Co-Working with God in Prayer
“They have rejected our request.” I wrote a message to my colleagues in the
office immediately our meeting came to an end.
Everybody back in the office was prayerfully waiting for the outcome of the
meeting regarding some dues that needed to be paid to us. We had been praying
for it for quite some time and personally I had gotten assurance from the LORD
that we would be paid. I was therefore full of the questions when the well
representative meeting failed to agree. The meeting was an appeal to a response
we had received rejecting our request.
I didn’t have any spiritual answer to meet any of my colleagues who we had
agreed would be backing our meeting with prayers. On reaching the office I
dropped my documents on my desk and rushed to the nearest church to pour my
heart to the LORD. “God what happened? ..........” I talked and talked to empty
my disappointment to my Father.
“I want when I answer you, it will be clear to everybody that it is I who did
it.” I heard clearly. I was overjoyed to hear from the LORD and I rose from my
knees to go to communicate the same to a sister we had been praying with in the
office.
“We must continue telling God about it.” We agreed with her.
Time went by without the office discussing the issue. Then time came for the
monitoring & evaluation team to visit. It was while they were doing their work
that I overheard one member of the team asking about the progress of the
payment. The sister we had made an agreement with sister answer him, “We are
still praying about.”
“If you refused the money when we gave it to you, do you think God is the one
who will give you?” He asked. This charged me like David when he heard Goliath
mock the Israelites.
“Did you hear that God?” I asked as I vowed to pray more about this. “Now LORD,
it is no longer about money but You being exalted in al this issue. How could
that man say that? ....” I remember that evening when I reached my house I
mobilized some few brethren to stand for the cause of God in that issue. Later,
I decided to ask everybody in the office to participate in prayers. I wrote
each, from the senior most to the junior most, an sms; “Pray for this payment
like you are the only one praying.”
As we continued in prayer reminding each other as it occurred to our mind, I
wondered how the help would come but wasn’t that God’s business? Then one day,
one of us suggested that we write a third appeal tasking me with that
responsibility.
“You know very well, Margaret, that they were very clear about this”. My boss
reminded me the obvious.
“We have been praying about this. Please just let us write one more time………” I
tried to convince him.
He seemed not very convinced but to get me off his back he said, “Then draft a
letter for my signature.” That is the nod I needed and therefore went ahead
writing the same issues we were very familiar with.
We came to learn later that when the letter was received, the recipient was so
irritated that she decided to put this matter to rest once and for all times.
She decided to table this to the highest office where when the decision was
made; there would be no more room for appeal. She gave the chronology of the
whole issue and various correspondences and being the key person with her views
and that of other keys persons, she skewed the discussion towards rejection.
The highest office approved our payment to her surprise. Everybody acknowledged
that it was the hand of God.
Brethren, prayer is a journey and we need to spend time with God to get to know
His mind and the way forward on the issues at hand. Jesus spent time with God
and like Him, we can’t afford not to make consultations with our Father.
“And when He had sent the multitude away, He went up to the mountain by Himself
to pray….” Mathew 14:23
I was a beneficiary in the above prayer need alright but a time came when it was
no longer about my need but God being seen as He had said. It is beautiful when
we reach a point in our prayer request when, like in the issue of Hannah, God
becomes a beneficiary of our need. Such a time can only be reached in prayer not
in advance otherwise it becomes religion as in bribing God or trying to arm
twist Him which not health for any relationship. Hannah was in prayer and the
Holy Spirit must have ministered to her because God was truly in need of a
priest at that point in time.
“Then she made a vow and said, `O LORD of hosts, if You will indeed look on the
affliction of Your maidservant and remember me and not forget Your maidservant,
but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the LORD
all the days of his life, …” 1st Samuel 1:11
Brethren, there are very many issues around us that God would like birthed
through prayers. Prayer is equivalent to the battles portrayed in the old
covenant. We need to seek Him for direction of the prayer so that like David we
move with God not out of what we see and imagine. Yes co-working with God in
prayer.
“So David inquired of the LORD, saying, `Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I
overtake them?”And the LORD answered him, ‘Pursue, for you shall surely overtake
them and without fail recover all.” 1st Samuel 30:8
May the LORD God help us to stay tuned to Him at all times in the confidence our
LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ
Mumbi Vickie Ngangu
margieephtfcp@yahoo.com