By Hugh and Carolyn ‘Jo’ Gower
Some time ago, Hugh and I had a small Bible Study Group on Monday night’s meeting in our home. We met to pray and have a Bible Study with the intent of inviting neighbors and friends to the small group.
God did several great things during that time…one testimony from that time is about a young man that wanted to get back with his wife. As I tell this real-life story I will not use his real name because of privacy issues. Therefore, I’ll call him “Sam”.
On Monday nights, Sam began coming, he had been through a divorce. They had two children, elementary age. Sam's wife was going to the Bars and having relationships with other men. As weeks went on in our prayer and study group Sam began to tell us that he really wanted his wife back.
Hugh explained to him the Hedge of Thorns Prayer. Hugh also asked him “Are you sure you can forgive her? Because if you can’t truly forgive her when she comes back it will not work.” Sam said yes, I forgive her and want her back.
After that, each week, Sam, Hugh and I would pray this prayer around his wife. Then Sam would pray it himself throughout the week. Week after week we’d pray…she would come by our house to drop the children off to Sam or to pick them up from Sam. She looked like a dancehall girl…and was off to the Bars or wild parties after she’d leave the children with Sam.
Several prayers came out of our times of praying the “Hedge Prayer”. We prayed that God would put a hedge about her and bring her to her senses. We prayed she’d lose a desire for the Bars and other men. And that people that were having a bad influence over her would lose a desire to be with her. We prayed that she’d have the desire for her husband and to be the wife and mother God intended her to be. Every Monday night for about a year we prayed a hedge about Sam and his family.
Then one week-end when we were out of town, Hugh was preaching somewhere, Sam called Hugh and said “We’re getting married again, will you do the ceremony?”
Since we were not in town, Sam had to get someone else to do it, but the next week-end they {children too} came to our home to eat supper. It was an awesome experience…she did not even look the same. She looked peaceful; dressed as a mom and a wife would dress. She was no longer dressed like a dancehall girl.
As we sat around the table eating together I asked her…”What happened to you? How did you come back?” She said “One night I was in a Bar; on the dance floor with some guy and boom, like a ton of bricks it hit me ‘this is not what I want’… ‘I want to be with Sam and our children! So I left and went back home to see if my ex-husband would take me back!’
God gave Sam an awesome blessing and answer to prayer! Now that you know we have seen great answers to the Hedge Prayer, here is an outline of that prayer for you to develop your own personal “Hedge Prayer”. It can be adapted to fit many circumstances. So there you go…
· Marriage Repair:
Heavenly Father, I ask you, LORD, to rebuke and bind Satan in the name and through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 9)
I ask you to build a “hedge of thorns” around my husband / wife, so that anyone with wrong influence will lose interest in him / her and leave. (Hosea 2:5-7) (Job 1-3)
I base this prayer on the command of Your Word which states, “Therefore, don’t let anyone separate what God has joined together”. (Matthew 19:6)
Father God, Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. ( I John 5:15) (John 14:13-14) Amen
· Above prayer is based on the following scriptures:
(1) Job 1 - 3
(2) Mark 3:27; Jude 9
(3) John 14:13-14
(4) Hosea 2:5-7
(5) I John 5:14
(6) Matthew 19:6
(7) I John 5:15
