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Attending the World Prayer Assembly has re-ignited, adjusted, rebuked, corrected and re-calibrated my life as a Christ follower.

It is so easy to live life apart from the leading of the Holy Spirit.
… apart from the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
… apart from the power of the Holy Spirit.

I can actually go about my day doing things for God not realizing I am doing things without God.

From being a husband to being a dad.
From being a Victory Group leader to being a pastor.
From working in the office to going to the mall with my lovely wife.

The Bible says in Acts 19:11 that God did extraordinary miracles through Paul…

It didn’t just say miracles. The Bible said “extraordinary” miracles as if miracles are actually ordinary.

Note that a few verses earlier, Paul was just talking and preaching about the person and the power of the Holy Spirit. Then immediately after, it talks about God doing extraordinary miracles through him.

I’m reminded of what Francis Chan said in his book, Forgotten God.

I don’t want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit. I want people to look at my life and know that I couldn’t be doing this by my own power. I want to live in such a way that am desperate for him to come through. At if He doesn’t come through, I’m screwed.

Lord teach us to always move in the power and presence of Your Holy Spirit that we may bring honor and glory to you every moment of our lives.

I spoke to a guy one time who asked me if God still listens to prayer these days.

He has prayed to God several times yet seemingly is not getting any answers.

1. Does God answer prayers?

Jeremiah 33:3 says to call upon Him and He will answer.

The Bible doesn’t say that He might or He probably will.  The Bible says He will.

2. Now if God answers prayers, does He answer the way we wish Him to?

He always answers but the manner that He does may be different.  In fact, the answer we get may not be what we expect it to be, but He does answer.

Isaiah 55 tells us that His ways are higher than ours and His thoughts are way beyond our thoughts.

We ask Him to open a door, yet the door He opens may be the one on the left, not the one on the right.

Last question…
3. If He does answer, will it be good.

Actually, when He answers, it is much better than we ever expected.

Ephesians 3:20 says that “He is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than we can ask or imagine.”

In other words, when He answers, it is way better than what we expected.

Does He answer prayer? A resounding yes!
Does He answer the way we want Him to? Not necessarily.
If He does answer, will it be good? Actually, it’s way better than what you’ve ever imagined or expected. Trust Him and see what He does. 

Quick thoughts and quotes from the World Prayer Assembly Indonesia.

Here are some of the snippets.

To see what you’ve never seen, you’ll have to do what has never been done. (Ed Silvoso)

God has given us the mission mandate and the prayer mandate.
The mission mandate —> Matthew 2818-20. Go and make disciples of all nations.
The prayer mandate —> Matthew 9:38. Pray … to send forth workers… 

This generation has become a fatherless generation.
Today’s modern day orphans are those that are being parented by iPads, cable TV and Facebook. (Jerome Ocampo)