Few things stimulate prayer more than hearing about God's powerful answers to prayer.
I am encouraged and inspired by the story of K.P. Yohannan, Indian-born founder of Gospel for Asia. Prayer has been at the centre of his mission which has reached out to millions of people in India and throughout Asia in the last few decades.
Yohannan is himself an answer to prayer. No one could have predicted that he would one day be one of the world's outstanding Christian leaders.
He grew up dirt-poor in a little village in the state of Kerala in South India.
He felt a call to God when we was a slight, scrawny, 90-pound, 16-year-old. His mother had been praying and fasting for years that at least one of her children would dedicate his life to spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. He was the baby of a large family - and it turned out God chose him.
But in his book Revolution in Missions, he says he was a very unlikely missionary.
"I was shy and timid and kept my faith mostly to myself," he writes. "I showed no leadership skills and avoided sports and school functions."
But a visit to his village by an Operation Mobilization team touched his heart and he set out for the mission's headquarters in India. He was turned down, but the mission agreed to let him attend the annual training conference at Bangalore.
There he was challenged to live a life of "breathtaking, radical discipleship". That night, he wrestled with God, shaking with fear and weeping at the thought of speaking publicly in the streets.
Suddenly, he felt he was not alone in the room but had an overwhelming sense of being loved. Then, he gave himself to the Lord's will and asked God to "help me know that you You're with me".
The next morning, he went out in the streets and looked at the children and street vendors with new eyes. "I loved them all with a supernatural, unconditional love I'd never felt before."
He walked towards the bus station and felt such a love for the people around him that he had to lean against a wall to keep his balance.
"[God's] loving heart was pounding within mine, and I could hardly breathe. The tension was great. I paced back and forth restlessly to keep my knees from knocking in fright."
He cried out to God: "Lord, if you want me to do something, say it, and give me courage."
Looking up from his prayer, he saw a huge stone and knew God wanted him to climb it and preach to the crowds in the bus station. Scrambling up the stone, he says, "I felt a force like 10,000 volts of electricity shooting through my body."
He began singing a simple children's chorus, drawing a crowd. And then, unprepared to preach, "God took over and filled my mouth with words of his love."
"As the authority and power of God flowed through me, I had superhuman boldness. Words came out I never knew I had - and with a power clearly from above."
The mission leaders no longer questioned his calling. He joined a mobile evangelistic team travelling through North India for the next seven years.
Many nights, they slept in roadside ditches because the villages the visited were often hostile. "Our team always created a stir, and at times we even faced stonings and beatings."
That experience moulded his character and his ultimate decision to found a mission of poor local missionaries in Asia who have worked under God's guidance to bring multitudes into the kingdom of God.
The stories he tells of answered prayer read like the Book of Acts.
What an example of a praying man!
I am encouraged and inspired by the story of K.P. Yohannan, Indian-born founder of Gospel for Asia. Prayer has been at the centre of his mission which has reached out to millions of people in India and throughout Asia in the last few decades.
Yohannan is himself an answer to prayer. No one could have predicted that he would one day be one of the world's outstanding Christian leaders.
He grew up dirt-poor in a little village in the state of Kerala in South India.
He felt a call to God when we was a slight, scrawny, 90-pound, 16-year-old. His mother had been praying and fasting for years that at least one of her children would dedicate his life to spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. He was the baby of a large family - and it turned out God chose him.
But in his book Revolution in Missions, he says he was a very unlikely missionary.
"I was shy and timid and kept my faith mostly to myself," he writes. "I showed no leadership skills and avoided sports and school functions."
But a visit to his village by an Operation Mobilization team touched his heart and he set out for the mission's headquarters in India. He was turned down, but the mission agreed to let him attend the annual training conference at Bangalore.
There he was challenged to live a life of "breathtaking, radical discipleship". That night, he wrestled with God, shaking with fear and weeping at the thought of speaking publicly in the streets.
Suddenly, he felt he was not alone in the room but had an overwhelming sense of being loved. Then, he gave himself to the Lord's will and asked God to "help me know that you You're with me".
The next morning, he went out in the streets and looked at the children and street vendors with new eyes. "I loved them all with a supernatural, unconditional love I'd never felt before."
He walked towards the bus station and felt such a love for the people around him that he had to lean against a wall to keep his balance.
"[God's] loving heart was pounding within mine, and I could hardly breathe. The tension was great. I paced back and forth restlessly to keep my knees from knocking in fright."
He cried out to God: "Lord, if you want me to do something, say it, and give me courage."
Looking up from his prayer, he saw a huge stone and knew God wanted him to climb it and preach to the crowds in the bus station. Scrambling up the stone, he says, "I felt a force like 10,000 volts of electricity shooting through my body."
He began singing a simple children's chorus, drawing a crowd. And then, unprepared to preach, "God took over and filled my mouth with words of his love."
"As the authority and power of God flowed through me, I had superhuman boldness. Words came out I never knew I had - and with a power clearly from above."
The mission leaders no longer questioned his calling. He joined a mobile evangelistic team travelling through North India for the next seven years.
Many nights, they slept in roadside ditches because the villages the visited were often hostile. "Our team always created a stir, and at times we even faced stonings and beatings."
That experience moulded his character and his ultimate decision to found a mission of poor local missionaries in Asia who have worked under God's guidance to bring multitudes into the kingdom of God.
The stories he tells of answered prayer read like the Book of Acts.
What an example of a praying man!
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