On May 5, 1995, I was run over by my own van and was hurt so badly that when the EMS worker who headed up the team saw me, he thought that I was dead. I sustained multiple injuries, including a number of broken bones, and my recovery was slow. That experience made me aware as nothing else could have how important it is to pray for the sick.
I had always been a believer in the power of prayer, and I had “prayed through” many difficult situations prior to my accident. I was, therefore, surprised at just how unprepared I was to pray for myself when I needed prayer most. If I had not lived through this experience, I would never have known that often people who are virtual prayer warriors at other times are unable to pray for themselves when they need healing.
The surgeries and medications played a big role in rendering me useless for prayer. I was not angry, and I was not having a crisis of faith, but I was unable to focus, and I could not feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. Fortunately, other Christians came forward and did the praying for me that I was unable to do for myself.
All sorts of people from all sorts of places began to pray for me. Our church prayed. Mary Pride, a friend in the homeschooling community, put out the word to the readers of her magazine, and people all over this nation began to pray. Various people in El Paso whom I had never met heard about my situation, and they began to pray. Several nurses at the hospital told me that they were praying for me.
One night my daughter Francesca was visiting me at the hospital when two men whom I had never seen entered my room. As sick as I was, I remember thinking that I would not want to meet them in a dark alley. One was tall and thin with long unkempt hair and the other was short and muscular and covered with tattoos. They did not smile or make small talk. They simply announced, “We heard about you and we came to pray for you.”
Then they touched the edge of the blanket covering me as lightly as possible and began to pray aloud. As they prayed, the entire room filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit; the power was unmistakable. When they finished praying, the two men turned and left the room. My daughter finally broke the silence, “Now, that’s prayer!”
I am so grateful that God provided hundreds of people to pray for me because, if He had not, I have no doubt that I would have died. I would never have finished raising my children. I would never have seen my grandchildren. I would never have written my books. I would never have been able to share my faith with the many people who have come into my life during the past eighteen years.
The next time you are asked to pray for someone who is sick, remember that you may be standing in the gap for a brother or sister in Christ who cannot pray for himself. You may be standing in the gap for an unbeliever who will never see Heaven if he does not live so that he can come to know Christ as his savior. You may be helping someone finish raising their children or allowing them to see their grandchildren. You may be allowing someone more time to tell the world about Jesus.
Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker. Her own story of teaching her ten children from the first grade through master’s degrees before their seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. Her novel, The Warrior, about how one woman's prayers change the lives of those around her, is available on Kindle and in paperback. For more information visit her website at Frontier 2000 or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.
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