time so I walked by her and said, “You are now.” When I said that, she began crying out loud and said, “I just had to be sure.” I said, “Sure of what?” She said, “Sure that you were he.” I said, “He who?” She said, “He who we have been praying for since five o’clock this morning.” I then said, “I am he.”
Still openly crying…she held my arm, took me to the front of the church, sat me down on a pew and said, “Do not leave. I will go and tell Poppa that you have arrived.”
A couple of minutes later I heard both of them coming down the hall crying out loud while thanking God for answering their prayers. Poppa stepped into the sanctuary and said (while wiping his tears and straightening his tie), “Momma said you had come.” He then said, “I asked the Lord, ‘Who did you send to us Lord?’ and He said, ‘Just call his name John.’” I walked over to him and said, “Hi, I am John.” He said, “God sent you here with a message for us didn’t He?” I said, “Yes.”
I told him and Momma to sit down and I began worshiping the Lord while waiting for Him to give me a prophetic word for them. After a little while the Spirit of the Lord began to come upon me and I looked at Poppa and said, “Stand up and receive your word.” While I was giving him the word of the Lord he raised his hands and began crying and said, “That word is of the Lord because Momma does not even know I was praying for that.” I then looked at Momma and said “Stand up Momma because the Lord has a word for you as well.” While I was giving her a prophetic word she also began to cry and said, “This is of the Lord because not even Poppa knew I was praying for that.”
When I finished ministering to them they followed me out to my car. As I drove away I saw them in my rearview mirror, arm in arm, waving goodbye to me.
A couple of years later I ran into an evangelist friend of mine who said, “I have been looking for you.” He went on to explain about a story he had heard while holding a revival recently. The pastor of this church, and his wife, said they had spent most of their life on the mission field. They came home to retire and after a while they felt God told them that He was not through with them yet. They found this church building that was for sale because the former church had built a new building. They rented the building, but they only had a few people who would come from time to time, but were not consistent because they worked shift work.
This couple became very discouraged after awhile and told the Lord that if He did not send them a prophetic word that Sunday, they were going to shut the church down.
They got up and began praying at 5:00 a.m. that morning, waiting for the Lord to send them His word. At 8:00 a.m. Momma began going and looking out the front door every few minutes to see if God had sent the word yet. She had just come back and looked out the front door when I got out of my car.
They told this story to the evangelist and said, “If that man would not have come that Sunday morning with the word of the Lord, we would have closed the doors of the church and shut down the ministry.” They said, “God sent a man and we do not know where he came from and we do not know where he went, we only know he was sent from God and we were to call his name John.”
My evangelist friend said, “I only know one man like that…were you the man?” I said, “Yes.” The evangelist told me the revival went great and the church was full. Thank God for people like Momma and Poppa who know how to pray and believe.
Father,
Help us to not only be more sensitive to Your voice for our sake, but also for the sake of others. Lord I know there are many who are praying right now for someone to come by with an encouraging word from You. Help us Father to be bold enough to risk being wrong for the sake of being right.
Amen
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.(Psalm 107:20 KJV)
Apostle John Dean Copyright 2009 All Rights Reserved
Alliance International Ministries