“Pray. Pray!” Have you ever had the Holy Spirit whisper that in your ear? If we do not make the mistake of thinking it is just nothing, or that it is just our own mind playing tricks on us, our next response is usually, “For whom?” and “About what?” Most of the time the Lord will give us that information, but sometimes even that is more than we need to know. Often the Holy Spirit puts someone on our heart and mind to pray for. We may know some of their situation or not. We may think we know the whole situation, but in reality, only God knows it all. Sometimes we are not content, however, to pray at God’s simple promptings. We want to know who, what, when, where, how. Give us all the details, Lord, so we will be able to pray better.

Why does the Lord usually not give us all the details of the things He asks us to pray about. Part of the answer is in Habakkuk 1:5. The Lord is always at work among us, and much of His work and plan we would not believe if we were told, and another part of the reason is that we would be tempted to try to bargain with God to do things more our way, and less His way (or am I the only one in the world who tries to occasionally negotiate with God on His will?). We would limit God.

Our pastor recently related a miracle in the lives of four students, their friends and families, and many who had been praying for them. The pastor was prompted through a dream to pray for his friend’s children, and it had to do with one of them being killed in a car accident. Friends and people around the country were called on to pray for the children’s safety. Several weeks later, he got a call that two of his friend’s children had been in a car wreck. While trying to avoid debris from a drunk driver’s crash ahead of them, they were hit from behind by an 18-wheeler. The car was flattened and all four passengers…. walked away from the wreckage. It was obvious Divine intervention and protection by a God who had been petitioned to shield and protect, and He did just that.

The question again comes up- why would the Holy Spirit prompt people to pray, but not give all the details? Some of us would have wanted the conversation to have been, not just “Pray.” but, “Pray, because so-and-so is going to be coming home from school in a couple of weeks, and they are going to be driving around a major city, and they will try to avoid a wreck in front of them, and get around that alright, but an 18 wheeler will hit them from behind and totally mash their vehicle. Pray that all of the young people in the car will walk away with only minor injuries.” That would have been enough details for us to really pray about-- or would it?

Think again about Habakkuk, where God says, “You wouldn’t believe what I’m going to do!” We would say- you can’t do that! We would try to limit God. Maybe it is just me, but if the above message came to me about one of my own children or a child of a friend, my first response would NOT be, OK, Lord, be it done according to what You have said. I would be trying to make a deal with God. I would be trying to ask Him not to make it quite so bad. Oh, don’t make it around a big city where there is so much traffic, and not in the dark. And don’t have four people in the car, how about just one? And please just make it a crash with another car, or a pick-up at the most. How about they just slide off the road into a ditch, and all walk away from that. We want to negotiate with God about what He should and should not do in our lives, what He can and can not do with us. We limit Him in our desire for all the details about our lives.

Do you see the enemy’s strategy in all of this? In the situation of the car wreck, if it would have gone according to our way of negotiating, we would have given credit to God for sparing those children. We would have known. Some, however, may have looked at it as not really such a big deal. After all, it would have only been a car hitting another car, and only going into a ditch, so there would not have been so much to really be saved from. The power and love and intervention of our mighty, sovereign God gets diminished by rationalization. Our enemy hates it when God is God, and he loves it when God is diminished.

So, God says “Pray!”, and I’ll take care of it. You just know that you can and need to ask for My help, and I will show up and be God in your life. Remember the past- why let the Israelites escape from Egypt by running over the King’s highway-- We’re going to part the waters of the Red Sea! Why do hand to hand combat with the inhabitants of Jericho--We’re going to bring the walls crumbling down! Why heal Lazarus from his sickness--We’re going to raise him from the dead! Why let Paul’s ship sail safely-- we’re going to bring everyone through a shipwreck! All for the purpose of bringing others to salvation and glory to God. What will people do with this God who saves His people in a mighty way? The Bible says that word of the Israelite’s God went before them, and the inhabitants of the land trembled at, and believed in Him because of His mighty deeds. Word of our God goes before us, too.

God delights in living big in our lives. He delights in being there for us- in showing up and having a testimony to the world. He responds to the prayers of His children. He takes an 82 year old man and not only spares his life and brings him through a stroke, He restores his movement and makes him walk and talk again. He takes a young man injured in an oil field accident, who doctors say will not live through the night, and heals him. He goes home within a week. God waits until doctors have exhausted all their modern methods of aiding conception, and the final verdict is this couple will never have another child- so just live with it- and then He places a little life in that womb as a testimony to Him only. (No offense to all the doctors in the world, but I just love it when the Great Physician overrules.) The list here can go on.

The four students who walked away from the flattened car are now “evidence that demands a verdict” from themselves and all who are acquainted with them. If their own faith was not what it should have been, it is now. Everyone they come in contact with will have to face the facts of the truth of the accident and the fact that these four are still around to tell of it. Their school mates, their home town people are all faced with what to do with the facts. There is no rationalizing away the reality that God intervened in this situation. There are four walking, talking testimonies of that fact. All that hear of it and know of it will have to make a decision. Will they bend the knee to the God who cares and intervenes? Many, no doubt, will. Some may not. We can only pray that those who don’t now will keep this testimony in the back of their minds and submit to the God of the Universe before it is too late.

The next time the Lord whispers, “Pray!” in my ear, I want my response to be immediate obedience. I don’t want to ask for all the details. I know I can’t handle it, but He can. I want Him to live big in everybody and be big in every situation. I just love it when my Dad shows off His strength and power (Is anything too difficult for God? Genesis 18:14), but more importantly His great love and compassion for all.