The Power of Prayer
- a true story
26 Guards - Something to remember when you
hear the voice of God calling..... Have you ever felt the urge to pray for
someone and then just put it on a list and said, "I'll pray for them
later?" Or has anyone ever called you and said, "I need you to pray
for me, I have this need?" Read the following story that was sent to me and
may it change the way what you may think about prayer and also the way you pray.
You will be blessed by this.
A missionary on Furlough told this true story
while visiting his home church in
Michigan. "While serving at a small
field hospital in Africa, every two weeks I traveled by bicycle through the
jungle to a nearby city for supplies. This was a journey of two days and
required camping overnight at the halfway point.
On one of these journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to collect
money from a bank, purchase medicine and
supplies, and then begin my two-day journey back to the field hospital. Upon
arrival in the city, I observed two men fighting, one of whom had been
seriously injured. I treated him for his injuries and at the same time
talked to him about the Lord. I then traveled two days, camping overnight, and
arrived home without incident.
Two weeks later I repeated my journey. Upon arriving in the city, I was approached
by the young man I had treated. He told me that he had known I carried money
and medicines. He said, 'Some friends and I followed you into the jungle,
knowing you would camp overnight. We planned to kill you and take your
money and drugs. But just as we were about to move into your camp, we
saw that you were surrounded by 26 armed guards.
At this, I laughed and said that I was certainly all alone in that jungle
campsite.
The young man pressed the point, however,
and said, 'No, sir, I was not the only person to see the guards. My five
friends also saw them, and we all counted them. It was because of those
guards that we were afraid and left you alone.'
At this point in the sermon, one of the men
in the congregation jumped to his feet and interrupted the missionary and
asked if he could tell him the exact day this happened.
The missionary told the congregation the
date, and the man who interrupted told him this story: "On the night of
your incident in Africa, it was morning here and I was preparing to go play
golf. I was about to putt when I felt the urge to pray for you. In
fact, the urging of the Lord was so strong, I called men in this church to
meet with me here in the sanctuary to pray for you. Would all of those men who
met with me on that day stand up?" The men who had met together to pray
that day stood up. The missionary wasn't concerned with who they were,
he was too busy counting how many men he saw. There were 26.
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