Stormie Omartian Talks about the Power of Prayer

Stormie: Well, prayer has to come from the right heart, because when you're praying for someone else, you can't be praying manipulative prayers or angry prayers or prayers with unforgiveness in your heart. I used to always pray the "Change him Lord" prayer for my husband, and I never received an answer whatsoever from God. I just got to the end of my rope and said, "God, I can't live with this strange person anymore. I feel like I'm dying in the marriage." I just wanted to take my kids and leave at that point. But God said, "If you're willing to lay down your life and pray for your husband, if you're ready to surrender and stay there and learn to be an intercessor for your husband, I'll make you an instrument of deliverance for him as well."

It was hard to do. It wasn't easy because you have to pray with the right heart. I just found that every time I'd start a prayer and I'd feel irritation, unforgiveness, or hurt, I had to confess that to the Lord as sin and just say, "God, I confess my attitude. Lord, create in me a clean heart, help me to see this man from your perspective." And that's what God did -- He really helped me to see my Michael as a child of God and not just as my husband. I saw him as precious and beloved of the Lord.

As I began to pray for him that way, I began to see immediate answers to my prayers. It was really powerful. So God wants to answer our prayers -- He wants to move, He wants us to ask, but we need to ask from the right heart. We need to have a clean heart before Him and ask according to His will, and He will be right there.

Crosswalk.com: What's the most powerful thing your husband's ever prayed for you and how did it affect your life?

Stormie: It happened January 8th of 2001 when my appendix exploded at 3 a.m. I had been sick since the previous summer -- in and out of emergency hospitals. I'd get these attacks of excruciating pain, where I was just doubled over with nausea and vomiting and fever, and I knew it was serious. I'd go to the emergency hospital and they could never find anything wrong with me. They'd do all these tests and I'd be there forever, but they couldn't find anything, so I'd think, "What was that? Maybe it's all over now." But then I'd go back to the hospital again.

I was in a lot of pain on a Sunday night, so I thought, "Well, I'll go in to the specialist on Monday morning. It's late, I'm not going to go to the hospital and have them do all these tests again if there's nothing wrong. So I'm going to wait and go to the doctor in the morning."

But at 3 a.m., my body just exploded on the inside -- it felt like dynamite had exploded. It was so horrible! I was doubled over and I tried to call my husband in from another room with our intercom system. I couldn't reach the button, though - I was in too much pain. I thought the pain would eventually pass, but it didn't pass. It just kept getting worse and worse, so I finally just fell over onto the button and called him. So he came running downstairs and said, "I don't know what to do! You've got to tell me what to do." I said, "You can't do anything. You've just got to get me in the car - I don't have time to change or anything." So I just had to go in my pajamas, and my daughter and my housekeeper helped me in the car.

At the hospital, they still couldn't figure out what was wrong. They did a lot of tests, including a CAT scan. They still couldn't figure anything out. My husband and I were saying, "Lord, reveal this to somebody!" I knew I was dying -- I knew that I couldn't hold on much longer. I could feel all of my strength going out of my body. All I could pray at that point was, "Help me Jesus, help me Jesus. Show somebody what's wrong."

My husband prayed for me right at that point, and there was no one else praying at that time. His prayers for me really saved my life - literally -- because he prayed for me to live and that someone would find what it was and do something to help me, and that's what finally happened. The specialist called the surgeon and said, "You've got to see her, you've got to come in -- something must be done." And the surgeon came in and said, "I think your appendix has exploded. Now, we don't have time to do any more tests; we don't have time to do anything. We've got to rush you into surgery right now."

The prayers of my husband carried me. At about 2 in the morning, the third day after surgery, I woke up in the hospital. It was the first time I had a moment when I wasn't in such excruciating pain that I could hardly breathe. I had a moment where I had enough morphine in me that I could think. I said, "God, what just happened? God, what is this?"

And God spoke to my heart and said that it was a curse but that it had not prospered. Michael came to the hospital the next morning and said, "I woke up at 2 in the morning and the Lord spoke to my heart that a weapon had been formed against you that didn't prosper."

After I was out of surgery, Michael called other people to pray because I was still "touch and go" after the operation. The doctor said I could still die because of the poison. He also said that if the poison wasn't pumped out, or with the wound left open I could still get gangrene. So my husband called everybody we knew, all over the country. I could just feel the prayers -- you know how you feel it when people are praying for you? His prayers were instrumental in saving my life.

Crosswalk.com: What's your advice for husbands who have read your book, and genuinely desire to pray for their wives, but don't know where to start? What should they do?

Stormie: A lot of guys have asked me that. They said, "Oh do I HAVE to pray?" I said, "Even if you don't want to read it, have her read it to you. A three-page chapter is simple. She can read that to you and you can just take the book and pray that prayer. It's a very simple - it's just a few lines. Just read that prayer over and over and that's all you have to do. If you don't want to say it out loud, just read that prayer to yourself quietly. It has power -- the fact that you are praying that over her will really bless her, but if that's too intimidating then don't really worry about it. Just pray the prayer and you'll see transfomation happening in her life, in your marriage and in your life too, so just taking these small steps make a powerful difference."

Crosswalk.com: How did praying for your children change how you related to your family?

Stormie: Well, I was raised by a mentally ill mother, so I had a lot of abuse in my background and I didn't have a good parenting role model, and it became evident when I had a baby and came home from the hospital. I didn't have a clue, and I realized that I was really dependent on the Lord. I realized that I had a tendency to be abusive, I would feel that well up in me when my child was just an infant. I couldn't make it stop cyring, and I would feel like throwing it across the room. I thought, "Oh my gosh, I am in no way ready to raise a kid."

So I was just going to the Lord saying, "Lord you've got to show me how to raise this child. I don't have a clue." God just took me step by step, and showed me how to start prayer groups just to pray for our children. I was so desperate, and I found that other people were feeling the same way, so I started prayer groups where we just got together just to pray for our kids. That became the basis for my book and I know I couldn't have raised these kids without the power of prayer -- without God helping me. It's partnering with God to raise them through prayer.