There was a man who people called Father Nash. His real name was Daniel Nash and he lived in upstate New York from 1763 to 1837. Nash, who served as a pastor in the area near his home, caught an eye ailment. His eyes were inflamed and he was almost entirely blind for about six months. He could not read or write, so he spent almost all of his time in prayer. This brought a dramatic change in his life; he became a man of prayer. He worked day and night in prayer. The focus of much of his prayer was the salvation of lost men and women.
At age 48, Nash decided to give himself totally to prayer. He spent much of his time praying for Charles Finney’s meetings. Nash became the man of prayer behind Finney, praying for revival and the ministry. And from his knees came hours of prayer and wonderful answers to his prayers.
Stories of Nash are nearly legendary, but several documented stories serve our purpose here. For example, Nash carried a prayer list. On this list were names of specific people he had made the focus of prayer. Every day and often several times a day, he would pray for these people. People described his prayers as “wonderful” and “almost miraculous”, but the most important point was he prayed for the people on his list until they got saved and time after time he got answers, they were saved.
His power in prayer could be overwhelming. There was a man named Dresser who went out of his way to rail against the local revival and to swear and blaspheme if he saw Christians. He took special delight in attacking young men who had just been converted in Finney’s meetings. Nash heard about Dresser and put him on his prayer list and prayed. A few days later Dresser came to the local meeting, confessed his sins, and was converted.
There were other men associated with Finney who were called to prayer, for example Abel Clary. Clary was described as a good man and an elder of the church, who had been licensed to preach, but he had a heavy burden for winning men to Christ and for prayer. The burden was so strong he gave all of his time to prayer.
Nash, and often another man or two, often this was Clary, would go quietly into towns three or four weeks before Finney was scheduled to have meetings. They would rent a room and give themselves to prayer, to much prayer, to effective prayer. They would be so burdened for the meetings and for people that they would not be seen for days. For example, Finney records the following:
When I got to town to start a revival a lady contacted me who ran a boarding house. She said, “Brother Finney, do you know a Father Nash? He and two other men have been at my boarding house for the last three days, but they haven’t eaten a bite of food. I opened the door and peeped in at them because I could hear them groaning, and I saw them down on their faces. They have been this way for three days, lying prostrate on the floor and groaning. I thought something awful must have happened to them. I was afraid to go in and I didn’t know what to do. Would you please come see about them?” “No it isn’t necessary,” I replied. “They just have a spirit of travail in prayer.”
From Lectures on Revival by Charles Finney
This was Nash’s norm, travail in prayer. He did not attend many of the meetings, but would pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to convict people of their sins and soften their hearts, so they would be saved. If there was opposition to the meetings, Nash prayed harder.
When he was seen in public, Nash could be bold as well. There was a time when some young men decided to break up Finney’s meetings. Nash had been praying nearby and stepped out of the shadows and announced to them,
“Now mark me, young men! God will break your ranks in less than one week, either by converting some of you, or by sending some of you to hell. He will do this certainly as the Lord is my God!”
Finney in relating this story tells how he thought his friend had “lost his sense”. However, by the next week the leader of the group had come, confessed his sinful attitude, been saved, and began to tell all his friends about Christ. Before the week was out nearly the entire group had come to Christ.
Time and space in this article do not allow other stories of Nash and Clary, nor of other men and women of effective prayer, like Brainerd, Backus, Bounds, Erskine, Edwards, Guyon, Howells, Hyde, Knox, McGready, Murray, Müller, Studd, and others. Not satisfied with the conditions around them, they gave themselves to prayer, and not just prayer, but effective, fervent prayer that avails much.
There is a high call, from God, a call to Christians to step up to effective, fervent prayer that avails much. Response to this call will be the deciding factor of success or failure of churches and ministries, families and individuals. Will you step up to the call?
Without the backing of effective prayer our attempts to touch this generation, with the Gospel, will fail. We cannot go enough, preach enough, give enough, broadcast enough, minister enough, or any of the other good things we must do to reach this generation, if we do not have effective prayer backing our efforts. Without the prayers of Father Nash there would not have been the revivals of Finney. Without the effective prayers of men and women today, stepping up to the high call of Christ concerning prayer, there will not be the revivals we so desperately want and need. I ask you to make the dream come true; pray, and pray more, and pray effective prayers that avail much. Will you pray?
This excerpt is taken from Prayer: A Force that Causes Change – volume 4 – Effective in Prayer available Spring of 2010. Go to the Voice of Thanksgiving website at www.voiceofthanksgiving.com for more information.
