A Prayer Movement
To cut a very long story very short, Andrew was eventually released after being held for two years in various Turkish prisons.
One thing that he and his wife realized during this whole ordeal was that a great prayer movement grew out of his experience.
Power of Prayer
In fact, in the worst of times, Andrew had started to consider hurting himself while he was in prison. He was in such deep depression, and his wife said to him during a visit, “Promise me that you’re not going to hurt yourself. So many people are praying for you. So many kids are praying for you. They’re reminding their parents to pray. They won’t eat until they’ve prayed for you. I’ve heard about a little autistic boy who never forgets you in his family’s prayers.”
Later on, Andrew said, “When I read that people were praying, or that some were even looking at me as a role model, I felt encouraged to press on — because many people were praying.”
In fact, I remember here at eMseni, one evening service we spoke about him and we prayed for him. Then on page 175, his wife told him during another visit, “God has raised up a huge movement of prayer, and He’s going to answer it. He just hasn’t done it yet. People are still praying in places in the South Pacific, Indonesia, Singapore, Bolivia, all over the world. It’s absolutely supernatural. God is waking some up in the middle of the night to pray for you. So just hold on.”
Andrew said, “I felt so alone throughout my imprisonment, but more and more I was aware that there were many believers joining me in my cell every day. I had several dozen pictures from Brazil of groups praying for me in churches, home groups, and Sunday school classes. I was so grateful for the family of God.”
After he was released, Andrew said, “Some have said that I was the most prayed-for man in the world.”
United in Faith
Even while his Muslim cellmates were praying and singing in their language, he said, “So too the Church of Jesus Christ raised up a powerful voice to Heaven that would change everything — starting with my heart. Night and day, God’s people cried out their distress in prayer, even when I could not. I’ll continue to be astounded that so many prayed for so long and with such intensity.”
This is an amazing story of prayer, and friends, I want to say to you — pray! Pray for our missionary brothers and sisters around the world who are being persecuted. If you hear of injustice against certain Christians, pray for them.
Praying for Presidents
Now, love him or hate him, Donald Trump did a lot to help free Andrew Brunson. He really put pressure on Turkey, eventually imposing sanctions on them until they let him go. He championed the cause to get this man out of prison and truly stood up for him.
When Andrew was released, he was taken straight to the White House. He said that as he was sitting in the Oval Office next to the President on one side and his family on the other, with secretaries of state and senators nearby, “behind them unseen were hundreds of thousands of people who had carried me in prayer.”
Then he said this: “Mr. President, we would like to pray for you.”
And President Trump replied, “Well, I’ll probably need it more than anybody else in the room.”
So they knelt down and prayed for him.
Praying Without Ceasing
Now friends, how’s your prayer life? There’s so much need for prayer, and yet so often we choose to entertain ourselves rather than pray. Oh man, I don’t want to reach Heaven one day without having prayed fervently for the things that matter.
What a difference it made in Brunson’s life — and what a wonderful blessing that he could then bless those who had helped him with prayer.
And so, it could be that this is our moment to re-educate ourselves to pray — to never let a day go by where we don’t prevail in prayer deeply for the things that matter.
I hope you’ll make that commitment, friends. I’m going to try my best. I’m excited to see what blessings God is going to do because of it.
