Experience the Adventure of Two-Way Prayer

by Robert H. Sculler

I grew up in the Midwest where I had never seen an avocado. Even though I went to college and finished three years of post-graduate work, I had never even heard of an avocado! Then I moved to California and all kinds of people gave our family what I thought were the biggest, most unusual pears I'd ever seen. I tried every way I could think of to eat them, but finally gave up and ended up throwing them away. Fortunately, someone discovered my ignorance and showed me how to eat an avocado - and enjoy it.

Many people tend to discard prayer in the same way I threw away those avocados. They talk to God and it doesn't seem to work. So, they just give up. But prayer is an adventure! And real prayer involves both listening to God as much as it does talking to him. God told the prophet Jeremiah, “Call to me and I will answer you..." (Jeremiah 33:3). That's two-way prayer. Let me describe how you can enjoy the experience of this kind of prayer:

Begin by relaxing, closing your eyes and blocking out the distractions of the eye and the world. Focus your mind on something that calms you. When you are relaxed, quietly wait until you feel the stillness of God's presence with you.

Then ask the Holy Spirit to control your thinking so that God's thoughts and ideas will come into your mind. In a humble, expectant attitude, begin to ask God questions about situations, challenges, and decisions you're facing. As you ask each question, pause and wait patiently for God to answer. When you finish, write down what you heard God say to you in the quiet.

There is mountain-moving power in two-way prayer. If you've never prayed in this way before, why not start the adventure of two-way prayer today?

Good Works Live On to Produce a Miracle

By Ben Hadley

One Saturday afternoon last May, the following experience of God's miraculous grace occurred. A woman walked by the hospitality counter where I was volunteering as a tour guide. After a brief hello, she said that she was not there for a tour but that she was on a personal retreat. She said that she had been an attendee of the Crystal Cathedral many years ago, but due to carbon monoxide poisoning, she had lost about six years of memory. She was back now, trying to become involved more spiritually and attempting to regain the memory of those lost years. I told her that it might be a help to walk through the second and third floor of the Welcoming Center to see the giant photos of this ministry's history.

It was then that she noticed my nametag. "Hadley," she said. "Why does that name sound so familiar to me?" After a bit, she said, "Is there a Lou Hadley here?"

I said, "That was my sister-in-law, married to my brother, Jack. Jack passed away about 10 years ago and Lou followed five years later." She burst into tears and said, "Jack and Lou Hadley. Oh, how much is coming back. I'm all goose bumps. And you know what that means? It means that the Holy Spirit is here with us."

"You are right," I said. "I'm covered with bumps too."

She then continued by telling me how Jack and Lou had helped her during a very hard time in her life raising small children with no father. At that time, Jack and Lou, as volunteers, among the many other things they did at the church, staffed the Tower of Hope lobby on Sunday mornings. This woman, among several others, had young sons who were not really "Sunday school guys." So, Jack took them under his wing and used them as Tower helpers. He showed them how to greet people, how to operate the elevator, where each activity was held, where to run errands, etc. He and Lou took the boys to special events and even took them camping. They came to love Jack and Lou, and Sunday mornings.

So just think! While I was filling in for another tour guide, I wasn't even scheduled to be there, God used my nametag to spark a memory. Now, the memory of the good works of two beautiful saints, now deceased, has been used by God to bring about a wondrous miracle of healing in the life of this future saint. Praise God.