Restoration 2012: Restoring Power

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Restoration Ministry

John Bradshaw

The Power of Prayer

Our Father in heaven, we thank you that we can come to you tonight in the name of Jesus.

As we do, I pray that we would have a focus tonight, that we wouldn't be distracted tonight.

Thank you for keeping any disturbances away.

The electricity hadn't gone off, we haven't had to confront anything like that.

We are thankful for safety as we've come and gone from here.

We believe that you want us to be blessed here.

So tonight we say Lord if you want us to be blessed here we are and we wish to be blessed.

Guide us please by your spirit in your word.

Speak and be heard we pray and we thank you in Jesus' name.

A man named Hudson Taylor was a missionary to China in the 19th century.

And his work for the Lord led to many, many thousands of people making decisions to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.

And Hudson Taylor was renowned as being a man of prayer.

And the boat was sailing some place and the boat became becalmed.

It means that the wind stopped blowing and the boat just stopped and started to drift.

And so the captain of the vessel let the boat just drift for a while because there was no wind at all.

But the boat started to drift uncomfortably close to an island that was known to be populated by cannibals.

And the closer the boat got to this island, the more nervous became the captain.

He was confident that there were people on that island staring longingly at the ship, just waiting for their opportunity to have the crew and the rest of the people on board over for dinner.

Taylor, came down to his room, he was below deck.

He said, sure, I'll pray, but before I pray, run the sails up.

And when you've put the sails up, then I'll pray.

I'm going to look like a nincompoop running up the sails.

What if I put the sails up and no wind blows?

Hudson Taylor said, I'm not gonna pray then.

Captain went up and Taylor carried on doing whatever it was he was doing.

The ship drifted closer and closer and closer to the island.

Door was closed, he got down on his knees, he began to pray.

Before long, the captain of the ship came back, banged on the door.

We've got more wind blowing right now than these sails can even handle.

I want to tell you tonight, my friend, There is power in prayer.

And the God we serve is a prayer answering God.

We need to know that the God we serve is in the business of answering prayer.

Prayer has been described by someone as the breath of the soul.

Paul said that we ought to pray without ceasing.

Now clearly, he didn't mean get on your knees and stay on your knees all day long.

You can't pray when you're driving in the car.

You know, you always get a little nervous when you're in the car driving down the road and someone says let's pray, you say no no not you, pray with your eyes open driver you understand.

God doesn't say we ought to always be mumbling or muttering, I was in an airport recently and a fellow sat down opposite me and it was kind of interesting he was I wondered what was going on but he was praying he was praying there was an interesting sort of a prayer that he was praying but he was praying out loud out loud for everybody to hear the bible says that we ought to pray yea verily pray without ceasing why Because prayer is how we communicate with God.

You can get an audience with the 1 who made the universe.

You can call the White House in Washington DC all day long till you're blue in the face and ask if you could speak with President Obama.

I've got news for you, you are not getting through.

You're not, you've got probably 10 different lines of secretaries to get through.

He's too important to be taking your call.

You could call the Secretary General of the United Nations and you are not going to get through.

But there's somebody who's more important than the President of the United States, and I say that with respect.

There's somebody who's more important than the Secretary General of the United Nations.

There's 1 who's not just leading a great nation.

There's somebody who's hung the earth in space, stretched the stars out in sky.

This is the 1 who framed the universe and you can talk with him anytime.

You don't need a wrestle with a secretary.

He is there and he's not only there, but he's got as much time for you as you've got for him.

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The Power of Prayer

Transcript

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