On February 15, 2020, She Loves Out Loud prayer movement will be hosted by churches and small groups nationwide. It is a time for women to pray in unity for the healing of hearts, for the future of children and for America. Started by Diane Strack, She Loves Out Loud will host Christian leaders at strategic locations across the U.S. For more information, visit SheLovesOutLoud.org.

The Stream is profiling some of the women — women like you and me — who will be taking part in what is destined to be a powerful and profound day. 

“[S]ometimes God does a miracle in a minute and sometimes He takes us on a journey of miracles — a series of answered prayers,” Pastor Julie Mullins told The Stream in an interview recently. She and her husband, Todd, pastor Christ Fellowship Church in south Florida. 

A Miracle Child

After seven years of infertility and heartache, Julie and Todd were blessed with a son, whom they named Jefferson. When Jefferson was a child, doctors told Julie that he was autistic. It was a diagnosis Julie didn’t talk about much. It wasn’t because she was in denial — it was because that diagnosis “did not describe my miracle child, but it prescribed a journey that we would go on.”

Still, Julie prayed for complete and instant healing. “Because of my son’s diagnosis, it kept me on my knees for so many years. And I would pray, ‘God, would you please help Jefferson?'” She prayed specifically for Jefferson to speak in sentences and for resources for therapy that he needed. God answered her prayers. “He kept us in a situation where He was continually answering prayers for us specifically.” She now looks back at that time as a journey of miracles or series of answered prayers.

Julie knew that God was at work in the situation. “God had a plan to prosper him and not to harm him. [T]he God Who began a good work in him was going to be faithful to complete it.” Looking back, Julie says that while the diagnosis was devastating to her, it brought her closer to God. “If I’d never had that problem, I would have never known that God could intimately and specifically show up time and time again to answer prayers on my behalf and Jefferson’s behalf.” 

Julie’s family is still on that journey and she still prays for complete healing but knows his testimony is powerful. “[H]is testimony … has been really, literally, an encouragement to hundreds and hundreds of people.” One such person was a young girl who was also diagnosed with autism. “She’s 16 years old. She said, ‘When I hear Jefferson’s story it gives me hope.’ And I said, ‘It should, because, you know, God is the same.'”

The Power of Prayer

“Prayer is everything,” says Julie. “It’s an invitation for eternity to invade humanity. It’s an invitation for a supernatural God … to invade our natural circumstances. And so, I believe in the power of prayer.” 

Julie says the devil uses feelings of inadequacy to keep people from praying. “I don’t know if anyone thinks that they are great at prayer,” she explains. “The enemy will always use our feelings of inadequacy to keep us from accessing the power of prayer. And I think that is such a tool of the enemy.”

Julie’s church will host She Loves Out Loud in February. 

Julie wants to see an army of women that are equipped to pray and inspired to believe in the power of prayer and then equipped to take prayer into their everyday lives. “[T]he people of God have such an opportunity to model something so different than is being modeled in culture today.” She’s excited about women from all denominations coming together to pray. “This is really about us loving each other more than we love our … theological positions, our political positions. … I just really believe this is going to be our opportunity to shine God’s light out of the body of Christ into a culture that is so dark right now.”

Nancy Flory is an associate editor at The Stream. You can follow her @NancyFlory3, and follow The Stream @Streamdotorg.