(Audio Book) Prayer Is Effective

Prayer is effective. In 1858 Charles Lamphere in New York was asked by some men to take over a little hall to keep it open, and he said he would. He had little cards printed and he went out himself to give them to the churches, announcing they were going to have a little prayer meeting in the middle of the day. So he waited there in that little hall. Not many people came that first day, but they said, let's have it next week. So they had it the next week and there were many more and many more, and suddenly it bred prayer meetings all over New York and suddenly it leapt to other cities and all across America. This great prayer movement continued, and at the height of that movement 50,000 people were coming to Christ every week. The people prayed, and God was able to move and work in a wonderful way. In Korea there were 3 million Christians 25 years ago. There are 12 million Christians today. A Korean pastor came to Edinburgh, and I showed him around the Faith Mission College, and he was impressed. He said, when you come to Korea, you come to see my church. So when I went to Korea I phoned him and he took me to his church. This church was absolutely magnificent. There was a hall with around 3,000 seats, and below that was a hall seating 1,500, and beneath that were conference rooms, a great massive structure in the middle of Seoul with five layers of parking underneath it. Next to it was a five-story building of education and Sunday school, a huge structure. On the other side was a five-story accommodation block. We went in and all down the hall on both sides were doors close to each other. The pastor said, these are prayer rooms. You can go in there singly or two or three or five go in and pray. On the first level was the western accommodations, the next level, the eastern Korean accommodations, and on the top again, prayer rooms. Prayer is in the very architecture of the building. Can you wonder that the church has exploded? Jesus prayed with strong crying and tears. Ordinarily Jesus gave very little evidence of strong emotion, but when he prayed, we read he prayed with strong crying and tears. Moses said, O, this people have sinned a great sin. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin, and if not, blot me. I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written, Exodus 32, 31, 32. Paul said the same sort of thing, for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, Romans 9 to 3. We were in a convention in Northern Ireland. We prayed in the morning and prayed in the afternoon and preached at night for a week. I will ever remember those prayer meetings. God came down and met us and broke us in the place of prayer. That's the secret of the evening conquests. There were moments of tremendous power. Martin Lloyd-Jones tells the story of a sea captain at the small church he pastored in Wales before he went to Westminster Chapel in London. At their normal weekly evening prayer meeting, this godly, retired sea captain was present. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, We sang a hymn, and then I asked him to open in prayer. He began to pray, but he was struggling. He couldn't get words. He was having difficulty getting through. On he went, and he couldn't get through. Ten minutes went by, and suddenly he broke into the presence of God. Suddenly the words began to flow. Lloyd-Jones said, We sat there, O, the presence of God. We were bathing in the wonderful presence of God as God came down into that meeting. He prayed on and on and on, and then eventually he said, Amen. Then for the first time I looked at my watch, 25 to 1. That's a remarkable and unique occurrence and experience. But you see, Dr. Lloyd-Jones was totally with him. What made Dr. Lloyd-Jones' ministry was that he was a man of prayer as well as a great preacher. Prayer is so absolutely essential, and it is exclusive and effective.