Prayer & the Kingdom

Since we've been doing this series on Prayer at the Vineyard I've received several emails on how God has answered prayer. Some (actually all!) are really incredible testimonies of how God listens, hears, and responds to our prayers! You would think with all these stories of how God wants to connect with us more in prayer that we'd be doing this alot more! More than 10-15 minutes a day -- more like an hour or two!

Bill Hybels has a book out called Too Busy Not to Pray - that title always made me wonder, but now I understand. Why wouldn't we pray more to see what God will do? Why wouldn't we lay hands on the sick and ask God to heal? Don't we expect Him to do something? I think that at some level we all expect God to do something -- whether we actually pray or not? But what if prayer is the trigger that makes things happen? What is God is just waiting for one of us to ask in the name of Jesus?

I know that I've prayed many times and seen Him do incredible stuff -- I saw a man in Mexico walk for the first time in 12 years -- but I've also prayed for people that were in critical condition expecting God to heal and been disappointed later when I found out they had died.

How does that all add up? How does one continually pray with expectation and yet not get so disappointed when the opposite of what you pray for happens? How do you continue to pray and not give up?

I think it all ties back to what Jesus says in Mark 1:14 or 15: Repent & believe the Good News, for the Kingdom of God is near! You may be asking what does the Kingdom of God have to do with prayer and healing...come back later this week and I'll share what I'm starting to understand about the Kingdom.
God's blessings to ya!