Answers to Prayer

Chapter 10

NO GREATER JOY

Since the publication of my first book on intercessory prayer, hundreds of individuals have written or telephoned to tell how the Spirit of God has blessed their lives as they read about the power of intercessory prayer and began to put it into practice.

My prayer list has constantly increased as I have joined my prayers to their intercessions before God. The Lord has greatly honored us as the Holy Spirit has given people victory over self, over sin, over temptation, and over the power of fallen angels.

And the one thing that most surprises those praying people is how the Spirit of God gets individuals who have no use for God or spiritual things to suddenly have a change of heart. God has used their prayers to work miracles. They then write me long letters telling of the joy they are experiencing.
 
For example, let me share a few excerpts from letters by a woman I will call Mary Brown.

"Dear Brother Morneau: "What a joy to serve our Lord in prayer ministry. During the past two years I have come to believe very strongly in intercessory prayer. Also during that same period I have been seeking a closer walk with Jesus and ways to serve Him more fully each day. He has led and guided me so wonderfully, and your book was a part of that special guidance.

"I have adopted some of your 'proven' ideas. I especially like the one of asking for God to surround my prayer subject with an atmosphere of light and peace. Let me briefly share one prayer experience.

"My sister Josephine, 38 years of age, had an affair, and her husband left as a result. She went through hell' (her word) for more than two months after Russell moved out. Although she did not realize it, he had known about the affair for more than a year. She had been pressuring her lover to choose between her or his own wife.

"Up to that time she had never in any way indicated that she felt any need of God or religion. But when this crisis came, she turned to me and asked that I pray for her. I prayed fervently that her lover would stay with his wife. Two months later he emphatically told her that he would never leave his wife, and then ended the affair.

"Some time later I learned that both Josephine and Russell were both praying that they would soon be back together again.
"What a thrill to be used of our dear heavenly Father in such a special work. It is my desire and prayer to become a wise intercessor and to be used more and more by my Master in this precious responsibility. To see how God answers prayer is so exciting. My faith grows steadily. I have adopted the prayer idea you mention on page 48 of your book. What a wonderful, blessing-filled idea.

"The Lord has been good to me. I have several very dear friends, and instead of giving you a few names to place on your prayer list every time I write, I decided to send them all at once. I shall let you know as providence unfolds in each of their lives.
"I have adopted for my personal petition each morning the beautiful prayer you shared on page 27...

"Today I am mailing a copy of your book to my parents. The Lord has given me wonderful witnessing opportunities with them. They have just recently started going to church, and as Mom put it, they will 'try' different ones to see which they like best. They are truly searching, and as they do, I pray every day. I really believe with all my heart that our Lord will bring them in! It is just a matter of time. That will be a most glorious occasion that I anticipate with great joy.

"I promise to pray for you and yours each day until our dear Jesus comes to take us home. What a blessed, awesome day that will be.

"Have a pleasant, happy day."

Three months later I received another letter from her.

"Dear Brother and Sister Morneau:
"Thank you, Hilda, for your precious note. I have some wonderful prayer answers to share again. If you will recall, I asked you last time to please pray for my sister, whose marriage had broken up. They are back together. Her husband came home the week of Christmas, and they are both working to make a go of it. Praise God!
 
"Another answer to prayer has been the miracle I have seen in my stepdad's life. Even three months ago I would have never dreamed that I would be sitting beside my parents in church. What a thrill that was. I see before my eyes the working of the Holy Spirit in their lives, and that gives me great courage.”

Each day I grow more excited over the fact that great numbers of Christians are pleading for God to extend the merits of Christ's sacrifice to those in need. One person wrote to me, "I became deeply impressed with the importance and great value you are placing on the shed blood of Christ being appropriated to those we pray for. I now take time every day to talk with our heavenly Father about my appreciation of the power to save found in the merits of the divine blood of Christ, and for the Holy Spirit to work out a great salvation in their lives. I am seeing my prayers being answered before my eyes, and that is most wonderful!"

I believe that we are beginning to witness the fulfillment of the words of Isaiah about the closing of God's work in the earth: "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising" (Isaiah 60:1-3).

As I read letters from people who are having their intercessory prayers answered, I notice that they also grasp with new clarity that only the Holy Spirit can make and keep the human heart pure.

Long ago I prayed that I would find my greatest joy in asking the Spirit of God to bless the lives of those whose names were on my perpetual prayer list. Before long I saw the Holy Spirit at work in my life as I frequently thought of those who needed the blessing of God in their lives. 

I discovered the joy of praying as I drove my car, as I walked to business calls, as I waited for people who had made appointments with me. And the results delighted me. For example, I would pray for those of my business clients whom I knew were struggling with problems. When I would later visit them, they would spontaneously tell me how God had blessed them.

NO GREATER JOY

God's blessing of others continues to this day. Permit me to tell of an experience that had happened just as I was writing this chapter.

Mary's Story.
A young woman whom I will name Mary had phoned to request that i pray for a friend who had just moments before left her husband for another man. In tears she had told how the friend, whom I will call Betty, had once prayed for her when Mary had had marital problems. In fact, Betty had even contacted me and requested that I pray for Mary. Now it was Mary's turn to seek someone to intercede with God for Betty's salvation.

Although I instantly recognized the name, I let Mary do the talking. Without my prompting her in any way Mary told about the struggles she had gone through. "Jim and I were married a little more than two years and still very much in love," she said. "He was doing graduate study and our income was quite limited, so we were happy when I got a better-paying job that seemed the answer to prayer."

She paused a moment, then asked, "Mr. Morneau, do you think that it is possible for a woman to fall in love with another man even when she is still deeply in love with her husband?"

Instead of slipping into a discussion of genuine love and the power of infatuation, I simply replied that in this day and age many strange things have taken place. "I don't know why I am telling you this," Mary continued, "except that I believe the Holy Spirit wants you to see how the Holy Spirit answered your prayers for me.

"After I had been at my new job in a large department store for a couple months, I began to notice one of the managers. His kindness and habit of complimenting me caught my attention. I began to like him very much.

"Before long I could not get him out of my mind. I found myself thinking about him constantly, even when I was with my husband. Although I realized that it was wrong for me to let him continually occupy my thoughts, I simply couldn't stop it. His power over me was so great that one day I found myself admitting to Betty that if the man asked me to go to bed with him, I would not be able to resist.

"I knew that was exactly what would happen if things kept on going the way they were. Just a few days before, I had discovered myself hoping that he would put his arms around me while we were alone together in a warehouse area.

"At times he had placed a hand on my arm as we talked, and a powerful and most enjoyable sensation had coursed through my entire body. I was getting totally hooked on him. But, thank God, you, Mr. Morneau, and Betty were praying for me. When the day came that he invited me to his apartment to see the stamp collection that was his pride and joy, I automatically replied, 'Oh, I couldn't do that without my husband being with me.'

"Then a tide of fear flooded through my mind as I realized what would take place in his apartment if I were alone with him. A passage I had memorized as a child-Joseph's words when he was faced with temptation—flashed through my mind: How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?' Suddenly I was now afraid of something that until that moment I had been longing for.

"I am not exaggerating, Mr. Morneau, when I say that in those few moments I regained my sense of right and wrong. The shackles of infatuation fell off me, and by the grace of God I will never wear them again." 

I reminded Mary that people had been making intercessions with God on her behalf. The Holy Spirit had been moving mightily in her time of need. She did not say anything for 10 or 15 seconds, but I could hear her sobbing. Finally, regaining her composure, she thanked me for my prayers for her.

But the reason for her call was still troubling her. She could not understand why the woman who had prayed for her during Mary's time of need should now herself suddenly move in with another man. "How can a person like Betty, one that I always considered to be a strong Christian, fall into sin so totally that she will not listen to reason? Her outlook on life has changed so greatly that spiritual things don't seem to matter to her anymore.

"It scares me when I think of it, and I keep asking myself, 'if Betty, always before a person of strong principles, can suddenly give up on spiritual things, what chance do I have of making it to heaven?'"

"You are not the only person who has asked me that kind of question," I replied. "In fact, a great number of people have written to me with prayer requests for someone's marriage. People constantly tell me of their shock when they see someone they have considered a pillar of the church suddenly throw his or her marriage away." 

A tone of urgency filled her voice as she asked me what I thought was happening to the church. I explained that I believed that such people had not learned how to be "kept by the power of God through faith" (1 Peter 1:5), and that widespread adultery and marital breakup was the consequence of church members slowly releasing their hold upon God until the natural inclinations of the fallen human heart overwhelmed them.
 
"Turning away from something as sacred as wedding vows," I told her, "makes no sense unless we remember that the fallen human heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked' [Jeremiah 17:9]. In fact, it is so deceptive that even Solomon, the wisest of all human beings and thrice called by Scripture beloved of God, ruined his life when he forgot to keep God always before him. He soon discovered the power of unbridled infatuation. The Bible says that his wives turned away his heart after other gods.... Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech... And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods' [1 Kings 11:4-8]."

Mary wanted to know more about being "kept by the power of God through faith." I promised to write a letter in which I would explain about the power of sin and separation from God, and how helpless we are against such forces unless the Spirit of God intervenes.

In the chapters to follow I will present some of the important factors that we need to know to preserve our vital relationship with God. Also, I will show how our prayers for another can allow God to send the Holy Spirit more fully to fight our loved ones' battles against sin and evil.