Prayer That Brings Revival by David Yonggi Cho

HR

Prayer That Brings Revival (Charisma House, 1998) is the kind of book that will change you.  David Yonggi Cho is the founder and pastor of Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, Korea, the largest church in the world with 750,000 members.  The key factor in the church’s growth has been an emphasis upon prayer. One of the greatest lies of Satan is that we don’t have enough time to pray.  However, all of us have enough time to sleep, eat, and breathe.   As soon as we realize that praying is as important as sleeping, eating, and breathing, we will be amazed at how much more time will be available to us for prayer (p. xix).  The church has a prayer center called prayer mountain.   There are normally 3 or 4 thousand believers fasting and praying there during the week and ten thousand on weekends. 

Cho writes about what has happened to most movements, churches, and most of our individual spiritual highpoints.   Once continuous and fervent prayer is forgotten, the impetus of the revival is lost; and all that is left is the momentum of the past (p. xxix). 

Pastor Cho writes out of a strong charismatic tradition, yet all Christ’s church should listen carefully to his Spirit-filled insights on the ministry of prayer.  Prayer creates a personal change in your life.  Nothing you can do will benefit you more than prayer. Through prayer, you create an account balance in your favor in God’s spiritual bank. Through prayer, you will benefit spiritually, mentally, and physically (p. 34).  

Pastor Cho develops in chapters 4-6 three types of prayer; ask-petition, seek-devotion, knock-intercession. In the first level, Cho discussed how to increase our faith for asking God for the needs we have.   Regarding the next level, he chides us gently.  The lazy Christian is not willing to seek. He never enters into the fullness of the blessing God has desired him to enter (p. 57).  The third level is a challenge too because, Intercession is the level of prayer where we may become a partaker of Christ’s suffering (p. 59).  As you can see, Pastor Cho’s insights are rich, intriguing, and they exhort us to grow in prayer.

Part three (eight chapters) deals with the forms of prayer.  In this section of the book he discusses our devotional life, family devotions, the cell meeting, Prayer Mountain, all night prayer meetings, and fasting and prayer.  The last chapter is called Waiting on the Lord and contains this gem. Everyone who is willing to wait upon the Lord can be qualified to carry out the great task before them because the source of their strength is not natural but spiritual (P. 113).

Part four (five chapters) covers the methods of praying.   Topics include persistence in prayer, praying in the Holy Spirit, the prayer of faith, listing to God’s voice, and the importance of group prayer.

I highly recommend this book.  It will inspire and encourage your prayer life.   (It was previously published as Prayer: Key to Revival, 1984.)