<\/p>\n
\u201cThe effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much\u201d<\/em> (James 5:16).<\/p>\n James Rutz, author of MegaShift, tells a wonderful story of God\u2019s supernatural hand in answering prayer.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a good friend named Barclay Tait who sells vacation real estate in Niceville, Florida. Back in 1977, he was a 36-year-old Florida basketball coach. That summer, he decided to hitch-hike to a Christian conference in Front Royal, Virginia. Arriving four days early, he went to a nearby forest and pitched his tent by a stream. On the last day, a tall, thin hiker with a notebook under his arm suddenly appeared, startling him as he read his Bible. Barclay explained that he came out there to fast and meditate.<\/p>\n Dave, the hiker, replied, \u201cWell, I\u2019m an intercessor. What would you like me to pray for?\u201d<\/p>\n Feeling somewhat overwhelmed, Barclay said, \u201cUh, frankly, I\u2019d like prayer for a wife.\u201d The man wrote the request in his notebook and walked on.<\/p>\n By 1988, Barclay, now married to Sherry, has been divinely guided to move to Asheville, North Carolina. A chance encounter in the Holiday Inn parking lot led to an invitation to join a gathering of a Christian group outside of town. Arriving just before the 7:00 P.M. meeting, the host walks in from the kitchen and stops dead in his tracks. \u201cI know you!\u201d he exclaims, pointing his finger. \u201cYou\u2019re Barclay Tait!\u201d Barclay draws a blank.<\/p>\n \u201cJust a minute. I have something I want to show you,\u201d the host announces. He scampers upstairs, leaving the puzzled Taits standing in the middle of the suddenly hushed room. In a moment the host reappeared with a well-worn ledger book. \u201cSee here? This is where I wrote your prayer request in column one when I met you in Front Royal in 1977: \u2018Barclay Tait: God\u2019s choice for a wife.’\u201d Barclay looked down at the journal entry. It was the most detailed, methodical prayer journal he\u2019d ever seen.<\/p>\n \u201cI prayed for you for seven years,\u201d proclaims Dave. \u201cThen in the middle of the night on December 30, 1984, God woke me up out of a sound sleep and said, \u2018Write in your journal, \u201cPrayer answered.\u201d So I did. See? Here in column two, \u201cPrayer answered.’\u201d<\/p>\n Barclay and Sherry look at each other with their mouths open. They sat down, and their eyes fill with tears. Quietly, Barclay tells Dave, \u201cThat was the day we were married.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Prayerfully Arranged Marriage \u201cThe effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much\u201d (James 5:16). James Rutz, author of MegaShift, tells a wonderful story of God\u2019s supernatural hand in answering prayer. \u201cI have a good friend named Barclay Tait who sells vacation real estate in Niceville, Florida. Back in 1977, he was a 36-year-old Florida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[6273,182,588,5279,181],"class_list":["post-19296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-devotionals","tag-arranged","tag-god","tag-marriage","tag-prayerfully","tag-today"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}