An Article of Faith

The Scriptures shout to us with exhortations and examples of how God hears and answers the cries of His children. James encourages and reminds us:
“The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! (See 1 Kings 17-18.) Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.” (James 5:16b-18 NLT.) If God heard and answered Elijah’s prayers He can hear and answer yours and mine.
God is reminding us to think big. He can and will accomplish things – great and mighty things – “Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” (Ephesians 3:20 NLT.)
J. Hudson Taylor left the shores of England to start a new mission work in China in 1853. Mightily influenced by his friend and colleague, George Mueller, he set out to illustrate what God could do in response to prayer. In the next 52 years the China Inland Mission was developed. When he laid down its leadership, it had 849 missionaries, 1,282 native Chinese workers, 205 stations, 632 sub-stations and 35,726 communicants, 188 schools with nearly 3,000 pupils, and 44 hospitals and dispensaries.
“The prayer power has never been tried to its full capacity,” Taylor said. “If we want to see mighty wonders of divine power and grace wrought in the place of weakness, failure, and disappointment, let us answer God’s standing challenge, ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know’.” (Jeremiah 33:3 NKJV.)
Do you believe that God could send revival to your church and city in answer to your prayers? Kitty Longstreth did.
In 1972 Kitty attended a conference where the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, Bill Bright, was speaking. He challenged the crowd to go home and pray for the people of their city. Miss Kitty, as she came to be called, took Bright literally. She tore up the phone book of Little Rock, Ark., handed it out to a small band of praying women, and they began to intercede every Monday, name by name, for the citizens of Central Arkansas.
After several years, they realized that they needed the pastors of the city to join them in prayer. But how could this be accomplished? They were just a small band of women. And so, they prayed...
One year later the mayor of the city revealed that Little Rock had the third highest murder rate in America. He called for every sector of the city to help. As a believer, he petitioned the pastors’ aid. Soon 12 pastors gathered and began to pray monthly. That group grew to 25 and then 50 men. Annual Pastors’ Prayer Summits began, fueled by monthly pastors’ prayer gatherings. Quarterly city-wide prayer gatherings started – embryonic, but strong. In the last 15 years, over 250 pastors and churches have been involved, to one degree or another, in a mutual passion to reach their city for Christ. The Barna Research Group reported that Little Rock has the highest percent of evangelicals of any major city in America (22 percent).
Miss Kitty died on March 21, 2012, at 93 years of age. The week before her death she was meeting with her prayer group crying out for her city which she had faithfully done for 43 years.
God hears your prayers ... and they matter! (Taken and adapted from OneCry: A Nationwide Call for Spiritual Awakening. Visit www.onecry.com.)
“If My people,” declares the LORD, “who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV.)

Jessie J. Charpentier Sr. is pastor of Jenkins Memorial Baptist Church in St. Martinville.