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The original writing of this piece came fresh off of the exciting opportunity I had to have an interview with Sheree Paolello featured on WLWT News 5, Cincinnati’s NBC affiliate! It was truly an honor to meet Sheree and her cameraman, Sean! They are some of the kindest people you will ever meet! They were refreshingly excited to be there to hear and share my story! I am extremely grateful for their help in beginning to broaden the reach of my life and message of hope through faith in Jesus Christ! That was a lot of exclamation points. But they definitely belong there!.. !!!
As wonderful as the WLWT team was in presenting a bit of my personal platform, it was most certainly the Lord who put everything together. That’s how it always is, and that’s how it ought to be viewed. I know that God has prepared me for such a time as this, with these circumstances, and this skill set to leave a legacy for Him! He has chosen me, as He desires for us all, to be a vessel for His service. And He has honored my willingness to be used. My God’s good like that! All glory goes to Him because all glory is due Him! Please don’t get tired of me saying that, ‘cause I promise I won’t stop saying it.
The Lord used another willing vessel of His and a good friend of the family, Mia Supe, to facilitate the connection necessary to bring the whole thing about. She has been friends with Sheree for years and reached out to her about my story. Miss Mia is an awesome lady, who seeks to serve Jesus with her entirety! I can remember several times where her faith made a direct impact on mine. Moments that I am thankful to have seen! Mia is one of the many amazing people that have covered my life in prayer for years that God would use my situation in mighty ways. Those prayers of these many blessed friends are being answered anew every day! He’s proving, as if He needed to prove it any more, His faithfulness to us all!
A prayer that I have personally prayed, and am sure others have prayed on my behalf comes from an obscure Old Testament man named Jabez. There are literally only two verses written about him. In one of those verses we find him praying this: “And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested.” – 1 Chronicles 4:10. The previous verse describes him as an honorable man. Meaning he was righteous and God-fearing. This speaks to his motive behind the prayer, that in seeking these things he intended to use them in a way that honored the Lord. So God rewarded that.
I have desired and inquired after the very same things. That the Lord would bless me in great ways so I could be a blessing to others. That He would expand my vision and reach, so my feeble attempts at leading people to Jesus would bear fruit simply out of how much seed he enables me to scatter. And may I add, He has no need for me to do this, His fame is already world renowned and unmatchable! He can handle it Himself, but, as a loving Father, He includes me. Like Jabez, I have further asked that God be with me and protect me from all unnecessary pain. Keyword unnecessary because sometimes pain is required for growth. That He keep me from any evil motives and resulting causes of harm to others. I want His blessings so I can use them in a way that gives right back to Him! And I also want His restraint so I can live my life aware of my accountability for my actions!
I never doubted that God would answer these requests with a yes, and look where we are now! And as the doors continue to open, it’s only the beginning! Praise the Lord! Those who have prayed alongside never doubted either. Any child of God that asks the same can be assured He will honor it! And that includes when we pray it for other followers of Christ! If you don’t think Jesus is active in the connective network of fellow believers, you are sorely mistaken. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are always joining us together by causing our paths to cross in the most perfect of ways! Would you join me in praying such things for the whole Body of Christ?
“I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,” – Ephesians 4:1
“Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” – 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
There are three simple prayers that I pray on a regular basis that I consider to be my greatest. Not greatest in the sense that they’re grander than all my others. It’s actually impossible to measure prayer that way because God doesn’t even consider prayers in this manner. All prayer is equal to Him; it is a correct posture of heart that He is after! (Psalm 51:16-17) (Luke 18:9-14) So I mean greatest in the sense that they are the deepest longings of my heart and the most constant requests that I make to my God.
These prayers are actually derived from the faithfulness of three men in the Bible and their consequent blessings for such faithfulness. They are three men that played very different roles in serving the Lord, but did so right around the same period of time. These men are even directly connected to each other through personal relationships. The sum of their lives was a compounded legacy for the Kingdom of God for all time! The events of their lives took place under the Old Testament covenant but pointed to the greater covenant that would come through Christ in the New Testament!
These three men are the prophet Samuel, King David, and King Solomon. Samuel was specially set apart by God to lead the entirety of the Kingdom of Israel by imparting God’s direction. When the Israelites decided they wanted a King instead, he had the role of anointing who would be that man. After the failure of Saul to serve as an obedient servant of God and effective leader, Samuel anointed David as the new King. David went on to be a leader who defeated the enemies of Israel’s Kingdom and united its people by the end of his reign. David’s son and successor was Solomon. Unlike his warrior-king father, Solomon had the privilege of leading Israel through a long period of peaceful prosperity. The parallels that the sequence of these men’s lives hold to the Kingdom of God and eventual perfect reign of King Jesus are a beautiful mystery to behold!
There’s something so significant about the fact that the lives of these men and their legacies for God’s Glory were built upon each other to bring that effect. This is a pattern that often shows up among the Father’s people. It is the very nature of the Kingdom for each of our individual endeavors to add onto one another to result in an even broader impact! An example that comes to mind is how the faithfulness of a Sunday school teacher named Edward Kimbal led to the conversion of D.L. Moody and an ever-growing legacy of dedicated followers of Christ that came after. We never know the potential our simple acts of faithfulness can have on spreading the Gospel. I can only hope and pray to live a life that takes after this same pattern!
So what are the three prayers I have gleaned from these three men’s lives? In no order of importance, they are as follows:
Again, not one of these is more important than the others, they’re simply in sequential order of the men’s lives. These prayers are interchangeable, interconnected, and supplementary. Each individual prayer leads to the other two as inevitable results of that request being granted.
If my words never fall to the ground (have no effect), then that would mean God has also poured His wisdom over me as I have been made a man after His own heart. If God makes me a man after His own heart, then logically He would pour His wisdom over me, which would then translate to my words not falling to the ground. If God pours His wisdom over me, then nothing that I say, inspired by that wisdom, will fall to the ground which would prove my being a man after His own heart. God’s heart is the origin of the heartbeat of this world. God’s wisdom informs and explains the workings of this world. God’s Word endures forever and never falls flat. These three truths and accordant prayers rely entirely on each other.
The prayer that my words would never fall to the ground like Samuel comes from 1 Samuel 3:19-29, “So Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel had been established as a prophet of the LORD.” This simply means that whenever Samuel spoke there was not a single word that failed to have an eternal impact. That is incredible! I long to impact the world in such a way! To be heard and to be known as a fully consecrated man of God. And for His Glory alone!
“The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.” – Isaiah 40:8
To be made a man after God’s own heart like David comes from 1 Samuel 13:14, “But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.” The prophet Samuel speaks these words to King Saul after his failure to obey God. The man Samuel speaks of that fulfills the title of a man after God’s own heart is none other than King David, the chosen successor. A proper definition of the description “a man after God’s own heart” could go like this: to be a visible reflection of the goals, desires, and character of the Lord, borne out of an undying thirst to know and love Him more. That is the defining description I truly hope to be given!
“My soul longs, yes, even faints For the courts of the LORD; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” – Psalms 84:2
To have God pour His wisdom over me like Solomon comes from 1 Kings 3:9-12, “Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?” The speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. Then God said to him: “Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, behold, I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you.” God honored Solomon’s request to have the wisdom necessary to know and do justly. I pray for the same because I know He will honor it!
“Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.” – Proverbs 4:7
Time after time I have seen the Lord answer these three prayers in the affirmative. He wants us to know Him and His ways! He wants to extend His perfect wisdom to us! He wants to use us as His means of declaring His Word! Because of those truths these are prayers that He will always honor.
Those of us who are forgiven, blood-bought children of the living God through faith in Jesus Christ have the freedom and authority to pray bold prayers such as these! He has made us His prophets, priests, kings, and ambassadors. He will therefore provide our every need and desire to be equipped for the task!
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” – James 1:5
“Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.” – Daniel 7:14
“… Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” – Revelation 1:5-6
“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” – Hebrews 4:16
