Prayer that Changed the History of a Family

God is moving today through the prayers of His people. 

I remember a time when God broke through in wonder and changed the history of a man – and a community – by extending His hand in healing.  A modern day version of Acts 4:30!

This man had been sick for some time with an open ulcer on his leg and eventually the infection became septic.  He was dying.  As he lay in bed, unable to eat or mobilise, the doctor told his family to say their goodbyes.  In desperation, his wife turned to a Christian friend.  “You’ll come and pray?” she begged.  “Of course,” my friend responded.  “Of course.” 

The hospital was far away but the two-room home (situated below a slum-school she and her husband ran) was nearby.  It was late morning and the heat already had the day in its grip.  Snaking through the traffic, horns beeping, cycles and buses, cars and auto rickshaws, all weaving around each other, two women prayed for God to save this man’s life. 

Joined by three other local woman, none of whom were believers, the women made their way to the school.  Initial greetings made, chai offered and drunk, the sick man’s wife urgently asked again, “You’ve come to pray, right?”  

“Yes, that’s why we’ve come.  When we have prayed before, we prayed in Jesus’ name.  We will do that again today.  We are not praying in the name of the gods found on these posters on the wall,” she said, pointing around her.  “We are praying in Jesus’ name alone, and our hearts need to be joined together in that.  Will you pray in Jesus’ name alone?” she asked.

“Yes, yes,” they all agreed.  And so they prayed.  They prayed that this woman’s dying husband would be healed, that he would live, that he would meet Jesus through it. 

The prayer complete, the two visiting women got up and soon left… no immediate response, at least not that they knew of.

The next day my friend received a phone call.  Gushing with joy, the sick man’s wife told her, “After you left I went to the hospital to visit my husband.  When I arrived he was sitting up and eating plate after plate of rice and dal.  He had even gone to the bathroom by himself!  He is healed!”

Two women, praying in the name of Jesus for Him to move in wonder.  It’s happened before.  It can happen again. 

Will you be a part of changing history?

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Prayer that Changes History

The greatest untapped resource that I know of is the prayer of God’s people, says Henry Blackaby. 

Andrew Murray writes, We must begin to believe that God, in the mystery of prayer, has entrusted us with a force that can move the Heavenly world, and can bring its power down to earth.

And Oswald Chambers states, The key to the missionary problem is not the key of common sense, nor the medical key, nor the key of civilisation or education or even evangelism.  The key is prayer.

How easily we forget. 

Throughout Scripture it is evident that the character and nature of God does not change, but His actions do.  How?  Through the prayer of His people. 

Remember when Abraham bargained with God over Sodom in Genesis 18:22ff?  The men turned away…but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?  What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?“

So Abraham begged for 50 righteous men, and God changed His mind.  Then forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, and finally ten.  Though the story does not end well for Sodom, God was prepared to alter the course of history because of Abraham’s request. 

And Moses’ conversation with God in Exodus 32.  The people of Israel, in their selfishness and fear, had melted down jewelry and created an idol in the image of a golden calf.  God, burning with righteous rage, says, “I have seen these people, and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them.”

But Moses went to bat for Israel, and, in vs.14 we see that God’s intended action changed… “the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.”

The prayer of one man changed the history of a nation.

There are many similar stories in the Bible; stories of how God’s anticipated action was modified because of people who stood in the gap on behalf of others.  And the stories continue today, how lives and tribes, countries and communities are transformed because of how God moves when his people pray.  

We read that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father, interceding on our behalf.  If that’s how He’s spending His time, isn’t it worth joining Him?  Don’t you want to see history changed, whether it be the history of one person or that of a nation, because of the prayers you’ve been a part of?  I do!

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Surrender: Upside Down Living in Hard Places

I first met him several months ago, this cool guy with a shaved head.  Of all the places in the world a person can choose, he wants to go to probably the most war-torn place in the world. 

He writes, “I was thinking…if I’m going to save one person I guess I’d like to do it in a country where few Christians go… I said to God that I’d be happy to go to the Middle East.”

Not only that, he wants to go to perhaps one of the hardest regions in that country.  Writing about the decision-making process, he says, “I decided to focus on a region in … and the… region came to mind.  I always felt that I would love to go there, but thought that was more my own interest than God’s.  But as it kept coming up I realised that very, very few people want to live out in those mountains, but I really do. From this time of searching, I came out with a conviction that God was indeed calling me there specifically.”   

Some of you might be thinking, "Well, he’s special, he’s different, he’s one of ‘those’ people".  But it wasn’t an easy choice to make. 

Later, when battling with the idea of going he wrote, “I do not feel ready, I do not feel strong enough, I do not feel spiritual enough, I do not feel together enough… but I know He’s calling me.”

What drives him?  He knows that in a mountainous area of a war-torn country are a people who have not heard about Jesus.  “I feel it’s a great tragedy that they are still unreached,” he states, “and I’m passionate about changing that fact.” 

“And,” he adds, a smile on his face, “I can’t wait to fall in love with them.” 

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