The air was electric. People were shouting, crying, pleading with God. Some were standing with raised hands, others were on their knees, and still others were prostrate on the floor.
I was in Suva, Fiji, at a conference for church workers. The people had come in from the dozens of surrounding islands to attend. I had just finished speaking on the prophet Samuel, presenting the tragic truth that while he was a judge, a prophet, and a kingmaker extraordinaire, he was not a good father. His sons did not follow the Lord. My challenge to the mostly male audience was not to be so focused on ministry that they neglected their own wives and children.
When I issued the invitation to repent of their sin and to commit to training up their children in the Lord, almost the entire audience of 600 church leaders surged forward. The result was an outpouring of urgent, desperate, passionate, heartfelt pleading with God to forgive, to have mercy, to bless. The atmosphere itself was thick with the presence of God.
I remember a woman seizing me by the arm and pulling me into her circle for prayer. Pray? I was terrified to pray in such a group. For good reason. When I opened my mouth and tried, my voice sounded hollow and wretchedly anemic.
I had never before heard prayer like I heard on that day in Suva, Fiji. Actually, very rarely have I ever heard prayer like that anywhere. Why? What’s wrong?1
Have you ever felt also that your prayers are anemic? I wonder if it’s because both of us are missing key ingredients such as focusing on God for who He truly is and an all-out…no-holds-barred…go-for-broke…nothing-held-back…old-fashioned desperation to get answers. Whether the issue is in our family, or in our marriage, or in our church, or in our community, or in the wake of terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, instead of buying into pop culture’s attitude of “God can’t fix this,” are we desperate enough to stay on our knees until He does?
I am committed this year to prayer. But not the casual, everyday, pray-as-you-feel-like-it, run-of-the-mill, garden-variety type of prayer. Not even the arrow-type prayer that is a distress call for help. I am committed to reversing the thunder…praying God’s Word and God’s promises back to Him. I want to push through any and every obstacle until Heaven is moved and nations are changed. Join me…
For His Glory,
1Adapted from Chapter One, The Daniel Prayer, Anne Graham Lotz, Zondervan Publishing, May 2016
Have you ever felt your prayers sounded hollow? Anemic? Then join Anne as she demonstrates in these four messages what prayer is like when it’s reversed thunder—praying God’s Word back to Him. Using prayers from the Bible, Anne will lead you to discover the blessing in prayer, to share God’s burden in prayer, to fight the battle in prayer, and to persevere through brokenness in prayer…and ultimately to receive God’s answers to prayer. God is calling His people to pray. Answer His call as you learn to pray more effectively and reverse the thunder.
Reversing the Thunder four DVD Messages
Reversing the Thunder four Audio Messages
The Daniel Prayer
What is the secret to revival? To the spiritual restoration of America? What is one key to renewing your own relationship with God? It’s prayer. But not your everyday now-I-lay-me-down-to-sleep kind of prayer. It’s prayer that storms the gates of Heaven until things change. It is passionate, heartfelt, I-won’t-let-You-go-until-You-bless-me pleading until you get an answer. It’s The Daniel Prayer.
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What an unexpected blessing, comfort, and joy it has been to have my daughter Morrow, and her husband, Traynor, living with me since the day Danny moved to Our Father’s House. I plan on keeping them for as long as they can be talked into staying!
During the last few months, God has made me very aware of His blessings in my life…one after another. In contrast to the darkness and death, tears and trauma, sorrow and stress, the blessings of God drop like quiet dew…jewels from Heaven’s treasure store.
One of the sweetest blessings God has given was years in the making, but timed perfectly to coincide with my hour of need. It has underscored my faith in the sovereignty of a loving Lord. Almost four years ago my daughter, Morrow, and her husband, Traynor, put their house up for sale. It was on the market for 18 months. There were many open houses and promising showings that resulted in buyers who made offers, only to withdraw them at the last minute. Traynor lowered the price twice. As other houses in their neighborhood sold, the Realtor couldn’t understand why their house didn’t sell. Finally, the decision was made to take it off the market.
Miss A. Wetherell Johnson was the founder and director of Bible Study Fellowship. She not only taught me how to teach the Scriptures, she showed me how by her own example of teaching from the heart. She emphasized not just what the Bible says, but what it means for everyday life. One of the dearest blessings of the past year was when Steve Gately, a BSF Board member, and his wife, Gloria, sent me Miss Johnson’s rocking chair as a gift!
This past April, Morrow felt God had spoken to her, telling her to get the house ready and put it back up for sale. Traynor agreed. So with nothing more to go on than their faith in what God had seemed to say to her, they packed up their house, put their things in storage, painted and cleaned once again, refurbished their yard, and in June put it back on the market. With the same Realtor, and the same realty firm. The house sold in less than a week!
They found a rental house that they could move into in August, and in the meantime, were free to come to the beach with the rest of the family for a couple of weeks. While there, before the closing, a significant and rather mysterious leak was discovered under their house that required ripping out much of the master bathroom flooring. The Realtor prepared Morrow and Traynor for what he said was a 99% probability that the buyers would back out. But they didn’t. The sale went through. And of course, Traynor made sure the leak was fixed.
The rental house that had seemed perfect and available after our family beach vacation suddenly was no longer available. So Morrow and Traynor, with smiles on their faces and faith in their hearts, moved into a hotel. Which is where they had been living for ten days when I found my husband of forty-nine years unresponsive in our pool. That very afternoon, August 17, they had an appointment with the Realtor to make an offer on a house they were interested in. It was an appointment that was never kept. Instead, Traynor rushed to be with me at the pool, and Morrow met us at the hospital emergency room.
On September 1st I issued a recall to pray for Jerusalem. In spite of my husband’s move to Our Father’s House on August 19 and the subsequent services for him on August 28 through 30, the burden to pray was unmistakable. Over 80,000 people responded…so we were pre-prayered for the news of Russia’s foothold in the Middle East, the 4th blood moon on September 28th, the Palestinian flag raised at the UN, and the increasing isolation of Israel in the family of nations. Heaven was moved! Ten thousand women rallied for prayer in Hebron! And since our first call to pray on 9/1/14, 900,000 Hebrew speaking people have visited the website: imetmessiah.com. That’s a blessing!
During Danny’s time in ICU, whenever I slipped home, my youngest daughter, Rachel-Ruth, stayed with me while my son, Jonathan, stayed with his Dad in the hospital. When Danny moved to Our Father’s House on August 19th, Traynor and Morrow expressed concern that I would be by myself. With a twinkle in my eye, I responded that I wanted my son-in-law to ask me if he could move in with me, which he jokingly said had been his “dream.” And they did! I have not had one night alone in my house since Danny left.
More than any other single source during these difficult days, Morrow and Traynor have been a channel of God’s blessing to me. Morrow grocery shops and cooks for the three of us. Traynor looks for things he can do around the house and the yard—then does them. We share devotional thoughts each evening, discuss Scripture as well as the latest current events, and pray for each other with audible words that can be overheard by all three of us. After months and years of life-threatening emergencies, EMS calls, interacting with medical personnel, bearing responsibility for heavy duty medications and dialysis while trying to keep my husband’s spirits up and minister to him, God is blessing me with rest. Peace. Joy. Comfort. And hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)
Our entire family has been acutely aware of God’s hand in this incredible process. As though He had nothing else to give His time to…whether planets to spin or blood moons to schedule or world leaders to gather or a nuclear agreement to void or His imprisoned and tortured children to care for…He has given me His undivided attention as He has arranged in the smallest detail for my comfort, companionship, and care in the wake of Danny’s Homegoing. He has proven Himself to be my Heavenly Husband…the Bridegroom who is coming…soon! (Isaiah 54:5; Matthew 25:6)
As personal, political, national, and international storms rage, I believe it’s worthwhile to reexamine the foundation on which we are building our lives. Jesus said unless we build on the rock which is our faith in Him, our lives will implode when the storms erupt. Many professing Christians don’t know what or why they believe. So I posted my video series, God’s Story, on YouTube and on our website, with the prayer that it would be used to shore up the foundation of faith on which we are building our lives. Be sure and check it out, then pass it on.
Until Jesus does come, I want to comfort you. Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? (Matthew 6:26) If the Heavenly Father takes care of birds…if He takes care of me …why do you think He will not also take care of you? Therefore, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)
So with tears on my face and hope in my heart, join me as I bow in humble adoration and worship before the God from whom all blessings flow.
For His glory,
HIStory is the story of God’s love for the human race. For you. It spans the breadth of time from The Beginning to The End. And it’s the love of God that will fill the empty recesses of your heart with joy and peace, fulfillment and satisfaction, purpose and meaning. It’s God’s love that makes life make sense. Discover God’s Love Story from Creation to the Cross to the Crown.
This new compilation of Anne’s messages includes two that have never before been published, along with one taken from her video Bible study series, God’s Story. As you view or listen to them, our prayer is that you will fall in love with the Creator who became your Savior and is the reigning, soon to return King.
• Message 1 – Creation: Genesis 1
• Message 2 – The Cross: John 18 & 19
• Message 3 – The Crown: Revelation 1
God’s Love Story: From Creation to the Cross to the Crown DVD messages $15 (regular price $20)
God’s Love Story: From Creation to the Cross to the Crown audio messages $10 (regular price $12)
*** Please note, this product (and any purchased with it) will ship on or before December 1st.
Related Resources (special price: $10)
God’s Story paperback book and devotional guide***Special pricing of the above resources is available only until December 14th, 2015.
This October we celebrate the 10th anniversary of Daily Light for Daily Living. As our beloved nation has entered a period of spiritual drought, my prayer for these sixty-second droplets of truth comes from Deuteronomy 32:2: Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass… I praise God for all He is doing to provide Living Water through the medium of radio. Click here to learn more about our radio programs.
This picture was posted on Facebook September 25th with the following excerpt from one of Anne’s messages. We were blessed to receive almost 2 million views!
A few years ago I found myself groping for a way to explain the forgiveness of sin to a woman who had been on death row for multiple murders and would be executed within ten hours of my visit. Tears glistened in her eyes as she looked at me beseechingly, needing assurance of the salvation she had claimed by faith six years earlier. That very night she would be stepping into eternity, and she was desperate for reassurance of her forgiveness by God. I asked her if she had ever been to the ocean, and she nodded “yes.” I asked her if, as she had walked along the shore, she had seen small holes in the sand where ghost crabs had darted in and out. Again she nodded. I then asked if she had seen any larger holes, like those made by children digging. Beginning to look puzzled, she said “yes,” she had seen holes like that. I persisted gently to see if she had ever seen huge holes created by machines dredging a channel or burying pipe lines on the beach. Her brow furrowed as she again acknowledged a quiet “yes.” I then leaned toward her and pressed my point, “Velma, when the tide comes in, what happens to all those holes?”
A soft light began to gleam in her eyes, and a smile played at the corner of her lips as I answered my own question. “All the holes are covered equally by the water, aren’t they? God’s forgiveness is like the tide that washes over all the ‘holes’ of your sins and covers all your sins equally.”
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Have you ever fasted? While we often are required to fast from food and/or drink before a medical test or procedure, have you ever fasted voluntarily in association with prayer? During our Mayday! Mayday! A Distress Call for Prayer, I received quite a number of queries about fasting as it relates to prayer, which leads me to believe it may be an important spiritual discipline that needs fresh consideration.
Our world is rapidly plunging into the moral abyss and spiritual darkness of deception, demonic activity, and the destruction of all that is true, good, pure, righteous, just, and holy. As a result, it is becoming a very dangerous place. For everyone. There is a deplorable lack of transparency. Integrity. Honor. No one can be trusted. Covenants are broken by a whim. Commitments are kept if convenient. Spinning the truth has become almost an art-form. Immorality has become amorality. God’s institution of marriage is mocked, and the family is redefined while being destroyed. In the midst of the darkness, our world desperately needs hope. We need Jesus.
The sign in my mother’s kitchen
As I reflect on 2014, blessings come to mind. And so do burdens. Prayers that were answered, and other prayers that remain unanswered. Friends who stood by me, and others who avoided me. Days when I had health and energy, and other days when I was so tired I felt I couldn’t hold my head up one more moment. Times to relax, and times of enormous stress. Hope that filled my heart, and disappointments that crushed my spirit. The prospects of living through another roller-coaster year are almost daunting. I know it will be another year of faith-stretching, faith-building, faith-strengthening experiences. Another year of waiting…of looking up…for His return.
