Recently I was impressed to pray for someone I know but don’t interact with very often. I wasn’t sure why. I thought I was praying for his work or for his ministry — that the Lord would speak clearly to him and through him. But really, I was praying in the Spirit and didn’t fully know what I was interceding for — just that he was on my heart for several days.

Flash forward to yesterday, when I happened to hear from him. He shared that he recently got COVID. He had three terrible days, at one point waking up in the middle of the night completely unable to breathe and was convinced that he was within a minute of dying.

But God.

He was somehow able to clear out the blockage little by little until he could breathe again. And, after only three days of battling COVID, he was just fine again.

The crazy thing? As you might surmise from the headline… The timing lined up. God put it on my heart to pray for my brother when he needed it. And God healed him.

My prayers move mountains.

The Unexplainable in Ukraine

A friend was at a prayer meeting where they were interceding for Ukraine. Everyone else was praying for peace or safety. But she was stirred in her spirit to pray boldly. She prayed that the Russian army would be thwarted. That God would stop the missiles. That He would protect and save the people of Ukraine.

It was just a few days later that we started seeing testimonies like these pop up on social media:

From a pastor in Lviv:

This is what Igor, the pastor in Lviv whose post I shared last night, just mailed me: “please tell your people, because of their prayers, God really fights our battles. The rockets disappear in the air without reaching our homes and no one knows where did they go. enemy tanks run out of fuel, Russian troops get lost and ask our locals for food and for directions – that is definitely God because we are dealing with the second strongest army in the world. And this morning Kyiv and other major cities are still free and we. in Lviv did not have to run to the basements”

thank you for your prayers!!!

A Ukrainian man, who fights for Ukraine now, shares: “I want to inspire those who pray for us with the words of our soldiers and ordinary people from different parts of Ukraine, where the battle takes place. Soldiers of Ukraine testify ‘We feel your prayerful support. Sometimes something really incomprehensible happens, as if someone’s invisible hand is actually making bullets fly past us. We win in very difficult situations, as if someone is helping us. We are invisible to the enemy, while we ourselves become able to see in the dark, and we know what to do and how to do it. It inspires us and gives us strength. We believe that the Jesus Christ Himself is for Ukraine. We ask you not to stop, support us and continue to pray. We really need you.’”

My friend’s prayers move mountains.

Prayer is on Jesus’s Agenda

I’ve been witnessing some crazy awesome stuff lately. Friends getting excited about their faith again. Friends finally getting clarity and peace about matters they’ve been wrestling with for years. Job searches coming to an end. Even the little things, like weekend plans working out perfectly despite being in total disarray the night before.

The point of this article isn’t to say that my friends and I have it all together. Rather, I pray that you are encouraged to press in to prayer.

It struck me the other day that we’re told Jesus “is at the right hand of God interceding [with the Father] for us” and that “He lives forever to intercede with God on [our] behalf.”

Jesus is interceding for us. If interceding is important enough to be on the agenda of our Lord and Savior, perhaps it should be important enough to appear on ours.

“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20)

“Whatever you ask in prayer, trusting, you shall receive.” (Matthew 21:22)

“The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” (James 5:16b)