The Work of Prayer

I wrote about prayer in my last entry. Since then I have prayed that God would show me an example of the work of prayer. I am a prayer partner of Lamplighter, a wonderful source of books and audio, and was doing some browsing at their site and ran across a letter written by Mark Hamby concerning the importance of prayer for the Lamplighter ministry. Consider the following testimony to the power of prayer:

"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." (James 5:16)

“Charles Finney was the greatest Presbyterian evangelist who ever lived. In the late 1800’s, he swept through New England, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, igniting the fires of revival. During his ministry, he made tens of thousands of converts. Lives were healed; alcoholics became sober; employers stopped abusing their employees; divided families were restored. But the secret to Finney’s “success” was an intercessor, who preceded each of Finney’s campaigns. The intercessor arrived two weeks before Finney was scheduled to preach, and he prayed and prayed day after day for the community. But in 1887, Finney’s intercessor died. Finney’s next campaign was a failure, and within a year he retired from his work as an evangelist.”

[Taken from Rick Snyder’s sermon on Prevailing Prayer; First Presbyterian Church, 8/24/03]

I wonder what affect my being in China and praying is having on the Kingdom. What is happening when I walk the back alleys, or the shopping areas, or go to the two riverside parks to pray? What is God doing in connection with my work of prayer?

How would prayer affect the school up near Tibet where I spent some time?

The work over in Tajikistan where I spent time with a Wycliffe couple

The work at the English camp on the grasslands of Northern Inner Mongolia

There are so many places I been to and done things here is Wuhan: teaching at the church, conversation at the coffee shop, time with Jiajing’s parents and their friends.

I have seen and done so much and now I sense that God wants me to understand the importance of maybe doing less and learning how to pray more effectively. For a person who was always busy at work, this is not an easy transition. From John 15, it seems that more fruit is produced by abiding more deeply in Him, not by working harder. Maybe I need to work less and pray more so that God can work more. I have asked God to reveal to me a prayer strategy.