Prayer is depicted as a powerful spiritual force that accomplishes divine purposes beyond human ability, offering protection, healing, and transformation (James 5:16). Christian preaching often uses vivid images like armor, music, and divine names to illustrate prayer's authority and its role in changing hearts and circumstances (Ephesians 6:18).
Prayer for safety and success undergirded the prosperity of the Cunard steamship line.
People ascribe the success of the Cunard line of steamers to business skill, and know not the fact that when that line of steamers first started, Mrs. Cunard, the wife of the proprietor, passed the whole of each day when a steamer sailed, in prayer to God for its safety and the success of the line.
A child’s simple prayer led to the conversion and transformation of a godless couple.
Speaking at the Tabernacle, at Mr. Spurgeon's Jubilee, in 1884, the Earl of Shaftesbury related the following anecdote of Mr. Spurgeon's usefulness to a depraved couple: "I and my wife," said the man, "were the most godless, wicked, and wretched couple on the face of the earth. We cared neither for God nor man. We never went to church or chapel. One evening we were passing by the Tabernacle, and my wife said to me, 'Let us go in.' I said, 'I have no objection to hear the nonsense talked.'" They went in. Mr. Spurgeon was in his best vein. He dwelt upon the most solemn and serious things. When the man and his wife went home, the man said, "Sukey, did you hear what the preacher said?" "Yes, I did," she said. "He told us we should go to hell if we did not pray." "Do you ever pray, Sukey?" "No," said she. "Nor I," said the man, "and I do not know how to do it." "Oh," said the wife, "by-the-by, there is our little Mary upstairs; she goes to Sunday-school; she will know how to pray." Up they went. They woke the little child, and said to her, "Mary, you must pray for father and mother." And the little girl did pray for them, and what do you think was the declaration of the man? "Why, sir," said he, "from that hour I was a changed man, and now I go to places of worship with all my heart and soul." There are, no doubt, hundreds of such cases, perhaps thousands, recorded in the chronicles above, which have never been recorded on earth, and which have never been made known to Mr. Spurgeon or any of his friends. But Jesus wears the crown of them.
Faithful prayer can transform lives and spark widespread spiritual revival.
James Henry Potts, D.D., in his book, “The Upward Leading,” relates this incident:
An obscure Highland boy, whose parents had taught him to revere God, became a marine on board a British man-of-war. When a battle raged and the deck was swept by a tremendous broadside from the enemy, the captain, James Haldane, a profane man, ordered another company on deck to take the place of the dead. At sight of the mangled remains of their comrades, the marines became panic-stricken and ungovernable. The captain raved at them, condemning them all to the tortures of hell.
Up stept the Highlander, and touching his hat, says, “Captain, I believe God hears prayer; if He hears yours, what will become of us?” When the battle was over, Captain Haldane reflected on the words of the brave marine, became interested in the claims of religion, surrendered his heart to God, became a preacher of the gospel and pastor of a church in Edinburgh.
Through his instrumentality his brother, Robert Haldane, was brought to reflection, became a decided Christian, settled in Geneva, stirred up Protestantism there, and became the means of leading a large number of theological students in the light, among the number being J. H. Merle D’Aubigne, author of the immortal “History of the Reformation,” and the father of the Rev. Dr. D’Aubigne, whose visit to the United States served to create new interest in the evangelical religion of France.
Dr. Potts might have added that out of that Bible class of Haldane, at Geneva came every conspicuous evangelical leader of France in the latter part of the century.
Prayer to the unseen Christ brings powerful spiritual intervention like wireless signals calling for help.
The materialist says: “Scientific history seeks the discovery of facts.” The Christian answers: “It is not so; scientific history seeks first the discovery of the forces which shape facts.” And the first wireless telegraphers conveying a message that saves the world were the apostles of Jesus Christ. After His ascension into the unseen from that wireless station named the upper room there went out the call C Q. (“This is the signal that something important has happened and that all other stations and vessels in the wireless zone must instantly stop sending and give attention. The next flash came C Q D. The added D meant danger, and the three letters together are a cry for help, a general ambulance call of the sea.”) And it was in response to the disciples’ call upon the invisible Christ there came rolling across the spiritual seas the ships of Pentecost. Those same wondrous vessels, thank God, are still pushing out from port in the unseen, not only to rescue, but to greaten and eternalize the life of every storm-lasht pilgrim! Truly, with a fresh and vivid power wireless ships publish the reality of the unseen. (Text.)
— F. F. SHANNON
The most convincing study on prayer and healing was published in 1988 by cardiologist Dr. Randolph Byrd. A computer assigned 393 patients at the coronary-care unit of San Francisco General Hospital either to a group that was prayed for by prayer groups or to a group that was not remembered in prayer. No one knew which group the patients were in. The prayer groups were simply given the patients’ first names, along with brief descriptions of their medical problems. They were asked to pray each day until the patient was discharged from the hospital – but were given no instructions on how to do it or what to say.
When the study was completed ten months later, the prayed-for patients benefited in several significant areas:
• They were five times LESS likely than the unremembered group to require antibiotics.
• They were 2 times less likely to suffer congestive heart failure.
• They were less likely to suffer cardiac arrest.
If the medical technique being studied had been a new drug or surgical procedure instead of prayer, it would probably have been heralded as a breakthrough. Even hard-boiled skeptics like Dr. William Nolen, who had written a book questioning the validity of faith healing, acknowledged, “If this is a valid study, we doctors ought to be writing on our order sheets, ‘Pray three times a day.’ If it works, it works.” (below not used) But prayer seems to be a blind spot for most scientists. Conclusions by Dossey:
• Prayer can take many forms.
• Love increases the power of prayer.
• Prayers never sleep.
• Prayer is healthful.
• Prayer can be open-ended.
• Prayer means you are not alone.
A patient of Dossey’s was dying. The day before his death, Dossey sat at his bedside with the man’s wife and children. The man knew he had little time left, and he chose his words carefully, speaking in a hoarse whisper. Although he was not a religious person, he revealed to them that recently he had begun to pray.
“What do you pray FOR?” asked Dossey.
“It isn’t ‘for’ anything,” he said thoughtfully. “It simply reminds me that I am not alone.”
Prayer is like that. It is a reminder of our unbounded nature, of the part of us that is infinite in space and time. It is the universe’s affirmation that we are not alone.
[see also #761]
[A skeptical critique of the most famous medical trial on healing and prayer.]
The following article originally appeared in the Spring 1990 issue of Free Inquiry.
GOD IN THE CCU?
A Critique of the San Francisco Hospital Study on Intercessory Prayer and Healing
By Gary P. Posner, M.D.
The day of publication of the July 1988 issue of the Southern Medical Journal must have been [a very busy news day]. Apparently none of the major media in the world could manage to find room to include this little item: a scientific study, published that day in that journal, indicates that God exists, and that he had interceded in the recovery of a group of coronary care unit patients! Both Paul Harvey and Charles Osgood publicized this study in their radio commentaries in early 1989, so despite the delay, word of this startling development has by now reached the heartland of America.
In his article entitled "Positive Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer in a Coronary Care Unit Population," Randolph C. Byrd, M.D., a San Francisco cardiologist, endeavored to answer these questions: (1) Does intercessory prayer (IP) to the Judeo-Christian God have any effect on a CCU patient's medical condition and recovery? (2) How are these effects manifested, if present?
The study took place between August 1982 and May 1983, when 393 patients signed informed consent papers upon admission to the San Francisco General Hospital CCU, and were entered into a prospective, double-blind, randomized study. (The remaining fifty-seven patients admitted during this period cited various reasons for refusing to participate.) A computer-generated list randomly assigned patients to either the IP or the control group, and neither they, nor the CCU doctors and staff, nor Randolph Byrd were aware of which patients were assigned to which group.
Intercessors chosen to pray for the IP-group patients were "'born again' Christians (according to the Gospel of John 3:3) with an active Christian life as manifested by daily devotional prayer and active Christian fellowship with a local church." Each IP patient "was assigned to three to seven intercessors.... The [IP] was done outside of the hospital daily until the patient was discharged ... each intercessor was asked to pray daily for a rapid recovery and for prevention of complications and death."
The IP group consisted of 192 patients, and the control group of 201. Analyses revealed no significant statistical differences between the health of the two groups upon admission. "Thus it was concluded that the two groups were statistically inseparable and that results from the analysis of the effects of [IP] would be valid." The mean age of the IP patients was two years younger than that of the control patients, a difference deemed statistically insignificant.
Each patient's hospital course was given a severity score of "good," "intermediate," or "bad," based upon the degree of morbidity experienced by the patient. In addition, twenty-six categories of "New Problems, Diagnoses, and Therapeutic Events After Entry" were measured, and tested for statistical significance between the groups. These included such things as congestive heart failure, diuretics, hypotension, intubation/ventilation, pneumonia, and so on.
The results of the study, as reported by Byrd, employing "multivariant [sic] analysis of the data using [these twenty-six] variables ... revealed a significant difference (P less than .0001) between the two groups based on events that occurred after entry into the study. Fewer patients in the prayer group required ventilatory support, antibiotics, or diuretics."(1) In addition, using the "good/intermediate/bad" severity score, "A bad hospital course was observed in 14% of the prayer group vs. 22% of the controls... chi-square analysis of these data gave a P value of less than .01" (that is, a less than 1 percent probability that chance alone could account for the difference).
In his introductory abstract, which was also reproduced in the "Domestic Abstracts" section of the Journal of the American Medical Association on January 20, 1989, Byrd concludes that the "data suggest that [IP] ... has a beneficial therapeutic effect in patients admitted to a CCU." In the final paragraph of his article, Byrd says, "Based on these data there seemed to be an effect [from IP], and that effect was presumed to be beneficial" (emphasis added).
But what are those of lesser faith -- or of other faiths -- to make of this miraculous claim for the efficacy of prayer? Has the Judeo-Christian God been shown to exist, and to intervene in the hospital course of patients?
The most striking flaw in this study's methodology is one forthrightly acknowledged by Byrd. "It was assumed that some of the patients in both groups would be prayed for by people not associated with the study; this was not controlled for.... Therefore, 'pure' groups were not attained in this study." In other words, the focus of the study - prayer - was "not controlled for," except that three to seven intercessors were assigned to pray daily for each patient in the IP group, and none was assigned to the controls. Thus, although unlikely, it is nevertheless theoretically possible that the control group received as many prayers as did the IP group, if not more.
If "intercessory prayer" was not controlled, except that each IP patient was assumed to have received somewhere between X+3 and X+7 prayers daily, as opposed to X+0 for the control patients, what are we to conclude? That God is conditioned in a Pavlovian manner to automatically respond to the side with the greater number of troops, even though the assigned intercessors had no emotional ties to their patients, and even though the IP patients were otherwise no more worthy of healing as a group than were the controls? Does God not know that the side with fewer troops is in just as much need of assistance? Where is the evidence of his omniscience and compassion?
And what can be said about the evidence for God's omnipotence? It is true, assuming that Byrd's data are valid, that in the IP group, 5 percent fewer patients needed diuretics, 7 percent fewer needed antibiotics, 6 percent fewer needed respiratory intubation and/or ventilation, 6 percent fewer developed congestive heart failure, 5 percent fewer developed pneumonia, and 5 percent fewer suffered cardiopulmonary arrest. But no significant differences were found among the other twenty categories, including mortality, despite explicit prayers "for prevention of ... death." And, reports Byrd, "Even though for [the six seemingly significant] variables the P values were less than .05, they could not be considered statistically significant because of the large number of variables examined. I used two methods to overcome this statistical limitation ... [the] severity score, and multivariant [sic] analysis."
But was this lack of significance truly "overcome"? One must note the interrelationships among these six categories: for instance, the development of congestive heart failure automatically leads to the need for diuretics; the development of pneumonia automatically requires the use of antibiotics; and the development of either would likely increase the risk of developing the other, of requiring intubation or ventilation, and of suffering cardiopulmonary arrest. Thus, the development of any single complication may automatically lead to a cascade of other complications and therapeutic interventions that cannot be considered independent events, rendering the significance of Byrd's data highly doubtful.
In addition to the twenty-six categories previously described, three further variables were tracked during the study and tested for significance: "Days in CCU after entry," "Days in hospital after entry," and "Number of discharge medications." No significant differences between the prayer and control groups were found, despite explicit prayers for "a rapid recovery." Are we thus to conclude from all of the data derived in this study that although God may reflexively respond to the will of the majority, his manifestations are so marginal as to approach insignificance?
Consider a hypothetical study (containing similarly flawed methodology) allegedly demonstrating the beneficial effects of reading periodicals on the course of CCU patients: Patients in the test group are given anywhere from three to seven periodicals daily by people associated with the study; patients in the control group are given none. (OK so far.) Patients in both groups are allowed to have family and friends bring them periodicals, in a manner "not controlled for." Differences of several percent in six interrelated categories are noted (comparable to the "significance" of Byrd's data), with no significance found in twenty-three other variables measured. I cannot imagine such an article surviving the rigorous screening process of any authoritative medical journal.
The religious nature of Byrd's hypothesis may have been the attraction for the Southern Medical Journal, which is published in Birmingham, Alabama, in the heart of the Bible Belt. I assumed that the five-year gap between his study's conclusion (1983), and its publication indicates that a number of other journals had been approached prior to SMJ, but had failed to appreciate the historic nature of Byrd's alleged findings. Byrd graciously responded to my inquiry on this point, informing me that he had received two prior rejections, which he called "the academic average."
Perhaps the other two journals subscribe to the generally accepted axiom of science that extraordinary claims (particularly miraculous ones) require proportionately extraordinary proof. This is not to say that studies purporting to demonstrate evidence of supernatural events ought not be published, as long as a journal's minimum standards of acceptability are met. Nature has published several such studies, but has historically accompanied them with statements expressing editorial reservations.(2) In contrast, Byrd's SMJ article was accompanied by a "Commentary" entitled "Religion in Healing," whose author says, "The paper by Dr. Byrd answers a question that has long been asked: Does prayer make a difference? His data say that it does."(3)
Three previous scientific/medical studies on the efficacy of prayer were briefly reviewed in Byrd's paper. We are informed that Galton's 1872 article, one of the first on record, on "the effects of prayer in the clergy, found no salutory effects."(4) In Joyce and Welldon's 1965 study of rheumatics, the prayer group fared better in the first half, "but in the second half the control group did better" (emphasis added).(5) And in 1969, Collipp's findings regarding prayer and leukemia "did not reach significance."(6)
Byrd obviously believes that his study has succeeded where others have failed. But are the data obtained in his study -- in which prayer was admittedly "not controlled for" -- sufficient to suggest the existence of the omnicient, omnipotent Judeo-Christian God, and the efficacy of intercessory prayer on CCU patients? Or is it much more likely that what we have here is akin to the findings of the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP), in which scientists blinded by faith concluded, erroneously, that the shroud was authentic? In his report, Byrd notes that "How God acted in this situation is unknown." But I suspect it was with smoke and mirrors.
NOTES:
1. The correct term is "multivariate."
2. See, for instance, Targ and Puthoff's paper on "remote viewing," 251:602-7, 1974, and Benveniste et al. on "high dilution," 333:816-818, 1988.
3. The author of the commentary also cited several books and articles that have reported positive effects of faith and personal prayer (as distinguished from intercessory prayer) upon conditions that clearly have large psychosomatic components. Also appearing in the same issue was a study of the beneficial effects of faith in dealing with stress of traumatic injury.
4. Galton, F. "Statistical inquiries into the efficacy of prayer," Fortnightly Review, 12:125-135, 1872.
5. Joyce, C.R.B., and R.M.C. Welldon "The efficacy of prayer: A double-blind clinical trial," Journal of Chronic Disease, 18:367-377, 1965.
6. Collipp, P.J. "The efficacy of prayer: A triple blind study," Medical Times, 97:201-204, 1969.
Health Care Reality Check copywrite 1995, 1996, 1997 GCAHF, Inc.
[According to Snopes.com, Ron Lantz, who is also the men's ministry director at the Central Church of the Nazarene in Fort Wright, Kentucky, did indeed attend a prayer meeting and helped to capture the snipers, though others were also involved:]
Always looking for inspiring stories to demonstrate the power of prayer, The Presidential Prayer Team shares this amazing story in the news today.
50 Christian truckers got together to pray to pray that somehow the sniper terrorizing the Washington, DC area would be caught. Ron Lantz would be retiring as a driver in a few days and didn't even live in the area, but he felt sure that God would answer their prayers. In fact, he told the others there that God was going to use him to catch the sniper.
A few days later he was listening to the radio as he was driving again through the region and felt compelled to pull off the highway to a rest stop. It was just a couple of miles from where the prayer meeting had taken place. As he pulled in, he was shocked to see a car similar to what was being described on the radio right there before his eyes.
Carefully trying to read the license plate, a chill went up his back as the numbers matched. He quickly called 911 and remained there for what he said were the longest 15 minutes of his life until the police arrived. He even pulled his truck across the exit, there would now be no escape for these elusive murderers. The rest is now history -- the snipers were taken into custody without incident.
Ron's testimony is being beamed around the world today. It shows the power of prayer. And in a class act, showing his true character, when asked what he would do with the award money, he said the half million dollars would simply be given to the victims' families.
The snipers killed 10 and wounded 3 around our nation's capital over the past three weeks, leaving the entire region in a state of terror. Yet out of the great darkness has also come a great beam of light as the world has heard a clear testimony of the power of prayer.
*
Soon after Jewel Hansel and Shirley Cox started a community prayer meeting four years ago, they saw a visible demonstration of what God was about to do in their town.
One night as they returned home from a dinner out with their husbands, they saw two preachers –- one Baptist, the other Pentecostal –- warning people of the need to repent.
After stopping their car, they saw two teenage boys who were carrying a large cross through the main park in the town of 2,600 in south-central Kentucky. Talking to their mother, they learned the boys were from Ohio. God had awakened them one night and told them to carry the cross around the nation while preaching the Gospel, their mother said.
“We haven't heard any more about them, but we felt God was telling us what He was getting ready to do,” Hansel said.
She and Cox learned to watch for God at work in an “Experiencing God” course at First Baptist Church of Mount Vernon.
Right after the course concluded, several members began meeting at a gazebo in the park each Thursday morning to pray about the drug problems wracking their town.
But as they continued, Hansel said God led them to expand their prayers to their state, nation and world. They asked God to reveal Himself so that everyone would recognize His power.
Interest in prayer spread; eventually, the group moved to a community center. Then a second group formed in the evenings to allow more people to participate.
Although each only averages 10 to 20 participants, Hansel said missionaries have visited from Guatemala, Israel, Honduras and other places to learn more about what God is doing there.
Northside is pastored by Chad Burdette, a reformed drug addict. Since he took over as pastor in 2001, the church has grown from about 30 people to 400.
In addition, about 10 former drug addicts who accepted Christ as Savior under Burdette's pastorate now attend the community prayer meetings, Hansel said.
While methamphetamine labs, heroin and other drugs are still in the community, Hansel said the situation is much better than it was four years ago.
Hansel is so convinced that God will do even more that she took early retirement to devote more time to Bible study, prayer, counseling and public speaking.
“My personal passion has always been for prayer, for almost 29 years, so prayer is not new to me,” Hansel said.
“But I've seen more the past four and a half years of how God is working through united prayer than I've ever seen before. I've experienced a new realm of what God can do when the body of Christ unites in prayer.”
Cox, a Mission Service Corps volunteer specializing in photojournalism, also has experienced times of powerful leading in prayer.
Two years ago, after meeting an MSC volunteer who started a ministry to needy mothers, Cox felt prompted to call and ask if she needed more diapers.
As Cox drove to deliver them the next day, she sensed God telling her the trip wasn't about diapers, but about writing Bessie McPeek's story.
Stopping to buy pens and paper, Cox interviewed her. The resulting story will be featured on the cover of the October issue of Missions Mosaic, published by the Woman's Missionary Union.
“When I prayed in that group for God to touch the state, nation and world, I had no idea He was going to use me,” Cox said. “Prayer is my life, my breath, and it's increased my faith tremendously.”
Cox, who attends Northside Baptist Church, said the growth of the church -– which recently moved to a building more than twice the size of its old sanctuary –- is one of the most amazing stories in Mount Vernon.
Another she named is Christ's Outreach for the Blind, a 900-acre camp three miles south of town scheduled to open next summer.
Located on land formerly used to grow marijuana, Cox said founder Mike Gates (himself blind) has had his life threatened since he reclaimed the property for God's purposes.
The hearts of volunteers helping develop the camp have been touched, Cox said, with nine people accepting Christ as Savior this year.
Other MSC volunteers in Kentucky also recount stories of answered prayer, such as Frank Plewinski, a member of Crestwood Baptist Church in Crestwood.
Plewinski took early retirement last year to devote more time to the Dodii Foundation. Named for his wife's mother, it supplies Scripture-based greeting cards, hand-crafted dolls and other items to cancer victims.
A resident of LaGrange, Kentucky, Plewinski felt God calling him to devote more time to the ministry three years ago. But as the manager of a manufacturing plant, he said he didn't have the time or energy after working long hours.
He and his wife, Cindy, began praying about his retirement. They also prayed periodically with Larry Martin, leader of the Kentucky Baptist Convention's missions growth team.
Two years ago the plant offered early retirements, but Plewinski wasn't old enough. Last year the company made him an offer, even though he was two months shy of his 55th birthday.
After accepting the offer as of June 30, the company asked him to work one week a month for the rest of the year. That gave him extra income and made a smoother transition away from his longtime occupation.
In addition, he saw how his experience in learning about plant finances and managing employees helped prepare him for his role as the foundation's chairman.
“I tell people, 'If you want something done, go to the [Kentucky] Baptist Convention and have them pray for you,” Plewinski said. “Churches are missing out on opportunities in the Baptist family.”
Linda and Larry Otterback of Woodland Baptist Church in Middletown also have seen God move in many ways since starting monthly mission trips to eastern Kentucky.
After helping distribute goods at a ministry center for two years, in 2002 they formed Eastern Kentucky Sonrise to sponsor spiritual retreats for men and women. Linda said at a session last October, all but two of the 135 women attending answered an altar call to commit their lives to Christ.
Her husband has been so touched by what he has seen that he has closed his business to apply for work as a chaplain.
“We've heard story after story about people who went home and no longer live in bondage,” Linda Otterback said. “So many have come to the Lord, I didn't keep track. I couldn't.”
Their latest answer to prayer involves a retreat tentatively planned for late October at Fort Campbell. A large Army base, it spans parts of western Kentucky and Tennessee.
For five months they tried unsuccessfully to arrange a meeting with the base chaplains. After numerous prayers, Larry Otterback reached the head chaplain in early July and discovered he was receptive.
“My husband and my lives have changed so much,” Linda Otterback said of the difference prayer has made.
“We were Christians and churchgoers all our lives, but we didn't follow the Lord. We are so on fire for God that's all we care about. We pray about everything.”
*
Can God move a mountain? Jesus insisted that he can, and many stories attest to this being literally fulfilled. Unfortunately, many of those stories sound invented. After I posted one such story [see the bottom] on my “Questionable Illustrations” I received an email from a pastor in Pennsylvania who had read a similar story that contained some fascinating details. They were especially fascinating to me, because the church in question was only one mile from my home!
His version originated in a book by Leslie B. Flynn: “19 Gifts of the Spirit” on page 140. The name of the church is not given in the book, but it is “Grace [Baptist] - The Church On the Mount.” The church was built in 1973 on top of Kingtown Mountain near Netcong, New Jersey. I received a booklet from the church titled, “1943-1973: From Maple Avenue to the Mount.” On page 29 is a chapter called “Faith to Move Our Mountain.” It reads in part:
The finishing of the area around the church was completely up to the local people. There began to be some serious thinking about the parking lot. Not that there had not been some thinking already done, but we had been told by the Roxbury Planning Board that they would not grant permanent occupancy until there was sufficient parking in the rear. It did not have to be black-topped, gravel would do....
It became evident that even with all the fill needed in front of the church, we had a problem of far too much dirt. In fact IT WAS A MOUNTAIN WHERE A SECOND AND THIRD PARKING LOT SHOULD BE [emphasis is theirs]. The cost of removing this mountain would be prohibitive for the church. But wait, had not the Lord promised that a mountain would be moved by faith? The next Sunday morning Pastor Crawford reminded the congregation of Christ’s promise, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place," and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matt. 17:20). Then he added, “If you believe that, come on Wednesday night to pray with me that God will move this mountain in back of our church.”
The next morning the phone rang. It was the telephone company. They were planning to erect a new building just east of us and they needed fill for a large swampy area. Could we sell them some dirt? Well of course! And Pastor Crawford was sure our dirt would have the right proportions of clay, sand and rock for the fill they needed. In about a month the phone company had hauled away 40,000 square yards of our dirt, for which they paid the church $25,400, and also leveled the ground for the required three parking lots and prepared them for paving. The Lord makes good on His promises and He knows where to find the answer we need.
Two photos accompany the chapter. One shows a two-story white house with a pile of dirt on two sides. The dirt seems to go up to the top of the first story. The second picture shows the house sitting about ten feet above a parking area. “Mountain” is certainly a stretch but 40,000 square yards is a fair amount of dirt. Pastor Crawford died several years ago; in the fifteen years I have been in the area, the Church on the Mount has grown from 200 to more than a thousand in attendance.
Rev. David Holwick
November 12, 2004
=================
My “Questionable Illustration” as it originally appeared on the website:
I found this illustration at Dwayne Savaya's website, Gods Work Ministry. It is a vivid depiction of Jesus' words in Matthew 17:20. I have heard variations before and some of the details hint "urban legend" - like Acme Construction, which is as generic as you can get. Can anyone in the Great Smokey region give more details about location, year, etc? The story:
A small congregation in the foothills of the Great Smokies built a new sanctuary on a piece of land willed to them by a church member. Ten days before the new church was to open, the local building inspector informed the pastor that the parking lot was inadequate for the size of the building. Until the church doubled the size of the parking lot, they would not be able to use the new sanctuary. Unfortunately, the church with its undersized lot had used every inch of their land except for the mountain against which it had been built. In order to build more parking spaces, they would have to move the mountain out of the back yard.
Undaunted, the pastor announced the next Sunday morning that he would meet that evening with all members who had “mountain moving faith.” They would hold a prayer session asking God to remove the mountain from the back yard and to somehow provide enough money to have it paved and painted before the scheduled opening dedication service the following week.
At the appointed time, 24 of the congregation's 300 members assembled for prayer. They prayed for nearly three hours. At ten o'clock the pastor said the final “Amen”. “We'll open next Sunday as scheduled,” he assured everyone. “God has never let us down before, and I believe He will be faithful this time too.”
The next morning as he was working in his study there came a loud knock at his door. When he called “come in”, a rough looking construction foreman appeared, removing his hard hat as he entered. “Excuse me, Reverend. I'm from Acme Construction Company over in the next county. We're building a huge shopping mall. We need some fill dirt. Would you be willing to sell us a chunk of that mountain behind the church? We'll pay you for the dirt we remove and pave all the exposed area free of charge, if we can have it right away. We can't do anything else until we get the dirt in and allow it to settle properly.”
The little church was dedicated the next Sunday as originally planned and there were far more members with “mountain moving faith” on opening Sunday than there had been the previous week!
Would you have shown up for that prayer meeting? Some people say faith comes from miracles. But others know: MIRACLES COME FROM FAITH!
________
Source - http://www.godswork.org/encouragement14.htm
=========================
On April 4, 2008, I received an email with a further update on this story:
Pastor Holwick, I was scanning different stories and ran across
your stories that are hard to believe. The one about the church
is similar to a story of the Temple Baptist church in Mt. Airy,
North Carolina. That may be where the Smoky Mountain reference
came from. I know one of their deacons and a man in the church
prayed daily for the rock mountain behind their church to be
moved, etc. A local Wal-Mart came and bought their mountain a
few years ago. Pastor Rodney Kelley, Jacksonville, Florida
Sermon in James series, #18. James 5:13-16
CAN GOD HEAL?
=============
I. A miracle among us?
II. Salvation is more than going to heaven.
A. It involves the whole person, including our physical bodies.
B. Divine healing still grabs our attention.
III. The controversy of miraculous healing.
A. Some say there is no such thing as miracles.
B. Some Christians say miracles ceased after the first century.
C. Most Christians believe the Bible teaches God can still heal.
IV. What James says about healing.
A. The sick person should take the initiative.
B. Anointing oil has a variety of interpretations.
C. Faith is critical.
D. Physical health is intertwined with spiritual health.
V. We have a taste of God's promises, not the totality.
A. If Christians were not to be sick, we would not die.
B. Examples from the Bible itself.
VI. Don't underestimate the power of prayer.
A. Even secular authorities are taking notice.
B. Some examples are so powerful they cannot be ignored.
[An adaptation of my sermon on August 28, 1994]
Booth’s reverent reading of the Lord’s Prayer moved listeners deeply with its solemnity.
A friend tells us an anecdote of Booth, the tragedian:
Booth and several friends had been invited to dine with an old gentleman in Baltimore, of distinguished kindness, urbanity, and piety. The host, altho disapproving of theaters and theater-going, had heard so much of Booth’s remarkable powers that curiosity to see the man had, in this instance, overcome all scruples and prejudices. After the entertainment was over, lamps lighted, and the company reseated in the drawing-room, some one requested Booth as a particular favor, and one which all present would doubtless appreciate, to read aloud the Lord’s Prayer. Booth exprest his willingness to do this, and all eyes were turned expectantly upon him. Booth rose slowly and reverently from his chair. It was wonderful to watch the play of emotions that convulsed his countenance. He became deathly pale, and his eyes, turned tremblingly upward, were wet with tears. And yet he had not spoken. The silence could be felt. It became absolutely painful, till at last the spell was broken as if by an electric shock, as his rich-toned voice, from white lips syllabled forth, “Our Father who art in heaven,” etc., with a pathos and solemnity that thrilled all hearers. He finished. The silence continued. Not a voice was heard or a muscle moved in his rapt audience, till from a remote corner of the room a subdued sob was heard, and the old gentleman, their host, stept forward, with streaming eyes and tottering frame, and seized Booth by the hand. “Sir,” said he, in broken accents, “you have afforded me a pleasure for which my whole future life will feel grateful. I am an old man, and every day from my boyhood to the present time I thought I had repeated the Lord’s prayer; but I have never heard it--never.” “You are right,” replied Booth; “to read that prayer as it should be read has caused me the severest study and labor for thirty years; and I am far from being satisfied with my rendering of that wonderful production.”--_The Millenarian._
God answers prayer by working through the human body and natural forces.
In the shadow, unseen, keeping watch above his own, is the genius of the inventor. The earth gives iron, the sheep give their wool, the soil gives the dyes, the steel gives the shuttles, the spinner gives his fingers, but Arkwright and Jenner explain the warm cloth against the snow and chill of winter. Nature is a loom, the days and the nights are shuttles, the sunbeams tint the texture, forests and mines, herds and flocks furnish the threads, and the cloth of purple and gold is brilliant with towns and cities--but God is the weaver of the web. And if man with higher laws can set aside lower ones, if man with an X-ray can make the body transparent, think you that the great God by His influence upon man’s intellect and imagination can not start influences spiritual that will soon manifest themselves through man’s body upon forces that are physical? If man were spirit, and spirit alone, prayer could not be answered in a physical realm, because there would be no point of connection between a spiritual being and a physical universe. But man’s body is the medium of communication, and the God of spirit moving upon the spirit of man acts through the body of inventor, scientist, surgeon, sower, reaper, nurse, teacher, statesman, and plays upon these delicate strings called the forces of nature and so answers prayer.
— N. D. HILLIS
A wife's earnest prayers led her husband to repent and join the church.
In the first parish where I labored lived a man who was not only agnostic in his attitude toward things religious, but even derided them, and was wont to chaff his wife on her devotion to her Church. The wife, however, went on her quiet but earnest way, living out her religion in the home. One morning very early the husband awoke and discovered his wife beside his bed absorbed in whispered prayer. Her pale, upturned face was fixt with intensity upon the Invisible, and her warm hand was resting upon his own, she supposing him to be asleep. As the husband’s eyes opened on the unexpected scene, the suggestion came like a flash to his soul, “My wife’s God is more real to her than her husband is. If she is so earnest for my welfare as to rise at such an hour and pray alone for me, it is time I had some care for my own soul”; and he instantly arose from his bed, knelt beside her and added his own prayer to hers. He gave his heart to God on the spot, and that very morning came to the early meeting at the church and announced his change of heart; the next Sabbath he united with the Church.--H. C. MABIE, “Methods in Evangelism.”
A man's sincere prayer life reveals the genuineness of his character despite controversy.
George W. Coleman, in his book “Searchlights,” says:
One of my ministerial friends, who has resigned his pulpit because of his out-and-out socialistic views, naturally stirred up a good deal of angry opposition in some quarters, altho he has one of the sweetest characters I have ever known. Hateful and contemptuous things were said. There was much damning with faint praise, especially among former friends.
A level-headed friend of mine, a woman of sixty years or thereabouts, heard something of the commotion, and, to satisfy her curiosity, dropt into the church one Sunday to hear for herself what the minister really had to say for his peculiar and unpopular views. When I met her soon afterward, her only comment was, “Well, I have only to say that a man who can pray like that can’t go very far wrong, whether its socialism or anything else.”
Praying for others, even the deceased, benefits the one who prays spiritually.
Mr. Keppel in his book “Christmas in Art,” tells this story:
I remember a touching little incident which occurred in New York. My dear old mother, who was a Methodist, had died, and our kindly Irish cook prayed twice daily for the repose of the old woman’s soul. A Catholic friend of the cook’s told her that it was wrong to pray for a deceased heretic, and the cook carried the question to her father-confessor. The good priest’s decision was in this wise: “My daughter, I can not tell you whether such prayers can do good to the soul of a deceased heretic--but your prayers will certainly do good to your own soul.”
Prayer and Scripture reading prevented a young man’s suicide, leading to his conversion.
See NEGATIVE TEACHING.
SUICIDE PREVENTED
Some time since a young man who had spent his substance in riotous living was reduced to poverty. He wandered away from home, and being unable to support himself, he resolved upon self-destruction. He filled his pockets with lead, and, determined to drown himself, went to the river. Deciding to wait until dark, he was attracted by a light in the window of a house at no great distance, and went to it. The people were singing hymns. He listened at the door until a chapter from the Bible was read and prayer was offered to God. When the prayer was ended he knocked at the door and was admitted. The passage under consideration that evening was, “Do thyself no harm.” When the services were concluded the stranger asked them how they came to know his thoughts, for he had not mentioned his intention. The members of the meeting were equally surprized, as they had never before seen him. The young man then told them his design of taking his life and how he had been prevented. He became an eminent Christian. (Text.)
Prayer empowers the preacher and moves hearts to receive the sermon.
Samuel was born in answer to prayer and a walking witness to power of prayer. Prayer puts the preacher's sermon into his heart and into the hearts of the people
Effective preaching depends on prayer and the Holy Spirit's power, not just human talent.
In a Romish book by Father Faber of the Oratory, we find the following:—"Do you remember the story of that religious, a Jesuit I think, who was a famous preacher, and whose sermons converted men by scores? It was revealed to him that not one of the conversions was owing to his talents or eloquence, but all to the prayers of an illiterate lay-brother who sat on the pulpit steps praying all the time for the success of the sermon. There is another story, a very strange one. I will not vouch for its being true, but I will quote it for the sake of the wise teaching it contains. A certain religious, a very popular preacher, was expected one day in a convent of his order, where he was a stranger. In the afternoon he arrived, or rather an evil spirit who personated him, arrived, to see what mischief he could do. It so happened that there was to be a sermon on hell preached that day by one of the monks, but he was ill and unable to preach. So they asked this devil to preach on hell, which he did; and, as may be supposed from his experience, a most wonderful sermon it was. However, on the arrival of the real preacher, the evil one was discovered, and was obliged to disclose himself, and his malicious designs. Among other things he was asked how it was not against his interests to preach such a frightening sermon about hell, as it would keep people from sin. 'Not at all,' he replied, 'there was no unction with it, so it could do no harm!'"
A convict’s singing brought conviction and repentance among hardened prisoners in court.
* * * * *
Thirty men, red-eyed and disheveled, lined up before a judge of the San Francisco police court, says The _Youth’s Companion_. It was the regular morning company of “drunks and disorderlies.” Some were old and hardened, others hung their heads in shame. Just as the momentary disorder attending the bringing in of the prisoners quieted down, a strange thing happened. A strong, clear voice from below began singing:
“Last night I lay a-sleeping, There came a dream so fair.”
Last night! It had been for them all a nightmare or a drunken stupor. The song was such a contrast to the horrible fact that no one could fail of the sudden shock at the thought the song suggested.
“I stood in old Jerusalem, Beside the temple there.”
The song went on. The judge had paused. He made a quiet inquiry. A former member of a famous opera company, known all over the country, was awaiting trial for forgery. It was he who was singing in his cell.
Meantime the song went on, and every man in the line showed emotion. One or two dropt on their knees. One boy at the end of the line, after a desperate effort at self-control, leaned against the wall, buried his face in his folded arms, and sobbed, “O mother, mother.”
The sobs cut the very heart of the men who heard, and the song, still welling its way through the court-room, blended in the hush. At length one man protested:
“Judge,” said he, “have we got to submit to this? We’re here to take our punishment, but this--” He, too, began to sob.
It was impossible to proceed with the business of the court, yet the judge gave no order to stop the song. The police sergeant, after a surprized effort to keep the men in line, stept back and waited with the rest. The song moved on to its climax:
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Sing for the night is o’er! Hosanna in the highest! hosanna for ever-more!”
In an ecstasy of melody the last words rang out, and then there was a silence.
The judge looked into the faces of the men before him. There was not one who was not touched by the song; not one in whom some better impulse was not stirred. He did not call the cases singly--a kind word of advice, and he dismissed them all. No man was fined or sentenced to the workhouse that morning. The song had done more good than punishment could have accomplished.
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