5.Miracles, Signs and Wonders 2024
Blessed
by. V. Durley
Every weekday morning, my alarm goes off to pre-warm me to wake up. Twenty-six minutes later, it goes off again to remind me that I have an important meeting to attend. I lay there for a moment and ask the Lord ‘How can I serve you today?’. I open my phone and scroll to ‘Prayer-Line 2.0’ and begin my day. The devotion is first, I close my eyes and listen as the speaker reads scripture then motivates/encourages/informs/inspires those on the call with what God has chosen for them to say. They give a light prayer and then a blessing speaks. She compliments the speaker, then encourages the listeners, then gives us an affirmation. Those, who choose to, speak the affirmation on call. Everyone that chooses to may speak either the affirmation, make a prayer request, or praise report with no pressure, then she prays. The First Lady speaks passionately, and humbly, swooping down with words coated with grace, dipped in love, wrapped with a request and firmly with love all the while including everyone on this call in that prayer. After the impactful prayer, on every call she says ‘I love you, Pastor Greer loves you, and The Lord loves you.’
For me, it is an early 4:00am phone call. The devotion sets the tone for my day. It is inspiration that speaks to my heart and allows me to start my day with other Christians on the same journey. It is a meeting with my brothers and sisters in Christ, and the Trinity themselves. The words spoken give me hope and joy that what I’m doing is in fact for the Lord, and there is an army of us out there. Some days I’m already out and the clerk at 7-Eleven listens in on the call. I look forward to our interactions. He used to ask ‘ What you over there listening to’ I’d tell him ‘The prayer line’. At first he was like ‘meh’, Then he started waiting for me… listening in while asking about the affirmations. An interesting little fact is when I do rideshare, the passengers have to listen to the calls too. All of them were blessed by the call, and a few wouldn’t get out the car until the prayer was done. There is something about this call that draws people in and helps us connect to God as well as each other.
This prayer chat does not condemn my generation to Hell. Instead it builds all on the line and encourages us to stay rooted in the word. The morning speaker is full of the joy of the Lord and excided to get you on the level of happiness that they are on. This prayer line encourages and inspires. They let you know that the God we serve is real and present everyday in your life. It’s so important to me and my walk because my mistakes aren’t displayed. My sins aren’t a scarlet letter that I must bear and face judgement. No, not here. On this prayer line you are motivated to face the day. You are allowed room to worship a loving Father and Son, and be lead by the Holy Spirit. It’s refreshing.
At the end of every call Sister Greer says ‘I love you, Pastor Greer loves you and The Lord loves you’. I didn’t know I needed to hear that. I can’t tell you how many days I stayed on the prayer line just to hear those words. I could feel her truth. I could feel her love and knew that God loves me. Its just something about hearing it. Something about knowing that somebody loves you. Someone that you have never met, only heard, and you know that they love you. It’s the most powerful part of the call somedays.
When I was brand new to the chat line, I got on because I saw my Aunt Mary call in everyday that she was with us. I eaves dropped a few times and faked sleep to listen in. She happily gave me the number and I called in myself. I was silent for some time before I found myself in need of the prayers. Well not me, my Uncle Travis. See, he had an accident and was in a coma. I was shy about asking a group of people that I rarely spoke to for prayer, but the Prayer Warriors were so strong, I just had to. He had been in the coma for 7 days before I mustered up the courage to ask, but when I did. They did not hesitate. They prayed the house down. They called on God for healing, for a man they had never met, from a woman they had never met on a prayer at 4 o’clock in the morning. The next morning I asked again, and again. With fervor, supplication and authority, they prayed for Uncle Travis. Later that day, when I called the hospital he was up. They had done it! Their faith, their prayers and their persistence pulled him up out of that coma. He was back and his health began improving. Each time they prayed his numbers went up. His blood pressure would regulate, his heart rate would improve, he would look around and you could see God working on him. This prayer line was my life line for month steadily watching Uncle Travis improve. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of Christians to lean on in my time of trial. They are even better in times of joy.
I drive for a ride share company and usually try to get out around 3:30 am. On this particular day I picked up a man taking him to work. He entered the car just as the Affirmation was being given. He didn’t say a word as person after person proclaimed in Jesus’ name. I arrived at his stop as Sister Greer began praying. He did not move. He sat through the whole and said ‘Amen’ when she finished. Then he said ‘I was having a rough morning, it’s been a rough week, but I needed that. I needed that prayer and to hear those words.’ Thank you ma’am.’. Then he was gone.