“Prayer Contagion”  by Mindi Jentes

23 January 2006

While surfing the internet, the Lord brought something across my path that struck me to the core. I was simply doing a Google search to see where my website www.prayercontagion.com (just tinkering right now) appeared on the list. I was hoping to be elated to find it at the top of the search result window, but was disheartened to find it didn’t even make the list!  Now this did not strike me to the core, though for a moment, I was disappointed.       

However when I read the #1 search result, I was struck with intrigue: 

H. Grattan Guinness--"Flame of Fire" on Historicism.com He was a man steeped in prayer; and the students caught the prayer contagion. It was wonderful. We can never forget or lose that wonderful influence. ... www.historicism.com/Guinness/guinness.htm - 28k - Cached - Similar pages

 

That did it.  God had my attention!  I quickly clicked on the webpage to see what this website was all about.  What I discovered was something I’ve longed for in my own life.

 

H. Grattan Guinness, an Irishman, lived during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.  After coming to know the Lord as an adult, he sought solitude in the woods to spend time crying out to the Lord. Taken from his journals, he writes this about his profound experience:

    "I sought solitary places in the woods where I could pour out my soul in prayer, with strong crying and tears. Old things passed away, and all things became new. How could I keep silence, knowing as I did, that those around me (in Ireland) were utterly ignorant of the salvation in which I was rejoicing, and most of them abject slaves of Roman superstition."

I couldn’t stop reading.  My intrigue was growing evermore:

    There is not space in this brief article to relate all the great evangelizing and preaching work of Dr. Guinness. Suffice it to say that, the work he did in Ireland was repeated in England, where it was designated as a "Flame of Fire." The following are merely snapshots quoted from his biography, written after his death. In England "he went about preaching when both men and women wept floods of tears." The evangelistic work in London kept the fire burning brightly. So hot was the fire of the Holy Spirit burning in his soul that great crowds were attracted to his preaching everywhere, even in the open air, like Wesley and Whitfield.

    He wrote in his diary, "I do now most heartily desire to live but to exalt Jesus; to live preaching and to die preaching; to preach to perishing sinners till I drop down dead." He was the great evangelist in England in the middle of the 19th Century.

As so many were coming to know Jesus and desperate to serve Him too, he saw the need to train these new believers to do the work of evangelism and to send them out as workers in the harvest fields:

    Not only did Dr. Guinness evangelize in Ireland, Wales and England, but he also spent several years in mission work in France, for his heart was always burning for mission work. He made a special trip to Spain where he stood breast deep in the ashes of the Spanish martyrs, in the Quemadero-Burning-place.

 

    During all these intense evangelistic labors the passion for Missions grew and burned stronger in his heart. At length this fire in his soul developed into the famous Missionary Institute in East London. This materialized in March, 1872. The Institute started with just six students. The renowned Dr. Barnardo was co-director with Dr. Guinness. It was entirely a venture of faith. The following is quoted from Dr. Guinness' writing in later years. "I recall the fact that it was boldly undertaken in faith, and largely unrecompensed. It was wholly unsalaried. Never in the course of a long ministry, have I made any bargain for fee or reward."

 

    This is the secret of the Man on Fire, like the Old Testament "Man of Fire" Elijah.

By the end of three years, more than 100 students were in training. All who were accepted for training, were definitely pledged for Foreign Mission work. The first place in which the Institute started soon became too small, so Harley House, Bow, was taken and enlarged and the College built, and Cliff College, Derbyshire, was opened. Mission Halls in East London were used and open-air preaching carried on by the students. In 14 years 500 students had been received and were in training.

 

    All this was carried on in faith. Students were received and trained without cost to them, unless they were able to pay for their expenses. The Institute was intensively spiritual. Everything was blessed in prayer. Holy lives were the object of the training as well as Bible study. In the first 30 years of the Institute 1500 young people, mostly men, were trained and sent out to the foreign field, under many societies. And the Congo Balolo Mission was carried on from Harley College, and scores of students went to the Congo. This writer was one of the 1500 mentioned above. Dr. Guinness was one of the greatest missionary leaders of all time. He was a man steeped in prayer; and the students caught the prayer contagion. It was wonderful. We can never forget or lose that wonderful influence.

 

WOW!  So God got me, right to the core of my being!  This has been something God has been working in my life for the last year. Showing me how much I need to draw close to Him by spending lots of time in prayer & praising Him, praying for the souls of the harvest fields, and fanning that flame till it spreads like wildfire to you, others in Columbus, and beyond.

 

This man was one of the most powerful preachers who ever lived.  He is compared to C.H.Spurgeon, D.L. Moody.  H.G. Guiness trained  A.B. Simpson and Hudson Taylor! God used him in mighty ways to not only preach the Word of Christ to the multitudes but also to fan the flames of the gospel to the world through men he trained.

 

This is my passion!  I want to be this kind of prayer contagion:  so close to God and so impassioned for reaching the lost and dying world around me that prayer and doing the work of evangelism infects those around me!

 

If you want to read more about H.G. Guiness you do a Google search for “prayer contagion”.  It’ll be the one at the top!  Or you can go to: http://www.historicism.com/Guinness/guinness.htm

 

Luke 10:2b “The harvest is so great, but the workers are so few.  Pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest, that he would send out more workers into his fields.”