Have you ever experienced a dream so vivid and compelling that it lingered with you almost daily for years? Dreams have a mysterious way of reaching us, sometimes leaving us with profound insights and messages that are difficult to ignore. One such dream led me on a journey of discovery, revealing the importance of asking in prayer.
In my dream, I experienced an intense and undeniable presence of the LORD. This was not the first time I had felt such a profound encounter, and the feeling was unmistakable. Just as in a previous experience, I couldn't see His face, but I was acutely aware of His presence. During this awe-inspiring moment, I received a clear and compelling directive: "Ask, ask, ask." The repetition of this message struck a chord deep within me, and I felt a strong conviction that it originated from the LORD Himself.
Reflecting on this dream, I discovered the words of the apostle John. In 1 John 15:14-15 he wrote, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him." The significance of the act of asking was unmistakable in these verses, repeated three times, aligning directly with the repetition in my dream.
Fueled by hope and encouragement, I created a shirt with the words "Ask, Ask, Ask" as tangible reminder of the message that had been entrusted to me in my dream. As I wore the shirt, I carried with me the lesson of John's verses—that our prayers, our petitions, and our inquiries are heard and answered by a God who is attentive to our needs. This is also reflected in Matthew 7:7-8, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened."
Through this experience, I gained a profound understanding of prayer as the urgent need to ask in alignment to His will and guidance with wisdom. Prayer is not just a monologue of requests, but a dialogue with the divine. It's a powerful tool through which we have intimate conversations with God, revealing our heart and asking for alignment with God’s will.
In our fast-paced lives, it's easy to overlook the significance of prayer. Yet, as the dream reminded me, prayer is the conduit through which God operates in our world. Our petitions set into motion His divine plan, aligning us with His purpose and guiding us on the path He has prepared for us.
My hope is that my experience serves as encouragement for each of us to pause and reflect on the messages that God might be communicating to us through the Holy Spirit in dreams or in the Word. Just as my dream held a powerful message for me, I encourage you to consider the ways in which God might be prompting you to pray, to ask, and to seek His guidance.
So, let's wear our "Ask, Ask, Ask" shirts as we encourage others of the urgency of prayer, remembering that as believers when we approach God with faith our prayers are heard. As you go about your day, remember that within the act of asking in prayer lies a transformative power—the power to connect with the Holy Spirit and to affect the Kingdom of Heaven forever for His glory.
Please click on the following links to explore the shirt designs mentioned above.