God Answers Prayers with "Yes", "Wait" and "No"

Good morning, Happy Souls!

Bill Keller wrote a devotional today that I
recommend to you.  He has given me permission to
copy his e-mails, and I'm sure he would be happy if
you would share this with people you know as well.

I regularly pray to thank God for what he has given
to me.  Sometimes I also ask for things.  God often
redirects me with an answer I don't expect, but the
answer always comes.

Be sure to pray often!

Please read on.

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL   WEDNESDAY APRIL 5, 2006
( 1 Chronicles 16:11, Psalms 91:15, Isaiah 65:24 )

A recent study of heart surgery patients concludes that
prayer doesn't work!  I almost have to laugh sometimes at
how ignorant man can be.  I'm really not sure whether I
am more amazed at the folly of those who put this study
together, or the fact they spent TWO MILLION FOUR HUNDRED
THOUSAND DOLLARS to do it.  They should have called me. 
Not only would that $2.4 million been used to reach millions
of people worldwide every day for a year with prayer, they
could have seen first hand over that time the fact PRAYER
DOES WORK!

In a recent article for a news wire service, (
http://www.wdcmedia.com/newsArticle.php?ID=879 ) our techs
backtracked over the past 79 months of Liveprayer and
figured out that we have answered over 60 million prayer
requests since we started.  We currently have an archive
of praise reports that is now right at 2 million.  However
it is not numbers that tell me prayer works, it is
TRANSFORMED LIVES!!!!

The greatest proof of the power of prayer is in the very real
lives of those God has touched.  I have praise reports from
people who had diseased bodies and are now completely healthy. 
I have praise reports from people who were given only months
to live....years ago!  I have praise reports from people who
were in bondage to drugs, alcohol, sex, food, and any other
addiction you can name that were delivered and now live their
lives in freedom.  I have praise reports from couples who
were just hours from being divorced and had their marriages
restored.

THE FACT IS THERE IS NO OTHER EXPLANATION OTHER THAN GOD! 
GOD IS STILL A GOD OF MIRACLES AND IT IS ONLY GOD WHO CAN
COMPLETELY TRANSFORM A HUMAN LIFE!!!

That is why I share with you often that your greatest
witness you have to your lost family members, friends,
co-workers, or someone you are just sharing your faith with
is your life!  They can argue issues in the Bible, the
existence of God, who Jesus is, and anything else they want. 
The one thing they can't refute is what God has done in
YOUR life!  You are a living testimony of God's transforming
power.  Your life is the proof that all God says and
promises in His Word is true!

Listen, it is not worth this precious time to get into all
the details of the study but the bottom line is it was
flawed from the start.  Man is a fool to think he can put
God in a box and try to study Him like he does a lab rat. 
Those who were involved with this study clearly have no
clue what prayer is.  Prayer is our communication with God
our Creator.  We pray because God tells us to in His Word. 
We pray out of our dependence upon God.  We pray in faith
believing God for our needs.  We pray knowing that God is
the only answer.  Prayer is not like rubbing a magic lamp
with a genie inside and having our wishes granted.

You can't try to measure prayer based on if your prayers
were answered the way YOU wanted them answered.  The fatal
flaw of this study was failing to recognize that one way
God answers prayer is with NO!  No is just as much an
answer as YES or WAIT.  As we mature in the Lord we see
more of our prayers answered because we evolve from simply
praying for what we want exactly the way we want it, to
praying for our needs and asking God to meet our needs the
way He wants to.  As we grow in our relationship with the
Lord we realize His plan is better than our plan, and we
seek the Lord's will above our own will.

Last year I was in the ICU at a local hospital praying for
a young man who had been accidentally shot.  He was in a
coma, the doctors had little hope he would recover.  I
laid my hands on that young man, prayed the prayer of
faith over his body and believed God that he would be
healed, raised up out of that hospital bed and made whole.

As I was leaving the ICU waiting room a man called out my
name.  He watched the TV program often and asked if I would
pray for his daughter who had overdosed on drugs and had
little chance of living through the night.  I went back
into that ICU, I laid my hands on that girl's body, prayed
the prayer of faith over her for God to clean out her
system, reverse the damage of the drugs, and made whole.

Two days after praying for that young man I got the call
that the Lord had taken him home.  Today, after nearly a
year since this took place, that young girl has fully
recovered and has turned her life completely over to the
Lord.  I prayed over both of these young people.  I poured
out my faith in praying for God to heal them both.  I left
that ICU that day knowing that I had done all God asked me
to do and now it was in His hands.  It was God's will, it
was God's plan for that young man's journey through this
life to be over and for this young woman to continue on. 
The fact is, God answered BOTH of those prayers even though
they both weren't the answer I had desired.

I love you and care about you so much.  The reason I felt
the need to address this today is because of the incredible
amount of press this flawed study has generated.  Obviously,
those in the world who deny God, reject His Son, and live
in rebellion to the Bible will CLING to studies like this
no matter how flawed they are to help justify their sad
choice.  They find a false peace in anything that questions
the existence of God, His Word, or that faith in Jesus is
man's only hope for redemption.  Studies like this simply
give sinful men contentment in living their life in
rebellion to God and the Bible.

The only way anyone could conclude prayer does not work is
to not understand what prayer is.  Based on the conclusion
of this study, it is apparent they expected every heart
surgery patient who was prayed for to be healed.  In
trying to scientifically measure the human effect of prayer
they forgot the most important component of prayer...God! 
The fact is God does answer...100% of the time.  The only way
prayer doesn't work is when you don't pray!!!

In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller

***If I can help you in any way you can contact me
through my personal email at bkeller@liveprayer.com

***ARE YOU 100% CERTAIN WHERE YOU WILL SPEND
ETERNITY?  The fact is you will die one day.  At
that moment, you will either spend eternity with
the Lord or be cast into everlasting darkness
forever separated from God your creator.  To know
for certain you will be forever with Jesus, go to:
http://www.liveprayer.com/bdy_salvatn.html

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(C) Copyright 2006, Bill Keller Ministries.
All rights reserved


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May God bless you as you learn from this message!

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2006 Donald W. Mitchell