How Far Can A Prayer Reach?

Summary

Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon's captions — published in summary form; watch the full sermon at the source.

Two texts and a withheld title

Williams opens the revival's first Wednesday night by leading the praise himself, then seats the congregation — "at 7:12 p.m." — and reads two texts. From James he reads the promise that "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much," with its command to confess faults and pray for one another; from the Psalms, the prayer that rises "as incense" with hands lifted "as the evening sacrifice." He tells the church he will withhold his title for a while, preaches the reach of prayer first, and only later names it: "How far can a prayer reach?" The sermon argues that a prayer is not measured by the distance to the need but by heaven's attention to it — God hears the newest saint in the pews as surely as the preacher, and hears a sinner's cry for repentance, because no one finds God without calling on his name.

Scriptures: James 5:16; Psalm 141:2

Angels dispatched by prayer

The prayer's reach runs through angels. David's cry — "In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he heard me" — anchors the claim that God answers distressed prayer, and the angel of the Lord "encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." From Hebrews he presses hospitality to strangers, "for thereby some have entertained angels unawares": angels move through ordinary life unrecognized, and God uses human beings as answers to other people's prayers. The centerpiece is Elgin Staples of the USS Astoria, sunk in the August 1942 fighting: Staples survived because he wore a life preserver, and years later learned that the inspector's stamp inside it was his own mother's — she had inspected that very preserver at the Firestone plant in Akron and prayed over her work. "Somehow, God used a mama that was praying on a whole other side of the country" to reach her son in the Pacific: the prayer was offered in Ohio and answered in an ocean.

Scriptures: Psalm 120:1; Psalm 34:7; Hebrews 13:2

Jacob's ladder and the altar in heaven

Jacob's dream supplies the sermon's picture of prayer's highway: a ladder set on earth whose top reaches heaven, with angels ascending and descending — prayer goes up and help comes down on the same road. In Revelation, he follows the prayers to their destination: the elders hold "golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints," and in the eighth chapter another angel stands at the altar with a golden censer, offering much incense "with the prayers of all saints." Prayers are not lost, evaporated, or forgotten; they are gathered, kept, and presented in heaven — which is why a prayer prayed in one place can be answered in another, and why the prayers of people long gone can still be reaching a family tonight.

Scriptures: Genesis 28:12; Revelation 8:3

A prayer in a grocery store, an answer in a creek

His closing story is contemporary and close to home: his friend BJ — whom Williams had texted that night to say he would tell it — was stopped at the door of a grocery store by an urge to pray he could not explain, and stood interceding in the Spirit until the burden lifted. He reached his truck to find some ten missed calls: at that same time his wife was at a creek with their children when one of them, [name redacted — minor], went under in water they thought was shallow; screaming the name of Jesus, she felt a fingertip and pulled the child out. It had happened about fifteen minutes before — while BJ was praying in the store. Williams turns it on the house: "Somehow I'm at a grocery store, but God was reaching my children in the creek." The altar call that follows calls the church back to Holy Ghost prayer meetings, intercessors who know how to reach the throne room, prayer for the sick in body, for children, businesses, and families — and in the middle of it a baptism is administered in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The upload closes inside the extended altar prayer, Williams still insisting that God is listening and that prayer reaches farther than the one praying can see.

Scriptures: (none cited in this section)