be specific.

Years ago, I was in a small group led by a woman who is a prayer warrior, unlike anyone I’d ever met before. At the end of our time together, she would ask if anyone had anything they needed prayer for. We would pray. And when we met again two weeks later, people would come back with testimonies about how God had done exactly what we prayed for.

I was in awe. I had never seen God move like that, and I had never heard anyone pray with that much boldness and faith. At the time, most of what I learned was about how God can and He wants to answer our prayers. It increased my faith and challenged me to pray more boldly.

But what I recognize now that I didn’t realize was happening then was how my leader asked follow-up questions. She didn’t simply take what someone said and then prayed for it, she’d ask more specific questions.

People only shared as much as they were comfortable with, of course. But if someone needed healing, my leader wanted to know where the pain was or how it was impacting that person’s life. If it was situational, she wanted to know what practical thing might need to happen to get from here to there. If it was provision, she wanted to know a dollar amount.

She was gathering information to pray targeted prayers. To put angels on assignment to complete a specific task. To call a certain part of the body into Kingdom alignment and perfect function.

I think everyone who came back to that group with testimonies was able to see how God moved because my leader had outlined it for us.

Of course, this is not a black and white exercise. God doesn’t do what we ask simply because we get specific enough. But the thing I’ve noticed about getting specific with God is that you know if He answers because you know what you’re looking for.

When I’m specific with God, He’s specific back. When I say, “This is where I am and this is what I’m looking for,” God meets me exactly right there. I give Him my coordinates, and instead of giving me directions, He just comes and takes me by the hand.

Most of the time, from my own experience and from what I’ve heard from other people, we pray such big, broad prayers, and then we can never really tell what God is saying about it. We aren’t able to identify if God is saying yes and moving us closer to it (even if it looks like the opposite is happening), or if He’s closing one door to open another.

And, most of the time, the frustration or hopelessness or impatience I feel on a Thursday is because I keep talking to God about the big, broad thing, and I just don’t even know why He seems to be so silent about it.

I think sometimes what we need is to be a little more specific.

Forget the big picture. What might it look like to see God move in the next two weeks? Be specific.

The power of God is in you, even on a Thursday.

P.S. I literally tried this again this week because, Is anything even happening?

God answered my prayer twice within the same day.

The big thing I want hasn’t happened yet, but He’s still holding my hand.

And honestly, sometimes that’s exactly what I need on a Thursday.