Sweet Sounds From Heaven

It was in the middle of summer, probably around July, 2000. I was in my prayer chair, my favorite place. Truly the highlight of my day is in the mornings when I get to pray and fellowship with my Master. Jesus has been so very good to me and certainly does stick closer than a brother. Praying for my family in Florida, Georgia, Virginia and friends, some of whom are closer than family summarizes my morning prayer time.

This particular morning after praying with my understanding, my Heavenly Father lead me to pray in the spirit. Immediately, there was something inside me like I had never felt before. This thing was huge.  I didn’t quite know what to do with it, so praying was the only thing to do. Staying with it was not the problem, getting a glimpse of what it was about was the issue. I must have prayed in the spirit for over an hour. All I knew was this thing was in me and I had to pray it through. I don’t know how well I prayed it through but after finding some relief, I called a friend of mine and told her about it. She is also an intercessor. She said “Sandy, just stick with it, God is doing something and often we don’t need to understand, just cooperate.” I told her I would.

The next morning, yesterday morning was almost forgotten. Just praying my usual stuff; family, friends, government, church, pastors, future. etc. When I felt finished, I asked God to alert me to things that needed attention in the realm of the spirit. My goodness!, here it came again. That same urgency to pray. So again here we go with the flow, with not a clue where the flow was going. Seemed to me in the spirit I was going all the way around the world. I’m sure you understand that physically I was sitting in my prayer chair in my living room. That’s when it hit me. This is more than God preventing an automobile accident. That was the only thing my brain could wrap around. My family often traveled this time of year and it seemed something was being prevented from happening.

It’s difficult to explain spiritual things because we are so aware of the natural part of us that we see. However, in the spirit, it seemed like I was 9 months pregnant and about to give birth. Truly ready to deliver. But deliver what?, I’m thinking. Again, my friend Ginger was consulted. She urged me not to worry, just stick with it. She assured me “God knows what He’s doing.” I said,” I sure hope so.” We laughed. That laughter did me good like a medicine. Things can get pretty tense with a traveling companion like God.

Well, you guessed it. Next day, same time, same station. Here it came. I almost expected it by now. So here we go again. All the way around the world praying in the spirit. After getting some relief, I asked God, “what is this?” He said one word to me…”September.” September didn’t mean anything to me, but I knew I heard that word in my inner man, that spiritual part of us that we do not see with these natural eys.

Next day… you’re good, you’re with me aren’t you. Yep! There it was, that same urgency to pray, so what else could one do. I knew God was doing something big, just didn’t have a clue what. Again, after finding some relief, I asked God “what is this big thing I have a hold of, or should I say has a hold of me?” God was getting a little friendlier… guess you could say we were bonding… just kidding. Humor helps in times like these. This time He gave me two words. See, I told you He was getting friendlier, “World wide.” I just about croaked right then. “World wide,” I cried out to God, wide-eyed as a scared cat. He said nothing.

So here I am with “September and World Wide.” My friend, Ginger had given me some real good advice. Pray, don’t try to figure everything out. The only thing I knew was that it was HUGE, the biggest thing I’d ever had a hold of before. Her advice was heeded and I stayed with the program as long as it was playing. This went on for about a week.

So now I’m waiting for September. I just knew it would hit the news. Maybe two ships almost collided. Somewhere, somehow something was prevented and God let me be part of it. Well, September came and went and nothing was brought to my attention that almost happened. For now we see through a glass darkly. We only know in part but one day face to face all things will be revealed. We will know Him as He now knows us. Since God knows and I don’t, I figured it was probably on the other side of the world and they didn’t have TV. He still ain’t talking. Nevertheless, my spirit knew something had been prevented.

It was a almost a year later in February, 2001 when we had to place our grandmother in a nursing home. I haven’t jumped the tracks… this was just the way God worked. She was demented and could no longer live alone. I visited her often and enjoyed her just about every time. The times of less enjoyment were times when she was sick. I had spent Monday, September 10 , 2001 with her. She was quite ill.

It was Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Out of bed at 6:30 and didn’t even have coffee on my mind. No TV, somehow a serious urgency to pray was upon me. Since grandma Laura was heavy on my heart, naturally, I thought this urgency to pray was for her. I locked in and was praying in the spirit for probably around 3 hours. Completely absorbed in what I was doing with no desire to do anything else. Several of us girls had been attending a bible study at Ginger’s home weekly at 10:00. When I realized it was 9:30 I jumped into action, especially since I wanted to vote on the way to bible study. Even with my best efforts, I was going to be late.

Acquainted with all the people who worked at my polling station. Pat greeted me and inquired about the news. “What news?” I explained about the extra, quality time in prayer that morning, since grandma Laura had been real sick. I reminded her about the bible study at Ginger’s, and that I just stopped by to vote. “Why?”, I asked.  She said, “a plane flew into one of the twin towers in New York City. It’s been all over the news, and they think it might be terrorist.”  It was one of those scratch your head and roll your eyes moments, and I said, “terrorist! how silly, this is America.” She said, “I know Sandy, but that’s what they think, so pray at bible study.” I assured her we would pray. Praying all the way to Ginger’s. All the while, I’m wondering, What’s a twin tower?

Arriving at bible study late, it was around 10:20. Everyone was huddled around the TV. My lateness didn’t matter. There was no bible study that day. They caught me up on the news as we sat there in disbelief. Nothing was making any sense to us. We were glued to the tube. I remember thinking, Dear Lord, we’re at war.

Never connected anything that day with my intense praying and birthing pains in prayer the year before. It was around November when I was watching Christian TV and heard what a brother said about 911. “The terrorist will try to strike again and their plans will be foiled because of the prayers and praise of the saints.” He went on to say, “actually, 911 would have been much worse, had people not prayed.” It hit me like a ton of bricks. Now, September and World Wide made perfect sense.

No doubt hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps millions of people were prompted to stop what they were doing and pray leading up to 911. God knows the beginning from the end. Especially when we don’t understand what He is doing, we must trust Him. He’ll use anyone who will cooperate with him to do good in the world and prevent evil. You know, hanging out with God is real exciting. We don’t need alcohol or drugs. He is the Most High. Talk about taking a trip and not even leaving the house. Yeah, we can do that to. Thank you Jesus for getting my attention and trusting me to cooperate with the process.

Filed under: True God Stories