Prayer Is Powerful

By Arron Chambers

Prayer is powerful.

I was reminded of that truth just a few weeks ago. I stayed late after Wednesday night Bible study for our bimonthly leadership meeting at church. By the time I got home, it was after 11:00 pm, and Rhonda and the kids were already asleep.

At 6:08 the next morning, my 4-year-old son, Levi, crawled into bed with us. He likes to get up early, stand quietly at our bedside, and stare at us until we wake up and ask the all-important question, “Are you ready for a bowl of cereal?” But this morning he was content to let us lie in bed for a little while longer so he could lie there, too.

I was lying there chatting in soft whispers to my son when I said, “Levi, how “bout you and I go fishing?”

“Now?” he replied joyfully. He bounded out of bed as he yelled, “Sure, I”ll get my clothes on.” As Levi and I quietly prepared to go, my wife””who”s not a morning person, so she doesn”t typically speak in the mornings until at least 10:00″”started to say something. She spoke! It was an E.F. Hutton moment.

In a soft whisper she said, “Arron, last night as Levi was going to bed, he prayed that you would take him fishing when you woke up this morning.”

Our God is amazing. With all of the stuff he has to deal with in the world, he still has time to make sure a 4-year-old boy gets to go fishing with his dad. Isn”t that cool?

Prayer is powerful.

According to the Wordsmyth Educational Dictionary, “Prayer is the act of appealing to and invoking the power of God or some spiritual being.” Even this secular dictionary acknowledges that prayer is powerful (“invoking the power of God”).

Proven

The power of prayer recently has been debated, even outside of theological circles, because of some major studies. On August 13, 2001, the ABC news show Downtown aired a story about the power of prayer entitled “Can Prayer Heal?” In this segment, they reported that the National Institute of Health conducted a study and found that prayer is powerful.

In the study, Dr. Elizabeth Targ, a psychiatrist at the Pacific College of Medicine in San Francisco, tested prayer on critically ill AIDS patients. All 20 patients in the study received the same medical treatment, but only half of them were prayed for. Ultimately, all 10 of the prayed-for patients lived, while four who had not been prayed for died. In a larger follow-up study, Targ found that the people who received prayer had one-sixth the hospitalizations, and those hospitalizations were significantly shorter than the people who had not received prayer.

“I was sort of shocked,” said Targ. “In a way it”s like witnessing a miracle. There was no way to understand this from my experience and from my basic understanding of science.”¹

Jesus didn”t need a study; he already knew that prayer was powerful.

In John 17, which recounts the last night of his life, we are told an amazing thing. Jesus was talking to himself. Jesus is God””in the flesh””yet he”s praying to God””not in the flesh. Now, if I talk to myself it”s a little odd, but when Jesus talks to himself, it”s inspirational. Jesus set such an amazing example for us by praying throughout his ministry. He prayed because prayer is powerful.

In his last moments of painless independence, Jesus prayed. He knew what was coming and could have run from it, but he kneeled instead. The almighty Creator of the universe prayed for himself, for his disciples, and for us. Why? Because prayer is powerful.

Do you believe in the power of prayer?

Protection

Jesus prayed, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you” (John 17:1). Under the Old Testament system on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would not do anything until he first purified himself. He needed to be right with God before helping others to become right with God. Jesus was as much man as he was God, and he didn”t want his manhood to obscure his God-hood. Jesus wanted everyone who would watch him suffer and die to see God through it all.

In his prayer for his disciples he said, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one” (John 17:15). He loved these guys and didn”t want them to be devoured by Satan. He knew what was going to happen to him, and he also knew what was going to happen to them. They had a job and it must be accomplished. Jesus didn”t want them removed from the world, just Satan removed from theirs. God has the power to put hedges around us that will protect us from Satan (see Job 1:10). This was his prayer for his friends.

Unity

In his prayer for us he said, “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you” (John 17:20, 21).

As I look through the churches listed in the yellow pages, I notice that there are about 20 pages. In my wife”s hometown of about 15,000 people in the mountains of upper East Tennessee there are more than 30 independent Christian churches alone.

Churches compete with each other over territory, money, members, facilities, and softball. American Baptist, Lutheran, Free Methodist, Presbyterian Church in America, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Church of God, Church of Christ, Pentecostal, Catholic, Episcopalian, Anglican, United Methodist, Wesleyan, Seventh Day Adventist, Free-Will Baptist, African Methodist Episcopal Church, International Church of Christ, Church of the Nazarene, Free Presbyterian, Southern Baptist Convention, Greek Orthodox, Christian & Missionary Alliance, Independent Christian Church. . . .

Had enough? I suspect God has.

Our unity is much more important than the warm feeling we get when standing together in a circle holding hands and singing “Kumbaya.” Our unity is powerful. Christ shares two powerful results of our unity when he prayed, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:23). Christ wanted us to be unified so that people would believe that Jesus was sent by God and believe that God loves them. That means that our disunity communicates that Jesus was not sent by God and that God does not love them. We must join Christ in praying for unity so that both Jesus and God”s love will be easily recognized.

Prayer is powerful. Prayer makes us powerful. I”ve heard, “A prayer-less church is a powerless church.” Well, I also believe that a prayer-less Christian is a powerless Christian. Jesus prayed because he needed the power of God to glorify him, protect his disciples, and unite us.

Blessing

I”ve seen the power of prayer many times in my life, but one time stands out.

My dad made his kids” 16th birthdays something special. My two older sisters and I were each officially recognized as adults by my dad on our 16th birthdays. The blessing I received on that day from my dad still sustains me today.

Dad died 21 days before my younger brother”s 16th birthday. There are four kids in my family, and of us Adam had the strongest will. During the summer before Dad died, he and Adam butted heads again and again. Adam wanted to be a man, but was still making childish decisions. Dad was patiently and lovingly shaping and redirecting Adam”s will into a blessing rather than a curse. Dad knew he needed to redirect Adam”s will, without breaking it.

In the days after Dad”s death, Adam repeatedly said to my mom, “Dad won”t ever see me as a man. His last memories will always be of me causing him trouble.” Mom prayed.

As Adam”s 16th birthday approached, he became more and more withdrawn and angry. Adam was going to have to live his entire life without “the blessing” of his father. Maybe you know how hard that is. Mom prayed that God would do something to resolve this issue in Adam”s life.

My dad was a preacher and a Bible college professor when he died. The day before his funeral, Mom called the college campus and asked one of Dad”s colleagues to look in his office files for an insurance document. Twila Sias, a teacher and family friend, searched in vain. Frustrated and grieving, she sat down in the quiet of my dad”s office. In the midst of the hundreds of books in my dad”s huge library, she noticed one book in particular””a book Dad had recently recommended.

Intrigued and grateful for the distraction, she glanced through the book titled Missing from Action: Vanishing Manhood in America.² She read the inside jacket cover and then noticed that the book carried an inscription in Dad”s handwriting””a gift of words prepared weeks in advance. She instantly recognized the significance of this book, drove the 23 miles to our family home, and handed the treasure to my mom.

Mom wrapped the book. Several days later on his 16th birthday, Adam opened the gift and read the message written by his father:

To Adam, on your 16th birthday, I like the man I see when I look at you. Love, Dad

Mom”s prayer was answered, and my brother”s question was answered for all time.

Our God is amazing. With all of the stuff he has to deal with in the world, he still took time to make sure a 16-year-old boy received “the blessing” from his father. And he has time for you. Do you have time for him?

One night when my daughter was 7, she suggested a new prayer schedule to me and my wife: “I pray, you pray, and then Daddy prays . . . until we die.” It sounds like a good plan.

Friends, let”s follow that plan for all the years of our lives here on earth: I pray and you pray . . . until we die.

__________

¹This quote comes from an online report on the story dated 13 August 2001 on the Web site www.abcnews.go.com.

²Weldon M. Hardenbrook, Missing from Action: Vanishing Manhood in America (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Co., 1987).

Arron Chambers, a contributing editor with CHRISTIAN STANDARD, ministers with Southside Christian Church in Orlando, Florida, where he has served since 1998. This article is adapted from Running On Empty: Life Lessons to Refuel Your Faith (Life Journey, 2005), by Arron Chambers. Cook Communications Ministries distributes the paperback book; cost is $12.99. For more information, go to www.arronchambers.com.