Last night the speaker at Gateway House of Prayer said that we don't pray enough. He had us spend 15 minutes praying for our unsaved friends and family. Immediately I started praying for my dad, which is kind of weird because I hate to say he's unsaved ... but really, is he walking with the Lord?
After years of praying for my dad I’ve become fed up with it and recently my grumble to the Lord has been "You know what, either heal him and transform him completely or ..." BUT LAST NIGHT I WAS CONVICTED OF HOW BACKWARD THAT IS! God is God and nothing is impossible for Him! Who am I to doubt the power of God to do anything? Especially when it’s something He desires even more than I do – like to see my pops transformed by the grace of God and for him to walk in victorious transformation.
This Sunday Andy Byrd spoke at the church I’ve been going to, and I’ve been soaring on the words the Lord spoke through him. He asked whether we think the angels in heaven ever experience insecurity around the presence of God. Do you think they question the plans He gives them? Maybe they look at your financial system and say, “Gee, God’s big but ______ money issues are bigger …” Or maybe they look at my dad and say, “God’s big, but Joe’s just too far gone …” NO ONE IS TOO FAR GONE! How could I give up on someone when God has never lost a battle? I think about how much I want to see my dad saved, and then how much more God must want it and weep on his behalf … and I can’t believe that I’d ever give up praying.
Something else that stuck out from Andy’s message: it is time for us to stop living by our circumstances and start ruling them! The Living God lives inside of us and we have more power in our little finger than all of hell – the only thing stopping us is ourselves!
God will have His people and He will not lose. As I prayed for my dad last night more revelation kept coming to me and I felt the urgency of praying for him, and for all of the other people I desperately desire to see walking intimately with the Lord! I wrote a list and then I had to stop because there are so many people on it. But I just kept coming back to Dad. And God kept encouraging me: Don’t believe these thoughts and fears of failure. That is the enemy’s plan to thwart what he knows will produce an unstoppable burning endurance in you Chelsea! And a fireball effect coming out of you and your dad’s life and your whole entire family. Do not give the enemy credit or open grounds to take that which does not belong to him.
Then I got a picture of my dad’s bedroom with an old army tent set up in it, almost like a whole camp. It reminded me of the ones I’d see at Civil War reenactments I went to with him when I was younger. At first I thought it was angels in the tents, but the more I thought about it there seemed to be enemy tents close by. Almost as if both sides were waiting and it was up to me to commit to the battle, to claim victory. There was also no ceiling/roof above his room, it was wide open to a bright starry sky. It seemed like God was saying that there is an OPEN HEAVEN above the life of my dad, and now is the time to pray without ceasing. (This might be the coolest clearest picture God's ever given me.)
Please join me in praying for my dad; and for all the ones you love that don’t YET know the Lord. Time in prayer for someone is never wasted. God cares about the one! He cares about YOU more than you know.
