Wesley L. Duewel - Touch the World Through Prayer

Also by Wesley L. Duewel

Ablaze for God

Mighty Prevailing Church

Revival Fire

ZONDERVAN

Touch the World through Prayer

Copyright 1986 by Wesley L. Duewel

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

Epub Edition October 2018 9780310357421

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Duewel, Wesley L.

Touch the world through prayer.

1. Prayer. I. Title.

BV210.2.D78 1986 284.3 86 -10711

ISBN 978-0-310-36271-5

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Interior design: Nancy Wilson

Printed in the United States of America

DEDICATION

To the One who loved me enough to agonize in prayer for me and for the harvest of the whole world in Gethsemane until His prayer-sweat became great clots of blood dropping upon His seamless garment.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My gratitude to my godly, praying mother, on whose grave are the words: Ida DuewelIntercessor; to my wife, Betty, who permitted me to spend many extra hours working in my office on this book; and to my secretary, Hilda Johnecheck, for constant assistance in preparing this manuscript.

CONTENTS

Touch the World through Prayer by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel is so convincing in its many biblical references, its logic, its illustrations, and its examples that, by the time you finish reading this marvelous, inspiring book, you will no doubt agree that you can touchyes, even help changethe world through prayer.

Dr. Duewel, a missionary to India for twenty-five years, former president of the Oriental Missionary Society (now OMS International) and former president of the Evangelical Foreign Missions Association, is a man of prayer. Out of his own long, rich, and fruitful walk with Christ, he draws many spiritual lessons and shares dramatic experiences of answers to prayer.

Dr. Duewels life-long burden for prayer has been powerfully expressed through his many writings on prayer, the Holy Spirit, soul-winning, and spiritual awakening. He even edited for many years Revival Magazine, which was dedicated to calling the Body of Christ to prayer, repentance, and revival. We share that burden with Dr. Duewel.

For fifty years, prayer has played a major role in our personal lives and ministry with Campus Crusade for Christ. Our first act when God called us to start this world-wide ministry was to organize a twenty-four-hour chain of prayer, which continues world-wide to this day. We are convinced with Dr. Duewel that the greatest power available to the children of God is prayer: You have not because you ask not.

This motivational book is filled with many practical suggestions and numerous faith-building experiences. It contains a number of simple suggestions to the new believer and more profound instructions for mature believers. Its principles of prayer and rationale for revival, when applied, could help to bring a spiritual awakening to our country and, indeed, to the entire world.

It could well be that you are about to enter the greatest, most satisfying adventure of your lifea ministry of intercessory prayer. Yes, you can Touch the World through Prayer.

Bill and Vonette Bright

God has a wonderful plan by which you can have world-wide influence. This plan is not just for a chosen few. It is for you. Let me tell you about it.

Through prayer you can stand beside Billy Graham as he preaches in crusades anywhere in the world. You can strengthen him, bless him, lift him up at the very moment he is bringing the Good News to thousands. Through prayer you can stand beside Luis Palau in his Latin American crusades. Through prayer you can stand beside George Beverly Shea as he sings the glorious gospel.

Through prayer you can accompany any missionary to remote reaches of the earth. Through prayer you can walk through crowded bazaars, minister in steaming jungles, feed millions of starving men, women, and children, hungry for bread for their bodies and for the Bread of Life.

Through prayer you can contribute to the ministry of any pastor or evangelist in a church or gospel hall anywhere in the world. Many a time I have felt that through prayer I was at the side of some man or woman of God.

Through prayer you can take a suffering infant in your arms. Through prayer you can touch a fevered brow in any hospital, mediating the healing love of Jesus.

God has given you a way to make your presence count, a way to be a true partner in His kingdoms work, if you really want to be.

True, there have been outstanding praying saints over the centuries. By no means do we forget them or the tremendous history-changing role they played through prayer. Thank God for James, the half-brother of Jesus, who spent the latter years of his life praying for the churches God was raising up. When he died and his body was prepared for burial, it was found that his knees were so calloused from hours and hours of kneeling that they almost resembled the knees of a camel. He became known as Camel-knees. Thank God for Savonarola in fifteenth-century Italy, who prayed down revival in that corrupt age. Thank God for Brainerd, missionary to the American Indians, and his life of prayer and tears. Thank God for Praying Hyde, the missionary to India, who was perhaps the greatest prayer warrior of this century.

But God does not depend solely on a few staunch saints. He has planned for ordinary Christians like you and me to become mighty in prayer for the blessing and salvation of people and the reaping of Christs harvest among the nations today.

There is no reason in the world why you cannot become so steadfast in your personal prayer life that Christ will count on you to help build His church and advance His kingdom in many parts of the world. Beginning with your family, your church, and your community, you can play a significant part through normal daily prayer that will make a difference, even in distant lands.

Again and again God has used persons like you and me to help Him meet special emergency prayer needs on a particular day or occasion. When He calls on someone for this special and temporary role, He usually selects one of His children who has been praying faithfully and consistently.

You dont have to spend hours each day to qualify for Gods prayer army. Thank God for those who can and do pray like that. But He knows the limitations of your own situation, your schedule, your home and employment responsibilities. His plan is intended to add a whole new dimension to your prayer life. Whether you are a business executive or a housewife, a factory worker or a student, a layman or a minister of the gospelGod desires for you to begin a thrillingly new and more effective life of prayer.

I do not claim to have a magic formula to transform you into a spiritual giant overnight. But I do want to point out the possibilities of this simple plan as outlined in the Bible. You can have new power and effectiveness in prayer. You can play a significant part in Christs plan. You can be the praying person God wants you to beyou can, if you will. Will you try?