Where Do Prayers & Proclamations Go?
Ever wonder what happens to your prayers that don’t appear to be answered? I want to answer that question to encourage us to persist in the place of prayer as we enter a new year of opportunity. One of my friends has commented more than once, “Prayers have no shelf life.” I think the same is true of prophetic proclamations. Yet if that is true we need to look at where they go. So on to a story.
Years ago in a message I listened to from Larry Randolp he related how the Lord had him move from the East coast of the US to California. He is a prophetic guy who didn’t want to move. He said in a vision an angel appeared to him with a drawn sword and said, “Move or die.” He and his family moved. While this may not fit with how we see ‘gentle’ Jesus it was how Jesus dealt with Larry. He already had an established ministry so when he arrived, as per the Lord’s direction, he expected to be welcomed somewhere in a church and given a position. Nothing happened.
It is at this point that we would likely have concluded that we had been deluded and ‘missed’ God. Larry didn’t. He sought the Father’s face and He told Larry he was to go out into his backyard and prophesy to principalities and powers. I am sure he could have done that back East and Larry likely thought that as well! Yet Larry spent about a year doing just that; declaring truth to principalities and powers in his backyard. Then the Lord opened up other things for him.
My story does have a point and comes from reading in Ezekiel. In chapter 25 Ezekiel is directed to release prophetic declarations against the Ammonites, then the Moabites, then Edom and then the Philistines. This continues. In chapter 29 Ezekiel releases a prophetic declaration against Egypt that continues for chapters. My point has to do with where Ezekiel is doing this from.
Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the River Chebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. -Ezekiel 1:1 NKJV
Ezekiel, along with his fellow Israelites, was a captive in Babylon the entire time he prophesised. His prophetic declarations were never actually spoken to the people groups to whom they were addressed. They were however released in the heavens and heard by both the heavenly host and demonic principalities and powers.
Given they were going to be carried out over time they were directed and retained by Yahweh. I believe the same things happens to our prayers. When our prayers are led by the Spirit as Ezekiel’s prophetic declarations were, they have no shelf life. They are retained and there is a response. We see clearly where they are kept in Revelation 5.
Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. -Revelation 5:8
Now, before we come to a conclusion, let me share the prayers of another man that were put in a bowl. If you are engaged in the prayer movement at some point in time you have likely heard of George Mueller. He raised up and ran a number of orphanages in England. He was a man of prayer with numerous answers to prayer, many of them almost immediate. Yet I want to focus on some prayers that were not immediately answered.
George has five friends for whom he travailed as he sought their salvation. George prayed from them daily and in eighteen months the first was converted, the second after five years, the third after six years. The other two were converted fifty-two years later, after Mueller died! All those years those prayers were kept somewhere on the Father’s shelf until it was time for an answer.
So, whether we are called like Larry Randolph to release prophetic declarations in the heavens, to remain faithful praying for specific people like Mueller, or simply sit in a quiet place offering heartfelt prayers and worship, let us remain confident that He sees, hears and retains what we offer and responds rightly in due season.
(Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash)