I’ve been spending more time in meetings these days than I ever had hoped to. It seems that some people enjoy meeting for meeting sake and really aren't concerned about doing anything productive.

One important factor when preparing for a meeting – is to have everyone in that meeting agree to the terms of the meeting. This makes the meeting more productive and efficient. Without that agreement, the meeting may seem productive and yet the desired actions do not occur or the out come of the meeting amounts to nothing.
This is especially important when you meet with God in prayer. If we want our prayers to be effective we must agree to terms. Since confession means ‘agreeing with God’ this is where all our meetings with Him should start.
What exactly is it that you should agree on when you prepare for your intercessory meeting with God? I’ve come to the conclusion that it is absolutely imperative that we agree on three things before beginning a productive intercessory prayer time. What are those two things?
We need to agree on who we are and to whom we are praying.

I’ve created a little list of verses where you can begin a study on your own on confession. I challenge each of you to:
1. Begin your prayer time this way
2. Dig into scripture and begin an in-depth time of confession with your Lord and Savior.
I think that you will find it more than worthwhile.

We need to agree with God as to who HE is:

Matthew 10:32 "Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.
Luke 12:8 "And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God;
Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
Romans 10:10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
Philippians 2:11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father
1 Timothy 3:16 By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, Was vindicated in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Proclaimed among the nations,
Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory.
Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;
1 John 4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
Isaiah 26:13 O LORD our God, other masters besides You have ruled us;
But through You alone we confess Your name.
Daniel 9:4 I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed and said, "Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments,


We need to agree with God as to who we are:

James 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Revelation 3:5
'He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
Numbers 5:7 then he shall confess his sins which he has committed, and he shall make restitution in full for his wrong and add to it one-fifth of it, and give it to him whom he has wronged.
Psalms 32:5 I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I did not hide;
I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD";
And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.
Psalms 38:18
For I confess my iniquity;
I am full of anxiety because of my sin.
Proverbs 28:13 He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.
Daniel 9:20
Now while I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God,
1 Kings 8:35
"When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain, because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name and turn from their sin when You afflict them,
2 Chronicles 6:24 "If Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this house,
2 Chronicles 6:26 "When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin when You afflict them;
Ezra 10:1 Now while Ezra was praying and making confession, weeping and prostrating himself before the house of God, a very large assembly, men, women and children, gathered to him from Israel; for the people wept bitterly.
Ezra 10:11 "Now therefore, make confession to the LORD God of your fathers and do His will; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.”

We need to agree with God on a plan of action;
Jeremiah 26:3. `Perhaps they will listen and everyone will turn from his evil way, that I may repent of the calamity which I am planning to do to them because of the evil of their deeds.'

Ezekiel 14:6 "Therefore say to the house of Israel, `Thus says the Lord GOD, "Repent and turn away from your idols and turn your faces away from all your abominations.

Ezekiel 18:30,32 "Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his conduct," declares the Lord GOD. "Repent and turn away from all your transgressions, so that iniquity may not become a stumbling block to you.
"For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies," declares the Lord GOD. "Therefore, repent and live."

Matthew 3:2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Acts of the Apostles 2:38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Revelation 3:3 `So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.
Revelation3:19. `Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.

Once we agree with God, confess and repent we are ready to begin the meeting in prayer called the “intercessory prayer”.

A pastor once said, “There is only one way that you can know that you will receive what you pray for and that is if you pray according to God’s will.” But at that time I wondered if it was a sin to pray for something that you knew wasn’t according to God’s will. I had to learn the answer to that on my own…
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My husband and his brothers felt the same way. Their answer was “No. Don’t even pray”. My mother-in-law was diagnosed with terminal cancer. They knew that God was going to call her home.
Pat , my husband as the oldest son of four boys took the job of caretaker to his dad and grandmother. His time was taken up with making sure they were fed, medicated and that they got their sleep. He spent his days getting them dressed and driven to see his mother, then home when they got too tired to sit in the hospital.
He listened to his grandmother mourn over her daughter’s dying and felt that he had to stay strong for her sake.
While he stayed with his family I stayed at home with my youngest daughter. I worked a few days a week and drove to the small town about an hour a way as often as I could to see my mom-in-law at the hospital.
So that was how I was sitting beside her bed one Sunday. I did the only thing I could think of doing at the time: I prayed.
Now I know how to pray and I made sure that I wasn’t the reason that God wouldn’t answer my prayers. I confessed and repented. I meditated on how to improve my interpersonal relationships. I sought scripture to know God’s will. And I prayed.
Did you know that Jesus, the perfect man, the only man without sin prayed a prayer that wasn’t answered? During his last hours, he prayed, “ Let this cup pass from me.” He knew what God’s will was. He had just told his disciples that the reason for his coming to earth was about to happen. Yet he prayed, “If it’s your will, let this cup pass from me.”
And so I took heart -- and I prayed as I sat holding LaWanda’s hand while she was sleeping.
My prayer was something like this, “Lord, I feel that your answer is ‘no’. I understand that the men around me are saying don’t even pray – but Your word says ‘pray about everything.’ Your word says ‘pray without ceasing.’ Father, I don’t know what to do if I can’t pray—so here I am: PLEASE Heal LaWanda!”
Just then she opened her eyes and said, “Pam, you’re not taking this very well -- are you?” I shook my head “no”. She said, “Pam, God and I have been talking about this. You have to let me go through with it. I want to do this. Please let me do this.”
“But LaWanda,” I said, “if I can’t pray for you – I feel so helpless. What can I do?”
“What you can do for me, Pam , is spend as much time as you can with me. Sit with me and let me share what I can with you, ok?”
So for the next six weeks I spent what time I could with her.
My mother-in-law shared the morphine induced visions. We laughed together at the monkey (death) who said he was going to get her but she knew that God would have the last laugh. We went on ‘walks’ as she told me about beautiful gardens and hospital chandeliers. We listened to sweet music that only she could hear.
After the first few times of her sharing her experiences we both realized that we couldn’t share the way we were when Pat or his dad was in the room. It was very upsetting to them. So we’d talk when we were alone.
One time she’d woke up and said -- “Wow, Pam you missed a good one this time.”
So when Pat and his dad went to supper I said, “Ok – what happened?”
“Oh, Pam—they was a big band over there in the corner—with all the instruments. They were playing ‘Sentimental Journey’. People were having such a grand time and I was swaying to the music. Then I noticed the monkey…”
“He’s always hanging around, isn’t he?”
She shook her head ‘yes’ and continued; “He was playing the base fiddle. Do you know what I did?”
“No, what did you do?”
“I stuck my tongue at him! I made him miss a beat too!”
I clapped my hands, “Good for you! That creature’s horrible!”
“He is and you should have seen the awful face he made at me after that!”
Another time she woke up—“I knew there would be lot’s of PURPLE”.
“What do you mean—lot’s of purple?”, I asked. My mother-in-law and I had had a running joke the whole time that I knew her. Her favorite color was pink, mine was purple. Until she met me she hated purple and I had always hated pink. She thought that purple looked like dirty pink and I always thought that pink was just washed out purple. We spent many hours gently arguing about the qualities of pink and purple. Of course, over time we had come to love the other color just because of who it represented, so when she said “I knew there would be lot’s of purple”, then I needed to listen. So I asked again, “What did you see that had lot’s of purple?”
“Well, I was visiting the garden.. you know, I’ve told you about the garden before. There were pink azaleas, white and yellow daisies. I was thinking how everything looks so beautiful, Pam—I really can’t explain how beautiful it is. The air smells so fresh. I can smell the tangy sweet of orange blossoms and roses. Everything was cool and there was dew on the leaves. I look around and saw this wall. It must have been eight feet tall and covered with a trailing vine covered with PURPLE flowers.
I always knew there would be lots of PURPLE flowers.”
“But you said it was the most beautiful place that you’ve ever seen there must be lots of pink in the garden then.”
“Oh there is,” she said, “but now that I know it’s there I can’t help but look at that awful wall of purple!”
God answered my prayer even though it obviously wasn’t in His will to give me what I asked for. He answered in a sweet, precious way. I knew that I hadn’t sinned,
Death of a loved one is probably the hardest thing that a human can endure. On one level it is a way to allow us to experience how sad sin makes God and how much Christ must love us to have died in our place.
On another level, it’s just plain wrong. People weren’t made to die. We were created for eternal life and anything less then that feels like we were shortchanged.
And so -- I will pray against death and it’s evil anytime I get a chance. But this one time, the Lord let me know that know that His love transcends our earthly problems and sometimes we just have to trust him.

“Dad, if God reveals himself to you – would you believe?” asked Brent. “I don’t know, I can’t promise that, son. But if God reveals himself, then I’d have to give him some consideration, now wouldn’t I?”

I didn’t know about this conversation until about three hours after it happened. What I did know was this.

“Pat,” another one of my husband’s brothers was on the line, “Dad has had an apparent heart attack. We’ve called the ambulance but it’s not here yet. The said that because we live out in the country it may take up to 20 minutes before it gets here. Could you meet us at the hospital in Marysville?”

My husband said “Sure. We will be there as soon as we can. “

So my two daughters, my husband and I loaded into the car and started on the drive that would take us to the hospital that was about an hour’s drive north of where we lived in Sacramento.

The ride was quiet and each of us prayed that God would be merciful and allow Cal to live.

Shortly after we arrived the doctor came in to discuss what was happening to my father-in-law.
“Do any of you know what a dichotomy is?” asked the doctor. I answered “Either something that is split in two or something that looks like one thing but is really something else.”

The doctor answered, “Well, that is the condition of your dad’s heart”.

All of us in the room pretty much stared at the doctor like deer in headlights. I thought to myself “what the heck does that mean?”

Anyway, the doctor went on, “In other words, his condition is beyond my care. We are going to drive him to the Sacramento Medical Center. The doctors at the Med Center are more prepared to handle unusual cases than we are. The ambulance will be ready shortly. You can follow the ambulance and they will give you more information there.”

So my family followed the ambulance back to Sacramento and parked at the Med Center. I don’t remember how the family from Marysville drove down – but the four boys and most of the families followed.

Again the trip was quiet. Worry and prayer filled the trip. I wondered if the problem was so critical why they didn’t life-flight him to Sacramento and what did the doctor mean by beyond his care. (I wondered if maybe it wasn’t as bad as it seemed.)


We congregated in the waiting room at the Sacramento Medical Center and waited for several more hours before we heard anything. It was during this time that Pat’s brother told about his conversation with his dad. He seemed to feel guilty (and scared) that this was really God’s hand. I agreed to pray with Brent that God indeed would work a miracle in such a way that we’d know it was His hand that was in this whole process.

Eventually, a doctor came out and said, “I really can’t give you too much information about your dad’s condition right now, but he is in the care of some of the best doctor’s in the nation at the moment. Anyway, something tells me that your dad will be all right. He still is in very serious condition, but after being through what he’s been through and surviving…. He’s going to be in surgery for the next five hours so you might as well go home and rest. The next few weeks may be long and stressful. Can I get a phone number to call in case there is any change?”

We live in Sacramento – so my husband gave our number and promised to be there in the morning. For the next few weeks he visited every morning. Our girls and I visited with him in the evening.

One of the evening visits, the head of heart surgery stopped in to visit. After explaining who he was, he walked over to my father-in-law. “I just want to shake the hand of the recipient of a bonafide miracle. We see a lot of things happen here, but this is truly amazing. You are one lucky man, sir.” He turned to my husband, “You know there is no way that you are alive today. You should have died before the ambulance reached your house. There is no humanly possible way that you did not bleed to death within the first twenty minutes after your heart attack. Instead you lived over three hours until we could help you here.”

“So what exactly happened?” one of us asked to which the doctor replied, “The aortic valve split from his heart. This is the vein that goes directly to the brain. So even if it was a slow leak and not a split, he should have suffered severe brain damage…. But as you see he is doing very well. I see no reason why he shouldn’t recover.”

My husband said, “that must have been because of our prayers”. The doctor replied that it had to be, because from his viewpoint what happened to Cal was a down right unexplainable miracle.

We talked about it after the doctor left and Cal’s blood pressure went up and we were sent home that evening. But we went home praising God for his awesomeness.

Did Cal become a believer? I think that he is now open to consider who God is. He has a problem with all the doctrine of the church that he is going to, instead of just accepting who God is and trusting Him. I pray that Cal can sometime separate the doctrine from the God and just be friends with the one who truly loves his soul.