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Foreword

It happened frequently. I would be working or engaged in conversation with someone when suddenly the door of my office would open, and a lean, dignified, rather tall American of German descent—then in his nineties—would march in, having done an “end run” around the receptionist and my secretary. In his hand would be a magazine article or a book that he knew would be of interest to me. He would stay for only a few moments.

“Who is that?” people would ask.

“That,” I would explain, “is Armin Gesswein, and he has executive privilege. He’s been a dad in the Lord to me for a long time, and he’s a very special person.” This saint—a real man of God if ever there was one—had a name that was synonymous with prayer, having conducted prayer rallies for Billy Graham’s crusades and established an organization known as Revival Prayer Fellowship, which has and continues to bring thousands of pastors and Christian leaders together in prayer.

How did Armin learn the importance of prayer?

Armin was a young Lutheran pastor, age twenty-four, striving to plant a church on Long Island, New York, and things were not going well. In his church fellowship was a retired blacksmith, about fifty years his senior. Armin had noticed that when this man prayed, things happened. Armin said, “The prayer and the answer were not far apart—in fact, they were moving along together. His ‘prayer muscles’ were extremely strong because of much exercise.” Wanting to learn his spiritual secrets, Armin asked if he might join the old blacksmith in prayer.

Going to the blacksmith’s home, they crossed the driveway and went to the old barn where they climbed up into the hayloft. Armin prayed. Then Ambrose Whaley, the old blacksmith, prayed.

Finally Armin turned to the old man and said, “You have some kind of a secret in praying. Would you mind sharing it with me?”

“Young man,” said the old blacksmith, “learn to plead the promises of God.” The old man had knelt between two bales of hay, and on each bale of hay was an open Bible. His two large hands, gnarled and toughened by years of hard labor, were open covering the pages of each Bible.

Armin learned his lesson well. “I learned more about prayer in that haymow,” Armin reminisced, “than in all my years of schooling for the ministry.”

The only heritage that Jesus left the church, he believed, was a prayer meeting. With Armin, prayer was not an appendage tacked onto a planning session or a business meeting. It was the main thing, the frontal assault. He was convinced that one of the reasons both churches and individuals are powerless and overwhelmed with spiritual impotence is that they have not learned the secret of praying, pleading the promises of God.

With the exception of his wife, I had the last meaningful conversation with Armin before he was felled by a stroke. With fervency he said, “Harold, we’ve got to get prayer back into our churches and schools (meaning Bible schools and seminaries).” What a man!

Understanding the relationship between the promises of God’s Word and what we ask our heavenly Father to do has helped me immensely in my personal life. God honors His Word.

Learn a lesson from a man who constantly said, “Let’s pray!” and he never meant some other time. He meant now! And then don’t just pray, but pray standing upon the authority of God’s word.

This book can redirect the focus of your prayer life, strengthen you with the might of the Holy Spirit, energize your church or study group and bring you into harmony with the will of our Father in heaven.

Ambrose Whaley’s spiritual secret was lived out in the life of Armin Gesswein! It can be lived out in your life as well.

—Harold J. Sala

Founder and President of Guidelines International Mission Viejo, California