Lost In India With GOD TV : Does Prayer Work? (Part 1)

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. Philippians 4:8 (NASB)

I knew I was going to India to bring something back, the question was what?

In August 2010, after traveling to Biddadi India to find out the truth behind a Vedic temple I found near my hometown, I became convinced that the Bible was literal and that we are living in Bible times now.

I took a taxi ride into the great unknown and checked into a room in the Majestic District of Bangalore.

After seeing what I had seen, it was my intention to find Christians who were in active service there. Knowing no one, my first thought was to look up the “Jesuits” as I knew they would surely be here and I might be safe with them.

India is different. By population there are only about 3% Christians in the entire country, making it somewhat difficult to find them.

During the first few days, I spent my time in two different hotels, and in each I was able to tune into GOD TV on cable television in my room. That gave me my only window to things of God.

Most of my time was spent reading entire books of the bible to  really understand their context.  I also watched certain teachers on GOD TV, but is was watching the International House of Prayer Live feed that meant a great deal to me. Also around the TV you’ll see pictures of my kids and I was praying to get back safely home to connect with them.

The IHOP live feed is a 24 hours a day praise and worship from different young adult artists. Since I had time to consider my life, I had realized that even as a young adult, there were many opportunities to find people my age who were really plugged into God in an authentic way, and people my age now who were alive in the spirit.

I would go and walk around a bit, have lunch or dinner, go to the local tea vendor and then make my way back to my room to spend the first extended quite times I had really ever had with God. I made some important choices in those rooms. It was the fact that they are physically broadcasting from Jerusalem and it was programs like these that kept me enthralled:

The first choice was while looking in the phone book for the Jesuits, I noticed what looked like a prayer line called “Jesus Calls Prayer Tower”. It was kind of a funny name but I knew they must be for real.

Clear Direction

“Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops” Matthew 10:26 (NASB)

I was making videos, audio recordings and taking pictures for my kids but mostly because  God spoke strongly to me through Matthew 10 telling me “what I hear whispered in my ear shout from the housetops” among other things. I obeyed and documented what happened on this trip. On the first day I made a audio recording of a man praying when I called this “prayer tower”. This simple experience showed me that  prayer works in a powerful way as the next day miracles occurred to help me find the friends and ministries so important to me to this day.

This organization built a temple in near my hometown, we involved in the most significant controversy worldwide, and who communicate through the internet at “innerawakening.org” where they attract people from all over the world.

Through this journey to my amazement, I had become the owner of the .com extension of that name, so another important decision was what do with a domain called “innerawakening.com”  and my decision was to point it to GOD TV.  I own it and I decided to send it to God Tv on my own and will always go there, it was my personal answer to this teacher. It’s the decision I made in my first secret place at that hotel in Bangalore. Clicking here will open a new window>>>>>> innerawakening.com

This was a time of surrender. I had decided to allow God to lead me in my life, and at first I can see that surrender is kind of messy but was very real. What I learned here was I had to slow down, and find a way to allow God to speak to my spirit and heal me.

I had developed such a busy and confusing life quite common in all of the the world,  which had made me interested in meditation at different times in my life. After finding the truth behind eastern meditation I got back to basics. I learned that if I tuned into lyrics and worship music like in the video I posted  above and was just still before the Lord, it would fill me with positive and God honoring messages, ministering to my spirit.

Since that time, I have noticed that when I get busy and rushed, I’m back into worry and fear. Too much TV or entertainment or business worries drag me down. It is the quiet times in prayer, reading of the word and listening to music I find either on live feeds, on Itune podcasts  or recently on Spotify that helps me to focus and listen.

Artists like Laura Hackett, Misty Edwards, Cory Ashbury and groups I have listed to for years like the Casting Crowns who wrote the song “the Voice of Truth”. There are many choices out there, I choose carefully now what to allow in my environment.

It’s amazing to see how God was planting the seeds into me to reach out and effect others. It was in a dumpy little room, 9000 miles away from home that I finally understood the scripture, “be still and know that I am God” and the holy spirit being a person instead of some impersonal force or “power”.

Does Prayer Work?

I could have saved a great deal of confusion in my life if I had just done this in the dumpy and confusing situations I had found myself in over my life. I didn’t need to go to a foreign country to do that. It’s not our physical location that matters, just the state of our hearts.

After all God can handle our mess, even our anger and maybe cursing at first, he just wants us to be authentic and then to grow beyond the hurts that are keeping us in prison.

I had several choices here. One was the Jesuits which made sense for a safety standpoint, one was someting cool and that was to go to Chennai with two film makers and party and the other was to call a “quirky looking” prayer line and have someone pray for me.

Let’s break it down a little further. One choice made sense to my mind, one choice made sense to my desires and the other was to “walk by faith and not by sight”

Watch the video to see how God was directing me to choose.

Another most interesting fact about this time is that I had a near fatal infection growing inside my body and at some level knew this. I was to face open heart surgery just a few months later. I had to answer very pivotal questions for my myself so that I would be equipped to bring truth to my kids and to face not only a heart surgery, but many other life threatening medical situations to come.

On the surface it seemed like a mess, but God was at work to remold and re-write my life into something useful and that I would know that it was not me writing with my will, but was a poem only he could create.

Here is the video I made for my kids back in 2010 after I came back from India.

Like I said, switching gears from running your own life to following the holy spirit leading can be funny to watch at first. But later it becomes first nature.

You can’t hear much of what the man is praying until the end, but just understand that while in the mess I was in over there, God heard me and responded with his love, care and direction.

Call To Jesus Calls Prayer Tower 2010

After returning to the USA in 2010….I I noticed the top level domain .tv (new at the time) and made a decision  to form an online collection of videos for my kids on a site called VoiceOfTruth.tv i. It’s more than surprising to me is that to date over 225,000 videos have been played on that site, something I never could have intended. I have a new vision for that site and am pursuing rebuilding it…

How do you shut off the noise in your life? I would love to know, please leave a comment below: