Yes, Tansy,

All prayers are heard and presented at the throne room in the heavens, and weigh heavily on the mind of the source of life, our Father and Maker.

Historically several factors play in.
For example, earthly warfare of will and dominions - scripture tells us Daniel's answer to prayers were delayed fourty days because of the messanger sent to answer him being embattled while trying to reach him.

http://biblehub.com/daniel/10-13.htm

We tend to walk around in a lot of ignorance of the spiritual realities about us.


See, Adam and Eve handed off spiritual authority at the tree-scene, and since then, it's warfare over what emotions, desires, influences and lifestyles we get dominated by. Likely you know this?
http://biblehub.com/ephesians/6-12.htm

However, there's an aspect of prayer that is lost (very tragically) in translation between old-style churches and congregations, and today's more no-effort-required sort of preaching that's pretty rampant in western circles.


http://biblehub.com/mark/9-29.htm
http://www.christian-faith.com/fasting-key-power/
http://biblehub.com/esther/4-16.htm
http://biblehub.com/philippians/4-6.htm
http://www.angelfire.com/in/HisName/fasting.html

Now mind, fasting is NOT a requirement- neither by law or by demand. It's a /tool/, and it takes some training to learn to use, but these are the principles I've learned from listening to those who've gone well down the road:

http://www.godspeak.net/teachings/teach8.html
Generally for breaking a stronghold, it's a 7-8 day fast, juices and tea are fine.
But it DOES gain spiritual ground back from where it's been lost, and makes some transformative changes in the person undergoing the fast. I've gone 3 days myself, liquids only, and despite being insulin-dependant, I found my mind blessedly cleared up.

And that wasn't fasting for warfare purposes.

Mighty.Sun.Tzu (here on curezone) contacted me 2-3 years ago, offering prayer together on skype. He's well-experienced in the art of the fast, and seen several breakthroughs when praying for health on the part of believers and nonbelievers alike.

He doesn't put the burden of fasting on the shoulders of a person in need. That is not a biblical principle- a person ministering helps shoulder the burden and gently teaches.


http://biblehub.com/mark/9-29.htm Note the KJV translation..


One of the confusing things is understanding and acting upon spiritual authority, biblically.
Jesus teaches, say to this mountain, move, and it will move.
He speaks repeatedly about faith, and says to the disciples, 'go out and heal them'.
Why are healings and miracles and such so rare in our time?

The mindset, the discipline and the behaviors are not the same.
That doesn't mean the offer, the understanding, and the power are not present and accounted for!
Does the Holy Spirit heal people still today?

Yes. My own recovery after open-chest surgery after the removal of metastasised cancer about the lungs was two times faster than the average person(s) in my age group, despite my having type 1 diabetes. Usually a person recovering from lung surgery is in the intensive care unit at least a week, and in the hospital up to 4 weeks. I was out of intensive at a day and a half, and out of the hospital in 15 days.
The surgeon, a big guy with real man's hands, spread his fingers and cupped his palm and said, 'I took out THIS much tissue..' during meeting to talk on the day I was discharged.

My church-family is a group only at max 20 strong, usually only 10 people attending a service at any one time, sometimes only 5, but they were putting honest prayer into the time I was hospitalised and away from home. I don't think fasting was necessarily involved..
But /mountains indeed move/!


Tansy, sometimes God does call people home. He does it both out of mercy, and sometimes out of the person simply giving up the earthly body.. and sometimes he extends that life much longer than otherwise expected. Health is an act of both the person in need (maintaining with care and good food), but more vitally, the creator who knows our innermost workings more intimately than we could ever manage.

He's a respecter of the /heart, will and mind/ of the family He has here on earth. We'd never have had the cross and the free gift of salvation if our maker would have had it a different way. It works that way also spiritually-
especially when a much loved one is on death's door and the family is not ready to let go. HE LISTENS AND ACTS... and the weight of your heart weighs HEAVY on His.
In a way, through faith and knowledge and relationship with him- but more than that, spiritual kinship, you living in His universe and His spirit in you- that connection is not weak.

I hear the pain in your words. I feel tears for your situation.. I am so sorry-
Indeed, tearfully, sorry, even though my words are poor substitutes for the warmth and kinship of a proper neighbour and sister in Christ.

If you want to hear more about heaven, I have a few good links at hand. Good testimony and experience is hard to find and sometimes even harder to judge, and one has to press it up against the winepress of the scriptures good and tight, but there is some comfort in knowing that we are most certainly -not- left to our own devices.

Just quite, quite thirsty for living water in a dry, dry world. <3

Here's a little love your way, Sister, brother- may you never, ever lack for it in full.