Prayer Matters Part 3
In Australia and throughout the Western world, we have forgotten that nothing of consequence happens except in answer to prayer.
But it’s not just any prayer. Jesus said, “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark11:22-24).
He said that in the context of moving mountains. The challenge is could any of us pray and without any doubt, believe that a mountain could be moved by prayer?
That was exactly the challenge Muslim Caliph Al-Mu’iz of Egypt presented to Christians in 979CE.
On the eastern edge of Cairo squatted Mount Mokattam. It was in the way of the Caliph’s development plans. So, he challenged Christians to live out their faith and pray as Jesus said in Mark 11, that the mountain would be moved. He gave three options:
Pray to move the mountain.
Leave Egypt.
Should they fail—be killed by the sword.
Church leaders summoned the church to pray and fast. If they failed the Caliph’s challenge—genocide would be the result.
They accepted the challenge to pray and approached a pious shoemaker to pray on everyone’s behalf. He accepted on condition that no one was to know he was the one appointed to pray on behalf of the whole community. He also gave specific instructions on how to pray to be followed by everyone.
On the agreed date, a crowd of Christians gathered as did the Caliph and his troops ready to draw their swords to commence the slaughter. But the moment Simon beseeched the Lord of Heaven and Earth to intervene, a great earthquake hit the mountain lifting it off the ground so that repeatedly daylight could be seen between it and its earth base.
Terrorised the Caliph begged the Christians to stop the prayer meeting.
Today in the side of that mountain a 10,000-seat auditorium has been excavated by hand. On an appointed night each week, Christians pack that auditorium to pray for the sick. Along one side is a vast shed filled with wheelchairs and crutches, discarded by those who no longer need them.
In Exodus 17:10-13 as long as Moses kept his hands aloft in prayer, Joshua and his troops were beating the Amalekites. When he tired and lowered them the Israelites were losing. Aaron and Hur stepped up and held his arms up till complete victory was achieved.
In 2 Chronicles 20:20-30 the vastly outnumbered Jehoshaphat and his troops were about to be vanquished by the Ammonites and Moabites. He called his people to pray and fast. The enemy self-destructed in confusion killing one another.
Every Jew in the ancient empire of Persia and Media was about to be killed through a conspiracy hatched by Haman, a leading noble in the court of King Ahasuerus. Then Esther, the Jewish queen, summoned her people to pray and fast. The treachery of Haman was exposed and he went to the gallows. Genocide was averted.
Prayer linked with fasting is even more powerful because it removes two barriers which inhibit the Holy Spirit working through us. These are:
Self-will.
Self-gratifying appetites of the body (Galatians 5:19).
With prayer linked to fasting according to 2 Corinthians 10:4, the weapons of our spiritual warfare are unleashed to demolish strongholds.
In that case, there is no limit to what may be achieved.
Wayman Rogers wanted to leave his church because it had plateaued for some time at 200 people. Then the Lord told him that if he stayed and called the people to serious prayer things would change. He did and church grew from 200 to 2000 within a couple of years.
But things really broke loose when intercessors added fasting to prayer. There occurred multiple healings and deliverances from demons. The church grew to 10,000. The only problem they encountered was the traffic jams around the church and arguments over who would get to sit in the front rows.
In East Germany in 1982, 10-12 people gathered on Monday nights to pray and fast for their nation to be freed from the Communist yoke and to be reunited with West Germany. By 1989 their number had grown to 50,000. Then in 1990, 300,000 of them moved out into the streets praying and worshiping. And in Berlin the wall separating East from West Germany came tumbling down.
Throughout the West, in every country the church is dying and we are descending into deeper chaos. The solution to all of our societal problems will not be found in parliamentary legislation, increased numbers of police on the streets or costly programmes sponsored by our already heavily in debt governments.
The greatest need of our day is for God’s people to start to seriously pray, fast and believe.
With the Webb Telescope we can see billions of miles into space. But we cannot see God in our own lives. We can communicate with robots on Mars but seem to have forgotten how to communicate with the Lord of the earth. If that is so, our only hope is to humble ourselves as did the first disciples, to kneel and beg, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).
