Contributor:
Chad Roberts
About 2 weeks ago, the Lord spoke to me that I need a “Full Court Press” of Prayer. I thought to myself, how odd that the Lord would use a sports analogy, but then I remembered that there are several sports analogies in the New Testament. For Paul tells us to “run the race with perseverance” in Hebrews 12:1. He writes similar passages in Philippians 2:16, Galatians 2:2 and Galatians 5:7. He writes in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.” In 1 Corinthians 9:24-26, he refers to other Olympic games such as boxing, as well as in 2 Timothy 2:5.
So now, the idea of a full court press did not seem so far fetched to me. But what did the Lord mean? I felt the Lord went on to say to, “When you full court press your opponent, you cause them to make mistakes. They turn the ball over. You begin to gain momentum.”
Tonight, August 19, 2017, I saw first hand what the Lord was saying to me. I have been suffering from terrible headaches since the two failed eye surgeries I had in June and July. The pressure and inflammation have been intense. As of this writing, I am 6 weeks past the last surgery and today, the headaches were so bad that I had to stay in bed all day. It is not a pain I can distract myself from. It truly is debilitating. It seems Satan has found a foothold and is wearing me out with it.
Tonight, I went to a prayer gathering of all men. It is called, “Stir up the Mighty Men” based on Joel 3:9. I did not feel like going at all, but I knew I needed prayer more than ever. What I experienced, I can honestly say, I have never experienced in my life. I have had the joy of people praying over me, but never like this.
Those men gathered around me, and for over 1 hour, they prayed for me. Each one, one by one, poured out their hearts and faith before the Lord on my behalf. Never have I felt the love, unity, and joy of the Kingdom of God like I did tonight. It was beyond words. You know, I spent so much money going to Duke University, only for them to tell me there is nothing more they can do. Yet tonight, what these men of God did for me, was priceless, far beyond any amount of money I could have ever paid.
It was then the Lord showed me what He meant by a “Full Court Press.” See, in basketball, when you call for a full court press, it means you trap the ball. Your job is to go where the ball is and smother it. When men trap the ball, most likely, the opponent is going to turn it over and make a mistake. What these men did for me tonight was a full court press. They trapped Satan, the smothered him in faith and belief that God was able to touch me and turn my circumstance. I have never experienced such a “pressing” in prayer.
As I write this, I woke up at 1am with absolutely no pain. It is the first time since June 15th, that I have been without pain. Oh how thankful I am for the people of God. This is why you need people to pray for you. Some things we cannot do on our own and neither are we are not designed to do them on our own. We need the people of God around us to pray for us.
So I want to simply remind you, we gather for prayer every Tuesday night at Preaching Christ Church. We are not the only ones who have weekly prayer gatherings. There are many in our city who God has led to pray weekly. Find one, come and seek the Lord with us, and let us ever remind ourselves what Jesus says in Matthew 18:19, “Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”
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