One night our church family was praying for souls during a prayer meeting. Somehow we got over into praying for hopeless situations – circumstances in which there seems to be no possibility of victory.
As I prayed along this line, I was reminded of some impossibilities that in the past had been strong on my heart. I realized I had really let go of those things; I wasn’t believing God for them anymore.
Then God took me to a passage of Scripture that prompted me to take hold of those forgotten desires by faith once more. It was the wonderful account of the angel Gabriel’s visit to Mary – a story that will make you fall in love with Jesus all over again!
How, Lord?
Gabriel came to Mary and said, “I’ve come from the presence of God to give you a message.” The message Gabriel brought her was an amazing one: Mary, a young virgin, had been chosen to bear the Son of God!
And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found grace (free, spontaneous, absolute favor and loving-kindness) with God. And listen! You will become pregnant and will give birth to a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He will be great (eminent) and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His forefather David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob throughout the ages; and of His reign there will be no end.”
And Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no [intimacy with any man as a] husband?”
Then the angel said to her, “The Holy Ghost will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you [like a shining cloud]; and so the holy (pure, sinless) Thing (Offspring) which shall be born of you will be called the Son of God.
“And listen! Your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is now the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing is ever impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment.”
(Luke 1:30-37)
Now, this is a good example of an impossible situation. Notice Mary’s response to Gabriel when he told her that she would bear the Son of God. She asked the angel, “How?”
That’s an understandable question! How would Mary bear a child when she was still a virgin? Wasn’t that an impossibility?
“It will happen by the Holy Ghost,” Gabriel explained.
If we want to define an impossibility, we could say that it is anything in life that makes us ask God, “How? How is this going to come to pass, Lord?” We are speaking of things that absolutely cannot be humanly brought forth.
However, the Bible says that nothing is impossible with God! He always knows the “how” of every hopeless situation!
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
On the chilly March night in 1972 when Lynne Hammond took her first step into a life of Spirit-led prayer, she had no idea what was about to happen. All she knew was the hunger in her heart for God wouldn’t let her sleep. In the few short months she’d been born again, her desire to fellowship with Him had grown so strong she could hardly contain it. “Help me, God!” she cried. “I want to know you. I want to be able to talk to you. Please, teach me to pray!”
Suddenly, a heavenly presence flooded the room. Lynne sensed waves of spiritual fire sweeping over her and a beautiful language began to flow like a river from within her. Although she’d never heard of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, she knew instantly, without a doubt—this was God!
What began that night soon blossomed into a life of prayer that ultimately became a ministry of prayer when, in 1980, Lynne and her husband, Mac, founded Living Word Christian Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Under Lynne’s leadership, the prayer ministry at Living Word has become an internationally recognized model for developing effective pray-ers in the local church.
A teacher and an author, Lynne publishes a newsletter called Prayer Notes, has written numerous books, and currently serves as the national prayer director for Daughters for Zion. Her passion for inspiring and leading others into the life of Spirit-led prayer continues to take her around the world to minister to believers whose heart cry, like hers, is “Lord, teach me to pray!”