Archives For prayer

All the world’s a stage

Brad Stanton —  August 1, 2015 — Leave a comment

Stream“All the world’s a stage” William Shakespeare

Shakespeare was a brilliant man. He understood that this world that we see and can touch with our hands is not the real world. Just as a stage has props made of wood and other materials to look like the moon or a boat or castle, they aren’t the real moon, castle or boat. It is the same for us. The things we can touch and see are not as real and important as the invisible things of the spirit world, such as angels.

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit (and therefore love) flows like a river to us and through us from heaven in John chapter 7. Romans 5:5 says that God pours out his love on us. In the book of Revelation, John saw prayers being poured out of a bowl.

The more I focus on spiritual things, the more I can imagine the love, joy and well-being that constantly flow to us from God. Sometimes when I read or listen to the Bible I can feel myself relaxing. It as if some healing tonic is flowing over me. Please leave a comment. Do you ever feel the presence of the Holy Spirit? What does it feel like to you?

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Belief brings good things

Brad Stanton —  June 15, 2015 — Leave a comment

summer_1100013185-1013intThey didn’t believe

Over 3000 years ago Moses led the Jews out of Egypt. They saw many miracles in Egypt before they left—the ten plagues. They were showered with gifts by the Egyptians as they left Egypt. At the Red Sea they saw the Egyptian army descending upon them. They doubted God. They didn’t really believe God was good. They didn’t believe that God really cared about them.

Then they saw the Red Sea swallow up their enemies as God protected them. They were able to go to the Promised Land. It was a land of wealth and abundance. There were houses already built and crops already planted. They could take the land, God promised, and live in houses they didn’t sweat and labor to build and eat crops they didn’t burden themselves to plant.

But they didn’t really believe God was good. They didn’t believe God cared about their finances, even though He showered them with gifts from the Egyptians.

Henry Ford said “Whether you believe you can or believe you can’t, either way you are right.” We can learn from super successful people like Ford. He helped the allies win World War 2. Most people thought it would be nearly impossible to design a factory to build heavy bomber aircraft at a rate of one a day. Germany had done it, perhaps, but they were far ahead of the US in the war effort.

Henry Ford designed an aircraft factory but it didn’t build one heavy bomber a day. It built one every 55 minutes. Hitler couldn’t believe it was possible. The massive output of bombers helped the allies defeat Germany.

So what Ford was saying was that if you believe you can, you will have the faith to do it. Jesus talked a lot about faith. Many atheists believe in the power of faith. East Germany had more Olympic gold medal winners per capita than any other country because they knew how to instill faith in their athletes.

So the Israelites stood looking at the Promised Land. They didn’t really believe God would make them rich like he said he would. Since they didn’t believe it, they didn’t get the blessings God had in store for them.

Do you believe God cares about you? He knows how many hairs are on your head. He cares about every detail in your life. Over and over the Bible says that he wants you to be happy. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace…Romans 15:13. Deuteronomy 16:14  1 Chronicles 15:16  2 Corinthians 2:3   Galatians 5:22   Colossians 1:12   Romans 12:12   1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Be joyful always…

The Bible also says God cares about your finances. Click here for more info.

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A little humor with a big message

Brad Stanton —  June 5, 2015 — Leave a comment

sundown-at-the-bayA mayor of a city and his wife were driving down the street when they passed a gas station. The mayor saw a man who had dated his wife before they were married.

“Wow!” he said. “Just think, if you had married that man you would be spending your life with a gas station owner. You might be pumping gas now” he said grinning.

“No” his wife said. “If I had married him, he would be mayor.”

Maybe she was right.

Do you build up your loved ones? Do you encourage them and help them become the very best person they can be?

What would you ask your father/mother for if he/she was mayor of a city? What if he was governor of a state? What you ask for if your parent was president of the US?

What if your father was king of the universe? What would you ask him for?

If you really believe your father is the king of the universe, you can pray really big prayers. Jabez was called more honorable than his brothers because he prayed big prayers.

I Chronicles 4: 9 Jabez was more honorable than his brothers… 10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.

Jesus said faith is the key to answered prayer. In fact he said that about three dozen times. A few times he said that God’s will is important when you pray. Why did he mention that so seldom?

Matthew 21:21Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Matthew 17:20 Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Matthew 9:22Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.

It took the apostles three years of full time study with Jesus to build their faith. Mountain moving faith is not built overnight. More verses about faith. https://bradstanton.com/2012/08/15/faith-bible-verses/

I wrote a book about the power of prayer. In it I list some things the Bible says hinders prayers. Click here.

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Miracles

Brad Stanton —  May 25, 2015 — Leave a comment

prayer changes thingsI have seen and heard of many, many miracles in my lifetime. One miracle that I’ll recount here is a miracle of healing for ….my car. Sounds silly right? But my car got fixed miraculously.
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I was driving a lady and her son to church one Sunday night in the mid 1980’s. In those days cars had carburetors. Someone had poured sugar into my gas tank because I crossed a picket line. My car would act like it was out of gas, then start going again. I’d lose power several times, but the engine always kept going. But the problem go worse and worse as the days went on. That evening on the way to church the car was really sputtering and it finally stopped. It wouldn’t start again. So we had to walk the rest of the way to church.
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At the end of the church service the lady asked the church to pray for my car, which they did. I went to my car, turned the key and it started beautifully and never gave me any trouble after that. It was a miracle. More miracles and information about the joy of prayer in my book: Keys to Powerful Prayer at www.getprayerpower.com

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Keys to Powerful Prayer, page 10

Brad Stanton —  April 8, 2015 — Leave a comment

MiracleContinued from 4/4/2015

2. Ask God for it in faith.

Matthew 7:8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him

who knocks, the door will be opened.

Simply put, ask God for what you need. Another “A” in our FAITH acronym

might be “Agree.” It is good to find other people to agree with you in prayer.

Matthew 18:19 tells us, “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree

about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”

3. Imagine the answer to prayer in your mind.

Imagine it like you already have it. If you are praying for a relationship to

get better, imagine that it is. Your optimistic attitude will help change the

relationship. That is the way God created faith. On the other hand, being

pessimistic, lacking faith, and thinking about negative things, will cause

problems in the relationship. When a person thinks about the negatives of the

relationship, he will be more likely to get angry or do other things that are not

good for the relationship. I have seen this happen many times in my own life

and in the lives of others.

It is important to imagine you have already been given the answer to your

prayer, because if you have faith and you pray in God’s will, you do already

have the answer. I will explain this more in the chapter on Daniel.

4. Thank God for it.

In Mark 11:24 we read, “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you

have received it, and it will be yours.” Notice it says “…believe that you have

received it…”. This means that at the moment you ask God for it, you receive

it. However, it may take some time for it to materialize or to become substance

Some translations of Hebrews 11:1 read, “Faith is the substance (my emphasis)

of things hoped for…” Daniel prayed in Daniel 10, but the powerful angel that

came to give him the answer to his prayer was detained by Satan or a demon.

There was apparently a wrestling match in the unseen world. Paul said we

wrestle not against flesh and blood but against the powers in the heavenly

realms. These powers will do everything possible to damage our faith and

prevent us from getting an immediate answer to our prayer.

God could have answered Daniel’s prayer immediately if He wanted to, but for

some reason, He allowed the struggle in the heavenly realms to continue for

days before the angel was able to reach Daniel. Romans 8:28 says that in all

things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according

to His purpose. God is certainly powerful enough to answer your prayer

immediately if He wants to, but usually He takes some time before He answers

it. God is more concerned about us growing spiritually strong than getting

everything we want right away. Just as our parents did not give us everything

we wanted because they knew it was for our best, God also sometimes does

not give us what we want when we ask for it. Every parent has probably had

a child who wanted to eat ice cream for supper; however, the parent knew it

would not be good for the child and did not permit it.

See the books on prayer.

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