Anger, Threats, Tears...and Coffee_. I'll never forget the day I saw her sitting on a bus bench, shaking with fury. She was soaking wet with perspiration and tears and hadn't had a drop to drink in days. She was at the end of her rope, about to give up. Without a shred of doubt, I knew in that moment that without some kind of intervention, she would die. I had no idea then about the power of God's prayer—the next week when I sat down to pray for her, she didn't die. She simply began to pray. She had never prayed before and had no idea that in her moment of desperation and shame and tears she could ask God for help. But it seemed as though just as God had opened the door for her deliverance, this amazing woman called Him forth on her behalf. Her salvation didn't come from her own understanding, but from a deeper understanding of the power of the power of God—the power of prayer. And it didn't take a lot of fancy theological words to convince this self-reliant woman that there is something greater than ourselves in this world.
It seems we may do a little of this—just praying as we would in the shower or while we're watching our favorite show—only to receive an answer when we really need it, and don't have the words to pray that answer into existence. When I started to really pray with people I worked with, some prayed for things that seemed so outlandish, you would have thought they didn't believe in God, yet those prayers were answered.
I was at a concert one night and the band wanted to have a prayer session, and they asked me to lead it. So as a bunch of young people (ages 15–18) were getting on the stage in their "rock star" attire, all of a sudden I start praying over them—a bunch of 15-year-olds at the height of adolescence. I start praying that their hair doesn't get curly; I pray that they're saved; and I pray that everything goes good for them that night. Then a thought comes to mind: _Is there any way God could answer all that and yet not answer the requests of those people who are actually in need of healing?_ I wasn't sure if God was listening to the requests of the concertgoers, or if they were just having fun being rebellious. So we prayed over the crowd and then I turned to a young man who wasn't laughing and found out he had just been diagnosed with cancer and was going to have surgery the next day. He was very scared and was a young man of faith. Later he would get saved in a very dramatic way. This may have been an instance of God answering prayers other than his own, but I believe this man was also part of God's answer to our prayer for him. Sometimes all you need is one person to go home changed. And there is no real need for explanation as to how or why it is happening—just know that it is happening.
Our lives are really too complex and intertwined for us to think that we are the only one who can do what we believe in or what we are capable of doing. Sometimes we just need a special set of prayers, if you will, that will be delivered through someone else. So, don't ever doubt the value of prayer. I believe the very first thing God created was prayer. It's what God does—how He speaks to us through other people.
We all know our strengths and weaknesses, and that's why prayer is so essential. Sometimes, while talking with a group of newfound friends, they confide that they "haven't been to church in a while," or "haven't been to church since college." I then tell them that it's not too late for them to start: no matter how long it's been since they've been to church, God is always listening. And for some it feels as though God has been listening for years, even if they don't even recognize it, or don't know what to do about it. All you need to do is ask Him to give you the strength to live life—and He will answer in a way that feels right and appropriate to you. You don't need to have to go through a "religious" phase or a phase of asking for miracles. The only questions that remain are: What is God speaking to your heart about? Are you going to listen?
Often the answer to life's tough questions can only come in a time of prayer. It takes faith to know we don't have the answers, and even more faith to believe that prayer is the only route to the solution. There are some things we just don't know or can't understand, and that is why there are so many people in this world who are in desperate need of prayer—maybe we could be the answer they are looking for. We need to start praying for others.
I pray about prayer. Sometimes when I'm feeling lonely, depressed or just plain sad, I get up and sing a song from church—something that is uplifting. I find that with it being my personal time of praise, I am a little more prepared to pray. And I actually feel better when I do pray. This in itself is the solution. I don't need a church in my home; I need the presence of God there. We all have something that keeps us from focusing on God, and it's time for us to find it and then put it in the trash. We all have to change.
As we all know, sometimes we get it wrong, and that's where we have to turn to God. We have to be willing to confess our failings, just like Jesus did, knowing he did it so we wouldn't go to hell.
**THE PROBLEM WITH PRAYER**
Even though I believe prayer works, it doesn't seem to work all the time. Some Christians believe that prayer is the key to every situation, while others think that it only helps if it's their prayer. There's a big difference between those who are desperate to make it happen and those who are desperate to figure out how to keep it from happening.
I once had a guy come into my office with a terrible story. He had just lost his job and was extremely upset, but I didn't want to encourage him, so I just prayed. There wasn't any real need for it. I was very honest with him, and I didn't know why he came to see me.
The first thing he said was, "I thought you were supposed to pray for me."
I then said, "I did, but that was your mistake."
He said, "I thought the only way you were going to help me was if you prayed for me."
The obvious question is, how do you get someone to talk to you if you are praying for them? You have to get them to talk to you in order for you to pray for them. If we were on speaking terms, and the person we were talking with knew we were praying for them, they would respond accordingly. Just like you ask a friend if they want anything, or if they want you to pray for them, or if they would like you to come over, and all of a sudden they are willing to do something, pray is the same way. God is very active in our lives and always there, when we look. He's the only reason we have to pray. If we stop and think, we will come to the realization that prayer works. It's the number-one tool of the saved.
**A POWERFUL REACTION**
When I saw Pastor Greg Laurie speak on _It's Supernatural!_ I watched the show and talked to my husband about how cool it was that a pastor actually prayed for things that were so unbelievable. I watched it twice and then went to see the DVD. That night I was so in awe of what God can do.
On September 11, 2001, I was sitting in my office waiting for my husband to return from a business meeting and was reading a newspaper when a picture caught my eye. On one side of the page was a picture of a man falling from the World Trade Center Tower, with smoke and flame everywhere, and the bottom was blown off the tower. On the opposite page of the newspaper was a picture of a man in a wheelchair saying, "Can I have a moment of silence?" A moment of silence for the people who were dead and for the people who were left there. How can God give us just a moment of silence?
The next morning I woke up to more images that were even more horrific than the picture I had seen the night before. Then another picture just hit me, and that was the one of a plane smashing into the second tower of the World Trade Center. I told my husband, and we both knew it was time to call people in prayer. We were called by everyone we knew that had friends and loved ones in New York, and we started to call names. We then noticed that a lot of the people we called in were people who weren't in the country, or who were in the country but not in New York. I was asked to go to a church and start praying for the people there who didn't even know what to do because a tragedy had befallen their congregation—who would take care of their children, who would buy them food, and who would tell them what happened when they called. At first I couldn't believe that this is how the prayer of faith started. So as we walked down the street, people had already begun their own prayer
