THE "SECRET PLACE" OF PRAYER

Chapter One

I didn’t realize when I began this message on why prayer seems so often not to be answered that it would take me several “chapters” to explain about prayer.

Recently I went to a Bible study at a local Methodist Church about the Psalms, during which the minister talked about prayer and the use of the Psalms as prayers, and I realized a lot of people don’t seem to know what prayer really is. Look at the disciples of Jesus, good Jews all, doubtless with lots of good synagogue attendance, yet they asked Him, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Certainly in this local church there was a need for teaching regarding prayer – they had a list of names on both sides of a sheet of paper of sick people – so he had the right idea! This broke my heart because, of course, answers are possible to all these problems. The pastor before this one at that same church actually considered introducing “reiki” into his church! The Lord has brought this back into my mind over a year later because it was time to deal with this issue. I asked that pastor what he was thinking and why he didn’t introduce the Holy Spirit into his church – as Wesley, his founder, would have done!

I never knew these things before either – as a former Catholic I was taught to pray before the statutes and as a young child it seemed to me that if I did this, the statue would move, or take action of some kind! We had amulets too: a sort of charm that contained an alleged hair from this saint or that, which would protect you through the day if prayed to the saint.

We can’t be blamed really, we’re human and we need and want answers – we’ll do nearly anything to get them. My mother, a fervent Catholic, if she got no answer to her prayers, would take me to a local wise woman for some divination – the lady would place an egg white in a glass of water and read “God’s will” for me there. My step-father, when he dislocated his elbow in a fall, went to a local bonesetter. The man was not bad at bonesetting, but he also added charms for protection to his prescription. I remember the maribou coming, with his castanets, to the local Muslims in Algeria; they would come to be “healed” by the spirits he would call. I first saw people become possessed at these sessions. Later, in Haiti, I would see the voodoo priest perform a ceremony to transfer the sickness from a child to an animal, and saw the animal actually appear to cry like an infant. I left because it was a very disturbing sight, but I say all this to show how far we will go to receive an answer.

While writing all this for you, it came to me that my life changed by prayer. I was arrested once in Switzerland, and the policeman who spoke to me told me that he’d prayed the night before for the Lord to send him someone he could testify to. This man said that when he went to sleep that night, he’d had a dream about me – that I would become a preacher! I didn’t listen to him then, but later, when I returned to Switzerland, I ended up being converted in a small church full of old people who’d been praying for me for the past year. I found out after my conversion that my brother the police officer had preached at their church and asked them to pray for me. They had been praying for me all that time, and the Lord put me in their church to hear His message and receive a visit from Him, for I was struck by His Light in that very church!
I have spent the past 35 years since then looking for the message I was to carry – I looked in a desert cave among the monks, where I fasted and prayed, and I did see an angel, but he only blew on me and healed me of sun-sickness – he spoke not at all! I was disappointed I can tell you! I was preaching and praying for miracles and baptizing and I knew I was to be doing these things, but all this is in the Bible – anyone can and should read and do them. I was searching for my specific message – I knew Jesus had not saved me to read the Bible to others and just repeat what they already knew. He saved me for a specific message – just as He did Paul, and Peter and the other first Christians. Just as He has you. I know you want your answer too; don’t feel discouraged – it took me 35 years; it’ll take a few paragraphs to get the point across! I have discovered that the message I am to bring is a preparation of the people of God for His return. But I did not discover this right away.