This is a touching and impressive account of answered prayer. But perhaps it also includes clues for how to have our own experiences in miraculously-answered prayer.
It is these three simple steps:
1. We are already in the center of God’s will. He has already told us what He wants, and we are walking in it. So when we pray, He is not having to backtrack and redirect us in the first place.
2. He tells us how to pray. So we pray what He prompts us to say. I'm not saying that we never try to change God's mind; as we shall see later with Moses, it seems that sometimes we can intercede on behalf of others and change the plans of the Almighty. But I think when we get to heaven we are going to be able to look back and see from the perspective of the eternal spiritual realm just what was happening: God put the desire into our heart to ask in the first place.
Maybe that’s what the disciples meant when they asked Jesus, “Teach us to pray,” and Jesus replied, “When you pray, pray like this...your will be done...give us this day our daily bread...lead us not into temptation...” All of these are things that God already wants to do, you know. He has told us elsewhere that it’s what He wants. So we are simply agreeing with Him. He tells us His plan, we ask Him to do it, and He does. The Providential miracle is not in the answer, so much as it is in knowing what question He wants us to ask of Him.
3. He answers the prayer that He told us to pray. He lovingly answers our prayers, even if we are selfishly asking for our own purposes and plans. But He especially delights in us asking for the things that He already wants to do for us, or He wants us to do. And we often find that He does exceedingly abundantly more than we could ask or imagine when we dare to test Him in this matter of answered prayer.
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 1 John 5:14
YOUR ENCOUNTER
As a young believer in Christ, I went through a phase of trying to walk in step with the Spirit so much that He would guide my every step. I had heard stories of people who had been told by the Spirit, "Turn down this street, and pull into that driveway. Now walk up to the house and give them all the money in your wallet." It just so happens that the people in that house were desperate and praying for someone to bring the exact amount that was in the wallet. Or the story of picking up a hitchhiker and leading that person to Christ, only to discover that the guy disappears because he was an angel!
I wanted experiences like that to be the norm for me, so for some weeks I would ask the Holy Spirit at every intersection, "Which way, Lord? Left? Right? Straight? I was going to go straight because it's on my way to where I was going, but I'm open to your leading." Or I would see someone on the side of the road, and ask, "Do I pick this guy up? It will make me late getting home for dinner, but if it's what You want, I will do it."
My turning point was one morning, standing before two kinds of deodorant, asking the Holy Spirit which I should use. Use the spray? or the stick? If I use the spray, it destroys the ozone layer, so maybe I should use the stick. On the other hand, if I never use the spray, it will just end up in a landfill and the propellant will be released anyway. So maybe I should use the spray, then. Or, maybe . . . one on the left arm and the other on the right? What do You prefer, Spirit? Speak, for your servant is listening.
That's when I heard the Holy Spirit speak clearly to me:
"Don't use me as an excuse for your indecisiveness! Just put something on so you don't stink, and then go out and do my work!"
I tell you of my moment of clarity to say I realized that some things are up to me to decide, and that the Spirit is perfectly capable of letting me know when He wants to get my attention to tell me to go out of my way.
How about you? For your encounter with God, describe the last time that the Holy Spirit guided you. Maybe you were counseling a friend, and He gave you the right words to say. Maybe it was planning worship, and a new insight came to you. Maybe you were going about your daily life, and He interrupted your agenda to do His. Tell about that experience: Did it work out? Were you confident that you were hearing from Him? Share with someone, and pray for one another that you will pray according to his will. Write about what you learned.