I was taken out of my body for two hours, back in time to my high school football field. With this encounter, God gave me an illustrated message to the Church for these last days—“why prayers are not being answered.”
Eight years ago, while deer hunting up in a tree-stand, God gave me a divine visitation. I was taken out of my body for two hours, back in time to my high school football field. With this encounter, God gave me an illustrated message to the Church for these last days—“why prayers are not being answered.”

When it happened, I thought it was ten minutes, but two hours had passed by. I've never even heard of anyone being taken to another place in time. However, I have since and have seen it in the Word. So, I'm O.K. I am on, thank God.

It was dark, in the woods, in the early morning hours. I had climbed up a tree, about 25-30 feet high into a deer-stand. I began to worship God. A deer-stand is an awesome prayer closet for me. While basking in His presence, watching the sun come upon His creation below, I began to thank Him for His benefits in Psalm 103: “‘I Bless You Lord… for Your benefits: You forgive my sins; You heal my diseases; You redeem my life from destruction; You crown me with loving-kindness and tender mercies; You satisfy my mouth with good things; so that my youth is renewed like the eagle's' [Psalm 103: 2-5; author's paraphrase]. Lord I just thank you so much for those benefits that You have given me. I praise You. And I receive them.”

Suddenly, I heard this booming voice, “That's where you are missing it.”

Surprised but knowing it was the Lord, I said, “Lord, I am just receiving what's in Your Word.” What do you mean?”

“When you prayed, at that instance, that answer was sent,” He said.

“At that instant, what do you mean, I receive!” I said.

Across the sky as big as I could see, the Word receiver was written; the “er” was capitalized and bold on the end—receivER.

“That's where you are missing it,” He said, “all you're doing is receiving. You need to be a receiv-er. I put ‘er' on the end of that word for a reason. That ‘er' means extra-responsibilities. Sometimes you have to stand—you have to continue. Receiver means ‘extra responsibilities' in receiving.”

“Lord show me!” I said.

Unexpectedly, I find myself back in time in high school playing a football game on my hometown field. The Lord takes me above the stadium lights, and we look together at the festivities below. We watched the crowd fill the stands. (Growing up, football was very big; the whole community backed it.) My senses were intact; I could smell the popcorn. I remember telling my wife that when I came home. I was there.

God emphasized to me the intensity of the game. He showed me up close, the screaming crowd, the screaming opposing crowd, and the screaming coaches. He wanted me to see intenseness—the coaches with their headsets on pacing the sidelines, the cheerleaders with their pom-poms, and even the band, all shined-up playing our old-fight song, excited about this big rival we were playing. They were all counting on us to win.

Suddenly, I heard “break.”

Our team broke out of the huddle. I look down, and guess who I see? And guess what position I played? I was a receiver. (In case, you know nothing about football—receivers catch the football.)

“Down, set, hut,” I then heard the quarterback call to the center, and the whole team went after a pass-pattern.

As I am watching myself from above, I can see I am wide open. (When you go out on a pass- pattern, you make your pattern, and you turn. You can't tell if you are wide open or not. When I played I could tell through my helmet if there was going to be a big play; I could hear the crowd anticipating it.)

I was wide open and the crowd rose up. They could see it. The quarterback looks the other direction, and then turning towards me, he drills me a bullet. I caught the ball!

The crowd screams!

I look down the field to run. But instead of running—I lie down! I lay my body down right where I caught the ball. I didn't trip. I didn't fall. Nobody even tackled me. I then laid the ball on the ground, got up like nothing happened, and ran back to the huddle.

Watching all this from above was grueling. I am very competitive. “No God!” I said, “I wouldn't do that. I know not to do that!”

The coaches scream, “What are you doing?” The crowd boos, throwing their popcorn, the cheerleaders throw their pom-poms, and the band throws their instruments. I ran back to the huddle acting like, hey what's up? The quarterback then grabs me, “What do you think you are doing?”

“Everybody chill-out,” I said, “I did my job—I received the pass.”

“You have extra responsibility to do,” God told me, “when you received that pass you then have to run—you have to run down the field. You have to enter into conflict into the end zone. You have to run the race. You have to fight the fight. You have to continue standing—standing in your prayer—standing in your worship. You have to be strong in faith.”

He let me know that how strong your faith is will determine two things about your answered prayer: (1) where you are on the field; and (2) how fast of a runner you are getting to the goal- line.

Football fields are 100 yards long. He showed me that when you pray, if your faith is not very strong, you might be 100 yards away from your answer. He took me to the 50- yard line, that answer might be months away. You may be at the 25- yard line possibly weeks away…the goal- line possibly days away. Or even better, you may catch the ball in the end zone for an instant manifestation.

In high school, I wasn't very fast. But now, I could picture myself being fast—“juking,” jiving, running fast down the field; thanking God I now have an opportunity.

“Lord, I now know what you are saying. I am going to get every prayer answered.”

“Now, what do you think the other team is doing?” He said.

Satan's Playbook
I didn't think about the other team. I remember in high school how they tried to knock my head off. “They're not very nice. They don't like it,” I said.

“This is Satan's team of devils. And he is coming to get you. He is coming to stop your prayers from being answered,” He said.

God then showed me three things Satan is doing to stop prayers from being answered. These three things are Satan's strategies—his playbook:
  1. Deemphasizing prayer time. If Satan can get you to stop standing in your prayers, just like I did, you will lay down on that field.
  2. Deemphasizing study and worship time. If Satan can get you to stop praying, stop worshipping, stop thanking God by being distracted in your faith, he will do it. It might be movies, TV; anyone or anything that you are putting in front of God that diverts your faith.
  3. Making you feel self-sufficient. Satan wants you to feel “self-sufficient,” he does not want you to be “God-sufficient.” He wants you to doubt that the answer will ever come. He wants you to do it yourself. He wants you to figure it out, without God.
God let me know then, if Satan does succeed in us not receiving from God, we are letting the devil rob the glory that is due God's Name. Satan cannot rob directly from God. So how does he do it? Satan robs God from the glory due His Name through God's creation—through us. It is all about the glory due to God's Name.

When I asked the Lord for a confirmation on the visitation, He reminded me of Daniel, who stood in faith for 21 days, even though, the answer was sent the very first day Daniel prayed. Because of Daniel's undeterred faith, it allowed Michael the archangel to be sent—giving glory to God's Name (Daniel 10:10-19).

And an interesting note to me personally, since the visitation was about a football game, is how often the Apostle Paul compares our life on earth to athletic contests: “Fight the good fight…” (1 Tim. 1:18); “Press toward the prize…” (1 Cor. 9:24).

And then in Hebrews, God's champion-faith athletes, with their remarkable accomplishments as listed in chapter 11: “Who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight” (vv.33-34 NIV). They are God's champion receiv-ers in Heaven's Hall of Fame. They gave God glory in their life on earth with determined-prevailing faith.

Together let's make this champion confession of faith; receiving everything that God's Word has for us:
God and His Word are first place in my life. I am thankful to God and worship Him everyday with my words. ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.' I ‘fight the good fight of faith.' I am a strong warrior in battle. I do not quit. I ‘reach toward the prize of the high calling;' a receiv-er who receives all of God's benefits. I give glory to God's Name! I am victorious. I am a Champion for Christ!
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