Thoughts for Life: #32 How to Recognize God's Prayer Assignment

Dr. Wesley L. Duewel- God may impress someone indelibly on your mind. This may happen at your prayer time or at some other time during the day. If you have told God of your willingness, and a person keeps coming to your mind, that person probably needs prayer.

This may happen only occasionally, but the more closely you walk with God and become attuned to His voice, the more frequently God will use you in this way. (Google image, Child praying)

You May feel a special presentiment or apprehension of danger or need. Go at once to the Lord. If at all possible, pause in the midst of whatever you are doing. As you pray, God may bring some person or situation to your mind.

If not, just pray for God's help and mercy for whatever the need may be. As I mentioned in chapter 9, (#26 Who Failed to Pray?),
God called me to prayer on one occasion when my parents were in danger, though I had no idea what the danger was.

On December 12, 1939, while praying about the outcome of World War II, I became especially burdened for a particular situation. The Graf Spee, a German merchantman that had been converted into a "pocket battleship," was sinking many merchant ships with much loss of life.

That night I felt God's special authority as I asked Him to intervene. The next day radio news announced that the Graf Spee had been chased into the harbor of Montevideo, Uruguay. After several days, the ship was brought outside the harbor and scuttled.

No life was lost except that of the commander, who chose to go down with the ship. God probably put the same prayer burden on the hearts of many others at the same time He gave me that burden. But I had the joy of knowing that God had called me to prayer alert and that He had specifically answered that prayer.

Mrs. Hulda Andrus, the mother of Corporal Jacob DeShazer, one of the men shot down in the Doolittle raids over Tokyo during World War II, has recounted how God burdened her to pray.

She did not know where her son was stationed.

"I awakened suddenly one night with a strange feeling like onto being dropped down, down, down through the air. Oh the terrible burden that weighed my soul! I prayed and cried out to God in my distress. Suddenly the burden was gone."

Later she was informed that he son had been shot down and was in Japanese hands. Comparing the time, she found God had alerted her at the exact time her son parachuted from his falling plane.

At another time, God gave her a great burden for the salvation of her son. Again, as she prevailed in prayer, God reminded her of the promise of Isaiah 55:9. At that very time God spoke to Jacob in his prison cell, and He surrendered his life to Christ.

One day the news reports announced that these prisoners were going to be executed. As she cried to God, He seemed to say, "his angels watch over him," and again the burden lifted. Of the four men captured, three were executed by a firing squad but DeShazer was spared through God's miracle. God not only saved her son, He called him to preach. After the war, DeShazer went back to Japan, where he was greatly used by God as a missionary.

God may give you a sense of urgency for a need you know well.
You may have prayed repeatedly for a particular need, but now you are impressed that God must answer prayer without further delay.

The prayer burden may be for a physical healing, the salvation of an unsaved person, the restoration of unity to a group of divided people, or revival in a particular place. God may keep a general burden on your heart for days and then at some point guide you to set apart a special time for prolonged urgent prayer.

One of the members of the Board of Directors of One Mission Society International had a backslidden son who had once been an One Mission Society International Missionary.

The son had left the field and gone into secular work, where he remained unrepentant and far from the Lord. Our leader carried a deep prayer burden for his son for some months. One day he was in deputational meetings in a distant state.

The prayer burden became so heavy that he asked his hostess not to disturb him that day or call him for meals. He shut himself in his room and prayed hour after hour.

In the afternoon there was a knock on the door. With apologies for interrupting him, she said, "There is a long distance call for you." The father went to the phone, and first words he heard were: "Dad! I've come back to the Lord!"

(Chapter 11, pp. 80-82, italics added for emphasis)

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Let's pray-

"Father, I approach the throne of grace with joyful confidence. The joy of the Lord is my strength! Lord, you are my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. Thank you for filling me with strength and protecting me wherever I go. I stagger not at the promise of God through unbelief; but I am strong in faith, giving glory to God—strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Jesus is Lord over my spirit, soul and body. Amen"

Germine Copeland

Prayers that avail much

Scriptures
Nehemiah 8:10
Psalm 18:2 (KJV)
Psalm 18:32 (Living)
Romans 4:20 (KJV)
Ephesians. 6:10 (NIV)

Today's Bible verses-

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NLT) “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”

Isaiah 55:9 (Amp) "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."

Today's quotes-

~ Oswald Chambers- "Turning intellectual faith into our personal possession is always a fight, not just sometimes. God brings us into particular circumstances to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make the object of our faith very real to us. Until we know Jesus, God is merely a concept, and we can’t have faith in Him.
But once we hear Jesus say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9) we immediately have something that is real, and our faith is limitless. Faith is the entire person in the right relationship with God through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ." From My Utmost for His Highest

~ Nancy Demary- "Let these days of offense be a new beginning in how you view life. God has the whole world in His Hands. Yet, He is looking for people who will respond to Him by interceding prayerfully and acting on His behalf in our world; every life is precious to Him. Will you? You can be a part of the solution, a hidden or visible part, a leavening part. Like the effects of yeast in making bread your life can be great in His Kingdom, by becoming a servant in it."

Today's popular post:

What God Thinks About Prayer

Samuel Chadwick- The thoughts of God are not as man's thoughts, neither are His ways as man's ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God's ways higher than man's ways and His thoughts than man's thoughts

Words of wisdom-

~ When we're asked by God to do something for Him, it's not about us and our ability, but about Him working in and through us. When doubts come that we are able, lets keep focused on Him Who is Able. May we get out of our comfort zones and start trusting Jesus, for it's not about us!

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