The Lord loves to hear our audacious prayers. There is a story about Alexander the Great and one of his generals who had just won a battle. Alexander invited him to ask for something for he and his family. The General asked for a ridiculous amount of money and land. Some of the other leaders were outraged that this General had been so “presumptuous.” Alexander responded, “No this is a good, it is obvious that he thinks I am both very wealthy and extremely generous. Give him what he’s asked for.”
I’m convinced that God is disappointed that we don’t ask more often for the impossible. If all you ever ask God for is to “please bless this cereal I’m about to partake of, you aren’t exercising faith.” In Joshua 10:12, Joshua boldly “said to the Lord in the presence of Israel: “Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and you, mon, over the Valley of Aijalon.” He needed more time to defeat an enemy that was escaping so he boldly asked the audacious.
In Ephesians 3:20, Paul taught us to stretch our imaginations and thoughts when we pray. I like to say, if you’re coming to God for His provision don’t bring a thimble, hire a truck to drag a swimming pool. He says, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” One way to read that is to realize that what we ask or think could limit God.
During a time of a church campaign to have life groups. I heard Rick Warren, say “Pray exponentially.” He said, “Whatever you are praying for add a zero to it. I was praying for our life groups at the time and we just had 3. We were a very new church. I remember saying, “Yes Lord, I add a zero to that three and ask for 30 new life groups. In the next two weeks we had 30 people sign up to start life groups.
We are beginning 72 hours of prayer and fasting to see the end to the plague of the corona virus at this time. I think the Lord wants us to pray boldly about this and other things. God is honored when we ask and declare great things be done for God that He will be made famous for.
I remember a time in High School when I was a new Christian. We had a Bible Study at lunch time and many students were coming. At the time there was two lunch shifts and students in the other shift didn’t have a Bible study to go to. As we prayed in our Bible study that day, one of the new Christians just suddenly declared, “Lord, let the administration announce that they are changing to one lunch shift.” I thought that was a little too bold. To my amazement the next week there was an announcement over the intercom that the school schedule was changing and there would begin to be only one lunch shift. That was one of my first wake up calls to the fact that the Lord likes us to pray bold prayers.
Love,
Dale
To watch a short video on the subject go to: https://www.facebook.com/PastorDaleWalker/videos/654774995080097/