Originally published in Charisma News.
Brian Alarid remembers the desperation he felt four years ago. His 12-year-old daughter had to be rushed to the hospital because of severe stomach pain. Doctors didn’t know what was wrong. But something was definitely wrong.
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Alarid tells the story of how he and his wife spent six frightening weeks trying to find out what was wrong with their daughter, Chloe. The problems seemed to only get worse. What started as stomach pain eventually put Chloe in a wheelchair and, eventually, she couldn’t move the left side of her body. Not too long after, her eyes became swollen shut and then, to her parents’ horror, came amnesia.
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But what the devil meant for evil, God turned around for good. Out of that scary situation, God led Brian to found a prayer movement that’s beginning to spread across the United States.
It started the day Brian was in the hospital with Chloe. He cried out to God: “God, take care of my baby girl!” Brian says God told him, “If you start 24/7 prayer, I’ll take care of your girl”.
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“God said to start 24/7 prayer for every city, every state, every nation,” he says. “I wrestled, I surrendered and two days later, Chloe got out of the wheelchair and walked for the first time in six weeks. She walked out of the hospital on May 15 – with some nerve pain, stomach issues and migraines– but she walked out of the hospital and her memory came back. And so I just knew, ‘OK, God kept His end of the bargain, now I have to keep my end’. So that’s where this whole movement came from”.
Brian called the movement New Mexico Prays. And just as God began a healing work in Chloe, He also began a healing work in Brian’s home state of New Mexico.
“In 2017, God breathed on it”, he says. “We saw a dramatic turnaround in our economy. Crime even went down. So there were real, tangible, documented results to prayer. And the chief of police, the mayor, lieutenant governor – they were all part of that transformation story”.
That same year, Brian launched America Prays. Dick Eastman of Every Home for Christ got involved and the movement spread to 10 nations, leading them to launch World Prays.
Brian decided to write about the incredible lessons he has learned along the way of this amazing faith-filled journey. The result is his book, When People Pray: What Happens When Ordinary People Pray to an Extraordinary God.
Dick Eastman calls When People Pray “One of the most significant books on prayer [he’s] read in [his] lifetime”. And the incredible thing is that Brian is now offering this book free during the COVID-19 crisis.
In the book, he shares not only his own story of watching God answer big prayers, but he also shares stories from other men and women of faith you may recognise in American culture. One of them is David Green, founder of Hobby Lobby. Before the idea of a Christ-centred retail chain ever entered his mind, his mother was praying that God would cause all her children to be involved in ministry. David never felt called to be a pastor, but God still answered his mother’s prayers in miraculous ways.
“[The book contains] real-life stories of what happens when people pray”, Brian says. “It’s also a template and a model of what God can do in a city, in a state, in a nation, when people unite together in prayer”.
To get the e-book free you can go to whenpeoplepray.com and download it.
Click here to listen to Stephen Strang’s full interview with Brian Alarid. He shares so many more miracles God did in answer to his simple prayers and those of other men and women of faith like you.
