PrayerBoard.net

Archive for the ‘Encouragement’ Category

Matthew 9:28-30  ²⁸When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”  ”Yes, Lord,” they replied.  ²⁹Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you”; ³⁰and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.”

Jesus ask these blind men, ”Do you believe that I am able to do this?” i.e. restore their sight. They said “Yes, Lord” And Jesus restored their sight! When we ask God to heal us, we really need to ask ourselves, do we believe Jesus can heal us of this sickness or answer our pray on something? It is not just saying yes we believe. We need to persevere in believing and building the faith to receive Jesus’ healing.  The bible says

Romans 10:17 – ¹⁷Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, help me grow my faith and believe so that I can see your power of healing. In Jesus’ Name Amen

Titus 1:2 – ²a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time,

Hebrews 6:17,18 –¹⁷Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. ¹⁸God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.

Numbers 23:19 – ¹⁹ God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

God does not lie. Sometimes when we have to wait for the answer from God or the answer is no, Satan may cast doubts in our mind that God will not honor on His promises. That is a lie from Satan. If God gives you a promise; it will come to pass. It will be in His perfect timing even if you have to wait for the right time to receive the promise and it will work for good to those who love Him. That is the promise. I have shared about Abraham waiting 25 years for the promise to be fulfilled.

Romans 8:28 – ²⁸And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

I know sometimes it does not feel that it will be good for us or if God is there at all in our circumstance. We need to have faith on that. Don’t give up. Jesus said to His disciples as He taught them about the parable of the persistent widow

Luke 18:1 –  ¹Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

Prayer:
Dear Lord, continue to grow our faith in you Lord. We know You will not lie to us. You are the Lord God, creator of the heavens and the earth.  It is against your very nature to lie. I pray that you will strengthen us to keep the faith in your promises. I pray that you will strengthen us with patience and perseverance to wait for your answer and not give up. In Jesus’ precious Name. Amen

When we pray to God, God will answer Yes No or Wait to our prayers. Find out more on the topic in the Effective Prayer tab under the heading Yes No Wait 

 God Bless

Ben

(Share this: Be a blessing to someone who can benefit from this today)

In PrayerBoard.net we share many encouraging verses of God’s promises to hear and answer our prayers. However, the reality is not all prayers  are answered Yes. There will be No or Wait answers from God. I have a section to cover key aspects of  Yes No Wait answers. Please go to this section in Effective Prayer tab to find out more.

The intent of this post is to specifically cover the situation when we ask God for healing and it does not come, i.e. God did not heal us; and we ask “why is this so? What’s next for us then?” It is a difficult question to find an answer to and I don’t claim to have all the answers but what I share I hope will be a foundation to finding the answers from God.  

 Firstly, we need to understand that God is our Father in Heaven and has the power to do heal any illnesses or restore any accident victim from deformity or infirmity because He is God. Nothing is too hard for Him. The question is “is it part of His plan? “

Jeremiah 32:27– ²⁷ “I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?

I want to be clear that God does not make us fall into sickness or cause us to have an accident. It is caused by our sins and sometimes inter-generation curses. Satan introduced a thorn into Paul’s flesh and it is God’s decision not to remove the thorn from Paul’s flesh. As we all know, God has a higher plan for Paul.

James 1:13-14 -- ¹³When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.

2 Corinthians 12:7- ⁷To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

Secondly; His ways are higher than ours: It may be hard in the midst of severe sickness and our judgement may be clouded; however, I encourage us to hold fast to what God has promised in Romans 8:28. We need to have faith in that.

Isaiah 55:8-9 --  ⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.  ⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts

Paul, the apostle prayed to God to remove a thorn in his flesh. We don’t know what is the thorn in his flesh is but it must be bothering him as he asked God three times. However, God said “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

2 Corinthians 12:8-10 - ⁸Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

In the following three true stories, is a testament of God’s grace and power!.

I have heard a touching testimony of a faithful Christian lady in my Church. She was struck with cancer and she suffered much from her treatment. Her family members were not Christians and I can imagine they maybe asking “how can her Christian God  allow this to happen to her!” Regardless of the pain she suffered during the chemo therapy, she continued to go to our Church’s Miracle services every Saturday faithfully. Her non-Christian family members will take turns to bring her to Church as it was not safe for her to go herself. This went on for some time. In the end, all that praying did not help and she succumbs to the cancer. She passed on to be with the Lord. As a result of her illness, her family members accompanying her to Church over the months began to understand who Christ is. After her passing, her family members continued to attend Miracle Service and after a while all became Christians and testified of God’s goodness and grace to their sister. Amen.

I don’t profess that this happens every time, like what the Words says, we need to trust and not loose heart that God has a higher plan.

 In another two testimonies where God did not heal or restore them; had a higher plan for them.

In one case, it is Joni Eareckson Tada, who at the age of 17 had an accident that left her a quadriplegic. And God in His mighty plan used her to touch many lives.

This is Joni and Friends website http://www.joniandfriends.org/  

In another testimony, Nick Vujicic, was born without limbs and how God used him mightily in his ministry of sharing inspiration and hope. 

This is Nick’s Life without Limbs website http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/index.php

So we need to hold firmly to our faith in God and not loose heart. As Nick said, it does not matter how many times you fall, the important question is “Are you going to finish strong?”

Hebrews 4:14-15 - ¹⁴Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. ¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.

I know when we are going through an illness ourselves we can be severely worn down and become very tired. For some period we had to take care of my father who suffered multiple strokes and became bedridden; it was very tiring to serve him. So if we are tired and feel burdened, Jesus invites us to find rest in Him.

Matthew 11:28, 29 – ²⁸“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

There will be times when we may even fear the unknown; we have this promise to cling to.

Isaiah 41:10 – ¹⁰ So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

This is not an easy topic to share but I pray that it will give us hope. Continue to pray for healing and not give up and wait on the Lord.

Luke 18:1 - ¹Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

I pray that in time, God will reveal His marvellous plans for your life. And in time when we meet our Father face to face we can declare like Paul

2 Timothy 4:7 -- ⁷I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

God Bless.

Ben

(Share this: Be a blessing to someone who can benefit from this today)

 Luke 7: 2-10 – ²There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. ³The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. ⁴When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, ⁵because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” ⁶So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. ⁷That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. ⁸For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”  ⁹When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” ¹⁰Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.

 Mark 6:1-6 -   ¹Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. ²When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles!  ³Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offence at him.  ⁴Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.” ⁵He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. ⁶And he was amazed at their lack of faith.

When we pray for healing, one very important ingredient is faith. In the two passages shared above, you will see two situations; in one situation Jesus did a powerful miracle of healing without seeing the sick servant; in another situation because of the lack of faith, even when Jesus was amongst them, he could not do miracles and was limited in his power to heal. The key thing I want to highlight is comments Jesus made on the level of faith (in bold) from the two passages. There is a correlation to the level of faith if we want God’s miraculous healing.   

Remember, what is faith? 

Hebrews 11:1 - ¹Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Then in another passage below; when you have faith in God, Jesus said -

Mark 11:22-24 –   ²²“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. ²³“I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. ²⁴Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

So we need to increase our faith. How then can we increase our faith?

Romans 10:17 – ¹⁷Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

And a good way to start is to read the four Gospels and see how Jesus heals the people who are in need. Please also review the Conditions for Prayer in the Effective Prayer tab to gain a better understanding the other ingredient for healing and answered prayers.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, I want to increase my faith in You Lord. I want to be like the centurion who had such great faith in you. My faith is now like a mustard seed; help me dear Lord to increase my faith so that I can see your power to heal and see you do great miracles when we submit your prayers to you. Thank you in Jesus’ Name Amen

(Share this: Be a blessing to someone who can benefit from this today)

Ephesians 3:20 – ²⁰Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,

Some times we may feel inadequate to do certain tasks or do not have confidence in taking certain tasks or responsibilities. This could in your job or school or even the Church. Here is an encouragement that God can empower us to do beyond what we think we can achieve.  So be encouraged and strive on; he will amaze you. Meditate on what it means by this phrase “according to his power that is at work within us,” and see how it can apply in your life.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, I want to seek your help in the things I need to do (list them). I pray that you will empower me to do immeasurably more than what I can achieve myself because you are the one whose power is at work in me. I pray that this is according to your will in my life. I pray this in Jesus Name Amen

(Share this: Be a blessing to someone who can benefit from this today)

Job 22:27 - ²⁷ You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows.

Here is the assurance when we pray to God, He will hear our prayers. Whether His answer would be yes, no or wait will depend on His will for us. Please review the conditions of prayer in the Effective Prayer tab.  

Prayer:

Dear Lord, thank you for the assurance that you will hear our prayers. I pray that I will be asking according to your will. I pray for the following items (List the items).  I pray all this in Jesus’ Name Amen.

(Share this: Be a blessing to someone who can benefit from this today)

1 John 4:4 – ⁴You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

1 Corinthians 3:16,17 – ¹⁶Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? ¹⁷If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

We are children of God; we are assured that Jesus who is in us in greater than Satan who is in the world.  In another verse it states, we are God’s temple and the Holy Spirit lives in us; if anyone harms us, God will destroy them. This is such encouragement that we are God’s temple; God is in us and with us. So do not be afraid, we have a powerful saviour in us and Satan cannot harm us. We need to hold fast this assurance and continue to be close to God.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, thank you for your sacrifice and love. I thank you for being my God, and that you have overcome the one who is in the world. I pray that your protection is upon me and my family and that I can do your will in my life victoriously. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

(Share this: Be a blessing to someone who can benefit from this today)