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And
their prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make them
well. And anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Confess your sins to
each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer
of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results. (James
5:15-16 NLV).
In his book Sit, Walk, Stand, Watchman
Nee describes a preaching mission to an island off the South China coast. There
were seven in the ministering group, including a sixteen-year-old new convert
whom he calls Brother Wu. The island was fairly large, containing about 6,000
homes. Nee had a contact there, an old schoolmate of his who was headmaster of
the village school, but he refused to house the group when he discovered they
had come to preach the Gospel. Finally, they found lodging with a Chinese
herbalist, who became their first convert. Preaching seemed useless on the
island, and Nee discovered it was because of the dedication of the people there
to an idol that they called Ta-wang. They were convinced of his power because on
the day of his festival and parade each year the weather was always near
perfect.
"When is the procession this year?" young Wu asked a group that had
gathered to hear them preach. "It is fixed for January 11th at 8 in the
morning," was the reply. "Then," said the new convert, "I
promise you that it will certainly rain on the 11th." At that there was an
outburst of cries from the crowd: "That is enough! We don't want to hear
any more preaching. If there is rain on the 11th, then your God is God!"
Watchman Nee had been elsewhere in the village when this confrontation had taken
place. Upon being informed about it, he saw that the situation was serious and
called the group to prayer. On the morning of the 11th, there was not a cloud in
the sky, but during grace for breakfast, sprinkles began to fall and these were
followed by heavy rain. Worshipers of the idol Ta-wang were so upset that they
placed it in a sedan chair and carried it outdoors, hoping this would stop the
rain. Then the rain increased. After only a short distance, the carriers of the
idol stumbled and fell, dropping the idol and fracturing its jaw and left arm.
A number of young people turned to Christ as a result of the rain coming in
answer to prayer, but the elders of the village made divination and said that
the wrong day had been chosen. The proper day of the procession, they said,
should have been the 14th. When Nee and his friends heard this, they again went
to prayer, asking for rain on the 14th and for clear days for preaching until
then. That afternoon the sky cleared and on the good days that followed there
was thirty converts. Of the crucial test day, Nee says: The 14th broke,
another perfect day, and we had good meetings. As the evening approached we met
again at the appointed hour. We quietly brought the matter to the Lord's
remembrance. Not a minute late, His answer came with torrential rain and floods
as before. The power of the idol over the islanders was broken; the enemy was
defeated. The difference was in prayer. Conversions followed. And the impact
upon the servants of God who had witnessed His power would continue to enrich
their Christian service from that time on. Prayer works!
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