BY REV. DORAL PULLEY, Today’s Church Tampa Bay
“While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean (Luke 5:12).”
It is one thing to read about something in the Bible; it is another thing to practice it. There is a huge difference between someone sharing his or her experience with you and you doing it for yourself. I read about Jesus laying prostrate in the Garden of Gethsemane. I was also familiar with the man in our text above who had leprosy and laid prostrate before Jesus for healing. However, I never used the prostrate position as a prayer posture until March 26-28,1990.
What drove me to lay on my face was an experience that I had as the Assistant Pastor to my Spiritual Leader. He was a man in his 70’s who had been leading a congregation for over 50 years. I felt he was sabotaging all my efforts to grow the church. Finally, he told me, “if you want to grow a large congregation with a lot of young people making a bunch of noise, go out and start your own.” With strong conviction, he said, “if the church can pay its bills and pay me, then I’m satisfied. The more people you have, the more problems.”
Feeling devastated and disillusioned, I turned my college dorm room into a sanctuary. I asked two of my fraternity brothers to fast and pray with me during Spring break of my sophomore year. We asked God for direction because my ego or my reaction to someone’s ego-based response did not desire to start a church. While lying on the floor of my dorm facedown, the Holy Spirit gave me II Peter 1:11 “For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” At that moment, God called me to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, to teach Kingdom principles by which people could live holistically, healthy balanced and well-rounded lives, and to reach people who were overlooked by the traditional church. God told me that the Church was the entrance to the Kingdom and to establish the Church of the Everlasting Kingdom.
Using this Prayer Tool of Visioning and Visualization, envision the solution to any seeming problem, the resolution to any issue and the answer to any question.
Rev. Doral Pulley is the senior pastor of Today’s Church Tampa Bay, 940 5th Ave. S, St. Petersburg (Staybridge Suites) and 5107 North Central Ave., Tampa.
