Fervent Prayer
“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man (or woman) avails much.”
And then if we go to Acts 2:2:
“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.”
The power of prayer!
You know I have studied revival, it is my subject - it is what I love. We are believing for the greatest revival that the world has ever seen but you know, not one revival has ever begun without prayer. They asked the great evangelist, Dr Billy Graham the secret of his incredible ministry. He said one word: Prayer.
When I am invited to a crusade or a campaign overseas, the first thing I ask is, “How is the intercessory prayer going?” If the answer is: "Well, no, not yet - we are organizing the stadium, the platform, sound system, advertising, traffic and control...", then I graciously decline the invite.
When men work, they work. But when men pray, God works.
I want to say to you today, we need to start praying more and moaning less - That’s right! I remember it like yesterday, the 30th September 2012, I was at the lowest point on earth at the Dead Sea, 400 meters below sea level. I was the speaker at the Feast of Tabernacles which was being hosted by the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, the MC was a very good friend of mine, Dr Juergen Buehler. He has got a doctorate in Physics. It was 8 pm, there were 5,000 delegates from every country in the world - there was something like 18 interpreters. It was 40 degrees, can you believe it, at that time of night!
The best musicians in the world - violinists, singers and dancers from Israel - it was amazing. As they called me up onto the stage you can imagine,I was extremely nervous and I said to Jurgen: “Jurgen I am under your covering - I will do nothing tonight without your permission.” And he said something to me, he said, “We have been praying and fasting that God will bring a wind of change.” Well, straight after that I started to read from the Book of Acts, Chapter 2 and I am going to show you a photo of the very old Bible which I was reading that night. You will see drops of rain on that Bible, because when I was finished I said, “Lord, please do it again.” And a wind came from, well we don’t know from which direction. My assistant, Clive, was there and the Bible was blown off the platform - I am talking about a Bible that weighs about a kilo.
The sound system was blown all over the place and then it started raining - It never rains in that place, it is dry... It is like the moon, there is no grass there. God visited us that night because of the effective, fervent prayer of righteous men and women. I didn’t have to make an altar call. They just ran to the front! Some were kneeling, some were lying down, some were crying, some were laughing. The Holy Spirit visited us.
Go out today and pray and God will answer your prayers.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.