Juanita Bynum - The Threshing Floor: How to Know Without a Doubt that God Hears Your Every Prayer

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THE THRESHING FLOOR by Juanita Bynum
Published by Charisma House
Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group
600 Rinehart Road
Lake Mary, Florida 32746
www.charismahouse.com

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the Amplified Bible. Old Testament 1965, 1987 by the Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified New Testament 1954, 1958, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by Permission.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Appendix A and Appendix B in The Threshing Floor are from a special King James Bible by Matthew Ashimolowo. They are used by permission. For more information regarding this resource, contact Matthew Ashimolowo Media Ministries, London, England, or go to his Web site at www.kicc.org.uk.

Cover Designer: Bill Johnson
Author Photos: Keith Major Photography, Inc.
Editorial services by ASarah Publications (www.asarah.com)

Copyright 2006, 2008 by Juanita Bynum
All rights reserved

International Standard Book Number: 978-1-59979-230-9

The Library of Congress has catalogued the previous edition as follows:

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bynum, Juanita.

The threshing floor / Juanita Bynum.

p. cm.

ISBN 1-59185-803-8

1. Prayer. 2. Public worship. I. Title.

BV210.3.B96 2005

248.32--dc22

2005010392

E-book ISBN: 978-1-59979-646-8

This publication has been translated in Spanish under the title El lugar secreto, copyright 2005 by Juanita Bynum, published by Casa Creacin. All rights reserved.

To Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo... for
your impartation into my life on the matter
of prayer... because of you, I have been
changed forever.

To Mother Estella Boyd... for her
impartation of prayer

To Laura Lowery, from Love Oasis Christian
Center in New York... for your impartation
of the message The Well Within

Acknowledgments

I would like to give special thanks to:

Dr. John H. Boyd Sr., for providing me with a place to cultivate my call to the mandate of prayer at New Greater Bethel Church. I will always have a special love in my heart for the altar of this house. My experience in prayer at New Greater Bethel has changed my life forever.

Contents

PREFACE
Prayer Is Universal

P RAYER IS THE only thing that no one religion can claim possession of or origination of. It is not a denominational or religious experience. Prayer is an individual experience that takes place between the Creator and those whom He has created.

It does not matter what religion a person is a part of; prayer and meditation are the vital links for staying connected with God. If you do not possess a prayer life, theres no way you can understand the principles of everyday life that God is trying to teach you. So bear with meespecially if you are mature in the Lord and, as a result, are a more prolific readerbecause prayer is a universal subject. It is an absolute necessity in every persons life. For this reason I am approaching it carefully, so that every personwhether a congressman or a prison inmatecan understand the principles of prayer and have a life-changing experience.

When I was first prompted to write this book about prayer, I went to bookstores to see what was already in the marketplace. Interestingly, there werent a lot of books written on this topic. I believe one of the reasons is that most people feel the way I used to feel about prayerthey tend to shy away from it. When I first started praying, I had a difficult time, because I didnt really understand what was expected of me when I came into the presence of the Lord. Prayer was truly a difficult process.

Why did the process of prayer seem so difficult for me? Society teaches us to mask or suppress everything we feel, but when we come to pray, we have to train ourselves to do the opposite. We must release everything that we feel. For me, that was a very difficult thing to do.

When we have become masters of suppressing our feelings, then society calls that maturity. You are considered a better person if you can suppress what you feel, not truly expressing yourself for who you are and what you believe. Society thinks that the successful person is one who can suppress his or her thoughts and feelings in order to get or to keep a job or to establish and keep a certain status in life.

Yet, the most wonderful and mature peopleby the worlds standardsoften end up crashing emotionally at some point in their lives. Its possible to play that role for only so long. Why? Because as human beings, we have been created with real emotions and real desires. Somewhere along the line, the real person will come out. The real things we are feeling will be expressed and heard. When this time comes, if we dont choose a positive outlet for this expression, the results could be tragic.

I believe that is why many people are in prison right now. Thats why we hear of women being sent to prison for killing their husbands or children. Its the reason husbands are in jail for killing their wives, and children are imprisoned for killing their parents. It explains our epidemics of rape, theft, and white-collar crime. All of these things have a common root. Many of the people who commit these crimes were conditioned never to express what they really feltwhether it was anger, bitterness, or even happiness. They were not given an outlet for expressing their feelings or for being intelligently heard and helped. They reached the boiling point, the moment when they could no longer stuff their feelings inside, and they exploded. As a result, other peopleeven people they lovedwere hurt and possibly even lost their lives.

This happens when people are not able to find a place where they can trust enough to be able to express themselves completely.

You see, prayer is the posture from which trust can be established or restored, the place from which God can channel back to you the answer you seek or give you the resolve you need to handle whatever situation you may be going through.

As your trust in God grows, He will assure you more and more that you can come to Him about any situation or need. During this process, as you come to Him, you will develop a new level of communication, a positive outlet that yields positive results. You will discover that when you leave His presence, you dont have to worry about how other people feel about you. His presence has liberated you. Now thats real freedom of speech. Thats true freedom of expression.

Im strongly impressed to write this book because I went on such a journey. Today when people hear me talk about the spiritual things that I have encountered, they often tell me, Thats so powerful. But for me it was a process. It is still a process. No person on this earth will ever have a monopoly on prayer. Why? Prayer is a spiritual experience, and no one can predict or control the Spirit of God. Each time you find your place in prayer, you will have fresh, new experiences in your relationship with God.