Matthew 18:19-20

EFFICIENCY OF PRAYER

Matthew 18:19-20. “Again I say unto you, If two of you shall agree on earth concerning anything which you may ask, it shall be done unto you by My Father who is in the heavens. For where two or three are assembled in My name, there I am in the midst of them.” This is really a wonderful promise to the saints of all ages, assuring us of His personal presence in an assembly of two or three, and positive answer to prayer in case of unity on the part of those two or three. This promise guarantees the miraculous availability of the social prayer league in every home. Christians are not aware of the paradoxical availability of family prayer, actually securing the presence of Jesus in the home, the little prayer-meeting, and the Sabbath gatherings. You see here the necessity of union in order to availability. Though the number may be small, only amounting to two or three, if they are really united, they have the promise.

When a circuit-rider, thirty years ago, I went to an old church out in the country to begin a protracted meeting, when the snow was knee-deep, and all the waters frozen into ice. I met but four people, though it was Sunday. We availed ourselves of this promise. Within forty-eight hours, the house ran over, the altar was piled with seekers, and such a revival as the people had not seen in a generation swept down from heaven, ninety souls being gloriously converted and added to the Church within two weeks. If two or three will meet and unite at a Throne of Grace, it is their glorious privilege to be master of the situation. I never found a place in my life where I could not have a glorious revival. When in the pastorate, I made it a rule to have a big revival in every community in my territorial bailiwick. In countless instances I have gone to a place where I had not a solitary member; prevailed on two or three, or perhaps a half dozen, to unite with me in prayer, having no congregation to begin with. We never staid long on our knees, gripping the mercy seat in an inflexible prayer-league, till the people came trooping and booming from all directions, crowding us out of all room, and apparently under conviction from the moment of their arrival, and ready to crowd the altar and seek salvation. What was the solution? We had actually prayed them under conviction before we ever saw them.

This is the Lord's infallible receipt for a revival. Will you take it? You need not send off after a big preacher, who may come, and he may not. Get two or three to help you, and send for Jesus. He is sure to come. When He comes, the people will come too. And they will come crying, and they will go away shouting.