The Power of Prayer

Prayer plays both a vital role in our relationship with God and in sharing Him with others.

As Christians, we should be using prayer to strengthen and uplift one another consistently. Jeremiah 9:12 says, “Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.” This was written to give hope to the people of Israel while they were captives in Babylon, however, it is a verse which is still relevant to us today. God wants us to reach out to Him through prayer, and when we do, He will surely hear us and guide us.

Ingrid is a member of the Kalamazoo Seventh-Day Adventist Church who has recognized the incredible power of prayer and put it into practice to help others. After attending a prayer-focused session at camp meeting about four or five years ago, Ingrid was inspired to bring a prayer ministry to her church in Kalamazoo. Referring to her experiences with a close-friend and prayer partner, Ingrid comments, “We’ve just seen such wonderful answers to prayer.” She adds that through her participation in another prayer group within the church—one which meets weekly—she has been able to witness God working in many powerful ways.

One example in which there was a miraculous answer to prayer came when one of her friends was going through a difficult time. Ingrid was aware of the stress and depression her friend had been feeling, so she brought the request to her prayer-partner and they lifted her up in prayer. A few hours later, Ingrid received a text from her friend asking if she had been praying for her. The text went on to explain that a wave of peace and strength had come over her, and she had immediately realized that someone must have been praying for her. Furthermore, the time when she felt this was at the exact time when the prayer had been offered on her behalf! Reflecting on this Ingrid states, “Intercessory prayer is so much needed now because there are just so many [people] in the world that are depressed because of circumstances, because of friends, just because of everything.”

Prayer should be used to encourage and support fellow Christians and Adventists, but prayer is also an important part of evangelism and outreach. Pastor Moise Ratsara comments on Ingrid’s dedication to this ministry, saying, “Her prayer has always been to bring a soul to Christ. Over the course of the six plus years I’ve been here, her and her husband have brought close to eleven people to Jesus through that simple prayer.”

Ingrid’s passion for sharing the gospel and for helping others find Christ began when she realized the close relationship God desires to have with us and the healing and peace it brings into our lives. As a teenager, Ingrid learned about the true loving, caring, and understanding nature of God through an Adventist evangelist in Trinidad. Through this experience, she realized that she could go directly to God to seek forgiveness, to make requests and share any other thought she had (something she hadn’t previously known or believed during her upbringing in the Catholic faith). It became clear to her that God could see and understand the things of her heart, and He was the only one who could do so. “It’s just what I needed at the time and it has grown into what definitely I need today for my walk with God,” Ingrid says, reflecting on that revelation. “It’s what I felt like others needed to know and others needed to find the same peace and joy that I have found.”

With this desire to share hope with others, Ingrid has faithfully continued praying for opportunities to help others understand the love of God and the truth—something that has become a prominent goal in the Kalamazoo SDA Church. This prayer, in addition to her willingness to reach out and make individuals feel at home, has played a key role in many giving their lives to Christ. Pastor Ratsara explains, “She’s literally changed the culture of our church when it comes to soul winning.”

The Kalamazoo church has been seeing an increase in membership, due in large part to the way in which God is using members of the church like Ingrid to reach out to others. A simple prayer for a soul seems to have a domino effect. This has been the case at Kalamazoo due to the openness of those in the church and the prayers of many.

“It started with a couple…six plus years ago,” says Pastor Ratsara. He explains that the husband had been searching for an Adventist church and that although the wife had come with him, she was not Adventist. Ingrid had been praying for someone the members could witness to and struck up a relationship with the couple. She offered them Bible studies, and they gladly accepted the offer. Through spiritual nourishment, continual prayer, and the openness of the church members, the wife gave her heart to Jesus and the husband was able to grow further in His relationship. As a result, the two became members of the church.

These two were the first of many to be drawn to the Kalamazoo church and won over by the culture of encouragement, uplifting prayer, and sharing of the truth. Since then, many have been brought to Christ in the same manner—from an individual who is now a youth leader to the baptism of a family of four. “A lot of these people just started showing up in church,” states Pastor Ratsara, explaining that the prayers of the church members had been heard regarding opportunities to share.

Intercessory prayer is one of the ways in which God calls us to help His people and to save others. The effectiveness of Kalamazoo’s outreach shows that we must have a balance of openness and outreach as well as a willingness to pray on behalf of others. Ingrid mentions a specific quote which has helped her through many difficult times and which she shares with others about the power of prayer: “The Father’s presence encircled Christ and nothing befell Him, but that which infinite love committed for the blessing of the world. Here was His source of comfort and it is the same for us.”[i]