https://lifetoday.org/video/the-power-of-prayer

7/4/22 Transcript:
Week 28: WFL James and Betty Robison Dave Kubal

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JAMES: I don’t know about you but I’m always happy to welcome you to Life Today. I am because we talk about life today. And with so much death and misery and pain, isn’t it wonderful to talk about the beauty of life and the possibility of it, in spite of all the pain? Betty and I, and I’m James, welcome you.
We have a guest today that is the president, C.E.O. for the Intercessors for America and the world, and people all around the world praying for every mountain that needs to be moved, every dark valley that needs comfort, and for miracles to occur. And Betty, if there is anybody on the planet that’s witnessed miracles, you’re going to be hearing our missionary partners that we’ve been working with for now moving toward 40 years but over 30 years. They’ve got an updated report in the last weeks of 18 million children and family members saved through the feeding and the water in the outreach programs that you make possible. So you see answered prayer. You become the answer to someone’s prayers. You become the miracle someone needs.
Well, Dave, you and I talked when we were in a meeting with church leaders that you were probably a little bit surprised to see the diversity in the room.
DAVE: It was wonderful.
JAMES: And yet, the unity that Jesus prayed for in that room. It was amazing! Do you remember that I shared with you when you told me about intercessors, and about how many people were praying, and how many things you all were watching happen, and I

said to you that I think if we focus our prayers if intercessors would focus on a challenge, a mountain, a difficulty, a miracle needed, a problem addressed correctly, better principles and practices put in place, problems to be dealt with, that if we would focus our prayers on that issue, it was like taking — and this simply happened here in the United States — taking the power of the Colorado River and flowing it through a turbine or turbines and light up the Sonoran Desert, which is all of Arizona. And that power of the river concentrated can light up a dark desert, of all places, and make it into more than an oasis. You seemed to identify with that.
Can you see that if we would focus our prayers, do you not think that what’s happened in Ukraine, for them to resist the evil and the death that was being perpetuated, do you not think that when people began to pray for them, that perhaps something rose up or lifted them that would cause them to resist the evil that is committed to destroying freedom all over the world?
DAVE: I could not agree more. It’s so great to be with you, James and Betty; a pleasure to be with you all today. Absolutely, I think Ukraine is a perfect example. Just a couple of years ago we were approached by a group of men who wanted to start Intercessors for Ukraine. We had no idea the impact, the need for that at that point in time. Now here we are as we see this unprovoked aggression by President Putin coming against these people.
It’s amazing to hear the miracles. I tell you, one miracle that we have seen as we’ve prayed for that country is the intercessors in Ukraine learned about this airdrop of paratroopers coming over the Russian border into Ukraine that was coming up in just a matter of a few hours. Well, the intercessory prayer movement learned of this and began to pray. Are you ready for this? God brought such a wind against these paratroopers, literally, they blew from Ukraine back into Russia. Now that’s answered prayer.
JAMES: That’s what happened when Spain came out against the United Kingdom too and a storm came up and sank their ships that stretched for well over a mile, and some recount two miles and sank them. And they never got there. It is kind of like the fog that

settled when the Stuka bombers were coming against England, and they couldn’t find it. They didn’t have all the G.P.S. equipment back then and the whole army that was trapped got across the sea in the fog and Churchill called it the miracle of ages. Well, it was answered prayers for heaven’s sake.
DAVE: Focused answered prayer. JAMES: I like it. Where did you hear that? DAVE: A very wise man said that one time.
JAMES: Listen to me. You are absolutely miracle workers because when we show you a need that love can meet, let’s just say we show you an overlooked person, a brokenhearted person, a person that needs food or water or help, you put the arms of God around them.
And Betty, we lost a daughter, and when I’m talking about the broken heart, we ministered to so many people with broken hearts, lonely people, people that hurt deeply. And I was talking to God just in prayer recently and I said, “God, I feel like you just hold me. I feel like all my life, no matter how broken or how flawed or how often I’ve failed, you’ve just held me. And when I hurt, you hold me.”
And Dave, he said this to me. And I promise you, you can have a conversational relationship with God. He said, “James, often holding a broken heart is the way to heal a broken heart.” Because broken hearts must be held because it takes time, oftentimes, a lifetime for a broken heart to be healed. Losing a daughter, losing family we understand that. Well, prayer for people with broken hearts is heard. And God puts his arms around people, and we in our prayers can raise up people who will let people see God’s arms coming around them because we become the shoulder for them to lean on.
Tell me the most exciting things that you’re seeing as you watch these intercessors, and

you encourage them to pray and you see them coming together. Are you able to see, and we use an illustration of Ukraine, are you able to see the power of that focused prayer?
DAVE: Absolutely. We’re seeing it in the days we live in in the United States. It was just about five years ago, I’d been involved with Intercessors for America now for almost
15 years. But in the last five years or so, I began to see this movement in the church in the United States of a passion to pray for this country in ways I have never seen before. And the passion to pray seemed to accelerate, and hundreds of thousands of people are passionate about knowing the truth and praying for God’s will for our nation. And so, as we see this nation and the direction of our nation go, there is an element of the church that understands exactly what’s going on in this nation. On some of the boards that we serve on together, we understand the truth of what’s happening in this country. And to me that’s answered prayer, that’s revival of the truth, the revival of prayer; praying that people would understand what’s going on in this country.
JAMES: You know you said in that meeting, and Betty, I want you to jump in here because you are a prayer warrior and you’re the greatest influence on me. Oftentimes, when I’ll come in you’ll just tell me what’s going on in prayer, what’s on your heart; sometimes you’re crying. And so, I want you to feel a part of the discussion, for our viewers to understand what we’ve watched in answered prayer. And how we’ve watched those people out there watching us become the answers to mothers’ prayers, to people’s prayers, to missionaries’ prayers, to save millions and millions of people.
But God showed me that we weren’t being an answer to Jesus’ prayer if we were simply forming more tribes and more little individual families rather than seeing the Father’s family come together with the differences and diversity. And when Billy Graham said, “I suggest you spend time with people you’ve been taught to avoid,” it became life- changing. And so I began to do it.
Now when you walked in that room and you saw very strong Pentecostal or charismatic, very strong mainline denominational, you saw very strong Baptists in that room, did you

see the love of God prevailing in that circle in a way that in some manner amazed you in what you saw?
DAVE: It gave me hope for this country to see that unity among all of those different people and the tribes they come from, as you described. But James, you remember our conversation. The thing that struck me the most were the number one priority of that group and that was unified prayer for us as a group, regardless of what our theological background is, is to come together and pray. And again, just to illustrate — just another illustration of what God is doing in this nation, he is moving an incredible passion to pray on people’s hearts. And what that does for me, that gives me hope for this nation. Because if he is putting his people to prayer, he’s got plans and purposes for this nation.
JAMES: Do you want to jump in here?
BETTY: I do! I would like for people to understand exactly what an intercessor is because, in my relationship with God, I know that as a young Christian and God’s calling on James’ life, I saw the communication that he would have with God. It was like a conversation. And so he taught me that we converse with God. It is not O God, I got to have this pretty prayer, but everyone can intercede. I had a prayer request come toward me this morning. I thought I can intercede. Someone was needing help, uplifting, and encouragement. So everyone can be an intercessor, is that correct?
DAVE: Absolutely. And I like to make the distinction that there’s a difference between prayer and intercession. Both are good but prayer is where you come before God, and you list your needs and your desires. But intercession is when you come before God, and you stand between God and man. You listen to God, that’s a key part of intercession, that you listen to God and then you pray God’s will for that situation and that purpose.
JAMES: You intercede for them and bring them together. Okay. We know there is a lot to pray about in this nation. I think we would question the forces that lead to the policies and practices that seem to be so contrary to the Word of God and the will of God. You

know when you get a Supreme Court decision to determine whether or not a guy can pray on a football field after a game by himself, well, those need to reach the court and they need to be settled. Our founders understood the importance of prayer. You saw what prayer did to those founders and you said you wanted to reference something.
DAVE: Absolutely. June 28, 1787, was the day that our nation almost didn’t make it through. The Continental Congress was meeting, we had just won the war, and these colonists were trying to figure out how to make this group of colonies into a nation, and it was not going well just as you described. It was so bad that some of the colonies threatened military action on other colonists if they didn’t agree with them. Military action!
So at that moment in time, Ben Franklin, who was probably the least spiritual of all of them, stood before them and I’ll paraphrase it as guys, we’re not making any progress here. When we were at war with Britain, we came every day to pray. Are we now in a position where we do not need the assistance of heaven? And so he called that assembly to prayer.
They met for a couple more days but what they did was, over the fourth of July weekend, 1787, on the first of July, they heard a sermon altogether as a group. And then when they came back after the fourth of July break, one of the colonists, the delegates said it was as if every unfriendly spirit was expelled. That was the word: Expelled. And at that point the great compromise came in, the constitution was written in its final form just a few weeks after that.
I tell you what, if it were not for prayer we would not have this nation.
JAMES: And it would not have survived the length of time that it has and has protected and preserved freedom. And our soldiers have died not only for our freedom but for the enemy’s freedom. And so often, you see our soldiers helping the children of those who were the enemy trying to destroy us. Helping the families, helping those that have been

hurt. We’ve rebuilt. God knows we’ve rebuilt. MacArthur said, “Send missionaries to Japan.” We didn’t have enough of them. They said the same thing about the Soviet Union; we couldn’t even speak Russian. So rather than getting ready, oftentimes, to put God’s arms around the world we’re ill-prepared for the doors that prayer opens. Because when we win these wars, it is answered prayer. When we defeat an enemy that is committed to deception, division, destruction, and death on every hand, when we stand in prayer, that’s the way you bring that enemy down. And that’s what we have to be praying about right now.
Plus, we need wisdom to come up in the country, we need the principles of Almighty God that are unshakeable, the principles that are revealed in God’s creation so that we are without excuse, and all of nature follows what God created them to do and be. It’s only the human beings created in his image who have the ability to rebel against it. God doesn’t make you do good, he shows you what good looks like for your benefit. He blesses you and you bless others by telling them what God says blesses us. That’s the principle of truth. That’s practicing truth that produces blessings that are so great you have to be careful you don’t make an idol out of one of them. That’s why he says, “I’ll give you my spirit to enable you to overcome even being attracted to the most magnificent things in life, the most beautiful things, the most exciting things in life.” They can also become an idol, not just the ugly.
So what prayer does is it focuses our attention back on him and his truth. And then it begins to move people because we’re not wrestling with flesh and blood but we’re dealing in the spiritual realm, and that’s what prayer does. It moves those powers into the spiritual realm. It brings defeat to the enemy, which is what happened when they prayed. We overcame the Caesar, Pharaoh controlling spirit, and experienced freedom. We can move back to that.
If people want to know about the ministry, Intercessors for America, where do they go online to learn about it?

DAVE: IFAPray.org or just Google: Intercessors for America. JAMES: And they can say send us prayer focus points?
DAVE: Yes, and we will give them very specific focus prayer points in which there is the unity of hundreds of thousands of people praying those very points.
JAMES: Father, I want to thank you for Dave. I want to thank you for the intercessors, and the inspiration. I want to thank you for the intercessors watching us and I pray that you’ll meet the miracle in the lives of people who are listening right now and praying with us who are grateful that somebody might be praying for them, and we are. We want you to work a miracle in their lives. And we want you to heal our land. And we want you to stop the power of the enemy to force death and destruction on so much of the world, heal our broken nation, and awaken your church to be the answer to your prayer, in Jesus’ name.
Dave, I appreciate you. You know we’re going to give to our viewers something God’s Daily Promise. These are seasonal devotionals for each season of the year. One of the things our viewers do, and that’s why I wanted them to know how they can find out what you do, and be praying for you and with you, so that we have that many more people praying and focusing the energy to light up the darkness in this world with the light and glory of God.
We are right now, because of you, we’re drilling another 350 water wells. And this is the second point in which we emphasize it and complete the support. Betty, our viewers, every time they see a need, Jesus said, “If you give a cup of water in my name you won’t lose the reward.” The reward so often is not what might return but what you see that love does. The reward of seeing lives changed in an oasis of hope in a little village area, a place where they’ve never had uncontaminated disease-ridden water. It’s all they’ve had. It’s killed their children, their grandchildren — and you become the miracle.

I’ve been there many times representing you and answering your prayers, and going to see a mother’s prayer answered. Many people’s prayers are answered because we give more than a cup of water. Watch.
On the mission field
James: I am by a water source that is so typical of water sources all over the world. We know for a fact in this area disease is killing entire families — and many children. Why? From drinking contaminated water.
You know it is one thing to say “I’m sorry” and to weep over it but you know when we can be the answer to the need and the prayer, doesn’t it seem sometimes just a little bit hypocritical if we could do something and we don’t? Well, we can but we need your help.
ANNOUNCER: For over two decades, the viewers of Life Today have partnered with missionaries around the world to help save children’s lives by providing clean drinking water.
Mission Water for LIFE has drilled over 7,000 clean water wells with an assortment of rigs in different shapes and sizes to meet the needs of a particular area. Each new water well is encased to prevent contamination and capped with a simple pump that even a child can operate.
LIFE Outreach and its partners have already helped provide clean water to approximately seven million people, but we still have a big job to do. Around the world, hundreds of millions of people still don’t have access to safe drinking water. And hundreds of children die every day from a preventable disease caused by contaminated water.
James: Jesus said, “Give a cup of water in my name, you won’t lose your reward.” I don’t know what that reward will be for us, that’s in God’s hand but I know what reward

is in it for the people we give water to. The reward is a chance, it’s hope, it’s a future — the reward is life.
End of clip
In the studio
JAMES: Literally, literally saving the lives of those precious children and families. It is a miracle that’s undeniable. And Betty, the beautiful thing is that we not only save their lives because they have seen love not just discussed or even preached, they’ve seen it demonstrated. When you see love demonstrated, it is so easy to win those people to the love of God expressed in Jesus.
And we’ve saved millions of people with feeding, millions of people with water, but we have led more people than lives saved by those outreaches that have come to Christ than even lives saved. That’s what love does.
I want to ask every one of you here right now, would you help us complete the responsibility and opportunity of drilling these 350 water wells where we found the area of tremendous need and we know the subsurface water is there? Most of the time you know it because they drill boreholes that are immediately contaminated. There is water there but they can’t protect it, they can’t keep it clean and it dries up. But we know the water is subsurface and we can reach it rapidly.
That is one of the reasons, with the cost of petroleum going up, oil and gas, it is a miracle and it takes a lot of work and effort but we still have been able to keep the cost of a well at $4800. There are people who tell me, “I live for the moment when you say that.” Or a lot of times I’ll just think, you know what? I’m going to support the outreaches of LIFE with a gift like that because I know it will cover something like that. And I know it is going to help them do equally important things because that’s what they do. It’s what LIFE does. It’s what LIFE Outreach does!

Many of the things that we do were inspired by you. Water was inspired by you. We started feeding hungry children because we saw it and I went, and I didn’t know if you would help. We sold much to even start, and then you said we’ll help. And then when you saw the water situation, you said we’ll help. And then we brought you, for only one week, we were going show you trafficking, and all the little children being used. We said, “We’ll only show it one time because it will be embarrassing to see what’s happening and it’s not pretty. It is ugly.” And you wouldn’t let us stop. You said we’ve got to stop that! And you launched it. And now thousands and thousands of people, both boys and girls everywhere have been saved.
Who did it? You did it. Betty, it is our viewers who said we’re going to notice the unnoticed. We’re going to reach out to the least of these. Would you right now help us complete this emphasis for another 350 wells, please? Could you give one of them? Would you go $4800? If you can, I believe you will. Some of you might say, I can do more than that. Think about this, $1200, three people join you, we’ve got a well.
But Betty, most of the money comes from people who give $48, and that gives ten people, when you break it out, water for basically the rest of their life. You give $144 then you give 30 people water for the rest of their life. You give a well, you give a whole village and beyond. And we make it where a child can work the pump.
Would you right now go get your bank card? If you want to write a check, make it to LIFE but get a check. But take your bank card and use it like a check. Go online or dial that number and use it like a check, and you make the gift God puts on your heart.
We have some gifts for you. Seasonal devotionals are going to bless you, gifts that always lift you up, and a beautiful, beautiful bronze to just say, thanks. If you can give $1200 or a well, we’re going to say thanks that way. Please do it right now. If you call and the line’s busy, be determined to get through because you’re giving the greatest gift, you’re giving life.

Begin video clip
ANNOUNCER: Across the globe, hundreds of thousands of lives are lost each year to waterborne disease, and nearly half of those are children under the age of five. Through Mission: Water for LIFE, you can give mothers hope and children a future as we provide clean, life-giving water for thousands of children and their families before it is too late.
With your gift today, you can help drill and establish 350 water wells this year. Your gift of $24 will help provide clean water for five children. A gift of $48 will help provide for ten. $72 will provide for 15. And $144 will help provide life-giving water for 30 people for a lifetime!
With your gift of any amount, we’ll send you the God’s Daily Promise devotional set. These four seasonal devotionals each contain a daily scripture, inspirational message, and room to journal your prayers and insights from God’s Word.
With your gift of $100 or more, please request the “Faith, Hope, and Love” coaster set. All four beautiful sandstone coasters come in an elegant natural wood holder and artistically display the words of First Corinthians 13:13.
Finally, please consider a gift of $1200 to help provide water for 250 people or a gift of $4800 to help sponsor a complete well. And you may request our inspiring bronze sculpture, “Let the Children Come.”
Please call, write, or make your gift online.
End of video
In the studio

BETTY: I want to thank you so much for all your prayers and for your help in joining with LIFE Outreach to make such a difference by just giving a cup of water. The lives that are saved! So God bless you and thank you so much.
JAMES: And we want to thank all of you for watching. And Dave, you’re going to be a guest again with another guest whose life was changed, really, in so many ways through LIFE. And the two of you are going to talk about how we can see a nation that needs healing right now in so many ways, actually experience the healing power of God. So we thank you for being here. Thank you for what you’re doing. And you’ll be seeing him again later with another guest this week. Thank you so much for sharing life. You are a tremendous blessing.