Rescued from the Edge

This occurred June 6, 2011:

I had an interesting experience this morning and I decided to share it in hopes that it might encourage you.

God woke me up at 3:03 this morning and I was on the very edge of my bed. If I had moved even half an inch I would have fallen to the floor. (My bed sits pretty high so that would have been a hard fall.) This has never happened before. I am a very peaceful sleeper and wherever I fall asleep is right where I wake up so as I moved back to the middle of the bed I wondered, “How did I get here?” God began to show me that this is precisely how His grace works. Just when you’ve reached the edge and you feel you can’t take any more of the issues of life God’s grace steps in to rescue you from falling and He secures you and puts you in a place of safety.

This past week I felt like I was on the edge. There were things that I was hoping and praying for but they did not come to pass the way I thought they would and to be perfectly honest there were a few times that I felt forsaken…but God. There were days that I cried and cried because I was pursuing the will of God and felt like I was doing everything “right” and I wasn’t seeing results…but God.

What I’ve realized is that just because things don’t work out the way you planned doesn’t mean that they won’t work out. God has an infinitely better plan that anything we could come up with in our human thinking because “His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). God has limitless, unbounded wisdom and knowledge. He knows and sees things that we aren’t aware of and probably couldn’t even comprehend even if we were aware. We have to learn to submit to His authority, His will, and His way of doing things. If we’ve always got to have it our way then we might as well prepare to live in utter frustration.

 Frustration was the theme of my week last week because I kept trying to seek my will instead of submitting to God’s will and His divine plan for my life. Through experiencing these frustrations God reminded me of how much joy and peace I forfeit when I do not surrender to His will.

In order to be a victorious Christian we must know how to pray in a way that will render success. If you are frustrated and feel like you aren’t seeing results from your prayers you can easily start to lose your faith. The enemy will try to tell you that God’s not listening or that He doesn’t care but the devil is a liar and there is no truth in him. That is why it is so vital to learn how to pray properly. When you pray and you start seeing things come to pass it builds up your faith and you become an unstoppable force for the kingdom of God.

If we desire to see results and prayers answered we must pray in line with the will of God. God says in Isaiah 46:10 “My counsel shall stand and I will do all My pleasure and purpose.” If we pray in accordance with God’s purposes we will always see results.

So how can we ensure that we are in agreement with God’s will when we pray?

1)      Pray the Word of God

 Whatever is going on in your life find a scripture that supports what you are believing God for and speak it out loud. If you need healing pray I Peter 2:24, if you need peace pray John 14:27, and if you need provision pray Philippians 4:19. It is so important to pray God’s Word because we know that the angels hearken to the voice of God’s Word (Psalm 103:20) and God’s Word shall not return unto Him void but it shall accomplish that which He sent it for (Isaiah 55:11).

2)      Pray in the Holy Spirit

My pastor spoke yesterday on the importance of utilizing the Holy Spirit and how we sometimes forget that the Holy Spirit was sent to be our Helper. Jesus said in John 14:26 (AMP) “But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf], He will teach you all things.”  If you have not been baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues I encourage you to study what the Bible says about the gifts that come along with the indwelling of the Spirit and I pray that God will lead you to experiencing the full realm of what He has for you. I grew up Methodist and praying in the Spirit was never talked about in my church. I thank God for leading me to a church where the gifts of the Spirit were emphasized. I received the Baptist of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues in 2006 and my life has never been the same!

If you have been filled with the Spirit then know that when you pray in tongues you are praying the divine will of God. This is an invaluable tool for the believer. Romans 8:26-27 (AMP) says “So too the Holy Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer or how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance. And He who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the Holy Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God’s will.”

3)      Pray for Alignment

My husband had a minor accident a few weeks ago and the front alignment of his car had to be repaired. What was interesting to me was that from the outside I couldn’t even tell that the alignment was off. It just looked like there was a dent and some minor scratches. Many of us are walking around and from the outside everything looks pretty good but on the inside our alignment with God is off. If you’ve ever dealt with this type of issue with your car you know that if the alignment is off you’ll try to steer in one direction but you end up going in another direction all together! This is how some of us are in the spirit. We keep trying to go in the direction that we think is right and we keep ending up in the wrong place. (“There is a way that seems right to a man and appears straight before him, but at the end of it is the way of death.” Proverbs 16:25)

So how do we mitigate the risk of being out of line with God’s will? The answer is simple. Proverbs 16:3(AMP) says “Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.” (Please note that this scripture is quoted from the Amplified Bible. Other versions will not read the same.) When God led me to this scripture I felt like I had hit the jackpot! So many times I was afraid of praying for what I wanted because I wasn’t sure if it was truly God’s will for me. Once I saw this scripture it became my daily prayer. I paraphrased it and I prayed “God help me to want what you want for me.” Now I can pray in confidence because I have submitted my desires to the will of God.

I pray that this has enlightened and helped someone. Remember that every test is designed to remove whatever is in you that’s not like God, help you grow into full maturity, and give you a testimony that will encourage others.