There is an inmate in the jail who is a very tough fellow. I take it that he’s extremely experienced in crime, and has seen a lot of the deepest darkness in his life. This fellow has been to prison multiple times for most of his life. He is an actively professing Muslim. He has told me that he has been praying to Allah for years, for some specific prayers to be answered, but he has indicated to me that they have not been answered.
Quite interestingly, this inmate has taken a great interest in some of the prayer times I’ve had with the Christian brothers proximate to him inside the jail. More specifically, this inmate has seen a lot of answered prayer, over big things going on in people’s lives. Some of the recent stories in the KJM weekly email blasts have been about these instances of answered prayer. So, last week the inmate asked me,
“Chaplain Jeff, can we pray together, can you pray for my specific situation?“
He was referring to a specific aspect of his legal situation that he wanted me to pray on, and which is what had not been answered. So, with this inmate, I prayed to Jesus. I did my best to look right at the LORD (Psalm 105:4 KJB) while praying, so I was with GOD, in my mind, in His presence, when we were actually in a conversation. I knew if I was with him in that way, then my prayer would be answered (see Mark 11:24).
So I left and then came back the next week. The inmate reported to me, right when I saw him, that the situation we prayed for, had happened–the prayer was answered. He said it in a matter of fact, way, not with a sense of amazement. But when I heard about it, I just thought for a second to myself, then I sent to the inmate:
“Jesus answered our prayer brother.“
I was so elated! Not elated because I wanted to prove this inmate wrong or something (but I do confess deep hope that he would pray to the name of Jesus)–but I was elated because this fellow so badly need to see a miracle from the LORD in order to believe (John 2:23), and he had just seen it.
Men in this inmates proximity saw this all unfold, where all of them saw this miraculous answered prayer, that was to the name of Jesus Christ.
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