The power of prayer is a real thing! It is a force in this world that we can not understand. We have a loving Heavenly Father who listens to every plea from our hearts. He hears every cry for help. He hears every heart felt prayer! Its amazing! And I testify that He does answer those prayers. I have numerous accounts in my life where my prayers have been answered. I won't share all of them with you, that would be a lot of writing for me and a lot of reading for you, and since I don't want your eyes to burn from staring at this screen too long, I'll just share a few.
The first is very very simple. I wish I could say this happened to me as a child, but no it actually happened just a few nights ago. I awoke in the middle of the night to the furnace kicking on in the corner of our basement bed room. I heard a hissing sound followed by a constant clicking. In my drowsy mid-sleep state the only things my mind could make of the noises were "Is it propane? and is the clicking the lighter trying to light it? Why hasn't it lit yet? Oh no! The room is filling with gas and its gunna blow up!"
"Dear Heavenly Father, Please let us be safe."
The words no sooner entered my mind when the hissing and clicking lit and turned into that warm heating hum of the furnace. My prayer, although probably not necessary and like I said before rather childish, was answered instantly. Immediately my soul was comforted that my life was no longer in danger. Fear left my body and I offered up another quick prayer of thanks and gratitude before slipping back sleep.
Simple, yet true. Prayers are heard and answered.
Another time, earlier on my mission I had a prayer answered more powerfully. I had just been transferred to a new area. I was in a new place with a new companion. I remember on our first day before we left our apartment, we knelt in prayer and called upon the powers of Heaven. We prayed that the Lord would, according to our faith, place some one in our path. Some one who needed the gospel and someone the Lord had prepared. We ended our prayer and we left the apartment that day filled with faith and hope. I knew that the Lord had heard that prayer, and now it was up to us to go find that person that the Lord had in mind. We went about our days work. We had planned to visit an investigator at his apartment building. Upon arriving my companion who was fairly new to the mission couldn't remember exactly which room was our investigators. He finally made up his mind that it was this one door and so we knocked. About 5 seconds later my companion realized that it was the wrong door, he was about to turn and leave when the door opened.
There stood a young man, about 20 years old, long hair, big earrings and other facial piercings, and a confused look on his face. My companion was thinking how to explain that we were at he wrong door when it hit us both very strongly, we were at the RIGHT door. He shook hands with the man and started talking to him. He had just moved there the day before from Salt Lake city, and he had heard of Mormons before but never knew anything about them. We asked if we could come back and share a message with him, he agreed and closed the door. We walked over to the next door down, the door we had meant to go to, knocked, and waited. There was no answer, and after some discussion we decided that the Lord had a different plan for us. We went back to the first door and knocked again. We went in and taught him about eh restoration, and we gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to read it. He seemed enlightened by our visit and was very eager to read the book.
God had prepared some one for the gospel that day. Through our prayer and our faith we were able to be instruments in the Lord's hands. If we hadn't prayed, and if we hadn't had the faith and hope that we would find someone, I don't think my companion would have been confused as to which door to knock on, and even if we had, if we weren't looking for someone to teach we would have explained that we had knocked on the wrong door, gone to the next and found no one home and would have went on our way, leaving one of God's prepared children alone and perhaps maybe even his prayers would have been unanswered.
Like I said before, god hears our prayers. Our prayers and our faith can bring the power of Heaven into our lives and into the lives of others. That power works only upon our asking, and our faith. But if we are humble enough to ask the Father, I promise you that he will answer. In his own way, and in his own time, but he answers.
"For he did cry from the morning, even until the going down of the sun, exhorting the people to believe in God... ...saying unto them that by faith all things are fulfilled."
Ether 12:3
"For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them..."
Ether 12:12
You have ability to call down the power of Heaven into your life. I testify that all we have to do is be humble and willing, faithful and believing, and we will see miracles in our lives!
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