THE POWER OF PRAYER
James 5:16
Children’s letters to God:
Dear GOD, Thank you for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy. -Joyce
Dear GOD, It rained for our whole vacation and is my father mad! He said some things about you that people are not supposed to say, but I hope you will not hurt him anyway. Your friend, (But I am not going to tell you who I am).
Dear GOD, Please send me a pony. I never asked for anything before. You can look it up. -Bruce
Dear GOD, If we come back as something - please don’t let me be Mary Horton because I hate her. -Denise
Dear GOD, If you give me a genie like Aladdin, I will give you anything you want, except my money or my chess set. -Raphael
Dear GOD, We read Thomas Edison made light. But in Sunday school they said you did it. So I bet he stole your idea. -Sincerely, Donna
Dear GOD, Why is Sunday school on Sunday? I thought it was supposed to be our day of rest. -Tom
Today I would like to talk with you about the power of prayer. While the reality of the topic has overwhelmed me this week, I have also been faced with the reality that, for the great majority of believers, the power of prayer is a theoretical topic. The power of prayer is something we claim to believer but have never experienced. We nod our heads in agreement to its claims, but seldom, except in times of extreme distress, take hold of it. We preach about praying, pray about praying, talk about praying, teach about praying, read about praying….but never really pray.
I am personally captivated by the relationship of the power of prayer to preaching. Such men as:
James Duncan, preaching with great unction and power, was asked what was the secret of such powerful preaching. "The secret," he said, was "thirteen hours of consecutive prayer." When asked the secret of his spiritual power, Charles Spurgeon said: "Knee work! Knee work!" Livingston of Shotts, on two different occasions, preached with such power that in each service 500 were converted. Both sermons were preceded by a night of prayer. Charles Finney, after spending a day in the woods in prayer and fasting, preached that night in a phenomenally irreligious congregation. The sermon was accompanied by such divine power that the whole congregation, except one man, fell prostrate upon the floor, and voiced their agony under conviction of sin, in such loud outcries that the preacher was forced to stop. Christ Life Newsletter.
My heart’s desire is that we might know the truth about the power of prayer! So often we think “well, the least I can do is pray” when in reality THE MOST YOU CAN DO IS PRAY. Through your own personal encounters with prayer I want you to know its power: power to change, power to heal, power to convict, power to release, power to bring down and raise up, power to completely grant the petition and change the petitioner.
In James 5:16 we find that PRAYER HAS THE POWER TO RELEASE THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL (James 5:16)
Note: Very difficult to interpret exactly.
KJV – “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”
RSV – “The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.”
NASB – “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”
NIV- “The Prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
Wuest’s expanded translation – “The prayer of a righteous person is able to do much as it operates.”
Amplified Bible – “The earnest [heartfelt, continued] prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].”
We might understand it best as “The prayer of a righteous person has much strength to prevail when it is exercised.”
Note: effectual = in its energy, when it works, when it is exercised.”
Note: This passage emphasizes:
1. The need for fervency in praying
2. The need for righteousness in the prayer
I. PRAYERLESSNESS IS FAITHLESSNESS
A. Lack of faith binds the working of God
1. Jesus could do no miracles at Nazareth because of the unbelief of the people.
2. “And He could do no miracles there except that He laid His hands upon a few sick people and healed them. And He wondered at their unbelief.” Mark 6:5-6a
B. Lack of prayer hinders the power of faith
1. The demon-possessed boy of Matt 17:14-21 could not be exorcised by the regular methods of the disciples (usually successful)
2. Rather, Jesus said, “This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting”. (21)
Note: There are then varying degrees of spiritual power. Prayer and fasting is the means by which spiritual power is acquired.
II. PERSISTENT PRAYER BELIEVES GOD
A. The widow of Zarephath – I Kings 17
1. God’s promise was for provision for her for as long as there was no rain.
2. In the midst of the trial, the son became ill and died.
3. Elijah took the boy into an upper room
“Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and called to the Lord, and said ‘O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child’s life return to him.’ And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned to him and he revived.” I Kings 17:21-22
4. The widow’s reaction was “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord . . . is truth.” (23)
B. The promise to the disciples
Matthew 21:22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith."
1. Pentecost – Acts 2
2. Lame man at the Temple Gate – Acts 3
3. Dorcas raised from the dead – Acts 9
4. Peter delivered from prison – Acts 12
5. Paul is commissioned to the Gentiles – Acts 13
6. Paul and Silas delivered from prison – Acts 16
7. Paul performed great miracles of healing, deliverance, and exorcisms – Acts 19
III. HISTORICAL EXAMPLES OF PREVAILING PRAYER
A. WELSH REVIVAL OF 1904
1. At the age of 13, Evan Roberts felt compelled to seek a closer relationship with God. At the suggestion of a deacon, he began to attend every prayer meeting he could find, a habit he held to for 13 years.
2. In the Spring of 1904 he began to experience supernatural encounters with God that lasted most of the night. God would arouse him from sleep at one in the morning and he would pray and commune with God for four hours. These encounters occurred for almost three months.
3. On September 29, 1904 he attended a revival meeting led by Seth Joshua who ended the meeting with a prayer that included the words “Bend us, O Lord”. Evan’s later testified that the Holy Spirit whispered to him “This is what you need.”
4. Unable to shake the thought of “Bend us”, he attended the next morning’s service. During the service he became overwhelmed by the call of God and knelt among the people, tears streaming down his face, and began to cry, “BEND ME! BEND ME! BEND ME!”
5. Uneducated and young, Evan Roberts became a leading influence in the Welsh revival that began that year. He seldom preached. Often he would simply pray and lead others in prayer. He would sit in silence and listen as God moved people to testify and repent of sin. Worship lasted for hours. He was often heard to say, “Bend the church and save the world.”
6. The Welsh revival of 1904 saw 100,000 people come to Christ in just 9 months. “Outstanding debts were paid by thousands of young converts. The gambling and alcohol business lost their trade and the theaters closed down from lack of patronage. Political meetings were canceled or abandoned. The man-made denominational barriers completely collapsed as believers and pastors worshipped their majestic Lord together.”
B. INDIA REVIVAL OF 1905
1. PANDITA RAMABHAI was a social reformer who converted to Christianity in 1891. She operated a school for young widows and orphaned girls.
2. In 1898 she attended a {Keswick} Convention, at which she implored the 4,000 gathered there to pray for revival in India.
3. She began to spend much time in prayer and fasting, and in 1901 organized a special prayer meeting for the outpouring of the Spirit. 1200 people came to Christ in 2 months.
4. In 1903 she sent her daughter to Australia to ask the prayer groups forming due to the revival spreading there to also pray for India.
5. In 1904 she heard of the Welsh revival. She started prayer circles of 10 girls each. At first there were 70 participants. Within 6 months there were 550 girls who met twice a day to pray for revival.
6. On June 30, 1905 revival truly began and spread across every region. One account of the revival states: “It is the marvelous spirit of prayer that has been most evident. Waves of prayer go over the meetings like rolling thunder; hundreds praying audibly together. Sometimes after ten or twenty minutes it dies away and only a few voices are heard, then it will rise again and increase in intensity; on other occasions it goes on for hours.”
C. THE LEWIS AWAKENING 1949-53
1. In 1949, on Lewis, one of the Hebrides Islands off the coast of Scotland, two sisters became burdened with the spiritual coldness of their land. One sister was 82. The other was 84 and blind.
2. They devoted themselves to prayer and “waiting on God”. One night one of the sisters had a vision of the churches filled with young adults. {Currently there were none attending.} They took it as a sign of coming revival.
3. The sisters called the minister and explained their vision. “Give yourself to prayer; give yourself to waiting upon God. Get your elders and deacons together and spend at least two nights a week… in prayer. If you will do that…my sister and I will do [the same] from 10 o’clock at night until two or three in the morning.”
4. For three months the sisters and the church prayed. In one group meeting in a barn, a young deacon stood up and read Psalm 24:3-5 “WHO SHALL ASCEND INTOTHE HLL OF THE LORD? OR WHO SHALL STAND IN HIS HOLY PLACE? HE THAT HATH CLEAN HAND, AND A PURE HEART…” He then lifted his hands and prayed “O God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?” One account reads “something happened in the barn at that moment in that young deacon. There was a power loosed that shook the heavens…”
5. REVIVAL SWEPT THROUGH THE ISLAND. Duncan Campbell was invited to come and preach. His preaching schedule was booked well into the next year. However in a matter of days the entire schedule had cancelled. Arriving on the island, he relates, “They had arranged for me to address the church at a short meeting beginning at nine o’clock that night. It was a remarkable meeting. God sovereignly moved and there was an awareness of God which was wonderful. The meeting lasted until four o’clock in the morning, …Around midnight a group of young people left a dance and crowded into the church. there were people who couldn’t go to sleep because they were so gripped by God. …Men and women were crying out to God for mercy…there was a crowd of at least 600 people gathered in the yard outside the church…There was a bus load of people coming to the meeting…The power of God came into the bus so that some could not even enter the church when the bus arrived….When I went out of the church at four o’clock in the morning there were a great number of people praying alongside the road….”
Conclusion:
“The prayer of a righteous person has much strength to prevail when it is exercised.”
There is power in prayer! But lack of prayer is as much an act of faithlessness as is any act of disobedience. But God stands ready to stand by His promises. He desires us to ask Him, “Lord, Your kingdom come. Your will be done!”
He is looking for someone who will pray “Bend us, O Lord! Bend me!” He needs someone who will stand in the midst of the congregation and ask “O God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?”
