Answers to Prayer

Chapter 6

INTERCEDING FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

I would like to tell about Robert, a young man whom I the Spirit of God cared for and blessed during the time he had drifted away from God.
 
It was a sad surprise to learn from one of Robert's former college buddies the almost unbelievable changes that had taken place in the young man's life. In a few short years he had gone from being a God-loving young person to one dedicated to total self-centeredness.

"Robert," his college friend said, "is no longer the sharp young Christian you knew him to be. After college he found employment that brought him material prosperity, and in addition his wife's income placed them on easy street.

"They made friends with some of the people they were working with, which gradually led them into places of entertainment that they had not known before. The wife became fascinated by the music, and before long they were both hooked on rock. They occupied their leisure time with activities that not only separated them from God, but eventually from one another. Whether he left her or she left him, I don't exactly know."

The college friend added, "His brother told me that Robert has $1,000 worth of grass and other powerful stuff in his place. He spends hours smoking grass, and he loves heavy rock. In fact, he has sunk thousands of dollars into a top-notch stereo set to create the impression of being near the stage of a rock concert."

When I expressed my disappointment, the young man replied, "Don't feel bad about him. He knew better than to get himself involved in that type of situation. It's obviously what he wanted, or he would have stayed away from it from the beginning."
Naturally I immediately determined to take Robert's case before our heavenly Father on a daily basis. I prayed that the Holy Spirit would bring Robert victory over rock music, liquor, and drugs. Naturally I realized that it could possibly take years before the man could reach a position where he could make decisions that would lead back to God, but I was prepared to pray for him the rest of my life.

Three years went by; then one day I had a wonderful surprise. I met Robert at a religious meeting. The next day I had the joy of hearing from him how the Spirit of God had worked in his behalf.

"It was about a year ago," he told me, "when I began to experience a change in the way I reasoned regarding my friends, my leisure time, my musical preferences, and other aspects of my daily life. Up to that time I had spurned spiritual things, and for a period of five years had given myself up to enjoying what the world calls the good life.

"From the time that I got up each morning to when I retired at night I was either involved in some form of self-gratification or living in anticipation of it. For in-stance, the very first thing I did each morning was to play some of my favorite rock music as I got ready for work. There was something about it that satisfied an inner craving.

"Every weekend was taken up with a wild party roaring with women, liquor, grass, and whatever else could liven it up. By then my wife and I had parted ways, and I was completely free to do whatever I wanted. And I loved it that way. But suddenly I came face-to-face with reality."

"Would you mind telling me about it?" I asked.

"About a year ago things began to change. First, my rock music and my beer went flat on me. One evening when I arrived home from work, I turned on the stereo set, placed a stack of favorite records on the turntable, then sat comfortably with a glass of my favorite beer in one hand and a newspaper in the other. I took a couple sips from the glass and read a few minutes, but when I had a third sip, I sensed that something had gone wrong. That mouthful of beer tasted bad. In fact, it was awful.

"I went to the refrigerator for another can, and after opening it, I found that it tasted worse than the first one. And the music was not the same something was missing. It wasn't enjoyable as it had been, so I checked the controls on the amplifier. They were set correctly, but the rock music had lost a great deal of its appeal, and I could not zero in on that missing element.

"Just then the doorbell rang, and there stood Henry, a close buddy. 'Henry, you came to visit at the right time. Something strange is taking place, and I can't figure it out. After pouring the rest of the last can of beer into a glass, I handed it to him. Tasting it, Henry pronounced it excellent. I told him that mine tasted less than good.

"'Let me taste the beer in your glass; I can't believe you.' After taking a mouthful, he headed for the kitchen sink, then sputtered, 'That was putrid. Awful stuff. Man, you have a real problem here, and I can't help you. I don't want to scare you, but I believe that a supernatural force is at work here. By the way, I came to borrow one of your tools for a couple days.

My interest in Robert's experience was naturally mounting, and I couldn't help asking him what he thought of his friend's comment about the supernatural.

"My first thought," Robert replied, "was that someone had been praying for me and the Lord was doing something to get me to give some serious thought to my way of life. The experience kind of stunned me, and from that day on I could no longer drink beer."

As we chatted, he gave me additional details about the incident, but I was most impressed by what he described next.

"A couple days after the beer incident, I almost lost my life. It was a November evening about 8:00, and I was driving down a small hill. Since it had been raining and the road surface was beginning to freeze in spots, I had slowed down to about 35 miles per hour when suddenly four deer jumped onto the road. The headlights startled them, and they halted in the middle of the road. 
"Instantly I slammed on the brakes, and the car started to spin like a top on a glass table. It kept going in circles without hitting the shoulders of the road, and continued all the way to the bottom of the hill. After the first turn, I saw that the deer had vanished, but there was no way of stopping the car. After a couple hundred feet the road was level again and the car slowed right down and came to rest sideways against a guardrail.

"It was on the driver's side of the car, and after regaining my composure, I looked over the rail with my flashlight and saw a drop of about 80 feet."

When I asked him what thoughts went through his mind when he realized that he was safe, he replied, "I felt impressed that someone's prayers had been answered. Naturally those two experiences started me thinking very seriously about the fact that someone valued my life more greatly than I did.

"It also encouraged me to return to God when I realized that while I had given up on Him, He had not abandoned me. From that time on, I found myself weighing what I was doing in this present life against the reality of eternal life. I had a lot of backtracking to do in order to get on the right road again. Drugs had a powerful hold on me, one that I knew I could not break myself. But I decided to talk the whole matter over with Jesus, and to follow as He would lead. And lead He did. Today I am a free man again, having had victory over self, over sin, and over the world."

Robert's story strengthened my prayer ministry and helped me acquire more completely something that I had been seeking for a long time: an unfaltering trust in my heavenly Father, and in the power of His Holy Spirit.

Reflections

I don't agree with those Christian parents who assume that if their sons or daughters depart from the Lord, there isn't much that we or God can do, because the young people are exercising their freedom of choice. Such parents believe that all they can do is pray that the Lord will watch over their wayward children.

Such reasoning can have disastrous results. While it is true that God will not force the will, yet through our intercessions that claim the blood of Christ, His Spirit can overrule the forces of darkness and control events in such a way that the ones we are praying for will be helped to decide for right-even if they have to experience some suffering.

Let's consider Samson's experience. I can imagine how distressed Manoah and his wife must have been when the boy they had brought up for God began to associate with idolaters. For 20 years as he ruled Israel he kept repeating immorality. Then one day Manoah came from the city and told his wife that he had some real bad news, that she better sit down, as she would be shocked. He stated that the Philistine rulers had put out Samson's eyes while he was visiting a woman in the valley of Sorek.

I am inclined to believe that while Mrs. Manoah felt terrible at hearing the news, she wasn't shocked to the extent of believing that God had failed them. Surely they prayed that God would somehow save Samson in His eternal kingdom, regardless of what it would take to bring their son to his senses.

In prison Samson did some serious thinking. Scene after scene of his childhood days passed before him. He turned to God with his whole heart, and in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews we read that he will stand before God someday with all other champions of faith.