When Children Pray, God Moves!
By Don MacLafferty
We were in the middle of a week of a revival at a church out in the prairies of Alberta, Canada, when my wife April and I felt impressed to call for fasting and prayer for the next morning at the church. We believed by faith that God was ready to do much, much more for His people.
The next day, we drove to the church with excitement. People were coming at night, when no one expected it, so we knew God could bring His people out in the middle of the day to fast and pray for more. We arrived right before noon and saw that we were the only car in the parking lot. “Well, maybe they parked in back to make more room,” we said to ourselves.
We walked into the church, and it was as quiet as a tomb. No one was there. The clock struck noon. We got on our knees and prayed that God would do mighty things for His glory. The minutes ticked by. No one showed up.
Then the door creaked open. We looked up and saw no one coming in through the door! Was this some kind of cruel joke? Then we looked down, and here came a young boy!
“Hi there! What are you doing here today?” I asked. He looked up at me, very puzzled, “Why— I am fasting and praying today! Isn’t that what you told us that we were supposed to do?” With surprise in my voice, I responded, “Yes! Yes it was!” I was flabbergasted. Here was this boy from the lower grades of elementary school coming to pray! Where was everyone else?
“Young man,” I asked. “Who do you want to pray for? April and I will pray with you.”
Without skipping a beat, he looked us right in the eye and said, “I have come to pray for my daddy that God will talk to his heart and bring him to be a part of this revival.”
I cleared my throat. I knew his daddy did not want to come and had no plans to come to our meetings. Every night, this young boy and his mom led their small group together without him.
“Ok, young man. You start!” I encouraged. He began to cry out to God to bring his daddy to be a part of the revival and to make their home a happy home. He prayed with expectancy, with hope, with faith that God could and would do anything.
As we prayed, we heard the door swoosh open and close. Someone tromped over to where we were praying and dropped to his knees. I opened one eye to see who had just joined us. Wonder of wonders, that young boy’s daddy was there kneeling beside his son.
With eyes full of wonder, the young boy looked up at his dad. “Daddy, we were just praying for you to come. God brought you here!”
The father whispered to us later that he had no intention of coming to the prayer and fasting at noon that day or any day. But suddenly, God moved on his heart to come to the church and pray. After that, he came night after night to the meetings.
Don MacLafferty is founder/president of In Discipleship. God has moved on Don and his wife April’s heart to call young and old to a daily revival with Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. They mobilize churches and schools to partner in equipping parents to disciple their children and prepare them for mission. Pastor Don will be leading the GC’s Intergenerational Revival May 14-21, 2022.
World Church Prayer Requests
April 29 – May 2, 2022
- Pray for the upcoming 40 Days of Prayer for the World Church which will run from May 3 - June 11. (If you are signed up for these weekly United in Prayer mailings, you will receive the introductory materials for 40 Days of Prayer starting on Monday May 2nd.)
- Pray for our upcoming General Conference Session, that the Holy Spirit will be poured out in a special way.
- Pray for the prayer room at GC session in St. Louis, that many will come and pray.
- Pray for the “Intergenerational Revival” event being hosted on zoom May 14-21. Pray that adults, families, and youth of all ages will join and be revived. (Learn more at: https://bit.ly/Revival4all)
- Pray for our brothers and sisters in Durban South Africa who are still recovering from the heavy flooding.
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