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Examples of God's Power Evident in Prayer

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The following is part 7 from a blog series based on R.A. Torrey’s classicThe Power of Prayer. R.A. Torrey (1856-1928) was an American evangelist, professor, pastor, and author. He is one of the three editors of The Fundamentals, an early 20th century defense of orthodox Protestant beliefs. Find more from R.A. Torrey at the BLB.

Ye have not, because ye ask not (James 4:2 KJV).

When Mr. Alexander and I were holding meetings in Sydney, Australia, the meetings were held in the Town Hall, which seated about five thousand people. But the crowds were so great that some days we had to divide the crowds and have women only in the afternoon and men only at night. One Sunday afternoon the Sydney Town Hall was packed with women. When I gave the invitation for all who would accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, surrender to Him as their Lord and Master, begin to confess Him as such before the world, and strive to live from this time on to please Him in every way from day to day, over on my left a whole row of eighteen young women of, I should say, about twenty years of age, arose to their feet. As I saw them stand side by side, I said to myself, “That is someone’s Bible class.” Afterwards they came forward with the other women who came to make a public confession of their acceptance of Jesus Christ. When the meeting was over, a young lady came to me, her face wreathed in smiles, and she said, “That is my Bible class. I have been praying for their conversion, and every one of them has accepted Jesus Christ today.

When we were holding meetings in Bristol, England, a prominent manufacturer in Exeter had a Bible class of twenty-two men. He invited all of them to go to Bristol with him and hear me preach. Twenty-one of them consented to go. At that meeting twenty of them accepted Christ. That man was praying for the conversion of the members of his class and was willing to make the sacrifices necessary to get his prayers answered. Revival would quickly come here in this city if every Sunday school teacher would go to praying the way they ought for the conversion of every scholar in his or her class!

Are you in more public work, a preacher perhaps, or speaking from the public platform? Do you long for power in that work? Ask for it.

Oh, men and women, if we would spend more nights before God on our faces in prayer there would be more days of power when we faced our congregations!

Previous posts in this series:

Comments

  1. If the Lord heard the prayers of my sister’s Bible Study group praying for me, 800 miles away from where I was living, and I became a Follower of Christ, then the Lord is definitely hearing our prayers for those we are praying for, too. Don’t give up.

    Without the prayers of my sister, I certainly would not be sitting here writing this.

    • Praise be to our Father and His Son for answering your sisters prayers Debi!

      God Bless you and strengthen your faith Sister!

      Your Brother,
      Andybob

      PS…. Father I thank you that you hear us when we pray and I ask that you help Debi’s Sister to keep praying for souls and for the churches! In Jesus’ name AMEN!

      …

      • Andybob,
        thank you! That is so nice!
        I was just praising the Lord this morning, and thanking Him for His grace and mercy, and for saving me from the pit of Hell.

        Now I am working on forging ahead. I have to keep reminding myself what the Apostle Paul said, “…forgetting what is behind and ….(something like moving forward)….to win the race”.

        And prayer is the link to me and God. I KNOW He hears me.
        Thank you again, Andybob.

  2. My story is similar to Debi’s. My family, for the most part, was Mormon on my mother’s side and Jewish on my dad’s. Needless to say, there weren’t too many prayers going up for anyone’s salvation. When I was in high school, my mom told me that my Jewish grandmother had become a Christian although neither my mom nor I had any idea of what that really meant. I do know, however, that it was her prayers that eventually led to my salvation although it didn’t happen for another 26 years. God is faithful, so we also need to be faithful to pray, and as Debi said, “Don’t give up.”

    • Barbara, don’t you just get the shivers when you think about that? We were saved because someone prayed for us?

      Sometimes, when I am driving and stopped at a stoplight, I will pray for those people around me. What if no one was praying for them that day?

      I think it is fun to pray for people, and then watch how God works in their circumstances. And they don’t even know I prayed for them.

      • Debi~

        It is going to be quite amazing when we are in heaven and we find out just how many people, especially strangers, are there because of our prayers and how many people, especially strangers, were instrumental in our coming to the Lord!

        Have a blessed day!
        Barbara

  3. Wow, am so encouraged to keep praying for those in my family not yet saved! And those God brings into my path too.

  4. I Timothy 2:4 says that God’s will is for all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. So, if you are praying for the salvation of loved ones, you are praying God’s will for them. God definitely hears and does what He can, apart from forcing someone to believe, so that they may receive eternal life. Keep praying!

  5. Brothers and Sisters,

    Last week our church’s music ministry leader sent me a video link of children praying.

    My soul and spirit were greatly effected as I listened to their prayers. I prayed along with these young lovers of God and had hot tears of love for our God and His Son Jesus streaming down my cheeks as my spirit was so affected and touch by our Fathers presence!

    The title of his email was, “A New Generation of Children Praying” followed by the following message:

    “Mt 6:9 This then is how you should pray…”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tuvrWC7c1E

    I pray that it will touch your souls and spirits.

    As I have thought more about it I thought about their parents, Pastors and Sunday school teachers that are teaching them to pray, and I asked our Father, Yahweh, to help them to continue on in their faiths and in the training of these young prayer warriors.

    God bless each of you with love, patience, grace, peace and a prayer warriors heart!

    Your Servant and Brother,
    Andybob

  6. It is so beautiful to see Chirst is action ! We claim people for the Kingdom Of Heaven all the time and pray for people everywhere as the Spirit leads us to do. Recently we were led to pray for the men in our county and country to be the men God created them to be and for us to be the women God created us to be as well. It was beautiful as we prayed in one accord you could feel the power of the Spirit increase, He put the exact words in each of our mouths, one had a word of wisdom & knowledge, another a tongue, another a proclomation and we finished with the most beautiful song ! It was Christ’s Body in action, in a corporate union, in power and praise. When we finished we were all taken back by his presence and the peace we felt.

    Deb,Andybob,Barbara,Helen,& Eric I can feel Father’s Love, Unity, Grace, and Power in our responses to each other. It’s a Beautiful Symphony playing the most annointed Waltz with the parts of the BODY OF CHRIST DANCING IN COMPLETE UNION.

    Father, may your Grace and Mercy Rest upon each of my brothers and sisters.

    I speak this over all of us in prayer.

    Numbers 6:24-27
    YHWH(THE LORD)Bless you and guard you;
    YHWH make His face shine upon you and show favor to you;
    YHWH lift up His face upon you and give you SHALOM(health,security,tranquiliy,welfare,success,comfort,& peace).
    Thus they shall put My Name on the children of Isreal, and I Myself shall bless them.

    Amen in the name of Yeshua (Jesus).
    Love you, My sisters & brothers Children of YHWH

  7. P.S.
    To GOD be ALL THE GLORY FOR THIS UNITY IN OUR SAVIOR & CHRIST !
    not by my power or might but by your spirit.

    • Donna, I sensed that unity, too.
      I love this kind of conversation, when we can get together to talk about our Lord.

      I have been praying for my son, that he become the man that God wants him to be.

      Andybob, I think I saw that little video, too. It was amazing.

      God bless you all, and I encourage all of us to keep praying.

  8. Hello,
    Reading this blog does my heart good. I continue to see what God is doing in my life, small as it may seem, like finding new resources to read. And then, I am in contact with other believers like you that strengthen my faith by your words. Pretty amazing! thank you all.. To God be the Glory..