The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
I can't remember what today made me suddenly recall the dream I had last night, but it hadn't come back to me in wakefulness until then. In the dream, I was being given the gift of a prayer book and it was contained in a box which, when I opened it, contained a very small volume with a dark cover and some kind of irregularity on the front cover toward the right-hand side, as if it were perhaps one of those small notebooks with an elastic band that slides around to keep it closed, but I couldn't quite distinguish it.
It was a bit worn, as it had been owned before, and it was at least a couple of decades old. I recall in the dream thinking that, when I picked it up, I could halfway expect to see yellowed pages from how it looked on the outside. Receiving this prayer book in my dream filled me with the incredible joy of finding treasure and also an overwhelming gladness that this book was now being entrusted to me.
Shortly after I recalled the dream, my spouse and I were sitting in the car eating some drive-thru cuisine to the sounds of the local Roman Catholic radio station. I'd say we had the radio on for maybe half an hour tops, and I know it's pretty likely that one would hear the words "prayer book" mentioned on such a radio station, but when I heard it, the dream was reinforced and I began to be sure that I was to seek out that book quasi-immediately.
I told my spouse about the dream and said that, if we passed a Christian bookstore on the way back, I might need to stop there and pick up a book. However, just as we started out of the parking lot, there was a Half Price Books store less than a block away, and looking at the store's sign felt right to me, so we stopped there and I went in. As my spouse was going to stay in the car, I said to call my cell if I was taking too long.
Got to the religion section, found prayer books, and there were two shelves to examine, with all kinds of hymnals intermixed. As I was looking, it occurred to me that browsing used books was definitely the right way to go because the book in my dream wasn't new. However, I opened my mind to the possibility that the book He wanted me to get might not look just like the one in the dream and, scanning the shelves, waited for one of them to call out to me.
I felt the Holy Spirit upon me and peace came over me. I paused to say a prayer of love and thanks that He was right there with me, and how I honor and cherish His presence.
It was a small, dark-colored volume, leatherbound, and it had seen some hard times. The first few pages had been torn out and a previous owner had written in the first half of the Table of Contents on the flyleaf attached to the cover, and all the publication information was missing. The upper-right-hand corner of the cover looked like it had been a little mauled by a dog, and there were lots of scratches across the page edges, which were a silver color.
My cell phone rang which, at the time, I didn't see as an indicator that my search was over, but in retrospect that's pretty clear. I kept looking for a short while, passing slowly over the books so as not to leave out even the smallest volume. Then I finished, paid $7.55, and brought it back to the car.
As I held it, it occurred to me that not only did this book resemble the one in my dream in that it wasn't new, but also the mangled cover corner made the edge look irregular, just like it was in the dream. We had some more errands to run, for the next of which my spouse had to get out of the car, leaving me alone with the book for a bit. I asked where it wanted to open and I prayed the prayer to which it opened. As soon as I started, a physical manifestation came upon me that I can neither describe nor explain in the context of a blog, but be it said that something was happening.
Then I started having a conversation with Him in a low voice, right there in the car. I asked,
Should I go back to Bethel again?
to which He replied with the question,
Do you want more of me?
Oh boy. I said Yes in every way I knew how. Of course this brings up a ton of conflicts and it won't be easy, but I sorta have to. I need more of Him!
Now that I think of it, I really had sowed the seeds of this encounter earlier today: First thing today, I had to go accompany my spouse someplace and then wait for about an hour, so I brought a book to read (one of my extra-Biblicals). When the time came, though, I never got to the book because I had started praying and just kept going, feeling ever nearer to Him. It was after this that I remembered the dream and the rest of these events came forth.
Glory to You, Lord Christ!
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