I’m certain that I’ve had more spiritual experiences than I remember.

That’s not just a commentary on my memory.

I believe it wise advice when preachers suggest keeping a prayer journal. Sometimes we don’t even realize our prayers have been answered. That makes sense if we are more likely to get what we pray for if we expect to get it- that predisposes us to take it for granted when we do get it. Is it the Holy Spirit, or the habit of consciousness about the results of prayer that allows us to see that we have indeed received blessings from our merciful Father?

Fortunately, I’ve had enough experiences since conversion and remember enough of those to know that prayer works and that the Holy Spirit does act powerfully in my life. The most obvious times are when I’m praying the most. Whether it’s just greater consciousness, or I receive more because I ask more, I don’t know- not to mention that I am more likely to ask rightly because I am in prayer more of the time and in sync with God’s will- prayer inspires conscience and conscience makes it clearer what is merely fleshly self-will and what is motivated from the spirit. I’m talking about the times where I wrote and Bible-studied and prayed for an hour or more a day.

But even when I just pray on my knees for 5-10 minutes at the beginning and end of the day, it makes a huge difference. I believe that the difference between zero minutes of prayer a day and 5 minutes of prayer a day is much greater than the difference between 5 minutes and 30 minutes. To have the daily habit of prayer is a major step forward in your spiritual life. If you don’t have it, pray for it. Ironic, isn’t it? It works though. I believe God honors any heart that hungers after Him, and will even answer a prayer that He make you more hungry- prayer in the right direction yields spiritual momentum.

Enough principle and generality- to the concrete illustration:

• In my first year of Christianity, a good friend of mine was spiritual, but not Christian. He still walks the edge where a number of his friends and family are Christian, but he lives in sin. Lord help me to remember to pray for him more often! I don’t think, in this first year, I was too vocal, too “annoying for Christ”, but I know it doesn’t take much for an unbeliever to think you’re obsessed with it- the tolerance for Christ amongst many unbelievers is zero- any Christ is too much- the gospel is an offense- so he thought it was funny and that I needed to know there was a website that made it possible for you to dress up Jesus like one of those old paper cutout dress-up dolls. I was so holy or so new and Christ, especially on the cross, so sacred to me that the dress up Jesus idea struck me as not just blasphemous in spirit but as painful and sad. About an hour later, I was overcome by a spiritual experience- for whatever reason, while thinking about this and praying, I became to feel weighted down- I bent over, and I saw quite vividly Christ on the cross after he had died- it was in 3D, it was raining, and there was a lightning flash to show me Christ’s face- it had a weight to it that wasn’t exactly emotional but was definitely spiritual- the experience really renewed the reality and weight of Christ on the cross for me- it wiped away the dress up Jesus- it made that seem so superficial, whimsical, pointless, foolish, unreal next to the awesome reality of Christ dead on the cross. I feel this was a gift from the Holy Spirit to me to restore for me the holiness of that central event in Christianity- and I think it was very important to me as a new Christian that it stay holy.
• Even earlier in my Christian life, I was avidly reading about intercession and learned some great ways to pray for believers and non-believers. For whatever reason, I have great faith in prayer. One night I awoke to flashing lights. I looked outside and there was an ambulance and paramedics wheeling a neighbor man from his house- I immediately began to pray for him. I prayed for his health and his soul. I didn’t know him personally, and in fact forgot about it until Lynda and I were moving. He came out and said he was sad to see us go because we’d been good neighbors. I mentioned that night to him and he said it was the strangest thing, they had almost accidentally killed him at the hospital, but anyway he had gotten saved and gone back to his Christian faith in a way that he’d never experienced before. I told him about my prayer. I can’t know for sure, but I believe that intercessory prayer makes a difference where God wants it to, and I felt I had participated in his salvation somehow. Not everyone I’ve prayed for has gotten saved- yet- and I don’t mean I think they all will- but a few people I’ve worked with have gotten saved, and I feel honored and blessed to have been there- it also makes me feel like I’ve done the right thing. Nothing eats away at my soul more than the vague feeling that I’m not doing what a Christian should- things like feeding the poor, witnessing (or at least not hiding your faith), interceding, tithing, attending church- those things should bother the conscience of a real Christian if they never do them.