Have you ever prayed and the steps of your life were altered, and you found yourself on a new path? I have a friend who when working in missions in South America, despaired of life. He told the Lord, I cannot hold my life together unless I see you do something supernatural. In his own words he described it as a nation that devoured its inhabitants. He was drained and defeated in a nation where there was no dynamic leadership. He defined it as a nation of gross darkness. One little boy when asked what gross darkness was he replied, "layer after layer of darkness". God began to give him a down load, taking him to the Christmas Story. He noticed that again and again the word (WITH) appeared 30 times in 27 verses, in Luke chapter 1:34, Mary asked, "how shall these things be, seeing I know not a man?" The answer is beautiful .chapter 1 vs. 37, "WITH GOD NOTHING SHALL BE IMPOSSIBLE."
Later that year we took him with us on a mission's trip to Sweden. In one of his messages he told a story that (for me) was life changing. It was 1994, the week after Easter. He told of a pastor who had a daughter that chose to rebel against what she was taught, having been brought up in a Christian Home. She had met a boy and chosen to go join him in Kansas from the East Coast. The father was totally broken and as many families have experienced, he was desperately seeking God for her will to be changed in that matter. She was insistent on joining the young man. He took her to the bus station for her to travel to where the boy was in Kansas. He prayed all the way for her to change her mind. He dropped her off, broken hearted, and returned home. When he arrived, he went into the back bedroom and fell on his knees, praying even deeper now. Herein is his intercession he prayed:. "Lord, if you don't touch my daughter and turn her around, then a million years from now, I will be heard disgracing heaven with my tears. Something biblical happened as he prayed. He heard someone knocking on the front door. He got up to answer it and there stood his daughter. God had touched her heart and she returned back to her Father's House. As he told this story, it clicked with something on the inside of me.
It became the language to the inarticulate prayer of my heart. So we begin to pray this publicly and privately. I asked the church to join me. We had a wonderful church body and were involved in many church functions that were evangelistic in nature and missions oriented, but we wanted to see a move of God. We were planting churches in Mexico where we still have mission's teams, that along with us, followed their God Given Passions. Families came along side us and moved to Mexico, building churches and leaving children behind, who still work there over thirty years later. I was like my friend; asking, how can I hold my personality together unless I see you do something supernatural? If it is not supernatural, it is superficial. We had a school, community out-reaches, many legitimate things that churches do, but we wanted more. Here is the Providential Prayer we began to pray:
On July 17th, 1994, the heavens broke open over us and God mugged us on a Sunday Morning.
I can say now, it was as a PROVIDENTIAL PRAYER, and our congregation and friends of Heritage were a part of it, in a special way.
I tell people, if you are asking God for Revival, you are asking for a Divine Disruption. I should add; you cannot ask God for Revival and defy change.
I am asking God to give you words that are inarticulate prayers of your heart, those prayers you have never been able to put into words.
I believe in you, and I believe God knows "how to deliver the Godly out of temptation and reserve the unjust unto the Day of Judgment."
Walking in Providence and Providentially Secure,
Pastor Cleddie Keith
Later that year we took him with us on a mission's trip to Sweden. In one of his messages he told a story that (for me) was life changing. It was 1994, the week after Easter. He told of a pastor who had a daughter that chose to rebel against what she was taught, having been brought up in a Christian Home. She had met a boy and chosen to go join him in Kansas from the East Coast. The father was totally broken and as many families have experienced, he was desperately seeking God for her will to be changed in that matter. She was insistent on joining the young man. He took her to the bus station for her to travel to where the boy was in Kansas. He prayed all the way for her to change her mind. He dropped her off, broken hearted, and returned home. When he arrived, he went into the back bedroom and fell on his knees, praying even deeper now. Herein is his intercession he prayed:. "Lord, if you don't touch my daughter and turn her around, then a million years from now, I will be heard disgracing heaven with my tears. Something biblical happened as he prayed. He heard someone knocking on the front door. He got up to answer it and there stood his daughter. God had touched her heart and she returned back to her Father's House. As he told this story, it clicked with something on the inside of me.
It became the language to the inarticulate prayer of my heart. So we begin to pray this publicly and privately. I asked the church to join me. We had a wonderful church body and were involved in many church functions that were evangelistic in nature and missions oriented, but we wanted to see a move of God. We were planting churches in Mexico where we still have mission's teams, that along with us, followed their God Given Passions. Families came along side us and moved to Mexico, building churches and leaving children behind, who still work there over thirty years later. I was like my friend; asking, how can I hold my personality together unless I see you do something supernatural? If it is not supernatural, it is superficial. We had a school, community out-reaches, many legitimate things that churches do, but we wanted more. Here is the Providential Prayer we began to pray:
God if you don't send revival, a revival like we know you can, a revival as we saw in our childhood; then a million years from now we are going to disgrace heaven with our tears.
On July 17th, 1994, the heavens broke open over us and God mugged us on a Sunday Morning.
I can say now, it was as a PROVIDENTIAL PRAYER, and our congregation and friends of Heritage were a part of it, in a special way.
I tell people, if you are asking God for Revival, you are asking for a Divine Disruption. I should add; you cannot ask God for Revival and defy change.
I am asking God to give you words that are inarticulate prayers of your heart, those prayers you have never been able to put into words.
I believe in you, and I believe God knows "how to deliver the Godly out of temptation and reserve the unjust unto the Day of Judgment."
Walking in Providence and Providentially Secure,
Pastor Cleddie Keith