Mark 11:24 ‘What things so ever you desire when you pray believe that you receive them and you shall have them’
DAILY READING Acts 19:1-20; Judges 10:1-11:33; Job 39
John Alexander Dowie was one of the greatest preachers used by God in the last century. He was a Scottish evangelist and great preacher who ministered in Australia and the United States with miracles, signs and wonders. However, during his ministry Dowie faced several oppositions from the media. On January 1, 1904, Dr. Dowie with a party of several of his associates boarded a train to begin a planned tour. When they got to California, some reporters also boarded the train and informed Dowie’s people that a severe drought had come to Southern California, and no rain had fallen for eighth months. The reporters challenged Dowie to pray for rain pointing out that Elijah of the Bible prayed for rain after three and a half years of drought and his prayer was answered.
Through out his brief stay in the city, the newspapers kept challenging Dr. Dowie to pray for rain . When Dr Dowie went to preach at a Pavilion on a Sunday afternoon the place was crowded. As he preached there was tension in the audience, it seemed the newspapers had put Dr. Dowie in a spot with their taunting. When Dowie was about to close the service he knew he was in a tricky situation. If he prayed and no rain came, then he would seem to be an impostor, but if he refused to pray then that would show he was afraid. However Dr. Dowie understood the power of fervent prayer. And so as he was ending his preaching, he dropped on his knees behind the pulpit and began to call upon God. The audience followed his prayers with strained attention. Dowie in a deep heartfelt prayer, fervently called upon God to send rain over the distressed land just as He had done in the days of Elijah the Prophet.
As he finished his prayer, a little while later the sky began to grow dark with rain clouds. People looked at one another with wonder and awe. At that point Dr. Dowie led the people in a prayer of consecration to close the service, then he pronounced the benediction, and said, ‘Get to your homes quickly, for there is sound of abundance of rain.’ But he was too late, just as the multitude turned to go, rain began to fall in torrents.This incidence was widely reported, as a testimony of God’s miracle working power. And of course this answer to prayer shut up the mouth of the Newspapers and Naysayers.
James 5:17-18 says ‘Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.’
The prayer from the heart is the kind that releases tremendous power, which is dynamic in its working.
The Amplified Bible translates James 5:16: ‘The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].’
And when our prayer from the heart is combined with fasting, we are sure to succeed in arresting heaven’s attention. However, for effective prayer to come from your heart, your heart must first be loaded with The Word of God, because it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. When the chambers of your heart are loaded with the Word of God, as bullets are loaded in the chambers of a gun, when you pray your mouth becomes a trigger for signs and wonders. Therefore in this season of prayer, let us be deliberate to aim for results as we pray fervently from a heart loaded with The Word of God. Prayer indeed works. Prayer does change things, prayer does level mountains.
Mark 11:24 tells us ‘What things so ever you desire when you pray believe that you receive them and you shall have them’
This is the promise of God. Whatsoever you desire, is an open cheque. Therefore let us know in this season of prayer that we can believe God for the impossible. There is no situation God cannot turn around for us. Surely this year, everything will be swinging to our favour. Indeed it is our year of unending glory.
PRAYER: Lord, please grant me the grace to fill my heart with Your Word, and persevere in the place of prayer until my answer comes. Help me not to grow weary but to persist until I see my desired result in Jesus Name. .
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Until you cry out in the place of prayer certain things won’t happen