Why Your Prayers Are Powerful

Prayers are powerful.  Yesterday (Sunday, December 30th) a miracle happened with the Sack family.  I believe that as you read this entire story, you are going to be ignited in your faith to finish your dreams, walk through your goals, and believe God for the impossibles in your life.  So enjoy!

Our Leap Of Faith

Over a year ago (prior to 2012) I began hearing the Lord say “give more.”  For our entire marriage, we have always given 10% of our income (the Tithe).  However, it had always been off of our net (our take home).  We never saw or questioned anything with this.  Wanting to deepen our dependence upon Him, we jumped a huge leap of faith into tithing off of our gross.  This was a lot more for us every month.  We believed and trusted God with our monies.

New Goals

About 4 months ago the Lord pressed upon my heart to get out of debt.  We did not have any credit card or other miscellaneous debt.  We only had our mortgage, one car loan, and our student loans (from my Master’s degree, teaching credential and Robert’s PhD…that equals a lot of money).  These were justifiable debts in our mind.  The only problem is that the Word of God is very clear on how we are not supposed to be in debt.  We are the lender not the borrow as found in Deuteronomy.  Whoops!  In order to align ourselves with heaven, we began living an incredibly frugal lifestyle in order to meet these new goals.

Obstacles

About 2 months into our commitment of tightening our budget and living ridiculously frugal, we hit a few road blocks.

1) While refinancing our home (to get an incredible 2% lower interest rate), we found unknown and unpaid supplemental property taxes.  We were paying taxes but apparently not the property taxes.  Whoops.  Big whoops!  We couldn’t roll that into the loan so our savings was hit hard.

2) Our 2005 gold Chevy Impala went out.  After deciding to pay the couple of thousands of dollars to repair it (instead of selling it), we trusted that it would be good for another 50,000 miles.  It wasn’t.

3) With less than a few weeks out of the shop, the Impala’s transmission blew.  A ticket price of $2300.  With our second baby coming in 10 weeks, we were stuck.

The Testing Of Our Faith

To top things off, this month (December) I listened to Robert Morris’ teaching (for the 10th time) called “The Power Of First” (taught at Elevation Church in North Carolina).  I decided to test God and see.  (Remember, biblically speaking, the only time we’re allowed to test God is in our finances as talked about in Malachi).

So I did.  I tested God.  With our church’s new online giving system I decided that at the moment we received Robert’s direct deposit, I would submit our tithe online.  It actually came in on November 30th.  I submitted it.  I was so excited to see the Lord work.  I giggled with excitement as I gave Him our freshest fruit from our vine.  That’s when ALL of these obstacles started to happen. 

The Downfall Of Doubt

After Christmas, for three days, I felt separated from God.  I would seek His face in the morning only to ask where He went.  I missed him and felt so abandoned without him.  I was discouraged.  “Why God?!  Where are you?!”  He directed me to James 1 but I still felt alone.

I would cry out to the Lord and just weep because this is not the God that I know.  This is not the God that provides for us.  This was not the God that does miracles.  I kept praying for the car to be revived and resurrected from the dead.  But nothing happened.

Then one night on my way to pick up the keys to the corpse of a car, I got lost.  It was dark and I didn’t know where I was.  I began crying.  I just cried on my steering wheel as I tried to figure out where in the world I was.  I finally found my way to a U-haul place right across from Target.  I emailed Robert to ask where I needed to go and before I sent the email from my iPhone I looked and saw what it said.  It read:

“It’s so dark, I can’t see anything and am by Yahweh now cuz I can’t make u turns.”

What?!!  Yahweh?!  I wrote TARGET, not Yahweh!

Apparently, God and autocorrect work together.

The Lord was just whispering to me a confirmation that He has got it all under control.  That just made me cry even more.  “Really God?!  You’re here?!  Where?!!!  This is not what I tell people about you.  You don’t disappoint.  Especially with our money!  You provide for ALL things, EVERYTHING!  God, how am I supposed to make you look good in this one?!  I’m pretty frustrated right now Lord.”

But in my drive back to the correct location I just worshipped the Lord.  I sang over and over again “I Need You More” by Kim Walker/Jesus Culture.  I just sang through my sadness, pain and disappointment.  “I need you Lord.  More than yesterday, I need your more.  More than words can say.  I need you Lord more than ever before, I need your Lord, I need you Lord….”  And on and on I sang through my crackling tearful voice.

I wiped by tears, got the keys to the car and picked up Robert from work.  We drove home silently.  Robert was in much better spirits than I was.  (Remember… he’s not pregnant.)

Friends From Heaven

That next morning a good friend of mine texted me.  I opened up and shared with her my disappointment and discouragement.  She took me to coffee/tea right away.  We had a great two hour conversation and time reflecting on the Lord’s goodness.  She said something to me in that coffee shop.  She said “I believe the Lord is going to gift you with a car.”  I was really in a place of doubt at the time because I couldn’t see it.  Then after our time together she prayed over me and we asked the Lord for a car, for finances, and for all the “yes’s and amen’s” that Robert and I needed.  She was a friend and voice from the heaven that rainy Saturday morning.

Walking In Obedience

Our church leadership decided to have the church commit to believing God in 13 different ways for 13 days starting January 1st.  I decided to do Robert and my prayer board as an example.  While at JoAnn’s on Saturday picking up my crafting supplies I got everything I needed on my list.  Then I saw a cute sticker set of keys to a car.  I decided to add that to the list since that’s what we need right now.  I figured, “Why not believe you, God, for a new car–paid in full.”  I picked up the keys, went home and crafted my board.

The next morning I headed to church (picked up by my dad since I didn’t have a car) and got ready to teach.  The pastor of the church used my board as an example to the congregation.  In the 1st service he just showed the board.  However, 2nd service, something different happened.

Our Miracle

After that service, I was finishing up my teaching when a friend of mine, a woman/mom/teacher in our church came up to me with a sweet smile and said “You guys need a car?”  I have to admit that I was a little (a lot) embarrassed that our car was dead and we were in need.  I sheepishly said “yes” and explained a little of the situation to her.

She said “Well, we have a car for you.”  To be honest, in my mind I was thinking that they had a farmer’s truck without seatbelts, chipped paint, and was a noise maker.  To which I would have still been grateful for!  I have no idea why I was picturing this but that’s what I was expecting.  I paused and said “What?”  She said, “Yes, we (her husband and she) have a 2001 black Toyota Sequoia that we don’t need anymore. We were going to sell it, but you can have it.”

WHAT?!?!?!?  I went on to get more clarification.  A car?  You mean you want us to borrow the car?  She said “no, you can have it.”  What?!?!?  Who does that??  Who gives a car away?!!  Apparently, a family so committed to the Lord and listens to Him is the one who gives cars away.  They said that in church when Ken (our pastor) said, “the Sack’s need a new car so if you have one, feel free to give it to them.”  People laughed, but they looked at each other and knew that was for us.

God’s Blessing

I told Robert what happened and he was in shock.  He couldn’t believe it.  We both drove home in shock with what the Lord can and will do.  He gave us a brand new (to us) 2001 Toyota Sequoia.  That afternoon they and their two beautiful daughters dropped off the car.  I didn’t know what to do for them so I baked them chocolate chip cookies.  Robert laughed at me and said “Really?  Chocolate chip cookies for a car?”  I laughed too.  I didn’t know what else to do.  I didn’t have anything else but those yummy cookies.  It wasn’t a fair trade but I didn’t know what else to do.

They gave us the paperwork, the keys, and our new SUV.  It seats 8.  The woman said “now you can keep having more babies!”  What a blessing!

God’s Ready To Lavish His Love

How beautiful is our God!  He waited until the very end of 2012 to give us our firework finale.  God was saying:

“Thank you, Sack family, for trusting me with your resources and your finances. 

Thank you, Sack family, for taking that step of faith and giving out of your gross. 

I told you I would bless you and I did.  Enjoy your new car.”

I believe the Lord wants you to hear this story as a reminder and living proof that He is MORE than you think he is.  He wants to bless you more than you know.  As you prepare for this year, DREAM BIG!  Don’t let the enemy keep you silenced on what your heart so desires.  Seek Him and trust Him.  Allow Him to knock your socks off!  Ask for more than the exceedingly and abundantly.

This blessing has positioned us to continue paying off debt.  The Lord is too good.  He could handle my tantrums and he can handle yours as you learn to walk and run in faith.

Humbly in His mercy, grace, and love,