David C. Hughes, Writer

Be Careful What You Pray for (2013-11-11 Daily)

I wanted to share a brief “Daily” with you from last evening’s restless all-nighter with the Holy Spirit.  I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “Be careful what you pray for; you might get it.”  Last night before going to bed I felt the Spirit urging me to take the next day off from my editing job and write Chapter 4 of The Epiphany of Joy, the chapter called “Joy in Trusting God.”  “Okay,” I fretted, thinking about the huge editing task spread out in front of me; it’s at least a two-week job, maybe even three weeks if I tackle it full-time.  I worried if I didn’t get a good run at it there would be a good chance of missing my commitment.  But with calmness and a bit of excitement, I told God “I’ll do it, but I have no idea what I’m going to write about, so you need to tell me.”  Immediately ideas began to stream into my head.

“Tell them about your childhood and the trust you had in your parents, and the trust your parents had in you,” the Spirit suggested.  Hmmm, I thought, good opening!  “Until I fell in love.”  Yes!  Until I fell in love with money.

I brushed my teeth, crawled into bed, and read Chapter 1 and the first part of Chapter 2 in Robert Morris’s book The God I Never Knew.  Knowing the alarm would buzz at 5:00 AM, seven hours away, I turned off the light, and tried to go to sleep.  And ideas about my chapter continued to spin through my head.  The opening repeated itself over-and-over and I had a rough idea of what the remainder of the chapter looked like.  I opened my eyes and spied the clock: the alarm would go off in five hours.  Ugh!  I finally fell asleep, woke up, fell asleep again.  Each time I woke up I immediately grabbed the handle of my thoughts and churned my chapter.  On-and-on it went, until the alarm shook me awake at five.

The Spirit had spent all night downloading Chapter 4 into my head, and as I lay there a strong Spirit-inspired thought swooped in, so insistent I had to get up and immediately write it down:

After all these years, what I’ve discovered is this:  my stories already exist.  All of them.  My stories, essays, chapters, poems, books, and articles already have their being in heaven, and it’s my job as a storyteller to carve them out of destiny, hone them, polish them, and present them as the Father’s will on earth as they are in heaven . . . .

Like Michelangelo releasing a finished statue from a block of raw marble, I have been blessed with the task of releasing these stories into the world for your benefit and for the Glory of the One Who crafted each of them for me to share.  Keep praying because prayer releases power, and power reveals Glory.  Ask the Spirit to reveal your light, and don’t hesitate setting your light on a hill for all to see.  Be blessed!

Copyright ©2013 by David C. Hughes