Omartian - Prayer warrior: the power of praying your way to victory

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

Unless otherwise indicated, scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Verses marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011, by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Cover by Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, Oregon

Back cover author photo Harry Langdon

THE POWER OF PRAYING is a registered trademark of The Hawkins Childrens LLC. Harvest House Publishers, Inc. is the exclusive licensee of the federally registered trademark THE POWER OF PRAYING.

Italics in quoted Scriptures indicate emphasis added by the author.

PRAYER WARRIOR

Copyright 2013 by Stormie Omartian

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Omartian, Stormie.

Prayer warrior / Stormie Omartian.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-7369-5366-5 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-7369-5556-0 (Deluxe)

ISBN 978-0-7369-5367-2 (eBook)

1. PrayerChristianity. I. Title.

BV215.O54 2013

248.32dc23

2013014357

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This book is dedicated to the prayer warriors all over the worldespecially those who have come up to me wherever I have been and whispered, I am a prayer warrior too.

You know who you are, but you will never know how much that warmed my heart, and how thankful I am that you are with me on the wall .

C ONTENTS

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world .

1 J OHN 4:4

I lived in Southern California for more than four decades, and I was present for the worst earthquakes of that period. I never got used to them. They were more terrifying to me than anything else. Thats because they happened suddenly, without any warning whatsoever, and you had no idea how long they would last, how strong they would be, or how much damage they would do. Some earthquakes were so violent I couldnt even get to a doorway or under a solid table as we were instructed to do. At times like those, when a strong earthquake is happening, your life feels totally out of control. You dont know if you are going to be killed, buried alive, or badly injured. Or, you hope, escape with none of the above occurring.

The buildings that survived those big earthquakes had a secure foundation and were especially fortified to withstand violent shaking. When California eventually established specific building codes that made buildings safer in an earthquake, wise people became aware of which buildings those were and whether or not they were in one.

The most dreaded situation was when an earthquake happened in the dark of night while you were sleeping. It was a rude awakening to pitch black because the power went out and you could see absolutely nothing. Even if the power did not go out, there was no way you could get to a source of light while the room was shaking violently unless you kept a flashlight under your pillow. Even then, trying to grab hold of it could be nearly impossible, depending on the magnitude.

The worst earthquake I remember enduring happened when I was living alone in an apartment in Studio City, just over Laurel Canyon from Hollywood. It happened in the middle of the night while I was sound asleep in my bedroom. I lived on the bottom floor of a two-story, four-apartment complex, built before earthquake building codes were established and implemented. Even though there was only one story above me, I knew that it was possible my apartment could collapse under the weight of that floor. If the top apartment fell in on mine, it would be over for me. Years before, I had seen the wreckage of that exact thing with my own eyes after it happened, and I never forgot it.

All of that was crystal clear in my mind when this earthquake hit, which was sudden, violent, and loud. I tried to make my way out of the bedroom and down the short hallway to the door leading into the living room, because at least from there I might have a shot at getting out the front door to the lawn and away from anything falling in the aftershocks. But too many windows were in the living room at the front of the apartment, including the French windows in the top half of the front door, to try and attempt an escape while the ground was still violently shaking. I thought if I could be as close as possible to that front door without getting hit by flying glass, perhaps I could manage to get out before the whole building went down. Judging by the extreme shaking of the apartment, a collapse seemed an imminent possibility.

As I stumbled down the short hallway, I was thrown violently against the walls from side to side, hitting my right and then my left shoulder hard each time. Over the deafening rumble of the earthquake and shaking of the building, I could hear my dishes falling out of the cabinets in the kitchen and crashing to the floor. My lamps hit hard against the walls. Every second seems like eternity when the earth and everything around you is shaking, especially if you are not in a place that is built on a solid foundation and according to proven and reliable building codes.

I did not have a personal relationship with God at the time this happened, but I desperately tried to establish one in that moment. Yet God felt distant and preoccupied. Being terrified and alone had become a way of life for me, having been raised by an out-of-control, mentally ill mother on an isolated ranch in Wyoming miles from the nearest neighbor or town. But enduring her abuse and being locked in a closet whenever my dad was gone didnt compare with this earthquake experience. At least in the closet I had the hope of getting out. I didnt think I would get out of this quake alive, and I had no one to pray to or turn to.

I certainly did not have that place of peace that can be found in the Lord even in terrifying circumstances. In fact, at that time Id never heard of such a thing.

I did get out of that earthquake without serious injury, but the moment the shaking stopped I grabbed my purse and car keys and left to go stay with a friend before the aftershocks began. It was way too dangerous and frightening to stay another moment there because the place could still collapse.

On the way to my friends house, the aftershocks were so violent that my car was thrown all over the road as though it were a toy. Talk about a wild ride. You havent lived until you have driven a car while the pavement below it is rolling up and down like a thin sheet in a violent windstorm and cracking in such deep fissures that you fear being swallowed into one. I was frightened out of my mind. Aftershocks can be just as scary as the earthquake itself, especially because you know everything around you is already weakened.