“Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, salutes you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you might stand mature and complete in all the will of God.” - Corinthians. 4:12

What a mighty, irresistible force the Church of God would become in the world if she had within her ranks a host of spiritual intercessors like Epaphras...The Church would then learn to regard this ministry as the indispensable thing, and the one thing above all others that can prevail with God for blessing, to build up saints and secure power which enables believers to bear witness of Jesus Christ to a godless world. Intensified prayer through faith in Jesus Christ has done more to revive the Church after years of spiritual decline than any other force on earth.

In answer to the intensified prayers of Martin Luther, God raised up a standard of truth against the flood of error, and restored to the Church the doctrine of justification by faith...In answer to the intensified prayer of Wesley and his devoted followers, the Lord restored to the Church the power of Apostolic Christianity… 

It was in answer to the intensified prayers of a consecrated few in 1858 and 1859 that the Lord poured out His Spirit and shook a great part of of America, and arrested its moral and spiritual degradation, at which time the whole country was on the very verge of an eruption of vice and political disaster. Yet, the Spirit of grace and supplication worked so strongly in a few believers that very soon most of the preaching services were turned into prayer-meetings, and God set into operation a chain of prayer meetings reaching over two thousand miles in length, resulting in the greatest revival known since the days of the Apostles.  So great was its power and influence that the inspiration of it flashed across the Atlantic Ocean and into the very heart of Ireland. It found a home in the souls of a few devoted Christians, who received the tidings with joy and fully believed that what God was doing in answer to prayer in America, He could do for them.  Very soon, in answer to their agonizing prayers, the Lord poured out His Spirit and shook the north of Ireland, and inaugurated a blessed revival which did more to restore peace and contentment and promote the cause of peace and righteousness in that country than all the combined military forces…
 

It is also true that intensified prayer gives spiritual vitality to preaching—admitting that preaching was a great feature in the revival which took place in the days of Wesley and Whitefield.  Yet, no one can deny that it was their intense praying which gave them such remarkable power and unction in their preaching. They were mighty in preaching because they were mighty in prayer.  Bearing upon this point, a writer says: “Pentecost was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in answer to prayer, and not the result of preaching. The sermon of Peter followed the descent of the Spirit, and was merely an explanation of the spiritual manifestation as seen by the convinced multitudes that stood trembling with fear.” There is reason to believe that the same kind of tarrying in the ‘upper room’ would bring like results as at the beginning, for God has not changed.  It is evident that many would rather preach than pray.  This, no doubt, accounts for much of the dry and unctionless preaching we are sometimes forced to listen to…

"Epaphras, who is one of you," may imply that he was not only one of their Church, but a man of like passions, one of the same class and stock.  And though it is evident that at this time he stood high in the ranks of Apostolic Christianity, it was not because of anything in himself, apart from the grace of God. Therefore, with a slight alteration, the words, "one of you," may mean that what God has done for one, He is able and willing to do for others…

We may visit a company of shoe cobblers, and say, “William Cary, was ‘one of you,’ and he sought and obtained mercy, and after receiving the knowledge of the truth about Jesus Christ, joined the ranks of intercessors, and soon developed such remarkable gifts that by his preaching and writing abilities he set into motion a work in India which, under God, will continue to grow and multiply to the end of time.” We may pay a visit to one of our Scotch factories, and say to the young female workers at their looms, “Mary Slessor was ‘one of you,’ and she accepted Jesus and joined the ranks of intercessors, and became a mighty missionary in Africa; and by her consecrated life thousands of sin-stained Africans were brought to the Savior.”

All through the history of the Church, God has been filling up His ranks of intercessors, not so much from the great and mighty of the earth as from among the poor and despised followers of Christ.  We may expect that in the future He is going to form His exceeding great and mighty army of intercessors not from among those who consider themselves wise and prudent, but from among those who know how to worship Him in spirit and in truth, and who know how to pray in the Holy Ghost…And surely there was never a greater need than at the present time for men and women of God to plead earnestly that once again the Church of God may prove that prayer is the great force by which we live and triumph in and the power by which the Church on earth shall have victory over all her foes, until Christ shall subdue all things unto Himself.

Reference: The Greatest Force on Earth – The Power of Intensified Prayer by Thomas Payne

Thomas Payne