How prayers work

When miracles happen, I love tracing back to when I first prayed for them, and see how God works with prayers. Often times, I find that the time that God started working on it is even before I got the idea to pray for it, and the answer tends to come in such a way that makes me think that He said "Yes" to every single prayer I made on the subject, and with each the blessing multiplied. 

Which is why when you look at prayer on the macro-scale, everything you see happening in ministry now is rolled back to prayers being made 50-100 years ago, and it’s just starting to take effect. And the extent of His planning and careful ministry is incredible to make it all work. Starting with the desires that He puts in our hearts, to the prayers that we pray and the visions that He calls to us to intercede with, to the faith that we gain as we watch Him fulfil His promises. 

This is why, when people ask me “Why is God not putting me into the field right now?” that I can calmly say to them, “Be still and know that [He] is God. He has an extensive plan for each and every one of us, and while we are picking up the skills for Him to fully use us in ministry, there are people that He has already prepared going the ways that our desires are bursting towards. We will, in turn, continue that wave, but at His will, in His ways, at His timing.”