What Saved a Society
James Fraser was a young engineer God called to China as a missionary. While in China, God burdened his heart for the Lisu, a people group that had never been touched by the Gospel. The demonology in that place was intense! They had no words for "please" or "thank you," no words for "salvation" or "sin," but 200 words for "burning" and "filleting someone alive." They did not know what a table and chairs were. They took one bath at birth and one bath at death.
Fraser compared the heathen atmosphere among the Lisu to a poisonous gas. He believed that the only way the poisonous gas could be dispersed was by the wind blowing it away. He recognized that "Man is powerless [but] the breath of God can blow away all those miasmic vapors from the atmosphere of a village in answer to prayers."
Fraser's burden for the Lisu became intense, and he gave himself in prayer for them. Then he began to go up and down the steep mountains visiting clan after clan sharing Jesus. They were somewhat interested, but not enough to let the demon shelves be torn down.
God said, "Write to your mother and ask if she would get a small group of praying people together to pray for you and the Lisu."
His mother found nine women who committed to carry this young missionary and the Lisu to God in prayer.
Fraser continued to share Jesus for five more years, but they were just not interested. Fraser prayed, "Jesus, they may not be ready yet. So unless you come as I visit them one more time, I'm going to give myself to another people group in the south of China that's more open."
He went to the first clan, and when he arrived, they said, "Oh, we've been waiting for you to come! We want to burn our demon shelf." And they burned it. Then others said, "We want to burn ours." Runners came from the next village and they said, "Come over here! We're burning our demon shelves. We don't want them any more!"
The revival was on because of one man and one little prayer group that kept praying until God came.
Dear Lord, help us to remember that prayer can save a society.
"Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results" (James 5:16 NLT).
