Break Out!: 5 Keys to Go Beyond Your Barriers and Live an Extraordinary Life (16 page)

I believe one reason I’ve seen God’s favor in my life is that I’ve learned to ask big. When my father died and I had never ministered before, I prayed a bold prayer asking God to help me not only to maintain what my parents had built, but also for God to let me go further. It was a bold prayer when I walked in that jewelry store, met Victoria for the first time,
and prayed: “God, please let her see how good-looking I am!” It was a bold prayer to ask God to help us build our church in the arena where the Rockets used to play basketball.

I look back over my life and wonder what would not have happened if I had not prayed bold prayers. Maybe I wouldn’t have met Victoria. Maybe I wouldn’t be ministering at Lakewood Church. Maybe I wouldn’t have written books that have sold around the world.

It’s good to ask God for your needs, but I’m challenging you to ask for your dreams. Ask for your goals. Ask for big things.

A friend told me about a young mother who moved her family from Puerto Rico to New York in search of a better life back in the 1960s. They were very poor, living in a rough neighborhood. There were all kinds of drugs and violence. Her son Victor was only twelve when a gang recruited him. Everyone he knew was in a gang. That was where he found camaraderie.

By the time Victor was fourteen he was hooked on heroin. He’d already been arrested, involved in stealing, robbing, and mugging. His mother was heartbroken. She couldn’t control her son. She was a very small woman, and she spoke no English, but she was feisty.

One thing this mother knew how to do was pray. Every day, seven days a week and twice on Sundays, she would go early in the morning to a little storefront church in the projects with her sister. They would pray for her son. She didn’t just pray that God would protect him, keep him out of trouble, and set him free from the drugs. This mother knew how to pray God-sized prayers.

She asked God to make him a minister and use him to bring other young men to God. While he was still doing drugs, Victor would come home at three in the morning, as high as can be. His mother waited for him in the kitchen. She would hug him and say, “Victor, God’s hand is on you. He has a calling on your life. He’s not just saving you; He is making you a minister.”

She spoke faith into her son. At first, the more she prayed, the worse Victor acted. His teacher at school told Victor’s mother, “Your son is going to end up in the electric chair. I’ve never seen anyone so out of control.”

This mother didn’t let that faze her. She kept praying, month after
month, even though it didn’t look like Victor was improving. What she didn’t know was this: while she was praying, God was moving on a young man by the name of David Wilkerson, who lived in another state. God was calling this minister to come to the roughest streets of New York and share the good news.

One day, Victor came across David Wilkerson preaching on a New York City street corner. Victor responded to David Wilkerson’s message and his life was transformed. In that moment, God touched his life. Victor knelt down and gave his life to Christ. God set him free from the heroin, brought him out of the gang, and removed him from a life of violence. Today, Victor Torres is not only free from drugs; he is the pastor of a great church, New Life Outreach in Richmond, Virginia.

Victor’s church has huge outreaches to drug addicts and gang members who are going through the same challenges he went through. He goes all over the world telling his story, speaking to gang members and the troubled kids many have written off as hopeless. I wonder where Victor would be if this mother had not dared to pray a God-sized prayer. Maybe David Wilkerson would never have shown up. Maybe Victor would be in the penitentiary or even dead.

But when it looked impossible, when all the odds were against her, every voice told this mother: “You’re wasting your time. Your son is too far gone; he’ll never amount to anything.” She dug her heels in and said, “God, You promised that my house and I would serve the Lord. God, You made the promise, and like David, I’m bold enough to ask You for it.”

Most people would have prayed a normal prayer: “God protect my son, don’t let him get hurt, God keep him out of trouble.” That’s good. But when you know how to pray God-sized prayers, He will move Heaven and earth to bring that promise to pass.

You may have a family member you’re just about to write off. Like Victor, your family member may be making poor choices. It may seem like this relative will never get better. I encourage you to keep on asking God to not only bring this person back, but also to help your relative do something great.

I’ve found when God touches somebody who has been living a radically wrong kind of life, the person begins living a radically right kind of life.
God will use them to do amazing things. Just like this mother, you have the promise: “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” It says in Psalms that the seed of the righteous will be mighty in the land. Not ordinary, average, normal, but exceptional, powerful, amazing.

Now, don’t pray an average prayer over your children. It doesn’t matter what they’re doing or not doing. Pray a bold prayer: “God, I’m asking that my children will be mighty in the land. I’m asking You to use them in amazing ways. Let them leave a legacy of faith that will be seen for generations to come.”

Dare to ask big. During a recent Lakewood service I prayed with a college student who had just completed her master’s degree program. She’s in medical research, a scientist. I don’t even know why I said it, but I prayed, “God, let her find the cure for cancer. Let her make an astounding difference.”

She started weeping. She said, “That’s what my parents have prayed over me ever since I was a little child.”

Someone might ask: “What if it doesn’t happen?”

I prefer to think, “What if it does?”

You have not because you ask not. God is saying, “Ask Me for big things. I created the universe. I spoke the world into existence. I flung the stars into space. Don’t ask Me for a two-dollar raise. Don’t ask Me to just keep your child out of trouble. Don’t ask Me to just survive through life.

“No, ask Me for Compaq Centers. Ask Me to turn drug addicts around. Ask Me for children who will make history. Ask Me to part Red Seas. Ask Me to bring water out of a rock. Ask Me to open the windows of Heaven and pour out floods of favor, floods of mercy, and floods of my goodness.”

God is saying: “I dare you to ask. I dare you to take the limits off Me. I dare you to think bigger. I dare you to stretch your faith, I dare you to pray God-sized prayers.”

In Matthew 20, Jesus was walking through a village near two blind men sitting on the side of the road. They heard all the commotion and excitement about Jesus coming and they began to holler out, “Jesus, have mercy on us.”

People around them said, “Be quiet, you’ll disturb Him. You’ll upset Him.”

They shouted out even louder: “Jesus, please have mercy on us.”

Jesus went over to them and said something interesting. He asked, “What is it that you want Me to do?”

It was obvious what they wanted. They were blind. Why would Jesus ask what they wanted? He wanted to know what they believed. They could have said, “We just need somebody to take care of us. It’s hard because we’re blind. We just need a better place to live. We need shelter.”

These two men did not disappoint Jesus. They were bold. They said, “Lord, we want our eyes to be open.”

When Jesus heard their request, He touched their eyes and for the first time they could see. Imagine Jesus standing before you right now, and He says to you what He said to these blind men: “What is it you want Me to do?”

Your answer will determine what God does. Don’t say, “God, I just want to make it through this year. Times are tough, God, I just want my family to survive. We’re so dysfunctional. God, I don’t like my job but just help me to endure it.”

Dare to say, “Lord, I want to be free from this pain. I want to break this addiction. I want to get married. I want to see my whole family serving you. I want to pay off my house. I want to start this business.”

It’s not enough to just think it. It’s not enough to just hope something supernatural happens. When you ask, God releases favor. When you ask, angels go to work. When you ask, strongholds are broken. When you ask, the Most High God begins to breathe in your direction.

God said in the Psalms, “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.” My question is this: How wide open is your mouth? What are you asking for? Are you praying bold prayers, or are you praying get-by prayers?

God has put seeds of greatness on the inside. He wants you to leave your mark on our generation. You’re not supposed to come and go and nobody miss you. Break out of your box. Ask God for the secret petitions He’s placed on the inside. If you can accomplish it on your own, then it’s not a God-sized dream. Enlarge your vision.

My family and some of our staff members were at the airport parking lot late one Friday night. We had just done a Night of Hope event in another state. It was two o’clock in the morning. We got to our cars and discovered that my mother’s car battery was dead. The lights must have
been left on. My brother Paul and I went to work with my friend Johnny. We found some jumper cables. I pulled my car next to my mother’s and put the cables on both cars. The lights in her car came on, but we couldn’t get it to start. The engine wouldn’t turn over at all. It didn’t make a sound.

I revved my car and we waited, trying to charge up the battery. Ten minutes later, we tried to start it again, but not a sound. The engine wouldn’t budge. A mechanic from the airport came out to help us. He worked and worked, but he couldn’t make it happen.

Johnny got out the car’s manual. He tried to see if there was something we were missing. It was freezing that night. After about thirty minutes of trying everything we could think of, Paul told my mother, “It won’t start; just ride with me and we’ll come get the car tomorrow.”

My mother was not about to leave that car. She said, “No, Paul, I have two funerals to officiate tomorrow. I need my car.”

It was now 2:30. Finally, I said, “Mother I’ll give you my car tomorrow. You can drive it home tonight. Paul will take me home.”

But our mother said, “I don’t want your car, I want my car. Let’s try it again.”

We tried again. We worked at it another fifteen minutes, but still nothing happened. I said, “Mother we can stay here all night, the car is not going to start. We might as well go home.”

“Give me the keys,” she said.

She had that “don’t mess with me” look in her eyes. I don’t know if she was mad at me or at the devil. Probably both. She got in that car and started praying. When my mother really means business she prays loud. She makes sure God can hear her. I looked over there and my mother was praying over the steering wheel, praying over the radio, praying over the glove compartment.

She knows no shame. Growing up she would pray over the dishwasher, pray over the lawn mower. We’re over there smiling, getting a kick out of her praying. All of a sudden, we heard the car crank right up. The engine didn’t turn over and over like it was struggling. It cranked up the first time.

My mother revved that engine so loud, she must have pressed the pedal to the floorboard. She held it there like she was running a race at Daytona.
It sounded like the engine was about to explode. When she took off, we were running for cover. She drove around in circles in the parking lot—an eighty-year-old woman doing donuts at three o’clock in the morning.

I thought, “Dear God, she’ll get us all arrested.”

I wanted to tell her, “You’re grounded.”

When our mother finally drove off she didn’t wave good-bye. She didn’t say, “Thank you for trying.” She didn’t blow us a kiss. She just left us there standing in her dust.

When you face situations that seem impossible in your everyday life, God says, “I dare you to pray. I dare you to ask Me for that car to start.”

You may think God has bigger things to deal with than getting a car started. But you are God’s biggest deal. You are the apple of His eye. So often we limit God. We have a small view of Him. We think He’s over there busy running the universe.

“I can’t bother God with these small things. I can only pray if I’m facing a major catastrophe.”

God knows the number of hairs on your head. He knows your thoughts before you think them and your words before you speak them. You’re not inconveniencing God by asking for help in your everyday life. God wants to be good to you. He wants to show you His favor in new ways. He’s saying today, “I dare you to ask.”

Members of a small church in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains built a new sanctuary on land donated by one of their members. A month before the new church was to open, the local building inspector informed them that their parking lot was too small. Unless they doubled the amount of spaces they would not be allowed to open.

The problem was they had used every part of their property except the land behind them and it had a huge hill, almost a mountain on it. The pastor announced the next Sunday morning they would have a special prayer meeting that night to ask God to somehow make a way for them to open their new church.

Twenty-four of the members showed up and they began to pray. After an hour, the pastor announced, “God has never let us down before and He won’t let us down this time. We will open as scheduled.”

The next morning there was a knock on his door. It was a rough-looking
construction foreman. He said, “Excuse me, Reverend, we’re building a shopping center in the next county and we need some fill dirt. If you’ll sell us the dirt on that mountain behind your new church we’ll not only pay you for the dirt but also we’ll pave all the areas where we dig up.”

They got their parking lot for free and moved into their new building as scheduled.

When you pray God-sized prayers, God will show up in a big way. You may not be seeing great things, because you’re asking only for small things. God is saying, “Ask Me to open doors that look impossible. Ask Me to connect you to the right people. Ask Me for that business you’ve dreamed about. Ask Me for the secret petitions of your heart.”