16 Guards in Answer to Prayer

Prayer is the privileged ‘line of communication’ that all of God’s children have access to.
We know we can come to God at any time and make our requests known to Him - not that He doesn’t already know what we need . His word tells us He does. (Matt. 6:8) “For your Father knoweth what things you have need of before ye ask Him.”
So then why pray?
The obvious answer is ‘for fellowship’ but we also need to pray because it turns our eyes in the direction of God’s answer. If we didn’t ask, we would not be able to give evidence one to another of answered prayer and in doing so give glory to God.
Asking not only makes us aware of our need, it also makes us aware of the miracle of the answer.

There is power in praying for one another because God delights in us ‘wanting to help’. I remember when my daughter was very little and wanted to help me with whatever I was doing… well! as all mothers know, it was really much easier ( and often less mess and trouble) to do it myself but I delighted in her desire to be involved with what I was doing… and some of my treasured memories are build around things we did together.
I think God feels the same about us.

While God is no respecter of persons and answers the prayers of all His children, no matter how small their request is, I think we find the more dramatic answers to prayer so exciting because the stories grip our imagination and fill us with delight at how great our God is! And we are inspired to pray more!!

One such miracle involving prayer is retold by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel (a missionary for 25 years in India and the president of Oriental Mission Society) , in his book, “Touch the World by Prayer”.

16 GUARDS
A missionary , home on furlough, was telling the following story that happened during the Mau Mau uprising.
“While serving at a small field hospital in Kenya , every two weeks I traveled by bicycle through the jungle to a nearby city for supplies.
This was a journey of two days and required camping overnight at the halfway point. On one of these journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to collect money from a bank, purchase medicine and supplies and then begin my two-day journey back to the field hospital. Upon arrival in the city, I observed two men fighting, one of whom had been seriously injured. I treated him for his injuries and at the same times talked to him about the Lord Jesus Christ. I then traveled two days, camping overnight, and arrived home without incident.

Two weeks later, I repeated my journey.
Upon arriving in the city I was approached by the young man I had treated. He told me he knew I carried money and medicines. He said, ‘Some friends and I followed you into the jungle, knowing you would camp overnight. We planned to kill you and take your money and drugs. But just as we were about to move into your camp we saw that you were surrounded by 16 armed guards.’

At this I laughed and said that I was certainly all alone out in that jungle campsite. The young man pressed the point, however, and said, ‘No, sir. I was not the only person to see the guards. My five friends also saw them and we all counted them.' It was because of those guards that we were afraid and left you alone.’”

At this point in the missionary’s sermon, one of the men in the congregation jumped to his feet and interrupted the missionary by asking if he could tell him the exact day this happened. The missionary told the congregation the date and the man who interrupted told him this story:

“On the night of your incident in Africa , it was morning here and I was preparing to go play golf. I was about to putt when I felt the urge to pray for you. In fact the urge of the Lord was so strong, I called men of this church to meet with me here in the sanctuary to pray for you. Would all those men who met with me on that day stand up?” The men who had met together to pray that day stood up. The missionary wasn’t concerned with who they were, he was too busy counting how many men he saw.
There were 16.

“For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”
Psalm 91:11