GANEIDA'S KNOT.

Go mbeannai Dia duit.

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Quaker by conviction, mother by default, Celticst through love, Christ follower because I once was lost but now am found...

Monday, October 1, 2012

One day I am going to write a book called something like Experiments in Prayer ~ because that's pretty much how my prayer life goes.  It's just one long experiment.

And every so often God ups the anti.

I went for a long time when I didn't get prayer.  Seriously, I couldn't imagine God wanting to listen to a long dull list of grubby little sins & an equally long dull list of all the things I wanted Him to do for me.  Surely He had better things to do, running the world & all.

I am seriously grateful to the Quaker tradition.  From it I learnt something that changed my life, changed my whole attitude to prayer, revolutionized the way I thought about prayer & what I thought I was doing.  I learnt it was possible to rest in His presence.  Nothing else.  I didn't have to say a word.  I didn't have to feel guilty for all the things I should have done but hadn't, nor yet for all the things I'd done that I wished I hadn't.  I think it's why I love this song so much.  In His presence everything else dwindles to insignificance & from His presence true prayer rises up unbidden: prayers of love & adoration; prayers of supplication & intercession; prayers of gratitude.

When I began preaching prayer was my lifeline.  My prayer has always been What do you want me to say to your people?  I've got pretty het when God's been a little slow by my reckoning on giving me His answer but He's never failed to come through.

And with so many Christians in the house I sort of took it for granted that everyone had a different gift mix: Liddy, evangelist/missionary; Dearest Intercessor/administrator; Dino, evangelist/....?[I don't want to say yet because even Dino doesn't have the fullness of this picture yet!]; Me ~ well, I'm the visionary.  The rest try hard to keep my feet partially on the ground but you know how it is....

I don't like stepping on other people's lines.  I don't like crossing boundaries.  I don't like poaching on another's *territory*.  Consequentially I know very little about lots of things that fall outside my gift mix.  That includes prayer.  I know about resting in His presence.  I know about the Prayer of Tears. I know about getting Words of Knowledge & something of the prophetic but intercession has always been Dearest's bunny.  It is a rare gift for a man.  Nearly all the intercessors I know are women & because of that I think the gift works differently for Dearest than it does for women.  Just my thinks.  I could be wrong.  I often am.  And it's pretty much why I've never wanted this particular gift.  I'd heard the stories.

Anyway [yes, this long rambling post does have a point] last Sunday night I shut down the house, collected my cats & headed up the stairs to bed.  It was pretty late because it had been a biggish day & I was still pretty wired, still sensing the anointing from church, & I was pretty sure I was going to have trouble sleeping so I wanted to be sure my body was screaming for rest ~ which I can assure you it was! ☺

And the Spirit started at me!

At bedtime.

Ok.  Not happy, Jan, but if you want me to pray then pray I will.  Not that He cared to fill me in about what I was to pray for but the sense of urgency grew & grew.  If you are an experienced intercessor you will have twigged what was going on but I'm not & I didn't.  I fumbled round & fumbled round all the while a growing sense of urgency & desperation blossomed.

The next thing the thrum of a helicopter began ~ a not unusual occurrence as medical helicopters are used regularly to airlift patients to hospital but this was the heavy woomp~woomp~woomp of the big Search & Rescue helicopters & I knew whatever I was praying for was to do with the helicopter. A little while later it came straight overhead, ,just skimming the treetops, both search lights blazing across the sky & began the methodical quartering of the terrain that means they are looking for something ~ or someone..

I continued to pray for maybe another 3/4 of an hour then as suddenly as it began the sense of urgency stopped. I rolled over & went to sleep.

This is what I was praying for.  It has distressed me no end.  And yet how much God cared for this man ~ enough to make sure there were people praying for him as he headed into eternity because I'm sure I wasn't the only one.  God has more sense than that. I need to let it go but the image of drifting across a dark ocean in a still sea while hope dwindles, is finally snuffed out, & letting go to sink beneath the waves is doing my head in. Still.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you were sensitive to the Spirit and prayed. May God give you peace of mind.

Julie B. said...

I was struck by your last sentence. How God loves this man, and what a privilege that as His eyes were going to and fro, looking for someone who would pray as this man left this earth, God found that you were ready, and used you. Very powerful and humbling, Ganeida. xxoo

Ganeida said...

Thank you, Carol.

Julie I don't think the man was a believer & it so struck me with wonder that even so God loved him, loved him enough to bring in the troops even if the man himself never knew a thing about it. Our God is an Awesome God.

seekingmyLord said...

That is a miracle. I wonder how many times God has prodded me to pray for something and I missed that it was Him or just plain ignored it because I had other plans or desires at that time.

Would you believe--of course, you would--that I just ordered a book to read and review on the subject of intercessory prayer.

Jan Lyn said...

Fascinating how the Holy Spirit works. Also, fascinating after my stint with QF&F and not much Quaker prayer there to see a Quaker Prayer group open up on Face Book, no less.
Thanks for stopping in at my fading blog. Life has gotten in the way, but I am very excited to see what I have missed here! Love.

Joyfulmum said...

ditto to what Julie said dear friend:)