What It Means To Be Prompted To Pray

Hey, this is Mike Zwick from If Not For God Podcast. Our show, Stories of Hopelessness, Turned into Hope. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it.

But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. How fun on encouraging prayer today. We're live remote in the airport on our way to Colorado of all places. So James, what's going on?

Oh, I'm so excited. I'm headed out to Greeley, Colorado with my son, Jeff. And, you know, he, you know our story, went through a difficult time in his life where he was addicted to opiates and later heroin. And during that time, I had a prayer partner. And that prayer partner is another pastor and he pastors a church now out in Colorado. And of course, God has done this amazing miracle in Jeff's life. We wrote a book about it in a book, Hope Lies Ahead. We tell the whole story.

And we get to go out, Jeff and I, and speak at my former prayer partner's church about what God did in answer to prayer. What's also outstanding to me, because this is the first time I'm hearing of this, is, you know, when I was in junior high, I lived in Longmont, Colorado. So we used to beat up on Greeley regularly in basketball. And so I was just thinking Greeley, really?

I can remember going into that junior high. And, you know, so now you're going to take on the real enemy at Greeley and share how, you know, God came to the rescue in this one, right? Yeah, that's exactly right. And it's just such a joy, such a privilege to be able to do it. And that's also related to our topic this morning. I thought that we would talk about what it means to be prompted to pray. And I know we've all had those feelings where, you know, just all of a sudden it comes on you, like, I've got to pray, I've got to pray. And those are, you know, often we tend to think of this, and by the way, if you hear the airport announcements in the background, I can't do anything about that. You know, we know those moments where something is happening and we just, you know, feel it pressed in upon us. But there are other moments as well, I think, where God kind of woos us to come away and just says, just be with me, just pray. And you wonder, you wonder what would happen if we miss those moments, you know? Oh man, I really do. And, you know, I don't know if you've ever read the book Sacred Romance by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge?

No, I haven't read that. But they talk about how God woos you, and you kind of go, oh, that's you. You know, that cardinal that showed up, or, you know, you're walking along and you're looking at a flower and you go, oh, that's you. And I love that idea of the sacred romance. In other words, here's God coming to woo you.

It is a romance. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, another way of thinking of it is as running to Daddy. The other morning I got up and I just had the sense of, man, I need to go pray. And again, I don't always feel that way.

So I don't want to make this sound like something, you know, that's out of reach or out of touch. But I'll tell you, this particular morning, there wasn't any, again, reason for it that I knew of. But God was really drawing my heart. And the cool thing was, I actually got that, you know. This time, I didn't miss it. And, you know, you think about what happened to the Garden of Gethsemane as we just come out of Easter. And, you know, Jesus told the disciples to watch and pray so that you won't fall into temptation.

And again, yes, that was an emergency situation. But even there, they didn't get it. You know, they missed it.

And you wonder, how would things have been different if they had prayed, if they had stayed awake, and just taken that prompting from the Lord to follow? Oh, and I can't tell you the times that I'm walking out of a trout stream or wherever I am, and just all of a sudden, it hits me like, man, there I was with you, and I didn't take the opportunity. But in some ways, it's like when you do have that opportunity, it's, oh, so sweet, right?

Yeah, it really is. And, you know, another thing that I think about is blind Bartimaeus. You know, Jesus is walking by, and he just starts hollering, you know, Son of David, have mercy on me. And everybody else is telling him, be quiet, stop it, you know. And he's not going to stop.

And he just keeps on going, keeps on yelling. And think about it. If he hadn't called out to the Lord in that time, we really don't know what would have happened. You know, would Jesus have stopped?

Or would he have walked by? Because there were certainly a lot of needs, and, you know, Jesus didn't fix all of them. So sometimes it really matters.

It really matters to just call on him. And I just want to encourage our listeners to do that. Darrell Bock Yeah, when I think of blind Bartimaeus, I use that story at boot camp to talk about being needy out loud to Jesus, right? And I actually have this slide, if you can picture the original Superman from the TV series, you know, years ago in black and white. And I have a big Superman emblem that says, what would stop Superman? And, you know, here it is. Here's what stops him when we're needy out loud.

And often, as you mentioned, it's needy for relationship. It's needy for his presence, you know? Robert Chisholm Yeah. Again, Bartimaeus could have been blind for the rest of his life if he hadn't cried out to Jesus in that moment, just because he sensed, you know, I got to pray, I got to call out, I got to yell. So as we wrap up, I think it'd be really good to just pray that we could all be sensitive this way.

Darrell Bock Yeah. And since you're fixing to go to 40,000 feet, you're fixing to be a lot closer, just saying. Anyway, I'll be glad to pray. Lord, thank you for this wonderful episode that you've given James and the invitation, I think, of to come and talk to you about our needs. And sometimes there just needs to be with you. And so as he heads off to Greeley, Lord, we pray you would bless him with a special invitation on this flight to spend precious time with you to process exactly what you have for the people there in Colorado, that he and Jeff will bond even closer, and that again, they will sense your presence. And in that is fullness of joy. And I ask that for all the people listening right now, that they would take us up on this invitation to just, you know, sense, wow, is he romancing?

Is he coming after you? Or is it the feeling you need, Daddy? However it works, Lord, we pray that we would all turn our hearts towards you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray. This is the Truth Network.