Pray Big: Are You Trusting God for Miracles, Vision and Bold Faith?

Pray Big — Learning to Know God Through Bold Prayer & Faith

Have you ever wondered how to know God more personally, trust Him for miracles, and pray with real confidence? In today’s episode, Lenora shares a powerful childhood story of answered prayer that sparked a lifelong journey of learning to seek God boldly, believe His Word, and pray big — even when circumstances seem impossible.

From a miraculous rescue to inspiring lessons from global pastor Dr. Paul Yonggi Cho, this conversation explores how God imparts His dreams to willing hearts and invites believers to partner with Him through faith-filled prayer.

You’ll discover how to:

• Seek God daily and grow in hearing His voice
• Pray boldly according to Scripture
• Trust God for miracles large and small
• Walk by faith instead of by sight
• Speak God’s promises over your life
• Align your prayers with God’s will
• Step into your God-given authority

This episode is encouragement for anyone longing to deepen their relationship with God, overcome fear or doubt, and confidently follow the dreams He places in their heart.

Key Scriptures Discussed

• Matthew 6:9–13 / Luke 11:2–4 — Jesus teaches us how to pray
• Luke 1:37 — Nothing is impossible with God
• 2 Corinthians 5:7 — Walk by faith, not by sight
• Mark 11:23–24 — Speaking to the mountain in faith
• James 3 — The power of words and faithful speech
• Proverbs 18:21 — Life and death are in the power of the tongue

Special offer!

Prayer changes everything — especially when you’re seeking God for answers to anxiety, depression, relationships, finances, health, or life decisions. 100 Prayers Releasing 100 Cares shares real stories of answered prayer, biblical wisdom for hearing God’s voice, and practical faith tools rooted in Scripture to help you walk in freedom and bold trust in God. "100 Prayers Releasing 100 Cares" Click to order your copy today and begin praying with confidence!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

That BW bug was driving past our house. It couldn't have been a more direct hit. I mean, you heard the bumps going over the dog, and I was horrified. The door had just been opened at the front door, and I hit my knees and started just calling out to God. Do you love God but feel guilty instead of enjoying his presence? I understand. I know how unsatisfying time with God can be if we feel he's distant and busy. I'm Lenora, mom, Jesus lover, and international trainer. If you want to be persuaded that God is good, pray with more confidence and increase the impact with your own life. We'll get some coffee and let's talk. Hey, if you're carrying stress and want support with prayer, I wrote a book to help you. It's called 100 Prayers, Releasing 100 Cares. It's full of real stories, scripture, and 100 prayers for about every part of life. A link for the book is in the show notes. I really think you'll love it. Some have said it is the best prayer book they've ever had. It was either the fourth or fifth grade, and our family was returning from some kind of trip. We pulled into the driveway, everybody got out, and we're just, you know, getting all your stuff out of the car, getting to the front door and unlocking the door, just ready to go in the house. And we had a dog with us. It's a small dog who had what my one friend calls the zoomies, where, you know, the dog's been in the car and it is now just running circles in the front in the front yard and wasn't listening very well. And as I remember being at the front door with my parents and my brother and sister, and the same time the dog runs out into the street, a VW bug, and if you don't know what kind of car that is, I feel sorry for you. But anyway, that VW bug was driving past our house. It couldn't have been a more direct hit. I mean, you heard the bumps going over the dog, and I was horrified. The door had just been opened at the front door, and I hit my knees and started just calling out to God, God, please, please, please. And I was praying for our dog, praying for our dog, praying dog, just direct focus on God. Because in my gut, I thought, oh, it's somebody just killed the dog. But I'm pretty sure it was a miracle because the dog ended up being fine. The people had stopped, got out of their car, just apologizing all over the place, even though it wasn't their fault. But the dog ended up being completely fine. And I am certain it was a miracle. It was the answer to prayer. So I don't know who you are, but this episode is about pray for whatever miracle you think you need. I don't care what your age is, I don't care what it is, pray big. Now, maybe that was a simple miracle, but I've seen God answer so many prayers in my life. And I've sometimes had to be very patient. But the more I get to know the word of God, the more I realize how big God is, how big He wants us to pray, which reminds me of a story about Pastor Cho. It was Dr. Paul Younggi Cho. He had what used to be the largest church in the world in Seoul, South Korea. And he spoke at the church I went to a couple times in Seattle, Washington. And I'll always remember one of the stories where he had in his heart to pray for 10 million Japanese people to be saved, to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior, to accept him for who he is and live for him. And I thought that was amazing. But what surprised me is he told the story of how many people attacked him for that vision with comments like, Who do you think you are? to pray for 10 million people. But it wasn't about who the pastor thought he was. It was about God putting a vision in his heart because God has a heart for the Japanese people. He has a heart for all people. But if you know much about the history of Japan and Korea at the time, especially after World War II, and I'm not that old, this was in the shoot, probably the 1980s. But anyway, there wasn't a ton of love between the Korean people and the Japanese people. But this pastor was just following what God had a passion for. He was already reaching many people in Korea, and it was a heart for the people in Japan. But I'll never forget the insights and impact of that story of being attacked for having a big vision, being insulted because you have a big dream, that you're certain came from God's desire, God's heart. But maybe you're afraid to speak it out because it's bigger than what you would have made up. I had that in my life. Now you don't want to be like Joseph in the Bible that brags about the dreams and visions God gives you if you have received that. But you do want to draw near to God and gain confidence in what he's leading you to do, what you feel he's directing you towards. And if you grew up in church, you should know that of course what God speaks should line up with his word, with the principles of the Bible. But don't let someone talk you out of something God wants to do on the earth. Now, I don't know what the end result was of Dr. Cho's vision and how many people actually got saved. He's since gone on to heaven, but he made a profound impact on this earth because he knew God speaks in visions and dreams. He knows God used visions and dreams in your imagination to align up with what God wants to accomplish on this earth to help people, to rescue people, and for people to know him. But from his story, it impacted me to realize God is looking, like scripture says, God is looking across the earth, saying, Whose heart can I put my dreams into? Who will believe that I'm a big God and I can do great things? He wants to use you. You're not listening by accident. If you feel God's given you a big dream, grab a hold of it. Ask him to confirm things about it. Dig into his word to find out the promises you can grasp a hold of and fight the fight of faith with. Let me help you with a couple thoughts. Matthew chapter 6, verses 9 through 13, or Luke 11, 2 through 4 is about the Lord's Prayer. So let me remind you when it says, Our Father who's in heaven, God who made the universe, is your heavenly Father. Hallowed be his name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We can pray for anything on earth to be impacted for the kingdom of God, for people to know God to be rescued. So even in that verse, you can see God thinks big for us to pray big. Luke 137 talks about nothing is impossible with God. Nothing. Second Corinthians 5.7 says walk by faith, not by sight. What does that mean? Walk by the conviction, the trust, the insights God's given you, the prompting, the the leading of the Spirit of God, not by just what you can see with your eyes. Maybe you have a big vision for your business or your health, but you're seeing something very different right now. Well, sometimes you have to close your eyes and let God inspire your imagination so that you can begin to pray and speak big. James chapter three talks about how powerful your mouth is, your words. So does a lot of the verses in Proverbs. Life and death is in the power of the tongue. And James chapter three talks about, well, the way I say it is set your rudder, set the rudder on your ship and speak life. Speak boldly over the things that you desire to come to pass in your life. And I am making assumptions since you're listening to this podcast that you're already submitting your life to God. You've submitted your life to God. You're saying, God, I want what you want on this earth. Now he'll use your talents, your gifts. But FYI, he thinks bigger than you. He's got a bigger imagination than you. So ask him to inspire your vision, inspire your imagination to help you see what he has promised coming to pass. Ask him to help you see it as if it's already done, so that you can pray boldly as if it's already done. God calls us more than conquerors. He's already won the battle. He's already paid the full price for our salvation. Our job is to get in agreement with him, and we fight from a place of victory, from a battle that's already been won. Now, some of you, if you don't know a lot of Bible verses, some people think this is getting into something that's like the new age. No, the world just steals from what God's truth already is. Remember in Genesis when the enemy came and said, Did God say? and he began to twist the words of God? That's all other religions can do is twist the reality of God. So don't be afraid of being bold in your faith or using your words to help direct your path. Read your Bible. Mark 11, 23 and 24. Read James chapter 3, read through the Proverbs. Your words matter because God is the word. God is a God who spoke creation into being. So we need to line up and speak according to what He promises us or what He's leading us to do. Again, always, of course, getting counsel from other people that are people of faith. Or in some cases, you can get great counsel from people just that are really smart in business. And you can certainly gain wisdom and health principles, but for the miraculous, go to the Word of God. Go to people who believe what God says he will watch over and perform. Mark 11, 23 and 24 are a couple verses that come right after Jesus had been walking with the disciples and they walked past a fig tree. And you can read the story, but um Jesus ends up speaking to a tree, spoke to the tree and said, I curse you, you'll never produce fruit again from this day forward. His disciples didn't say anything according to the Bible story, but they must have thought, well, that was interesting. Anyway, they go on, have some other things happen. The next day they're walking past that tree, and that tree is shriveled from the roots up. And they're like, Whoa! And tell Jesus, Look, the tree you cursed is shriveled up from its roots. And Jesus uses it to say, I tell you, if you say unto this mountain, be removed and cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in your heart, but believe what you say will come to pass, you will have what you say. Read it for yourself if you don't know that truth. Now sometimes we doubt in our head, but the head and heart isn't exactly the same. You can have some doubtful thoughts, but pay attention to what the conviction of your heart is, saying, No, I do believe God for this. I do believe God's a healer. I've read in the Bible, I've seen, I've read about his miracles, I do believe he will heal. In fact, he already has paid the price at the cross. So begin to speak life over your body, speak life over the health of your children. And if it's about your business, you can use the word prophesy, but I mean, hey, speak to your business, prophesy, blessing on your business, because God says, read the scripture, that he's given us favor. If you're walking with God, he says, I will prosper whatever you set your hands to, I will cause it to prosper. So I'm just encouraging you today. I believe you listened in because you need your faith encouraged, just like I do. God thinks bigger than you. If you have a big dream and you know you want your life to honor God, well then it's probably God's dream. And you're gonna need to close your eyes sometimes, spend time with God, and speak to that dream. Take action towards the vision. But remember, God thinks bigger than us, and he loves to bless his kids. So that was quick. I hope it encouraged you today. And like my young friend asked me to pray on episodes, I'm doing that right now. Father, you are big. You're so good, you're so much bigger and better than people know. God, open our eyes to how good you are, to how big you are, and help us to be bold enough to speak out what you've called us to do, to seek you for the wisdom to do it, and bring partners into our lives that will be a part of what you've called us to do. And Father, use us to show the world how good you are and thank you for being so big and so good. I believe there's people that fully agree with this prayer. God bless them. You've got their hand, you've got their back, and I just declare protection and boldness over them, that they would sense your love, your conviction, and that you are a God who watches over his word to perform it. Amen. Well, God bless you and pray big and praise him. Praise him right now, like it's already done. Hey, friend, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If so, would you please share it and leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts? That really helps me reach others. The link to 100 Prayers releasing 100 Cares is in the show notes, and thanks for listening. I'm back next Monday. Until then, be kind to you. Because then it's a whole lot easier to be kind to anybody else.