Prayer leads to a Heavenly Relationship…
Prayer is our journey time where we pour out to God, or Jesus, our joys, concerns, anxieties, hurts, and turn them over to him. Even though he knows everything already, the Lord listens, understands, feels all we share. He will guide us if we listen, open our hearts, and follow the one who opens our eyes to truth. It is through this journey that we go from sadness to joy, helplessness to thankfulness, hopelessness to hopefulness.
A dream — a chance to talk with Jesus…
I dreamed that to make money to help do mission work, Jesus offered to meet with the winner of a chance drawing for a talk with Him. When it was announced what was offered, there were long lines of people wanting to buy chances and people from all over the world were calling and texting wanting the opportunity to have a talk with Jesus. It was so overwhelming, that the ones in charge were asking, “How can we ever handle this? Who would ever have dreamed this would happen?”
Then I awoke and heard very clearly, “Tell them that they can all be winners. The opportunity has always been there. I’ve been waiting for them to want to meet me for long talks in prayer. If they knock, I will answer. If they call out my name, I am there. Have I not asked that all who are weary and heavy-laden to come to me and I will give them rest and peace? Tell them to find their own Gardens of Prayer and I will meet them there.”
His voice changed as He sang softly, “I will walk with them, and I’ll talk with them and I’ll tell them they are my own and the JOY we’ll share as we tarry there none other has ever known.” His voice changed again as He said, “I am The Lord of all and The Good Shepherd to each. Tell them that.” (Jesus sang his version of In the Garden — Lyrics: Charles Austin Miles, 1912, the Bible verse where Jesus is called the Lord of all is from Romans 10: 12, and Jesus calls himself the good shepherd in John 10: 11)
I was amazed at what I had heard and repeated it to Him and promised I would remember it and would record it when I got up Sunday morning. I settled in to go back to sleep, but He would not let me sleep. Realizing what He wanted and needed me to do, I got up, got the iPad, and began recording. I felt His presence with me and heard Him repeat the message as I typed. It was as though my fingers were being guided.
Without thinking, I was, in my mind singing, “Oh, LOVE that will not let me go, I give my weary self to THEE,”.
I knew the words weren’t as written, so I promised to look it up and offer the song to Him in prayer . That is what I did.
The following is what I found — can find the information online or in most any church hymnal: O Love that wilt not let me go’ author: George Matheson – 1882 – tune: Albert Peace. Read the lyrics and find that Love, Light, Joy, Cross are all mentioned.
Look up the story of how the lyrics came to be written — Good source: *Diana Leagh Matthews, ‘Behind the Hymn: O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go’ October 22, 2017, and find that the words were written quickly, as if being guided from above. Peace in writing the music for the lyrics reported he, too, wrote quickly.
I can understand experiences such as these for I have had the same happen to me many times, one example is given above when I said it was as though my fingers were being guided as I typed. *When I saw the date of October 22, 2017, I felt an instant connection to Diana Leagh Matthews. It was late night April 29 into early morning April 30, 2017, that I received and recorded the ‘Chance to talk with Jesus’ story. I can’t help but believe that God led Diana Leagh Matthews to write the ‘O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go’ information in 2017 knowing that there would come a time when I, and likely others, would need the information to carry out God’s work and would be led to her site to get that information. ‘It takes a team to do his work!’
God must have agreed with the above because he said to ask, “Are you on my team? If not, time is marching along, so now is the time to begin the prayer journey that will lead you to a relationship with the Heavenly Father/Son team.”
Note: It was April 29 and 30, 2017 when I received and recorded the ‘Chance to talk with Jesus’ story. It wasn’t until 2024 that the blanks were filled in for the blog entry to be written and posted..