For some time now, I have been praying for our neighborhood. We have dogs barking non-stop that the owners won’t see about. We have idiot drivers using city streets as a drag strip. They accessorize their vehicles so that when they accelerate you can hear them blocks away. It has become very popular to drive these loud cars. There’s gunfire in the middle of the night which then wakes up the dogs, so then there’s guns and dogs keeping everybody awake. On holidays there’s fireworks before, during, and after the holiday. It’s ridiculous and getting more ridiculous every year.
I have sent up many, many, many prayers. Every time I hear a driver barreling down our street, I pray. Every time the dogs are barking, I pray. All day long, I am sending up prayers that God will disarm principalities over our neighborhood.
The other day I stood in the bathroom listening to the dogs bark at each other and I said, “Lord, I’m not praying anymore about these dogs because it does not seem to be doing any good.” This morning the Lord woke me up at 4:20 and dropped a song from the 1970s in my spirit. It’s called Wake Up Everybody. It goes like this, “The world won’t get no better if we just let it be. The world won’t get no better, we gotta change it, just you and Me.”
To stop praying about it is to just let it be. The Bible says, “The effective and fervent prayers of the righteous avails much.”
Prayers of faith move mountains, parts Red Seas, brings water out of a rock, prevents evil, and opens the door for good.
The prophet Elijah was one man — one person praying — but he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it didn’t rain on the land for 3½ years. Then he prayed again, and the heavens poured down rain and ended the drought.
A couple of years ago, I was praying many prayers about something in the news. Day after day I kept getting angrier and angrier at the situation. Finally, I was laying in bed one night and I heard a thunderstorm in the far distance, getting closer and closer. It finally came and stood over our house. That thunder was the loudest I have ever heard. It roared. It clapped. It blasted. I said calmly to myself, “Well, I don’t have to be angry about this anymore, because now, God is mad.” I turned over and went to sleep. When the great day of His wrath is come, who will be able to stand? The thunder didn’t make me afraid, it put me to sleep.
Ephesians 6:12-13,18 (NLT) For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.
The Lord allowed that thunderstorm to show me the effectiveness of my prayers. The thunder came from out in the distance, straight to me and hovered over me. That’s what happens when we pray, we move God in that same way.
Some years back, I was coming off a lengthy fast and sitting in the living room listening to a song called Break Every Chain by Tasha Cobbs Leonard. I saw a vision of a band of angels marching down our street, coming toward our house. I stood up and started marching with them. This was God’s army sent to answer my prayers.
Never let the enemy have you believe your prayers don’t matter, because they do. Sincere prayers move the heart of God. Let the church say Amen.
May I encourage you to read Daniel’s story of how his prayers moved God? It’s the entire 6th chapter of Daniel – the story of the Lion’s Den.