James' Prayer Journal
"This Page Dedicated to Testimonies of Answered Prayer"
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. James 5:16
Shortly after accepting Christ as my personal Savior, I realized I had
never really shared my testimony with anyone nor had I really ever witnessed to anyone. I had become hungry to grow more in my knowledge about the Bible and I really wanted to experience being used by God to lead someone to His saving power.
A man by the name of Dan T, a fellow member of the Rosebower Baptist Church, captured my attention with his knowledge and teaching ability of scripture. He was best described by others as a mentor and I strongly desired to have one on one time with him and to allow him to help me better understand more about God’s Word. For approximately three months I struggled with asking him to schedule time to talk as I knew he was a busy man. I had thoughts like, He’s too busy to mess with me, He’s got better things to do, I’ll ask him about it later, etc. Looking back, I truly believe it was the devil putting these thoughts in my head as he wanted to
hinder what I believe has come from our studying efforts and Christ working through us.
Finally one Wednesday evening I approached Dan and asked him for a minute of his time. As I began to question his availability for time to discuss Bible studies, to my surprise he questioned me if I had intentions of asking him about doing a Bible study before now. He went on to explain that I had been on his mind during his prayer time over the past three months. This was during the same time I had been putting off going to him and inquiring about the studies.
Point # 1: Carry out the things you feel like God is leading you to do when he is leading you to do them. Don’t give excuses or delay. You may miss out on a blessing.
Immediately upon meeting with Dan I explained to him that I had never had an opportunity with leading someone to Christ nor had I ever really given my testimony. He helped me to understand that it was just as important to plant a seed, or perhaps water a seed, as it was to witness the harvest. For the first time in my Christian walk, I really felt like I could be used by Christ to carry out the great commission without having to always experience the harvest. I began praying for discernment and being on the alert for any opportunity I could plant or water a seed in someone’s life. Over the next few weeks I would invite guys to our Monday night Bible study. One person I invited was my brother Stephen. During our studies Dan would ask that everyone share their testimony before our study began. Everyone shared and nothing out of the ordinary happened, or at least that could be seen with the naked eye.
Little did I know when my brother gave his testimony, it was then that he fell under conviction by the Holy Spirit and he realized that he was lost. The following day while in a field picking up decoys following a morning hunt, Stephen was still under conviction from the previous night’s testimony. Stephen simply prayed; Lord, I know I’m lost but I am not sure what to do. Please just send someone my way to help me understand.
At this exact moment in time, I was miles away and completely oblivious
to what had been taken place with my brother’s convicted heart; I called him to ask for a phone number to a mutual friend.
Point # 2: God works in mysterious ways and there is no such thing as a coincidence.
When he answered the phone I sensed from his voice that something was wrong but had no idea what it could be at that time. He asked if I would call him as soon as I got off work because he really needed to talk to me. This was out of character for my brother and I could tell that something was not right with him, but I didn’t have an idea what it was.
A short time later I got off work and called him as I had promised. He began explaining to me that he had been under conviction since he gave his testimony the night prior and told me the story of him standing in that decoy field and praying for God to send someone to help him understand. When he said it was at that exact moment that I called him, we both became very emotional on the phone. After gaining composure, I recapped the plan of salvation with him and encouraged him to do what he thought God was calling him to do. It was then we both agreed to meet at
our church. A short time later in the presence of our pastor, my brother Stephen repented of his sins and invited Jesus into his heart and was gloriously saved.
It was at that exact moment I felt like God completely answered my prayer by allowing me to give my testimony during the Bible study and play a part in not only leading someone to Christ, but the blessing for it to be my own brother! We have faithfully continued our Monday night men’s Bible study for the past three years and it is still going strong. There have been numerous events and awesome encounters where I know it was the work of God. The neat thing about all of them, I just had to be obedient to Him and join Him where he was at work and the blessings began to flow.
Point # 3: We serve a sovereign, all knowing, all loving, and all mighty God and it is truly a blessing to serve Him and experience what He has in store for those that follow Him.
Thank You,
Matt Carter
never really shared my testimony with anyone nor had I really ever witnessed to anyone. I had become hungry to grow more in my knowledge about the Bible and I really wanted to experience being used by God to lead someone to His saving power.
A man by the name of Dan T, a fellow member of the Rosebower Baptist Church, captured my attention with his knowledge and teaching ability of scripture. He was best described by others as a mentor and I strongly desired to have one on one time with him and to allow him to help me better understand more about God’s Word. For approximately three months I struggled with asking him to schedule time to talk as I knew he was a busy man. I had thoughts like, He’s too busy to mess with me, He’s got better things to do, I’ll ask him about it later, etc. Looking back, I truly believe it was the devil putting these thoughts in my head as he wanted to
hinder what I believe has come from our studying efforts and Christ working through us.
Finally one Wednesday evening I approached Dan and asked him for a minute of his time. As I began to question his availability for time to discuss Bible studies, to my surprise he questioned me if I had intentions of asking him about doing a Bible study before now. He went on to explain that I had been on his mind during his prayer time over the past three months. This was during the same time I had been putting off going to him and inquiring about the studies.
Point # 1: Carry out the things you feel like God is leading you to do when he is leading you to do them. Don’t give excuses or delay. You may miss out on a blessing.
Immediately upon meeting with Dan I explained to him that I had never had an opportunity with leading someone to Christ nor had I ever really given my testimony. He helped me to understand that it was just as important to plant a seed, or perhaps water a seed, as it was to witness the harvest. For the first time in my Christian walk, I really felt like I could be used by Christ to carry out the great commission without having to always experience the harvest. I began praying for discernment and being on the alert for any opportunity I could plant or water a seed in someone’s life. Over the next few weeks I would invite guys to our Monday night Bible study. One person I invited was my brother Stephen. During our studies Dan would ask that everyone share their testimony before our study began. Everyone shared and nothing out of the ordinary happened, or at least that could be seen with the naked eye.
Little did I know when my brother gave his testimony, it was then that he fell under conviction by the Holy Spirit and he realized that he was lost. The following day while in a field picking up decoys following a morning hunt, Stephen was still under conviction from the previous night’s testimony. Stephen simply prayed; Lord, I know I’m lost but I am not sure what to do. Please just send someone my way to help me understand.
At this exact moment in time, I was miles away and completely oblivious
to what had been taken place with my brother’s convicted heart; I called him to ask for a phone number to a mutual friend.
Point # 2: God works in mysterious ways and there is no such thing as a coincidence.
When he answered the phone I sensed from his voice that something was wrong but had no idea what it could be at that time. He asked if I would call him as soon as I got off work because he really needed to talk to me. This was out of character for my brother and I could tell that something was not right with him, but I didn’t have an idea what it was.
A short time later I got off work and called him as I had promised. He began explaining to me that he had been under conviction since he gave his testimony the night prior and told me the story of him standing in that decoy field and praying for God to send someone to help him understand. When he said it was at that exact moment that I called him, we both became very emotional on the phone. After gaining composure, I recapped the plan of salvation with him and encouraged him to do what he thought God was calling him to do. It was then we both agreed to meet at
our church. A short time later in the presence of our pastor, my brother Stephen repented of his sins and invited Jesus into his heart and was gloriously saved.
It was at that exact moment I felt like God completely answered my prayer by allowing me to give my testimony during the Bible study and play a part in not only leading someone to Christ, but the blessing for it to be my own brother! We have faithfully continued our Monday night men’s Bible study for the past three years and it is still going strong. There have been numerous events and awesome encounters where I know it was the work of God. The neat thing about all of them, I just had to be obedient to Him and join Him where he was at work and the blessings began to flow.
Point # 3: We serve a sovereign, all knowing, all loving, and all mighty God and it is truly a blessing to serve Him and experience what He has in store for those that follow Him.
Thank You,
Matt Carter
