1 Thessalonians 5.17: "Pray without ceasing."Over
past 18 plus years, this scripture verse has been my motto. Daniel prayed three times a day. David prayed, Moses prayed, Paul prayed, and many other heroes of faith recognized importance of prayer. In fact, if these two words were inscribed on my tombstone, "He prayed", that would be my testimony.
God hears and answers prayers of his children. Although enemy works hard to prevent answers from coming, if you pray under guidance of Holy Ghost, you can be assured that your prayer was in accordance with God's will. I was facing some particularly difficult trials and I prayed for Lord's help. That evening, I read tenth chapter of Daniel where he was praying for 21 days about an urgent matter. An angel came and told Daniel that from very first day he began to pray, his words were heard but a spiritual warfare ensued with prince of kingdom of Persia, chief principality of Satan over that country. The angel had to call Michael, one which stands guard over Daniel's people (Israelites), to come help. When I read that passage of scripture and first verse of Daniel, chapter 12, I realized I was in a battle. As I meditated on God's word, Holy Spirit quickened me when I said, "By adoption, I am a child of Israel, Lord send Michael to help."
That night I drifted off to sleep and had a vivid dream. In this dream, I was fighting many demons. I was losing battle and called on Lord. I said, "Help me, Jesus, send Michael to help me." About that time, I saw a platoon (about 30) of soldiers marching towards me. They were dressed up in Army Blue Dress uniforms. The head one came up to me, rendered a hand salute, and said, "Michael reporting as ordered, sir." In my dream, I could clearly see his name tag and Chief Warrant Officer Four (the highest warrant officer rank at that time) bars on his shoulders. I said, "Chief, I need help." He turned to his platoon and gave command, "Round them up, boys." In short order, demons were captured and herded into a white bus that had "PRISONERS" written on it. I woke from my dream and had sweet peace and victory in this battle. What a mighty God we serve!
Later, I met two men who believed strongly in power of prayer. Their names were Michael (Mike) and Daniel (Dan). Ironic, isn't it? As I'm writing this, it still amazes me that here I am writing about Daniel and Michael and prayer, and God sent me two friends named same!
Well, Mike was more like a David in his praying. He was a great singer, like David, and had a heart after God. Dan was more like Jeremiah, weeping prophet. As Dan took his burdens to Lord, he would begin to weep. As tears would flow and words of prayer came brokenly, you could see and feel intensity of his prayers.
