The power of prayer pt 1

This Sunday we announced daily prayer times from now until 6pm on November 4th. Prayer at 6am, noon and 6pm. Pastor Jeff and the leaders of the church are asking everyone to pray at one of those times a day here at the church, or if there's no possible way for you to be here then where ever you are. We're talking once a day for less than a month, EVERYONE should do this. I want to show you the importance and power of prayer with a couple of stories.

Hull

In the 1860s over a million people were added to the church. United prayer seemed to be the spark. This is what happened in Hull:

"There were united daily prayer meetings in the port city of Kingston upon Hull, supported by the established church and the dissenting denominations. Numbers of people were unable to gain an entrance to the central meetings, and so, many places of worship were opened each evening for prayer. A monthly united prayer meeting attracted more than 3000. As usual a rising tide of evangelism followed, and campaigns were still crowding halls in 1865 to excess, necessitating the hiring of the circus, at which ministers of different denominations preached. Other very successful campaigns were carried on throughout the year 1865."

Wales 1904

The Welsh Revival started in 1904. It began as a movement of prayer. A key figure was a former coal miner, Evan Roberts, who was studying at Newcastle Emlyn College. He attended a campaign held by Seth Joshua, a Presbyterian evangelist, who prayed at the meeting, ‘O God, bend us.’ Roberts had responded with ‘O God, bend me.’ Following this he kept hearing a voice that told him to go home and speak to the young people in his home church. On his return to Loughor, his home town, his reluctant pastor allowed him to speak only at the end of a prayer meeting.

Roberts told them, ‘I have a message for you from God:

You must confess any known sin to God and put right any wrong done to others.
Second, you must put away any doubtful habit.
Third, you must obey the Spirit promptly.
Finally, you must confess your faith in Christ publicly.’

The response to his message was remarkable and following a series of meetings a break occurred and the movement spread rapidly over Wales: in five months a hundred thousand people were converted throughout the country. The revival had a widespread social impact.

Edinburgh 1905
Soon after the beginning of the Welsh Revival in 1904, a man called Joseph Kemp from Edinburgh went to Wales, where he spent a couple of weeks observing and experiencing the work and power of the Holy Spirit there. On his return he attended a large meeting in Charlotte Chapel. As he recounted his experiences there was an eager response to his story. A man asked for prayer and was the first of hundreds who became Christians during the subsequent revival in Charlotte Chapel. For a whole year prayer meetings were held, increasing in number and intensity, and characterised by passionate praying.

New York 1857-1860

In September 1857, a man of prayer, Jeremiah Lanphier, started a businessmen’s prayer meeting in the upper room of the Dutch Reformed Church Consistory Building in Manhattan. In response to his advertisement, only six people out of a population of a million showed up. But the following week there were fourteen, and then twenty-three when it was decided to meet everyday for prayer. By late winter they were filling the Dutch Reformed Church, then the Methodist Church on John Street, then Trinity Episcopal Church on Broadway at Wall Street. In February and March of 1858, every church and public hall in down town New York was filled. Horace Greeley, the famous editor, sent a reporter with horse and buggy racing round the prayer meetings to see how many men were praying. In one hour he could get to only twelve meetings, but he counted 6,100 men attending.

Then a landslide of prayer began, which overflowed to the churches in the evenings. People began to be converted, ten thousand a week in New York City alone. The movement spread throughout New England, the church bells bringing people to prayer at eight in the morning, twelve noon, and six in the evening. The revival raced up the Hudson and down the Mohawk, where the Baptists, for example, had so many people to baptize that they went down to the river, cut a big hole in the ice, and baptized them in the cold water. When Baptists do that they are really on fire!

Here are four major moves of God and they all had one thing in common... prayer. Now is not the time for us to shrink back as the body of Christ. It's time for us to rise up! We are facing one of the worst financial disaster our nation has ever seen. We're also facing the most important presidential election in our lifetime, as well as, we are still engaged in a war for freedom. It's time to pray. It's time to call on God to move like He did in the above "revivals."

We cannot afford to live life like normal in this time. Everything people have put their trust in, economy, job, government, homes, 401k's, investments, are crumbling and now is the time for us to show them who to truly trust and that is Jesus Christ. He is the same yesterday, today and forever and he is well able to take care of us in any situation.

It's time to pray church! Let the church arise! It's going to take sacrifice on your part, but your sacrifice may be the very thing that brings thousands to salvation. It may be the very thing that heals our land (see 2 Chronicles 7:14). I personally am fasting lunches from now until November 4th to spend my 30 minute lunch praying. Here's some ideas of what you can do:

• Students - find a classroom and pray with other students during lunch.
  
• Families - Instead of family dinner or TV at the 6pm hour for less than a month. Bring the whole family to the church and pray. What better example could you show your children than to humble yourself and pray for others?
• Individuals - Find a time 6am, noon, 6pm to pray. If one of those times don't work, fast lunches, get up early, pray the whole way home. Don't miss out.
• Families - If you cant make it down, dedicate a room of the house until November as a prayer room. At one of those times, come together and pray.

It's time to act church! We need to make the sacrifices to pray for our nation during this time. As you implement different strategies, send a message to Pastor Jeff and let him know how you are doing your part in prayer during this season. Together we can turn the state of our nation through prayer!