Grace Assembly : Acts of Grace

Does prayer really make a difference? What if you did not pray? Would it make a difference? What if you did pray? Would it really make a difference? How can you and I who are confined to this physical body, limited by our senses, time and space, measure something that is not in our sphere? Can science judge whether prayer works or not?

As you read books, so-called research books, many scientists say that prayer doesn’t actually work. They say there is no proof that prayer works. On the other hand, there are those who do pray, who do know God, and they say that prayer makes a difference. The fact is, the people who concluded that prayer works are some of the best brains that ever walked on planet earth. People like Einstein and Galileo, Newton and Edison - they all had one thing in common – they were all men of prayer. These praying men of science said the reason for their success was because they were able to get into the mind of the Creator God and understand the principles of creation.

They believed God is the foremost designer, mathematician and scientist, and so they began to search the mind of God using the Bible, the first five books of the Bible. So, these men prayed, Einstein, Newton, Galileo and Edison – they all prayed. Imagine, the top brains on this planet were men of prayer! They literally made a world of difference to this world we live in! So, if these fathers of science, these great men of science said prayer works, and that prayer was the basis for their brilliance, I wonder who can claim otherwise and say prayer doesn’t work?

The problem lies here: science is limited to the five senses – what we see, smell, taste, hear and touch. So, science can only judge according to these five senses, beyond the five senses, science has no authority to judge because it is beyond its realm. Science has no right to judge the realm of the spirit, because the spirit does not subject itself to the five senses. Science has no right to talk about faith, because faith is not based on the five senses. Faith is not based on sense, it is based on non-sense - that which is not sense.

Faith is seeing things that are not visible. Faith is hoping for things that are hopeless. Faith is calling forth things not there as though they are there. So, no scientist and no so- called educated person sitting in the university or places of higher learning has the right to judge areas they know nothing about, simply because man’s spirit and faith are not confined to the world of senses. So, don’t be deceived when skeptics tell you that there is no power in prayer because scientifically speaking, there is also no such thing as love, hate, fear or anger. For instance, you can’t take love and put it in a tube and put in a litmus paper to test what it is. You can’t weigh it. You can’t see it. You can’t touch it. And yet these are the main forces that torment the human mind – love, hate, forgiveness, memory and others and yet according to the science of the five senses, these things do not exist.

So today, I want to urge and encourage you to come out of all these negative thoughts and comments that say prayer does not work because the truth is, we are living in a higher dimension. We are involved in a different exercise. It’s called a spiritual exercise. It is a world of faith - and faith together with prayer makes a world of difference!

So pray and keep on praying. Do not be discouraged. Do you remember Jesus’ account of the persistent widow? (Luke 18:1-8) She did not give up. This poor widow did not bribe the judge and had no political strength. She just prayed and prayed and she harassed the wicked judge with her request for justice against her adversary. To give it a modern twist, it is like she hounded the judge till his eyes got weary, he couldn’t sleep, he couldn’t eat, because when he turned on the radio, he heard her protesting, he turned on the TV, he saw her; he picked up the newspaper and there she was. He went to court and she was right there. He came home and she was at the gate. She tormented him unceasingly with her prayer request. Finally, the judge gave in. Though he was a wicked, corrupted judge who did not fear God or care about man, yet because of the widow’s persistence, he granted the widow her request.

Jesus went on to say, “And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off? I tell you, He will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth? (Luke 18:7-8)

Does prayer work? Yes. Does it make a difference? Yes! Just because you can not sense it, taste it, smell it or touch it, it does not mean it does not work. It is of a different realm. It is of the spirit. God says, “Ask, and I will give it to you.” Those who have learned to ask persistently discover that prayer makes a difference - a world of difference.