"Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear ."
Isaiah 65:24
In the wee hours of March 30, 2020, I sank to my knees and cried out: "Lord, please send help." The petition was prompted by a command I had just received in a dream the same night to "start a prayer chain." Given the time of day, and not clear when this prayer chain was to start, I decided to set my own start time to later in the day. However, as much as I tried, I could not fall back to sleep. My mind was locked on my upcoming angiogram scheduled for 7:30 a.m. that morning. The tossing and turning went on relentlessly until it drove me into my prayer room.
Once there, I tried to read my Bible and pray but I could not focus. In the background was this nagging feeling that it was useless to pray now. I felt discouraged, but in my desperation, I asked Jesus to send someone to pray with me, as I could not seem to pray myself. The promise in Isaiah 65:24 came alive for me when I suddenly heard a beep on my phone. It was my son, Mark, calling me from Toronto saying that he wanted to pray with me. Maybe it could be expected given the circumstances surrounding my angiogram that morning. However, soon after the prayer with my son, I got another call! This time from my friend Lungi in South Africa who had no idea as to what I was going through, saying that they felt impressed to pray for me. After these two prayers, I checked my phone messages only to find that while I prayed with Mark and Lungi, a message had arrived from a couple in the US saying they were impressed to pray with me too.
Full of joy, I phoned the couple and they prayed with me. By the end of the prayer, my faith had solidified. A little later a friend forwarded me Isaiah 41:10 saying: “Fear not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee, yea; I will help thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”
With all that encouragement, I headed for the hospital where the cardiologists discovered that two of my coronary arteries were 90% blocked. They initiated a procedure during which two stents were inserted. As I watched the team at work, (Yes. I was wide-awake watching the procedure on the screen. I was not sedated.) I felt the presence of the Lord saying, "Fear not I am with you.”
I am grateful to God because when I cried out for help, He had gone before me to answer my need for encouragement and prayer partners. He had an answer already in the works when I cried out for help. He knows our every need.
Call to Action
God is willing to listen to any expressed wish of His children. He hears the faintest cry of any of His children. The songwriter says:
“O what peace we often forfeit. O what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.”1
Why not carry everything to Him? Then watch and see how He comes through for you — I KNOW He will!
All Scripture taken from the Kings James Version.
- Joseph M. Scriven, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” (Hagerstown, Maryland: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1985).
