Recently I was reminded of a time in my life, when I woke up way before the sun was up, to connect with my Heavenly Father in prayer, and to fuel up for the days happening.

Looking back, I’m left wondering what happened. How did I shift from running on full, to sputtering through the day on the dregs in an empty tank? The phrase life happens popped into my brain, then God started peeling back the layers to give me clear sight of the depth of truth surrounding that statement.

In this article, I’m sharing what the Holy Spirit revealed to me, and trusting Him to make it real to you.

Who told you you were ordinary? Who deceived you into believing that you are a mere man (woman)?

For the child of God, life doesn’t just happen. We create what happens around us. We walk in line with God’s purpose for our lives and when fig trees fail to feed us, we curse them and keep going. When we miss the boat we walk out on the water to meet it. When we don’t have sufficient provisions we bless what we have in our hands and watch it multiply, leaving baskets full of excess.

None of those things, sound like ordinary to me. That’s what the authority you have in Christ can enable you to do. So when cancer comes knocking at your door, don’t run off and hide in fear, use your WORDs. When a mountain blocks your pathway speak to that mountain and cause it to be cast into the sea. When you’re short on funds, go catch a fish and pull the coin out of its mouth. Use your WORDs.

Are you seeing where this is going? Stop trying to fit into the mold of ‘ordinary’ that was created for you by the deceiver, or one of his minions. Burst out of the walls of that ‘box of expectation’ that you’re supposed to be comfortable in. You were born for more than that. Stop trying to blend in, and ask God to bring you into that ‘broad place’ that he has called you to live in.

You are far beyond ordinary because God says you are, and one of the weapons you have been given is prayer power. Use it!

My conversation with the Holy Spirit about what happened revealed that I wasn’t filling up on the correct fuel for my engine type. God said in His word that as His child, what I need to live, (survive and thrive), is not just bread, but ‘…every WORD that proceeds from the mouth of God’ Deuteronomy 8:3b.

That scripture talks about God feeding the children of Israel with manna (daily bread that fell from heaven). It goes on in verse 4 to mention that during their 40 years of wondering, their clothes didn’t get old and their feet didn’t swell. Are you seeing that? While they were wandering around in punishment, in addition to feeding them daily, God preserved their health and covered them. How much more us, who are bathed in the blood of Jesus?

So, what caused that shift for me? The cares of life. I became caught up in ‘life happening’, and stopped curating my life according to the Word of God. I’m not trying to be religious, but during that season, I was feasting on God’s word, and spending quality time in His presence, praying and listening to His plans and directives for the day. Yes, there were times when I overslept or got caught up doing something else, but it’s not about performance Christianity.

During that season, I watched God use me to shake and break down some serious strongholds. I saw Him create rivers in dry deserts and cause what looked like dried bark to bud and produce fruit.

Now here’s what happened next. Instead of feasting on the Word, I started filling up on bread. Bread here represents all that the world system tells us we need to survive. I still got up early, but I got a planner and started to map out my day. I was strategizing, and maximizing my time and energies to ensure that I was successfully fulfilling my vision for my life one day at a time. Can anyone relate?

Gradually, I was forcing God out of my morning routine. I still prayed and read the word, but it was no longer my focus. ‘Sitting at His Feet’ was secondary. My focus shifted from hearing His directives and guiding wisdom, to mapping out my plans and strategies. Please don’t misunderstand me, I still believe that planning is important, but it should align with, and be the road map for fulfilling God’s purpose.

My focus throughout the week has been on returning my time of praying, seeking God, and reading His words, to first priority. If your time with God has slid down a few rungs in priority, I want to encourage you to pause and ask the Holy Spirit to help you to readjust.

At the end of the week, God used real life to help me understand the importance of prayer and the power it provides.

This past weekend was homecoming (HoCo) at my son’s school. He purchased his ticket and his outfit. He made arrangements with friends to have pre-dance photos taken, followed by dinner at a nearby restaurant, before proceeding to the dance.

He got up earlier than usual on Saturday morning, not because of excitement, but because he was scheduled to take the SAT.

After the exam, he got dressed, and as he was leaving for his group photo op, he noticed that his ticket wasn’t where he put it. The ticket had fallen out of his bag pocket.

He frantically searched his entire room and then decided that it was a lost cause. He was doing a really good job of beating up on himself, and he actually stated that it would now take a miracle for him to attend his Homecoming Dance. His school has very strict rules related to event attendance.

Friends volunteered to come over and help him look, but being in the midst of my ‘prayer’ experience, I urged him to go and enjoy the pre-dance activities, and leave it to me to find the ticket. I was full of faith.

He left and I started to pray! I asked God to work a miracle on my son’s behalf. I commanded the tickets to come out of hiding and into my hands. I searched everywhere! I even searched in some very unlikely places, like in the pockets of the winter coats that had been put away since April. I was full of faith and expected the ticket to materialize anywhere I searched.

After about 90 minutes my strong faith began to wane, and while I still trusted God to find the ticket, the impossibility of such a happening became more real by the minute. As I experience instances of doubt, I shook them off and kept looking.

I knew without a doubt that I was going to locate the ticket and enjoy watching my son’s joy at being able to go after all, but God had a slightly different plan.

Eventually, I was exhausted and stopped looking. I had conversations with my Abba Father about faith, and trust, and scriptures, and I told him honestly that I was beginning to believe that perhaps He sometimes doesn’t answer prayers, and I asked if that was the lesson I was supposed to learn from the experience. Was I in need of a correction of my belief? Then He filled me with His peace.

I sent a text to my son that read, “Sorry, it’s nowhere to be found.” At that moment I felt dejected, even though I was feeling God’s unique peace about the situation.

In the end, I didn’t find the ticket, but my son still attended the dance. Yes! God worked a miracle, and yes, He always answers when we pray. No correction in my belief was needed.

I picked my son up from the restaurant, and his friends left for the dance without him. We drove to the parking lot of a shopping center that was close to his school, I turned off the car engine and instructed him to pray for a miracle. He had given up hope, but he obeyed and I interjected a couple of words that he included in his prayer. I then dropped him off at school and he nervously joined the long line to enter the dance.

They made an exception for him and allowed him in with just proof of his purchase, which he had on his phone. At previous events, students without tickets were turned away, even when they provided proof of having purchased a ticket, because of the very strict regulations that are clearly stated in every HoCo notification. But he got in!

As I thanked God and repented for my moments of unbelief, the Holy Spirit said two things to me.
1. “Ask anything, in my name (in accordance with my purpose) and I will give it to you” John 14:14.
2. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” Isaiah 55:8-9.

I was reminded that day, that when I pray, I am only responsible for trusting God to be faithful to His word. I prayed for a miracle that would allow my son to attend the dance. God was faithful and answered.

Do you get that truth? When I prayed, my moments of unbelief didn’t, and don’t ever stop or reduce His faithfulness. He does as He promises in spite of ‘me’.

Have you been beating up on yourself and thinking that God isn’t answering your prayers because of your shortcomings? Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to remove the blinders and give you sight of all the unnoticed ways in which He has been providing answers.

It’s important to note that sometimes our actions or reactions, cause us to miss the experience of our answers to prayer. If I had allowed my son to sit at home in his sorrow, as he planned, instead of dropping him off at school, he wouldn’t have gotten into the dance. We would have never known that God had placed someone at the door to make an exception for him. The evening would have ended with the disappointment of a seemingly unanswered prayer.

I admonish you today to step out in faith, and allow God to do the rest. Don’t just stand waiting for the answer, do as the children of Israel in Joshua 3:15-17, who had to step into the raging Jordan river before the waters stopped flowing, to allow them to cross.

What promptings are you receiving from the Holy Spirit even while you are reading this article today? What sight are you receiving? What tickets have you been searching frantically for, while being oblivious to all of the ways that God is answering your prayers?

Pause and allow the Holy Spirit to minister to you. Allow him to quell those feelings of dejection and disappointment, and release instead an overwhelming surge of hope. Your Abba Father sees your heart, He knows and loves you, just as you are, and His words to you today are ‘yes, and amen’, in accordance with 2 Corinthians 1:20, “…all of God’s promises have already been fulfilled in Christ….”

I end by exhorting you from 1 Thessalonians 5:16‭-‬18‭, ‬24 TPT. “Let joy be your continual feast. Make your life a prayer. And in the midst of everything be always giving thanks, for this is God’s perfect plan for you in Christ Jesus. The one who calls you by name is trustworthy and will thoroughly complete his work in you.”

If you’ve never asked Christ to be Lord of your life please pray this prayer. Lord Jesus, I am sorry for my sin please forgive me, cleanse me, and make me your child. I commit my life to you today. Amen.

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