There are points in a spiritual battle when it looks as though the enemy has had the final word. It looks like you will not make it. He’s laughing at you. People you thought were friends and loved ones are laughing too. Coworkers and neighbors are saying, “I thought you were saved. I thought you went to church. I thought you went to that prophetic church. I thought you prophesied. How can I be doing better than you?” They’re smoking $100 Cuban cigars, and you’re trying to scrape together enough money for bus fare. Tell them, “Don’t worry. Hold on. It’s not over yet. You go ahead and talk, laugh and think you have it made. Just wait, because I know God is about to do something in my life.”
People may think that your holy living is a waste of time. They may question where your God is. But what they don’t know—and you may not readily discern it either—is that you as a covenant believer will only be drawn in closer to God as a result of their mocking and torment. What they don’t understand—and you may be coming into this revelation right now—is that they are driving you to pursue even harder all that God has for you. Torment and oppression and your all-out hunger for the power of God to manifest in your life will drive you to a place of weeping, crying and desperation. We see this with Hannah (see 1 Sam. 1:1-20).
It wouldn’t seem to make sense from a natural perspective, but sometimes your lowest place is your best place. When it looks as if nobody cares, nobody tries to help you, nobody looks out for you and it’s just you and God, that is sometimes one of the best places to be. When everything and everyone is out of the picture and it is just you and God, this is the place where He can give you your Samuel. This is the moment when He can release to you not just a son, but a Samuel. Your prayers will be heard, and the answer you receive will be of such supernatural proportions that it will exceed your every imagination. You will get to the point where you surrender and say: Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20).
God is saying, “You are praying for one thing that is within your level of understanding, but I’m about to release something greater in your life, something prophetic that will not only affect you now, but will go out and affect your generation and those to come.”
God allows some of the hardships we face to drive up the intensity of our pursuit, the intensity of our prayers, and the level of our faith and expectancy. God raises these levels because He wants to bring something out of us we never dreamed possible. Depending on people to be there for us when only God can make the difference will never work. There are some things man cannot do for us, and coming to this realization teaches us how to trust God. It teaches us how to draw near to Him.
This is the place of desperation I believe Hannah had come to, the place where her prayers no longer had words, the place where she was willing to do anything to receive what she needed from God. It is important that we dig deep into her process and examine the place of desperation she had come to and what was released into her life. Sometimes we just want answers to our problems or relief from our low place, but we don’t want to go through what it takes to build the spiritual strength and maturity necessary to carry and then steward what we’ve prayed for.
This woman had no children, and she wanted a child more than anything. She kept praying and praying, and nothing changed. And this other woman kept mocking and mocking, and nothing changed. Hannah was shamed and ashamed. She felt hopeless, and then she became desperate. I believe this is when desperation becomes your friend.
No one likes to be desperate, but it seems as if God looks upon desperate people. The woman in Luke 8:43-48 with an issue of blood was desperate. She was bleeding, which according to Jewish law meant that she was unclean. Year after year, she had dealt with shame and rejection because of her condition. She was labeled and shunned by the community. She had no business being in a crowd, but she was so desperate after 12 years of hemorrhaging that she pressed through the crowd, touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and was healed. Because of the low place she had been reduced to, she developed a strong desire to remain in that place no longer. She got desperate and made a move that placed her at the feet of Jesus.
The woman’s desperation forced her out of hiding, and she was met with compassion and healing. She was released back into life with the peace of God imparted to her. No more wrestling with the rejection of unanswered prayer. No more shames. No more labeling. No more mocking. With her healing came more than she imagined.
Don’t let people who don’t know your story stop you from going after what you know God has promised. Imagine if Hannah would have listened to Peninnah and just given up, thinking it wasn’t the will of God for her to have a child. What if she thought that was just the way things had to be, her waking up each day to affliction and mocking?
But God sees and hears, and when you call upon His name in your desperation, He will not turn away from you. He will not try to divert your attention to something else. He will not say that you have gone overboard or that you are overreacting. God will honor His promise to you.
Prayer Power for the Week Beginning Feb. 2, 2020
This week, increase your faith by reviewing the Scriptures showing God’s answers to the desperate prayers of His people. Thank Him that what He did for others and will do for you, according to His plan and purpose for you. Continue to pray for an outpouring of His Spirit in our nation and around the world, for our leaders to have and heed godly wisdom when making national and global decisions, and for unity. Read: 2 Chronicles 7:14; Psalm 34:6, 145:18. {eoa}
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