Small Deposits and Great Withdrawals

Small Deposits and Great Withdrawals

by Betty Malz

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

My message this morning is titled “Prayer Clinic.” And when you go to a clinic, everyone does not receive the same treatment. I’m going to talk cafeteria style. My husband says a sit-down menu is like a mail-order bride. You don’t know what you’re getting until she comes. He likes to go to cafeterias. So I’m going to talk cafeteria style because we have quite a variety of ages here. I’m glad the young people have joined us this morning. I want to talk about praying for results. I’m going to talk very simple. I’ve been imposed upon to listen to speakers that were pretty but not practical. And I have gone to functions that were fancy but not functional. And what I have to say is simple, but it works. And I have a rule of thumb. If it works, don’t fix it. And I’ve learned how to pray with some results. God has been faithful. I want to encourage the young people that have joined us this morning to pray for your parents. Two weeks ago I did a retreat for couples in St. Louis. There were several single parents there. I had a young woman share with me that on two occasions she had planned suicide. And she said at one point, I put a plastic bag over my head and tied it under my chin.

And decided I would never take that bag off until my life was ended. I could not face life. And the phone rang. It was my 15-year-old son. And he said, “Mom, I just called to tell you I appreciate you. You’re working hard since Dad’s gone. And I just wanted to say that.” She said he saved my life. And then on another occasion she said, “I walked into a prayer room at church. And I felt such a failure. And I heard my son praying, ‘Oh God, help Mom. She’s really having a hard time.’” And she said the prayers of my 15-year-old kept me from suicide. Young people, pray for your parents. You can make good ones out of poor ones. Prayer changes things. And you may consider them a pitiful example, maybe. But you can actually make a good parent out of a bad one. And then, parents, I want to talk to you in front of your kids. Because I’m going to put you on a spot today. Many times, and especially women, we talk too much. We have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle. Talk to God about your kids instead of talking to your kids about God. You’ll be surprised. The Lord can do more with those kids in three weeks than you have done in three years.

I have a daughter that just graduated from Wheaton College. And while I was there for her graduation, I talked to one of her professors. He wrote a book titled I Was a High School Drop-In. At 42 years old, this college professor decided he wanted to know what it was really like in high school. And he pretended to be a high school dropout. He was a high school drop-in. And he took a couple of classes just to pick up on the atmosphere of high school. He said, “Now, when I grew up in high school, the worst thing a guy ever did was to stick his hand down a girl’s blouse. Or maybe he would go out behind the high school gym and smoke a cigarette. But I learned that my kids are having to learn to cope with and understand perversion, drugs, the occult, Satan worshippers, and computers. And I never had to cope with those things.” So he said, “I was learning what it was like to be a high school student.” Now, I want to stop for just a minute and talk to women. It’s your job to make your husband happy. It’s God’s job to make him skinny.

It’s your job to make your husband happy. It’s God’s job to make him spiritual. My husband’s not here now. He’s as smart as a tree full of owls. And I majored in kids and minored in quarter horses. But at one point, I realized, now, you can always tell a German, but you can’t tell him much. And my husband is an intelligent college professor, and he’s German. I’m the one that balances the bank book and budgets the funds. He came home one day with a brand new Chrysler LeBaron station wagon with wood paneling. And the payments were going to be $440 a month. And I looked at him and I said, “Carl, right now, every week, we have $16 left over. How? What kind of magic trick are you going to play? You would have to sell your body on the street to pay payments for this station wagon.” And he looked at me and he said, “We will not discuss this. I have already bought this station wagon. Tomorrow morning, I fill out the final papers, and it will be in the garage by 10 a.m.” Well, I’ve learned not to talk to him, but I talked to God. Soon as he left, I dropped on my knees and I said, “Lord, Lord, I’m not asking You to take my side nor his.

But You know all things. Lord, help.” That’s the only way I could pray. Do you know he never did bring that station wagon home? And don’t you tell him I told you this morning. It felt so good. I never did ask him what happened. I’m here to tell you, if it works, don’t fix it. Just pray. God knows how to work out all of these things. Now, I want to talk to you about a little scripture. As I grew up, my father was an old-fashioned preacher, and he used to preach, “Pray without ceasing.” I thought, oh, that sounds good. That’s ridiculous. How could I ever do that? But I want you to know I cannot stop praying. And I want to tell you why. How many were not here last night? Okay. About a third of the audience. I want you, at the close of this meeting, to stop by the book table. And if you were not here last night, tell them to give you, without charge, one of these little booklets. This tells my death experience. During my death experience, following a ruptured appendix for 11 days with gangrene, I was in a coma 44 days. I died for 28 minutes. And during that time, I walked through a meadow in a country as real as England or America.

People were very natural there. Athletes were performing without hateful competition. And can you ever imagine, as a sport, to be able to slide in home without pulling a muscle? No danger of being injured in any way. A musician will never hit a sour note or get the wrong key in trance, in trance, whatever you call it, music. I had a wonderful experience. But the greatest learning experience of my entire life was during that time when in that wonderful place, I saw the golden throne room where prayers were being answered. I walked through shafts of light that looked like laser beams or airport beacons. They were similar in color to the northern lights. These were prayers. Prayers are not just words uttered in frustration to relieve psychological fear. Prayer is a live ray of energy that comes from your heart and is shafted directly to the heart of God. I saw the other end of prayer. My father merely breathed the name Jesus when he saw my body covered with a sheet and he wished I had not died. Anything large enough for a wish to light upon is worth hanging a prayer upon. And there is a prayer that asks for nothing, yet asks for everything. For he who seeks the Father more than anything that He can grant him is likely to receive what he asks for and more.

I never wanted to leave that place. But my father breathed Jesus and wished I had not died. That prayer was shafted to the golden throne room. It changed my mind and I came back faster than a jet plane. Sat up with a new love for people, and I cannot quit praying because I know now what prayer really is. If you will grasp that concept, you can pray without ceasing and you will begin to see results like you’ve never seen before. Now when I pray, I shut out all distractions. I visualize my prayer as that shaft of light. I don’t try to impress people with my praying because we are not talking to each other or impressing each other. We’re talking to God. That’s why I don’t like to go to a church where they have printed out prayers. And I have gone to charismatic churches that can get in the worst rut just like liturgy. I mean, I can almost tell you the chorus they’re going to sing and their dramatics and their charismatics and maniacs and all of their aerobics in spirituality. Without going, I can look at my watch and almost tell you what they’re doing next. But do you know, with prayer, you can shut out all distractions. Don’t worry how it sounds to other people.

Talk to God. In fact, the Bible talks about closet prayer. You can actually write down your prayer. And do you know angels can read? The recording angels are great and excellent computer operators. They can read your prayer when you do not utter it with your voice. I would also like to tell you that if you have received the Holy Spirit, the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now, this is not something you steal. It’s a gift. And if you don’t want it, that’s fine. But for those of you that have, this is the third dimension, an extra dimension of prayer that we have. And we can have prayers answered that cannot be intercepted by the enemy. And let me explain. There are three heavens. If you read the book Heaven, A Bright and Glorious Place, you will realize there are three heavens. The first heaven is the atmosphere around the earth where clouds form, where airplanes and birds fly. The second heaven is the devil’s domain. I believe that when Satan and one-third of the angels fell from heaven, they fell into the atmosphere near the galaxies, the stars, the moon. That’s why horoscope and palm readers talk a lot about the second heaven. And I believe Satan and his evil angels will remain there trying to hinder our prayers from going into the third heaven, which is the invisible kingdom, where prayers are answered in the golden throne room.

And he will remain there until Jesus comes and airlifts us up through the first heaven, the second heaven, to the third heaven. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Now, Satan fell from heaven before Jesus died on the cross and ascended back to the Father and sent the Holy Spirit. So Satan nor his angels can interpret your prayer when you pray in the Spirit. And so he cannot hinder your prayer when you pray that way. It bores straight through the second heaven into the third. Now, I cannot take a whole session to talk about this, but I would like to encourage you, when you don’t know how to pray, let the Holy Spirit pray through you. Now, I want to talk a little bit about praying without ceasing. Now, some of you saw my white Mustang out here. I have an ’88 Mustang I drove. This is not my car. That’s the family car. My car is an old 1962 MGA convertible. Thirty, yes, 30 years old. And if you want to see what it looks like, on the book table, when you see the book Women in Tune, on the back cover is a picture of that old car. Now, it has dual carburetors. It has a noisy muffler system. And when I’m humming around town every day in that old 1962 MGA, it makes a lot of noise.

So I can pray while I’m driving out loud. Nobody but the Lord hears me. You can pray while you’re mowing grass. I do that. Nobody can hear me but the Lord. Pray while you’re doing things you don’t like to do. Like, it doesn’t take brains to do dishes. Pray while you’re doing dishes. It is possible to pray without ceasing. And then the scripture says, “They that seek me early shall find me.” I would like to encourage you to pray the first thing every morning. I was taught to pray at two. I learned to pray at 42. At 62 I am still adventuring and learning in prayer. I learned something from a wonderful black lady, Lily Knowles. She started a concert at Trinity College where my husband taught by singing a little song. Every morning I say, “Yes, Lord.” And I said, “Lily, do you really?” She said, “Yes, try it. You like it.” So every morning the first thing I do when I open my eyes, I uncover my body with my left hand, with the sheet. Then I double up my fist. I shoot my right arm straight toward the ceiling. I look up toward the heavens, and the first word that comes out of my mouth before I open my eyes is, “Yes, Lord.”

Come on, try it. Yes, Lord. Once more with gusto. Yes, Lord. Do you feel that release in your ribcage? Let me tell you what happens when you, the first thing in the morning, say yes to the Lord. It gets the bluff on the devil. First of all, he cannot believe that a guy would say yes to the Lord before he’s had two cups of you-know-what in the morning. And then that positive prayer, you’re saying yes to Him. It gets the bluff on the enemy, and he runs. He cannot give you any negative thoughts all day. When you say yes, that gives the Lord the opportunity to let your path cross with the path of people all day long. You don’t have to go around with a 20-pound reference Bible thumping people under the chin to witness. You say yes. And do you know Jesus said, “As many as came to Him, He received them.” The Lord will send people to you who are hungry and thirsty if you’ve said yes. He will send people that are ready. People that your personality will influence. You try it. You will like it. The next thing that happens, and I have to tell you this morning when my alarm went off very early because I changed my message this morning, the room was cool and the bed was warm.

I raised my flag half-mast. And I said, “Perhaps. Maybe. Let’s negotiate.” And then I thought, no, no way. The enemy’s not going to make me lazy today. I want that supernatural energy of the Holy Ghost today. I need it. I can’t function without it. And I said, “Yes, Lord.” And I was up. And I felt His presence. I’ve got to give you an illustration. When I was… It’s been 85 years ago. I was in junior high school. My dad pastored a church near the Michigan border. And everyone talked about War Horse Buckland. Oh, every time someone had a wreck or got sick, call War Horse Buckland. One day I said, “Dad, I’d love to meet that old lady they call War Horse Buckland.” He said, “You’ll meet her Thursday night. She’s coming for dinner. Mom’s going to make her spaghetti.” Well, I thought she would be 300 pounds. She would have muscles. She would breathe fire from her nose, carry a sword in one hand and a Bible in the other. I thought she would ride a black horse and tie it to the front porch of our post on the front porch. And when she arrived, the old lady couldn’t even drive a car. She was frail and small and old, and a young man drove a car and she sat in the backseat of an old green Chevy.

I was so disappointed. This is War Horse Buckland. But do you know, we don’t use our own power to fight our battles. We are ordinary, weak human beings. But we use the power of the living God, and in His name we fight battles. And do you know what her son said about her? “In the morning when Mom wakes up, the demons scream, ‘My God, she’s getting up!’”

Because that little woman was strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. I would encourage you every morning, lean thine arm a while on the windowsill of heaven. Gaze into the face of thy God, and then with that vision in mind, turn strong to meet the day. Do you know why you run out of fuel before your day is over? You don’t stay at the pump long enough to get a full tank of gas. There is a tape on the back table you might want to pick up. It’s a good tape. It’s my husband’s tape. It’s titled Energy Crisis. Talks about the things that rob us of our strength, our physical strength and our spiritual strength. There is also a little book back there, Don’t Let the Title Frighten You. It is titled If You’re Over the Hill You Ought to Be Going Faster. There is a chapter on depression, on weight control, on creative energy, how to reverse the aging process. That’s a powerful little book that has a lot to do about prayer. The other one that I would recommend is Supernatural Living. Talks about when your natural runs low, then you shift into overdrive and let the super take over. I want to talk briefly about the Oreo cookie concept.

Now, I’m talking about things that you will recall someday when you get in a bind. Do you know symbols are very important in prayer? Have you ever thought of how ridiculous the communion really is? That you take a wafer and break it and pretend that’s Jesus’ body and that grape juice is a symbol of His blood that cleanses your sin? But that is one powerful concept. Can I tell you about an elderly, not so elderly man, he is getting older. But he told me, he says, “Betty, I work at the banana boat dock in Tampa, Florida. I have to help unload bananas as they come in the port in Tampa Bay. I have to fight with men that don’t speak English. They curse me. There are women on board some of those boats, banana boats, for the pleasure of the dock hands, and they try to come on to me, and I have to resist that.” He said, “I have to shut my eyes when I see drugs among the bananas. I have a terrible job. I make good money.” But he said, “I was not coping well. I was losing my temper. I found it hard to serve the Lord and keep this job.” And he said, “I found a secret. I’m going to pass it on to… there may be one person here that would need to try this.” He said, “I needed more than just a quick prayer before I left for work.” He said, “I live alone, and I have started doing something that has changed my life. I keep on hand some little wafers and a bottle of grape juice.

And every morning before I leave for work, I take a small piece of that wafer and a little bit of grape juice. I drop on my knees before I go out the door. I break the bread and eat it. And I ask the Lord, ‘Lord, strengthen my body today. Keep my natural lusts and my temper under control.’ Then I drink the juice. And I say, ‘Lord, with Your blood, cleanse me of all unrighteousness today. I need supernatural help.’” And he says, “I partake of a private communion every morning before I leave for those boat docks for my work.” And he said, “I am sustained through the day.” And it works for him. I want to give you another illustration that has worked for me. I learned something as I look at people around my little community. Now, I live in a little fishing village at Crystal Beach near Clearwater. One day I realized it was almost closing time and I needed to make a deposit to cover a check that I had mailed away. I went in the MGA and I roared to the front door of that little branch bank. And up walked an older man. And I thought, oh, no, he’s going to get there and they’ll close the window. He’ll get taken care of and I won’t.

No problem. I mean, I do three miles. I already did my three miles this morning before I came. And I thought, I do three miles every day. Shoot, I can beat that old guy up to the window. So I sprinted, and do you know he beat me. There he stood in his little khaki shorts with those little skinny legs dangling down. But he was swift. And he walked up to the teller and he said, “Myra, I need a bank draft for $30,000. I want to make a real estate investment.” Myra reached over and punched a button on the computer and wrote out a bank draft for $30,000 and said, “Thank you, Mr. Miller.” So I walked up to the window and I said, “Myra, I need a bank draft for $30,000. I need a Mercedes.” She punched her little button. She says, “Betty, you crazy woman. You’ve only got $112 in your account.” Do you know what the difference was in Mr. Miller and me? What most people had not seen, what most people do not know, this old man, over a long period of time, had been making small deposits. And so when he made a great demand on the bank, it wasn’t magic. They gave him what he wanted. They knew his voice.

They knew his account. And so when he asked, he got what he wanted. Do you know, going home, I cried. I thought, Lord, that’s how You are. Sometimes we see a person who makes a great demand on God, a miracle happens. But what we don’t realize is that person has been making small daily deposits in prayer. And do you know it’s so with your kids? The child that phones home most frequently, you recognize that voice most readily. And I believe that’s the way it is with God. When He hears your voice, He recognizes you because you talk to Him so much. I want to also tell you, young people, appreciate your parents. Now, I may not be much, but one thing I thrive on is appreciation. While some of my friends are playing golf and hobnobbing with the snobs and going shopping, I am sitting at a typewriter for 10 to 14 hours a day. Do you know why I’m doing this? I have a stepdaughter and a daughter in college. And the reason I keep working hard, there’s got to be an easier way of making a living. But I keep going because I have five children. My husband and I have five children together. I have three stepchildren and two children. Now, I’m not going to tell you whose kids.

But out of those five, we have two children who appreciate. And you can be sure I will work my buns off to do and perform what I have to do to keep those two doing what they’re doing because they’re making good grades and they love the Lord with all of their heart. Young people, your parents will give you almost anything you want if you appreciate. And God is that way. Don’t ask God today for anything more until first you appreciate Him for what He has already done. Now, prayer is my bag, not fasting. So, I have my little clock and I’m not going to run over. I may have to discard several pages of notes, but I want to cover some very important issues. Sometimes we go so high and so deep, we miss simplicity. And I want to talk a little bit about the simplicity of prayer. When Jesus decided to change the world, He set apart 12 people, 12 disciples. He never taught them to preach, but He did teach them to pray. My grandmother taught me something wonderful by example.

I went to visit her one day. She was baking apple pie. She said, “Oh, Lord, I can’t find my nutmeg. Would You find my nutmeg?” I thought, God love her. She’s really losing it. She’s getting senile. And I said, “Mom Perky, I’ll answer that prayer for you.” So I looked up. I’m taller than her. I looked up in the top of the cabinet. I couldn’t find her nutmeg either. So she rolled out the top crust and was ready to put it on the pie. Someone knocked on the back door. And I went to the back door. And there stood a little squatty woman with a box of nutmeg in her hand. I thought I had seen a ghost. And she handed it to me. She said, “I’m Mrs. Green. I borrowed your grandma’s nutmeg about six weeks ago. And like a bolt of lightning out of the sky, about two minutes ago, something said, ‘Take that nutmeg back.’” You know, the Holy Spirit promises to bring all things to our remembrance. And when she prayed that simple prayer, the Holy Spirit tapped the woman on the shoulder and said, “Take the nutmeg home.” I gave it to my grandmother. And she said, “See, I’m not crazy.

Betty, what your problem is, you are too smart to understand.” She said, “I pray about everything.” You sing the song, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything, not just big things, but everything to God in prayer. Now, fasten your seatbelts. I’m going to try to conclude in about 15 minutes here. And I have a lot yet on my list. I have some prescriptions and some telegrams to deliver. I want to encourage you that when you pray, then do something as a sacrifice of your trust and faith. In the new book, Touching the Unseen World, I have a story in there of Ed and Ruth Schlossmacher. They had a four-year-old son with meningitis in the Children’s Hospital in Buffalo, New York. They are now living in New Port Richey, Florida. They said when the doctors told them that little Ed would not live, he had a fever of 106. He was in spinal convulsions in ICU. And if he lived, he would be totally mentally incapacitated. The doctor said, “You might want to change your prayer and ask God to let the little fellow die.” They said they prayed. Finally, after two days and nights not going home, the doctor said, “Go home and get some rest.

You really must get some rest.” They drove by the church they attended. There were several cars in the driveway. They learned that people had come to the church to pray for little Ed. The next morning when Ed awakened, he said, “Lord, I’m asking You to heal my son, little Ed.” And he said, “Then the Lord spoke to me, ‘Do something.’” He said, “I went out into the garage. I began to sand his tricycle and paint it red. I went home and prayed and painted the tricycle.” He said, “In just about two hours, the doctor called and said, ‘Get to the hospital. He’s dying. You need to be here.’ When we got there, we saw a horrible sight.” But he said, “My faith hung on. I had already prayed and I had painted that tricycle. And I determined that even like Job, if God slayed me, I still would trust Him.” He said, “We battled for his life for several hours, then went back home again to get some rest. This battle went on for about five weeks. One morning, a nurse called and said, ‘Get to the hospital.’ We thought, it’s probably the end. But when we got there, the child was alert. And he was awake. And he knew us.” The young man was healed, went on to Princeton University as an electrical engineer.

Then he took a call to the mission field. Yesterday morning, in church, I met this little Ed who is now an adult. He is on his way to Japan as a teacher and a missionary with his wife and his children. When you pray, do something. When my first husband died, I lived alone for six years. One day, I asked the Lord, “Lord, I’m tired of shopping for a husband. There’s a lot of bums out there and I’ve been disappointed. There aren’t very many good men left out there.” Be good to your husband if you have a good one. I said, “Lord, Lord, I want You to send me a good husband, a partner for a purpose, and a father for my children.” And then I did something. I didn’t paint the tricycle, but I went to Maas Brothers and I bought a soft black lace gown. I put it in my cedar chest, my hope chest. One day, my 12-year-old daughter was looking for linens to make the bed and she said, “Mother, what is this?” I said, “Brenda, that is faith.” She says, “What on earth are you going to do with this?” I said, “I’m going to get married.” She hooted. She laughed so hard. But do you know what? Three months later, Connie Malz introduced me to her dad.

And nine months later, we got married and I wore that gown. We’ve been married 20 years and it’s worn, but I’m still wearing that gown. Now, I want to tell you, hang on to your dream. Jesus is a dream maker. Satan is a dream breaker. This little book, and I started to tell you, I think I forgot to finish. If you were not here last night, I can’t tell my entire story this morning, but please tell them to give you without charge one of these. I want you to read my story. This was my first book. Doesn’t look like much. But someone anonymously mailed this little book to Guideposts and Catherine Marshall. Catherine invited me to write a little book. And I wrote Prayers That Are Answered as a result of this attempt. That little book… Now, my husband is a world traveler. I’ve been to heaven in Texas. But that little book, Prayers That Are Answered, is now in 18 languages, including Russian. And it’s going all over the world. Hang on to your dream, young people. And I put my hand on the scripture, and I would encourage you to pray the word. I prayed Psalm 75, verse 6 and 7. “Promotion comes neither from the east nor the west, but promotion comes from the Lord.”

I wrote that first book and I asked the Lord by putting my hand on the word, “Lord, I’m asking You to promote that book.” And I would say that’s doing pretty good. Eighteen languages. Now, I had a dream of being a writer since I was 8. I told my brothers one day, I have 4 brothers, and I said, “I’m going to be a writer.” They hooted. They said, “You’re not a writer, you’re a basketball player.” Now, I was 5’12” since I’ve been 12 years old. Now, I played women’s basketball. I was not good, but I was 5’12”. My dad wouldn’t even come to see me play. He said, “You’re awkward, you look horrible in those shorts. What I need is an organist at church. Please develop your music.” So I said yes to my brothers, played basketball, said yes to my dad. And I did develop the organ, and I played the organ for… And I’m still playing for church. But in my heart, I wanted so much to write. I wanted to be a writer. One day at church, the pastor said, “I need a volunteer to clean the church. We can’t afford to pay, but would you clean God’s house without a salary? Do you love God that much?” No one volunteered.

So after church, I said, “Don’t tell my husband. He’d be embarrassed, but I’ll clean the church.” One Saturday, I was on my knees in the men’s restroom cleaning with a brush, scrubbing the men’s urinal. Little voice got on my shoulder and said, “You’re really overqualified for this job, you know. You’re supposed to be a writer. You dress up on Sunday morning and play that organ. What are you doing cleaning the men’s urinal?” That’s right. I’m overqualified for this job. I’m supposed to be a writer. But do you know what? I decided I would take that small assignment until I got a bigger one. And one day, God said, “Now it’s Betty’s turn.” And Catherine Marshall helped me. I have on the table book number 10. Take the small assignment. Hang on to your dream. Now, if you have a financial problem, God pays all bills He authorizes. Don’t go out and do a lot of foolish spending. But God promised to supply all of your need, not your greed. You can apply the word and He will prosper you. If you want a mate, you need direction, where to live, or a job. As a young person, you want to know who your life’s mate is. I would encourage you to open your Bible to Psalm 138:8.

And in the margin of your Bible, write your name. The scripture said, “The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.” Now, not a shabby job. He will do a perfect job if you’ll turn it over to Him. Write it out. Psalm 138:8. In the margin of your Bible, put your name if you want a Christian mate or a new career. The Lord will perfect. Pray the word. This is very effective. I pray the word. And the Lord has done great things. If you have unsaved children, in your Bible, now don’t turn to it now, I want to talk fast. Beside Jeremiah 24, verse 6 and 7, write the names of your unsaved children. The scripture promises you that He has set His heart upon your children. “They will be mine. They will have a heart to know me. And they will return to me with their whole heart.” Vicki Hagen, a friend of mine, in North Dakota, has seven children. She wrote the names of those children beside Jeremiah 24 and put her hand on them and prayed for her children. All seven have been born again and spirit filled. And the two married boys have born again believers for wives. And this takes me to my next point. I have a prayer list here.

33 prayer partners in 22 states. These people are reachable. You may come at any time during this retreat. Copy the names of these people. They pray for everything from alcoholics to people who cannot have babies. Little lady in St. Pete last year prayed for 114 impossible pregnancies. They have already delivered healthy children.

Emotional disturbances. Ann Morrison, that was healed of MS, prays for MS patients. And you can copy names and write to these people. They pray every morning at 8 o’clock at the same time I pray. And these people will pray for your needs.

There’s power in prayer and in united prayer. And there is power in praying for one another. The scriptures is, pray one for another that you might be healed. Now God will not give you faith nor energize you to do the supernatural if you use that energy to sit on a couch and eat potato chips and watch soaps. But if you are out there investing in people, God will invest in you. You become part of His tools and equipment, and He’ll keep you going. I rarely get tired and I’m 62 because God knows I care about people, and I’m not worth investing in, but He knows He can use me, and so He keeps insuring me. Try it. You’ll like it. If you have an unsaved husband, I would say start putting his name in the margin of your Bible. Ask the Lord to do for you that which you cannot. When you pray there is a time to get a prayer partner to pray with you. Someone that will not betray your confidence but pray with you. Pray the word. There are times when nothing but worship works. You can pray and pull rank on God, but it doesn’t seem to bring results. Sometimes worship will work. Then I would say make an appointment with God every day.

Keep that appointment. Let Him know it’s important that you have time with Him alone. And then in extreme cases, I would encourage you to pray in the name of Jesus and to draw an invisible bloodline around the circumstance. In the book Unseen World, I have a story, a very recent story. A young missionary couple with small children went to Russia when the door first opened to evangelize. They left their beautiful 120 acre farm in the state of Iowa and their two small children in the keeping of loving grandparents. They knew that they could go and give their heart to this Russian mission unhindered, knowing that the children would be cared for in their own home at their own farm. The first night several hundred people came forward to receive Jesus and many were healed. They fell in bed in a dirty motel room but fell into a deep sleep. The man wrote me a letter and he said, “Betty, I was awakened with a nightmare and I heard an angry voice in the motel room and it said, ‘I am going to kill your children while you are here. Foxes with rabies will bite your children and they will die.’” He said, “I reached over to share this with my wife Lisa and she was gone.

I thought, my God, where is my wife? And I jumped up and went into the bathroom and she was in there wiping her nose and blowing her nose and crying. She said, ‘I have had a horrible nightmare. I dreamed we went to a funeral and the two caskets side by side contained our children.’” He said, “We took hands and joined and we pled the blood of Jesus, and just as the children of Israel applied the blood on the lintel and the doorposts, we applied an invisible bloodline around that 120 acre farm, around the grandparents, and around the children. And we said, ‘Lord Jesus, ensure our loved ones while we are working for You. Work for us. Prevent this horrible tragedy. In the name of Jesus we plead Your blood, and we will put our heart to the work You’ve called us to.’” He said, “We fell asleep.” Six days later they received a letter from the father. He said, “Son, we’ve had a most curious experience here at home. One morning, the first morning after you left, I awakened early walking around the perimeter of this beautiful farm. I thank God that He had called my son to the mission field. I thank God for the children and for this beautiful farm. And as I was walking around the perimeter of the farm in the early morning sunrise, I stumbled upon a dead fox.

He said, “Then I walked a little further, there was another one. I found five dead foxes. It looked like they had started to go onto the property and then just fell over dead. I did what I thought you would want me to do. I called the veterinarian. He picked them up in a truck and after an autopsy on all five, all five foxes died with rabies.” I want you to know when you plead the blood of Jesus and build that invisible line around, wonderful things happen. I want to encourage you very quickly to know that when you pray, God will give you strength to answer your own prayer. He may send another person, a human being, to come along to answer your prayer that has the answer. If necessary, He can send angels. This is a picture of an angel that came and stilled turbulence during a flight. This is a picture of an attempted robbery at Big Bear Lake. An air traffic controller from Jacksonville was there with his wife and children. And they asked the angels to protect them up in a remote location. Five men on motorcycles roared up and one had a gun. And they had just taken pictures. The men did not pick up the money and got frightened and left.

When they picked up their vacation pictures, there’s a big angel right behind the wife and children. You can see these pictures on the back table. They’re a dollar a piece for the postcard and the story. However, if you don’t have funds and you will use these to witness, please take them and someday when you get rich, you can send me a check. Now, I want to close by saying when you pray, don’t stipulate, formulate, manipulate, dictate. For God has a thousand ways to work when you cannot see one. And when all your means have reached their end, His has just begun. His has just begun.