Move People Through God Aloneනියැදිය

From sixty per month to thousands

One intercessor can make a difference. We often feel intimidated when we must pray alone about a matter. Elijah's prayers played a pivotal role in shaping and influencing the future of Israel. First, he shut up the heavens so that it did not rain for three and a half years. Then, he summoned the people to Mount Carmel, where he prayed, and God answered with fire. The result was that the people fell to their knees and cried out, "The Lord – He is God! The Lord – He is God!" (1 Kings 18:39; NIV). The people turned from their idols, and then he prayed again, and it began to rain.

The Pashtun is an ethnic group comprising approximately 43 million people residing in Afghanistan and Pakistan. By the late 1990s, the gospel had made little impact on them, and many members of the Taliban came from this group. David Taylor of the US Centre for World Mission writes, "If you wonder whether prayer makes a difference in the advance of the gospel, consider this case. A Christian radio station had been broadcasting the gospel to the Pashtun for many years, receiving about sixty responses per month. After several thousand churches in Latin America were asked to pray for this group and provided with information about them, the radio station suddenly received hundreds, then thousands, of letters and calls from the Pashtun. The response was so overwhelming that the ministry had to find more staff to handle it."

A female missionary in India, after six years of work, became discouraged by the lack of fruit in her ministry and the struggles in her own spiritual life. Although she was committed, there were few conversions and minimal spiritual breakthroughs. She sensed God telling her, "Pray more," and decided to dedicate her mornings to prayer.

She recounted, "I began this in fear and trembling, worried that my co-workers would complain that I was not doing my work. After a few weeks, I began to see men and women accept Jesus as their Saviour. Furthermore, the entire area experienced a spiritual revival. Within a few months, I saw more fruit in my work than in the previous six years." Other missionaries also began to pray more and experienced similar results in their ministries.