Photo Credit: Rachel Strong
He makes all things beautiful in His time
Next is Susan…
On one random day in 2017, I went through my prayer journal and found this request for Susan: July 4th, 2016; Susan…You will carry the baby to term in Jesus name. You will deliver safely in Jesus name. The Lord will cause Stanley to break forth with blessings and abundance in the season of your baby’s arrival….
One of my close pals then in church back in Abuja was Susan. Soon after she got pregnant, I would ask her how she was doing and she would share a few happy details. But one day, she opened up to me that she had had a miscarriage once and sometimes the enemy would frighten her with thoughts of miscarriage… I reassured her in faith that nothing would happen to her baby. Then I made a mental note to pray about it and to write it in my prayer journal, which I did.
Prayer answered: Many months later, Susan had a baby boy and I was out of town. It was a joyful moment. She kept me updated with happenings via WhatsApp. It was not until one random day, whilst flipping through my prayer journal and I yelped! I saw the request for Susan, and I couldn’t remember writing it. My heart danced for joy… This was one of the early answers I ticked off since I began the ritual. I was grateful to God.
And then to my surprise, as I kept reading through my journal, right beneath Susan’s was another request that was answered. Another request I had completely forgotten about!!! Here goes the story:
Next is Obioma…
You know one of those unusual happenings when you and another sister suddenly bond in the moment… and the sister begins to tell you things you wouldn’t have been privy to on a good day? That was my experience with Obioma… she was at the climax of wedding preparations, and she and Mike desired a certain kind of house as their first home. But things weren’t looking good. Abuja and its peculiarity when it comes to accommodation! There were pressures to have a bigger wedding than they would like to have. And because I had just been wed myself, she opened up to me… I remember telling her anything was possible and encouraged her to expect the miraculous because weddings have a way of invoking the miraculous. I wished that for her. She was quite encouraged. We had a good conversation. Now, the request I stumbled across, which I’d completely forgotten read: July 4th, 2016; Obioma… You and Mike shall find a house of your taste and in an area of choice and pay full payment in cash in Jesus name. Your home will be ready before the wedding in Jesus name. And that was it… it was that brief.
Prayer answered: Months later, Obioma and Mike were married. I worked in church office at the time and one day Mike came to visit. I began to tease him to share the testimony of their newly acquired car. Which he gladly did and in the process he shared the testimony of their home as well. He was ecstatic when he shared every detail. The house was a two bedroom flat and in a compound of its own with a BQ. It was also furnished! So, they paid a little something to the last tenant so they could keep the furniture. The house was located in a nice estate in one of those distant places in Abuja but they had the car to facilitate movement around town. It was such a beautiful story that had miracle written all over it! I was so glad for them. But I never knew I had written a request for them until the day I stumbled on Susan’s request. And to think that God made me hear the full detail of that testimony from Mike himself. Imagine my surprise when I read the content of the request I had written in my journal! I’ve been to the house; my husband and I visited once. It is such a lovely apartment :).
Next is Cynthia…
Cynthia was my maid-of-honor. Bubbly, effervescent Cynthia. She added so much color to our wedding. We created so many memories in that season of my wedding in Ibadan, December 2015. Shortly afterwards, Cynthia was in a tough place. She was forced to move out of the flat she shared with another girl. Then suddenly, there was a reconstruction going on at her relative’s, the place where she put up. The landlady had decided to make the residence a school! And she began breaking off part of the building whilst the tenants were still there. It was her style of eviction. A very unique method. Cynthia’s new abode had became a construction site over night. Soon, there wasn’t a toilet any longer to relieve one’s self. One night, Cynthia called and lamented about her situation. I was in tears. And I said prayers over the phone. Her credit soon finished and I didn’t have enough to call back. So I sent a prayer in a text message. The text didn’t deliver. Apparently, I was out and didn’t realize it. The prayer I wrote in my journal that night reads: April 27, 2016; Lord, remember Cynthia in this season of her life O Lord! Lord, remember her pain, regrets and her fears… Lord, be to her a warrior…O Lord, be to her a protector O Lord… O Lord heal, O Lord arise, and break the limitations over her life… O Lord bless your daughter… O Lord lift her out of the dung hill into the palace in Jesus name!!! That was the entire prayer. A page full. My heart was broken and I cried out to God for my friend.
Prayer answered: July/August 2016, her story changed! She made another phone call and I was screaming and shouting… My face bathed with tears. At the time she shared a flat with another chic. Then there was pressure to pay rent… when suddenly with the leading of the Holy Spirit, she went into a store to offer her services as a PR consultant… she got a deal, six digit zeros as they call it, she moved into her own apartment. Her business blossomed as a PR expert. Today, she lives in doll-like little apartment in Ajah and rides her own car. Cynthia is a testimony that the Lord hears us in distress!! Hallelujah. This was one request I never forgot writing. It was too heavy upon my heart and the answers came very quickly too!
Next is Amaka…
My bosom friend, Amaka Philip got married 5 years ahead of me. One day, over a phone call, we talked, and I suddenly asked her if she was anxious about having babies. I think it had just dawned on me that she could be anxious seeing it had been five years. Her reply was no. And there was no pressure from her husband either. But she had hope in God that He would give her children. That night I was moved. Sometimes, you have friends and you’re blind to their need. You think because they are your friends, everything would be okay and that they couldn’t have dire needs like you read online or see in the movies. This was my case. But that night it suddenly occurred to me that my friend had been childless for 5 years. I began to pray. This was in the first year of my marriage. In my prayer journal I wrote: April 9, 2016, Lord, remember Amaka like you remembered Hannah. Lord, bless her with the fruit of the womb. Lord, you said that none shall be barren among us and that more are the children of the barren than of she who has a husband… Lord, manifest your word in Amaka’s life…Bless her and Ovie with the blessings of Joseph… bless her with the blessings of the land, with the blessings of the sea beneath and with the blessings of the womb… it was a page full. In 2017, I had completely forgotten about my prayer journal ritual or that I had written a request for Amaka. But I remembered to pray for her… I prayed every time the thought crossed my mind. I had a breakthrough in the Spirit on one particular occasion and I knew that the Lord had granted me my request. I had peace. I waited.
Prayer answered: On evening, January 23rd, 2018, I called Amaka for something entirely different. And because we hadn’t’ spoken in a long, long while, and it was our first conversation this year, I didn’t want to be selfish. So, I started the conversation asking how she was doing… as we talked, I suddenly asked… “how far, how far?… anything yet?” She immediately understood what I meant, and says a soft, “Yes!” I screamed! I shouted, “Oh praise Jesus!!!” She was already a few months gone. The miracle manifested in the dusk of 2017. What a mighty God we serve! My heart is so so full of joy!
One day out of curiosity, as I mused over the miracle of the Philips, I picked out my prayer journal and wondered, “did I ever write a request in here for Amaka?” I wasn’t sure. But I flipped through anyway. And then a few pages in, and there it was, dated April 9th, 2016. I was in awe of God. It took two years but He answered. For me, the wait was two years, for Amaka, the wait was 7 years long. He makes all things beautiful in His time.
Of all the requests I wrote in my prayer journal in 2016, these few have encouraged me to continue to pray the prayer of intercession and supplication for others. I hope that you too are encouraged. I pray that you will find the strength to keep your own prayer journal… and if you are lazy to write with pen, try to write on a tab or your phone… whatever works for you. Let us keep a record of our God’s goodness. There is a reward for writing it down. May we be crowned faithful servants in Jesus name.
Selah.
Ephesians 6:18 Pray in the Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition. To this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints.
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