Friday, February 10, 2012
Day 9
Now have come the
salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his
Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before
our God day and night, has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the
blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.
Revelation 12:10-11
Testimonies are one way we overcome
the enemy. If we don't share the way God
is at work in our lives, then we're tempted to think God isn't working at all.
But when we begin to share testimonies of grace, testimonies of healing,
testimonies of answered prayer, we are reminded that God is still on the
throne!
One of the joys of writing The
Circle Maker has been receiving testimonies of answered prayer. Each one is
like a shot of adrenaline to my faith. They stretch me. They convict me. They
challenge me to pray bigger and pray bolder.
My friend Josh Gagnon, pastor of
Next Level Church, read about my 4.7 mile prayer walk around Capitol Hill and
he was inspired to do a 2000 mile prayer drive around six New England states.
It took five days! It was his way of
marking God's territory. It was his way of dreaming big and praying hard. And I believe God will honor those prayers!
I heard a testimony last week about
Dr. Bob Bagley, missionary to Africa.
His tribal church was literally meeting under a tree and one day the
local witchdoctor cursed the tree and all the leaves withered. They lost their shade. They also lost their status! That curse overshadowed them. So Dr. Bagley decided to call a public prayer
meeting. He laid hands on the tree and
prayed that God would resurrect it. I
love his prayer: “It’s not my name that’s at stake.” He knew that he couldn't establish God's
reputation without risking his own! The
rest of the story? Not only did God
resurrect the tree, it became the only tree of its type that yielded fruit
twice a year! Come on, somebody!
One more testimony.
There was a terrible drought in
Mississippi about fifty years ago. A
rural church with lots of farmers in the congregation decided to do something
about it by holding an emergency prayer meeting at the church. One of the
farmers came to the prayer meeting dressed in waders! Some people thought he
was crazy, but this farmer actually believed that God was going to answer their
prayer so he dressed for the miracle. He said he didn’t want to walk home wet.
Well he didn’t, but everyone else did!
Those testimonies remind me that He
that is in us is greater than he that is in the world. They remind me that God is able to do
immeasurably more than all I can ask or imagine. They remind me that God wins, Satan loses,
and I'm more than a conqueror through Christ.
Mark
Batterson-Circle Maker
